Settling in

Updates from last Thursday (Feb 12) until this past Wednesday (Feb. 18).

Thursdays are my busy class days- I have my Marine Biology in the morning and Political Science in the afternoon. Last Thursday the kombi (I think this is the correct spelling- I wasn’t sure before) strike continued one more day, so we got rides in from our director again. Both classes seemed still more intense than my other classes so far. I had some background for the marine ecosystem and ecology issues from my Ecolgy, Evolution, and Diversity biology class last semester, but I think we will be going in to much more detail for the class. We also get to go on a few field trips troughout the semester, which should be interesting. The class is quite small since it’s really only intended for biology, natural science, or environmental studies majors.
For the Poli Sci class we have lots of reading and 3 6-8 single-spaced page essays (along with a final). I have to admit I felt a little lost for several bits of her lecture (I think she assumed we had more of a background about South African events in the past 10 years than most of us actually did), but I think I will learn a lot. We watched a video of a BBC show about South African politics after Mandela. While many of the names and events were vaguely familiar to me, it was compelling to see the faces that matched with the names and see interviews with many of the big names and ordinary citizens. The reporter tried to talk with people from all sides of the issues, including some of the young militants who were causing a lot of violence in South Africa in the past 15-20 years. I was surprised by the footage of some young black men stating that murder wasn’t a big deal for them and describing how easy it is to get a gun. It’s scary to think that human life could be have so little value to them. Some of the families living in the townships seemed to have lost hope that things will get better- one man even said that he wanted the Nationalist Party (the white, Afrikaner party that created apartheid) back in power, because at least when they were in power he had a job (unemployment in South Africa is still a huge problem- some estimates are as high as 40%). While we did some class discussion after the video, I have a lot to learn about South Africa- both during the apartheid years and after it ended. Hopefully once I know some more background I will be able to put the footage in context and it might make more sense.
Friday was a free day (we will never have class on Fridays). A lot of the rest of the group went to Jeffrey’s Bay, a surfing hotspot about an hour away. My flatmates and I and a few other people choose to stay behind since some of us weren’t that interested in surfing or already had a few tentative plans for Saturday. In the morning we went to Cape Recife, a beach that is part of the Wildlfe Reserve that the NMMU campus is on. Since it was only about a 20 minute drive away, we packed lunches and shared 2 taxis to get out there. The coast, rocks, and waves were gorgeous. It was definitely not a tourist beach like the ones near our flats. At first it was a bit overcast with not very much wind and rather humid. I still have a hard time believing I’m in South Africa- for some reason I keep thinking that I’m not 10,000 miles away from home and that all of this is not that new/different/African. The rare humidity felt like a Minnesota summer day (never mind that MN doesn’t have amazing salt water waves anywhere!). We explored a couple different sections of the beach and had lots of fun clammering over rocks. I took lots of pictures (they will soon be posted on facebook if you’re interested in looking at them). After a few hours the clouds started to go away and it got really hot. We were happy to get out of the sun (the beach had no shade whatsoever) by the time we’d told the taxis to come back and pick us up.
In the afternoon I tried out boogie boarding (you lie on your stomach on a board about the height of your torso and try and catch waves) on the beach near our flats. I’d done it before one summer during a family vacation to the East Coast, but it had been a few years. By this time the wind had picked up so the air was a little chilly, but the water felt almost warm. The waves were quite large and I managed to ride a few.
On Saturday morning Nick, the one guy who had opted to stay back, made egg bake for everyone. After a relaxing morning I did some errands in the afternoon. With a few other people I checked out another grocery store within walking distance (this one seemed to be laid out a little more like an American grocery store, which was nice) and an internet café that’s cheaper than the wireless at our flats. We tried to find salmon fillets to have for Valentine’s Day supper, but we couldn’t find them (which is weird since they certainly have salmon here- it’s served in restaurants . . ) so bought steak instead. Amina, Laura, and I hadn’t gone shopping for a while, so we had lots of stuff to carry back. By the time we got back to the flats my back was aching from my heavy backpack and my hands were sore from the bags. I’m used to not having a car on campus, but it’s an adjusment not to have a car for grocery shopping. Milk is only sold in 1L containers here (and it’s shelf stabilized too, which means that it’s not refridgerated when you buy it and you can store it on the shelf before you open it), so we have to buy at least 3 containers at a time to last us for a few days, and it gets heavy to carry.
After church that night we had our Valentine’s Day dinner. Our flat invited Nick and Melissa, another of the girls who had stayed behind, over to our flat. While several of my flatmates & I have some experience cooking/watching our moms cook, things didn’t turn our quite as well as we hoped. The steaks ended up being quite firm and the baked potatoes weren’t really done, but we’re learning and in the end it was definitely still edible. The dessert we’d bought from the store was delicious. Our small flat was a bit packed with all of us (all 5 of us who actually live in it can barely fit around our small square table), but it was fun to have something a little different for a change.
On Sunday we had a full group excursion to Addo elephant park and Schotia Game Reserve. In the morning we set off in a rented bus with our tour guide Bradley to Addo. On the way we drove past some of the townships and PE city centre that we’d driven through on our city tour the week before. Bradley grew up in the townships (I didn’t quite catch all of his history, but I believe he would classified himself as colored- in South Africa the term is acceptable and just describes someone of mixed background- not black or white or Asian or Indian) and has done a ton of different jobs throughout his life (high school biology teacher, community developer, started his own tour guide business, just to name a few!). As we drove past the townships he gave us more information about the huge issues that the government and people are dealing with today in them. To move out of the townships, people need money. To make money, they need a job. To get a job, they need skills. To get skills, they need an education. Under apartheid, a generation of blacks didn’t receive anywhere near an adequate education to secure jobs above the level of cleaners and laborers. On top of all these needs, the people in the townships also really want a house, since the government has promised them one. It struck me how interconnected all the issues are. The South African government has been critised for not doing enough for the poorest of the poor in South Africa and while I don’t have enough knowledge yet to even form an opinion on it yet, I think it would be overwhelming to decide where to start on making things better. America’s issues seem small compared to a large percentage of the South African populaton living in townships. I’m not sure if our Afrikaner tour guide from our first city tour knew these things and just didn’t feel like sharing them on our tour, or if he was unaware of all of this, but it was great to get another perspective on the city.
Once in Addo we drove around looking for elephants. The park is huge and it seemed like we drove for quite a while before we saw anything, but Bradley explained why- it had stormed the night before, so the elephant moms move to higher ground with their kids to protect the kids and therefore we had to try a different set of places than usual to find them. We saw a few other animals while we were searching, but nothing too exciting. Eventually we spotted a couple elephants (even though they’re grey, you have to look for something that looks like a big brown rock, since they roll in mud to regualte their body temperature) and we actually got reasonably close to them, which was sweet! We learned that African elephants’ ears look like Africa and that they are very difficult to domesticate (you don’t see them in circuses or being riden by people). We drove around the rest of the morning staring intently out our windown for any signs of wildlife. If someone saw something interesting they’d yell for the bus to stop (and sometimes reverse) and we’d all rush over with our camera so snap some pictures. We saw lots of warthogs (Pumbas!). After being cloudy and rather cool all day, at some point it started drizziling. We got near another small group of elephants at one point.
In the afternoon we headed over to Schotia Safaris Game Reserve. It’s a private game reserve and a bit smaller, so we split up into groups to ride in safari vehicles/land rovers (that’s probably not what they’re called- but they were like the things you see on pictures of safaris . . .) with a driver/guide. Within a few seconds of being in the actual park, we saw a male lion just lounging on a hill. Our guide took a few little paths right up the hill so we got really close to him. He seemed pretty nonpulsed about two big vehicles of people staring at him & snappng pictures- I suppose he’s used to it. I guess we were lucky to catch him when he was actually awake- lions usually sleep for 19 hours of the day! After pausing by the lion so we could all get plenty of pictures, our guide starting searching for the rhinos in the park. Along the way we saw many groups of impalas (they have what looks like a big black ‘M’ on their buts), kudus, elands, and springbucks (South Africa’s national animal). The off-and-on drizzling of the morning turned into steady rain and I was very glad I’d chosen a covered vehicle- we ran into the two uncovered ones a few times and they looked drenched! I still got pretty wet since I was on the edge of my row, but I managed to stay somewhat dry until the evening. We eventually saw the rhinos. They’re supposed to be one of the most dangerous animals in the park- if they charge you, you’re not in good shape! They looked pretty mellow when we drove by them though. After a few hours of driving around we stopped for tea somewhere within the park. I tried some South African tea (it’s called Rooibos, but it’s just referred to as tea here) and actually thought it wasn’t too bad- I added quite a bit of sugar, but I think it’s sweeter than other teas I’ve tried.
After the break it was back to the game searching. We saw some wildebeasts, which our tour guide described as a very comfused animal- the stripes of a zebra, the tail of a horse, and the horns of a kudu. We spotted several groups of giraffes and a herd of zebras. We also got to see the backs of a couple hippos in a little lake. At one point in the trip our driver took a sudden stop and Sean, one of the guys in my group sitting in the row behind me, hit his head on the pole holding up the cover. He said it didn’t hurt that much, but he started bleading profusely from the corner of his eyebrow. We didn’t have any first aid equipment in the car, but Jenny had a bandana which we tied around his head over the wound to try and stop the bleeding. By early evening I was pretty much soaking wet and it was getting dark, so we decided to head off to the dinner location (a series of huts in the park) a bit early. We managed to spot a couple crocodiles (well, their backs sticking out of the water in their little watering hole) on the way. The buffet style meal we ate was delicious- we even got to try some sort of kudu stew. Overall we saw four of South Africa’s Big 5- the lion, buffalo, rhino, and elephant (we didn’t spot a leopard- there were supposedly some in Addo, but they stay up high in the hills and people don’t see them that often). I’m not entirely sure what I thought Africa would be like before I got here, but going on a safari definitly made me feel like I was in Africa.
Monday morning was the beginning of my volunteer work. I chose to volunteer at the AIDS Haven since I might get to learn more about the South African medical system and HIV/AIDS. I also thought it might be fun & rewarding to work one-on-one with a kid. I ended up spending the morning with Siya, a one year old who just recently moved up to the Play School with the toddlers from the nursery. I was a bit disappointed at first when I didn’t get a little older kid (although he likes to walk a lot, he can’t/doesn’t want to talk, which makes it hard to figure out what he wants to do . . .), we had fun playing with some blocks, attempting to color (he wasn’t a fan of coloring on the pages, so we quickly had to move on to something else) and walking around (well, me following after him and making sure he didn’t get in anyone’s way).
When I arrived at the nursery Tuesday morning to pick him up again, I wasn’t sure if he recognized me, but he came with me willingly enough. We played a variation of peek a boo outside and he acually smiled quite a few times (his usual facial expression is kind of a pouty glare, which doesn’t leave his face often!). After a little bit of playing we had to go to a service up in the Haven’s chapel- on Tuesday mornings an Anglican priest comes and leads it. The toddlers sat on some carpet in front of the alter, but I held Siya on my lap. He didn’t like being held in one place and kept trying to lean over backwards- he even hit his head a couple times on the pew in front of us! (I tried to prevent that from happening, but sometimes he just moved too quickly). The kids were really cute when they sang some songs in the service. Some of the adults staying at the Haven also attended service. The adults seem to be much more sickly. I know they are in much more advanced stages of AIDS, but it is tough to see them so lifeless. I often forget that the kids are HIV positive, but looking at the adults it is immediately obvious something is wrong. After the service we played around some more. He loved the tire swing in the playground and the rocking horse. I’m beginning to understand what kind of things Siya is capable of doing and what he seems to like. I think he gets a bit overwhelmed when he is in a large group- when we all came back together at the end and other students were trying to say hi to him or play with him he would get shy or start crying.
On the way to class Monday afternoon Amina and I had an interesting kombi ride. After about five minutes of driving the kombi stopped in the middle of the road since it was out of petrol. The driver had to get out and push the kombi (with all of us on it!) onto the curb. The guy that collects the money in the kombi ran off to get some gas from the nearest gas station. The driver was having a bit of trouble, so some of the guys sitting in the kombi (other students going to NMMU) got out and helped him. In a remarkably short period of time the guy came back with the gas and we were on our way, but it certainly was a story. Another group of our classmates passed our kombi when it was pulled over and they had the most confused looks on their faces. Classes on Monday and Tuesday went fine- I really like the music professor and what we’re learning about in the music class. This week she brought in a Xhosa high school student who attempted to teach us a traditional Xhosa song called ‘The Click Song’. In Xhosa, the letters q, k, and x are clicks and the song lived up to it’s name with it’s many clicks. I’m still not entirely sure if I got any of the clicks in the song, but the tune was easy enough. We also learned the South African national anthem. The official anthem is really interesting since it is in 4 languages (Xhosa, a Zula language, Afrikaans, and English) and was created by sticking pieces of the African South Africans national anthem together with bits of the Afrikaner national anthem. In Nelson Mandela’s authobiography for Senior Seminar on Tuesday we read about some of the ANC’s early campaigns and the first of many big trials of Mandela and his colleagues again the white, Afrikaner South African government.
Tuesday night the entire group had a potluck. The theme was Minnesotan potluck, so the hosting flat made tater tot hotdish and other flats were instructed to bring such things as green bean casserole, jello, and rice crispy bars. My flat was assigned snicker salad (although I’ve heard of it, I don’t think I’ve ever actually had it), which we had to make with slightly modified ingredients- cool whip doesn’t exist here, so we whipped up some heavy whipping cream and combined that with vanilla pudding. Although someone is sure that they saw a snickers bar here, we ended up with some other candy bar they have here. Many other flats had to use modified ingredients as well- instead of tater tots they had thick french fries, and one flat had to make their own onion topping for the green bean casserole, but overall everything tasted quite like home.
Wednesday morning I decided that I would try running with my flat mates Laura & Nikki. The weather is so nice here that I thought it might be kind of fun (and I also could work on my tan a bit!). I haven’t run for any extended period of time since my first year at college (and even that was just a mile for biology lab and I didn’t even run it all), so I was quite proud of myself for running for 15 minutes without stopping (after 15 minutes they ran on for 5 more, then turned around and picked me up on their way back). I think my legs must be reasonably in shape after Europe. I didn’t have class all day, so I worked on homework, this blog, and organizing some pictures for uploading to facebook.

Thanks for reading!