Sorry I haven't been updating regularly! Things have been getting busy here. The first few weeks I really didn't have any work, but now it's starting to pile up. I'm in four classes: Xhosa, Archaeology, Service Learning, and HIV/AIDS.
Xhosa is fun, it's only 2 units and almost no work. We haven't learned that much so far... I can say really basic things and ask basic questions. They also taught us a few Xhosa songs... which are really hard.
Archaeology is great. The professor is like Indiana Jones, except older. We had class last week up at his office and there were bones and skeletons and rocks and artifacts everywhere. He's also hilarious, in this dry British way, so everyone in the class is always really engaged. He also realizes that none of us intend to become archaeologists which is actually great because, as he said in class a few weeks ago, "I'm only going to tell you the interesting things." We literally sat outside one day and tried to make handaxes.
Service Learning is okay. The class part is maybe a bit too theoretical and we talk about things I don't really care about sometimes, but I like where I'm working and hopefully I'll get a lot out of it. I work at Linawo Children's Home. It's this orphanage in Khayelitsha with 15 children, ages 1-13. It's challenging finding something for all of them to do given the huge age gap. The older ones tend to help take care of the younger ones a lot though, and there's a lot of really inspiring things that I witness there. Most of the kids were abandoned or were orphaned from AIDS, and just seeing them all take care of each other and thrive is amazing. I'm going to actually bring my camera there soon to take some photos for the Stanford Centre, so I'll upload some.
The HIV/AIDS class is... interesting. We're working in this township called Dunoon and basically following around these community health workers as they deliver soup to patients. I don't really understand the tie in to HIV/AIDS, but no matter.
We went to Robben Island one day. It was a good experience, I'd say, mostly. We drove around the island on this tour bus and they talked about it's history. Even though it's famous as the prison where the apartheid regime kept political prisoners, it has a much longer history. It was a leper colony for many many years and also a military base during WWII. The prison itself has been restored and cleaned. Because of this it's lost all of its grit and prison-ness. I thought I was just walking through dorms. It invites comparison to Alcatraz simply for its notoriousness and islandness. When I went to Alcatraz, however, they hadn't cleaned it and it was still crumbling and falling apart in places. It felt like a prison. The visit to Robben Island felt like a very closely controlled and monitored tour of something that had never really existed (just because it has been changed so much). The tour guides there are all former political prisoners, which sounds cool, but is actually really sad. Most of them are there solely because they can't find jobs anywhere else (unemployment in the black community runs higher than 40%). This is something they can do and get paid for, but not something a lot of them want to do.
We saw Nelson Mandela's cell. For reasons I talked about above, it's also lost some of its power. After reading Long Walk to Freedom (read it), I know there was more to the place than what I saw. Nothing negative was really mentioned about the prison even. I think it was still good to see it though, even if it did feel like a tourist show.
We also climbed Lion's Head this week. It was absolutely beautiful. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves, but even they don't do the view justice.
Other than all that life in Observatory is great. I'm having a lot of fun living in the house with all the other people. The food in the house is so-so, but there are a lot of really really good restaurants nearby and they are all CHEAP. Some of the other students here have starting joining clubs and things at UCT. Last night I went to this frisbee party which was funny. Half the people there were Americans, and the other half were people from random other countries like Serbia and New Zealand and Zimbabwe. Apparently half of the students at UCT are international, so I guess it wasn't surprising.
Some people in the house bought a used guitar and I'm learning chords and things. It's hard, I wish I had bigger hands. Okay, I'm leaving to go climb Lion's Head again.
Some pictures:
After sunset.
Top of Lion's Head.
Robben Island
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