I don't miss the rains in Africa

hey all!

sorry, it has been a while since i last wrote again! Its been a hectic week. Right now it is pouring rain outside- booooooo. We're kinda transitioning from summer to fall over here, so the weather is going to be going downhill permanently soon here. Since I last wrote we had time with all three schools from hfb together, and went on the retreat this past weekend. CHID (and thus UW) as a program might be pulling out of participation with hands for a bridge in the future. I dont really feel like explaining everythign, but basically our role is not being acknowledged, nor are we treated as adults with a stake in the program. It was overall a really really frustraiting week that made me wish I had chosen a different project to work on this time around.

Yesterday I managed to get this 24 hour flu that is flying around our house, so I did not do much of anything. Today is a day off for all of us working with hfb, until around 7 tonight when we are all going to see a play called "Woza Albert". It is a two man protest play that was written during apartheid and hypothesizes what would happen if jesus came and saw what was going on during that era. We shall see if i enjoy it.....

The final community celebration with HFB is on thursday, which also happens to be one of the birthdays of one of the girls in our house. So i think we are community celebrating, and then all going out together. yay! This upcoming weekend should be fun, too. Not only will the Roosevelt students/teachers be out of town, but it is also the second weekend of pride here. Some of us are going to go to the pride parade and celebration on Saturday, and then we are going canyoning on sunday. (repelling down waterfalls, etc. -i'm a lil nervous!)

Anyway, I'll try and keep this thing updated more often this week!!! Hope you all are doing well!

p.s. i know i already wished all 3 of you this, but happy birthday dusty (21st), oma (22nd) and lani (25th)!!!!!

...and the chaos begins

Hey all! quick update here...

Our whole group did an absolutely fabulous Valentine's day bash together! There has been a lot of tension brewing in our house lately (understandable when we all live, work, and go to school together), so three of the girls in the group decided to arrange this whole dinner to bring us all back together as a house. They stayed home from their community engagement projects on Thursday, and when the rest of us came home from ours there were personalized invitations for a valentine's day event and instructions to dress our best and meet in our courtyard. So, everyone got all dressed up and excited and we all met out there at 715. The girls who arranged everything then came out and explained that they were cooking for all of us for the night! We were served cosmos and bruschetta in the courtyard as our appetizer as Michael Buble was playing from a laptop for us :) After that, we were led into our candle-lit living/dining room where we all had full place settings complete with name cards. We had a first course of caeser salad, a main course of pasta casserole with mushrooms and all kinds of good cheese and veggies with another drink called the love potion #9 to go with it, and then dessert of flaming turtle chocolate fondue with pink champagne. I could go on and on, and i'll post a few pictures later, but it was the most fun i've ever had on valentines day, and it really did bring our house back together.

Our entire group did Robben Island together on Friday. Its amazing what a toursit trap it has become, and the script that guides are supposed to follow. Even within two years I can see some of the changes, and its a shame how many of the just plain tourists were there and not quesitoning anything. It felt like there were a lot of people there to just go through the motions without really thingking about the fact that they were on on island that was once a place to send criminals, then turned into a leper colony, and then a prison where some of the most notorious political prisoners were kept. I could talk a lot about this, but i just dont have the time right now!

We had a fairly low-key weekend. I spent a lot of time around our neighborhood and working on my journal/course pack that is due ina few weeks. My roommate, Rebecca, and I went on a 4 hour shopping adventure at Cavendish mall which is about a 15 minute combie ride up the road from us. I spent about 1250 rand ($160) on 3 dresses (one of which i'm almost positive i'm wearing to graduation because its purple!!!), a pair of shorts, a pair of leggings, a shirt, and a pair of shoes. My roommate cleaned up just about as well with a few dresses and shirts etc. Sunday Rebecca and I had brunch with Sarah, one of the girls who was on our program two years ago. Sarah is actually staying about 2 blocks away from us in the other house that is owned by the same guy that owns ours, and she is here until right around when I leave as well.

Now I am off the the first meeting of all 3 of our hands for a bridge student groups together! ack! Also, EVERYONE in our house is freakin sick with either the stomach flu or a really really bad cold, so i am taking massive amounts of vitamin c and echinaccea (sp?) trying to ward the germs off! Wish me luck!

So freakin hot...

Wow, so I dont have much to say right now other than it is so uncomfortably warm right now! It reached into the lower 90's today, with the "discomfort index" (i guess the temperature it actually feels?) reaching 100. right now, it is 930 pm and i just checked weather.com and it says that it is still 85 degrees. I can usually deal quite well with heat, but this is damn near unbearable right now. I'm sleepy, but i cant even find any comfortable position on top of my bed right now because the cold side of my pillow disappears in like 2 seconds! Some thunderstorms and rain are supposed to come through tonight, and i can only hope that they come soon so i can get some sleep!

In other news, for valentines day our house is doing a secret valentine exchange. we all put our names in and then drew someones name out of the pile to give gifts to. i decided to go old school, so i made my valentine a good ol' construction paper + glitter + macaroni + puff paint card. i also got her a super-classy single serving can of champagne and some chocolate and a stuffed bear. everyone in the house is going all out on this... people have gotten crazy cards and balloons with presents stuffed in them and flowers delivered and all kinda of amazing stuff. i have put the word out there that whoever my secrent valentine is i would appreciate a puppy or a dog, but somehow i do not think that's happening...

Today we had the first meeting with Isilimela and Bellville together to figure out there buddies and work on a few activities (we met outside in the middle of the afternoon- sooooooooooo hot), and then on Saturday the Roosevelt group arrives. I'm pretty sure i'm going to be busy beyond belief from the 16th of Feb when they arrive to the 29th when they leave! Tomorrow most of our group is going to go up table mountain for sunset for v-day :) Some of the more adventurous in our group are climbing it-- being that more people have died on table mountian than on everest....and being that I am not such an adventurous person, I am taking the cable car up :)

Anyway, i'll leave you guys with a few more pictures from along the trip since i might not be able to update for a while:

Margaret and I at the poetry festival that our whole group went to a few weekends ago at Spier

Wine and cheese tasting two Sundays ago

Georgia (our teacher) and I walking to the beach in Port Elizabeth this past weekend

one of the Kudu that we saw at Addo last weekend

another elephant picture from Addo...i seriously took so many pictures there that i could make a book at this point

bunch of elephants at the watering whole with a warthog in the foreground. seriously...i have so many animal pictures!!! i wish i could put them all up here!
the endangered flightless dung beetle (i'm not making this up!!!) it is illegal to run over these or step on these in the national park

And lastley, (in order) me, our tour guide, Joy, and Ashley in Addo.

Wish me luck on getting sleep now!

...and we're back in Cape Town!

Alright, so since I last posted we have done a considerable amount! The sunday after meeting Tutu Doogs (from DAC) took us out to Paarl, where he is from. We went wine and cheese tasting at Zevenwacht wine estates, lunch at a restaurant in the township that he lives in, met some of the old ladies that are pillars in their community, and met his family. It was pretty much an amazing time!

Monday and Tuesday we spent with Erwin, who is a teaching artist that was flown in to do a workshop with our group, as well as work with the hands for a bridge group when all three schools are here together. We did a lot of work with words and movement etc.

Thursday- bright and early at 645 AM- we took off for Port Elizabeth (PE) to meet up with the group of UW students that are studying there. We spent the first day going out to some of their community engagements before having a braai (bbq) at their flats. There was lots of eating and drinking going on to say the least....

Friday we spent almost the entire day in cars!!! We drove out to King Williams Town to visit the Steve Biko foundation (If you dont know who he is, look up Steve Biko- he's a very very important figure here) It was a 5 hour drive in for a 2 hour heritage site tour, and then a 4 hour drive back to Port Elizabeth. Being not so enthusiastic about going out and drinking all the time, I was the one student from our group that stayed in Friday night :) I ended up having an amazing time, too! I watched a little TV (we dont have TV in our house in Cape Town, so it was the first time I have watched TV in 5 weeks!), attempted taking a bath (water kept scalding me so i gave up...), and did some reading.

Saturday we spent with the entire group for about 4 hours doing drama/learning/i dont know how to explain them exercies with Erwin and talking a bit about the previous days. I had sunscreen on, but it did not last the entire time, so I got considerably more burned than I had hoped to... After the exercies we all went to lunch, and then some of us took off for the beach. The PE side is the Indian Ocean so we were all really excited because they have much warmer water! Unfortunitely, Saturday had really high winds, so the sand stung us as we were walking along the beach, and there was a jellyfish warning in the water so we couldnt go in :(

Sunday three of us woke up at 7am to drive out to Addo national park and watch elephants and animals :) We ended up taking a taxi out there, through the park, and back home. We also got one of the hop-in guides that was offered. We had such an amazing time with the 3 of us and the 2 of them! Between the sleep deprivation and the jokes, we were laughin almost the entire time. I have tons of pictures of animals from then, but it takes forever to upload onto here, so I'm only going to put 2 up here...

I have to run to class now, but i'll try and put morepicture up later! The baby elephant picture is for you mom! :)

Today...

was amazing!!!!

So we all woke up this morning at like 530 AM to go see Desmond Tutu at 7AM at Saint Georges's Cathedral downtown. (The Anglican church) We attended a small service/prayer thing/ I don't know what its called because I don't know anything about religions but it was quite small and there was prayers and people took communion. Anyway, so we attended that, got to shake hands with Tutu, got to talk to him and take a group photo with him, and then were invited out to coffee with him. I didnt get to talk to him much, but I did say hi for you mom :) Also, I can say that from what I did get to experience of him, he was a really really down tow earth, kind, and surprisingly funny man. Pictures:inside St. George's

our group with Tutu

So after the coffee, Doogs (the guy from the DACPM that organized all of today for us) had arranged a tour of the National Parliament with one of his friends for us. It was not the most exciting experience ever, but it was definitely one of the most informative things that we have done. I had no idea how their two parts of parliament were set up! Anyway, a few pics from parliament:

Inside one of the corridors. The floors and some of the marble in this area date back to the late 19th centuryInside one of the two houses of parliament. In this house, each province gets to have 10 people representing them. People vote for the party that they want representing their province, and then the party choses people to sit here. Great thing: the party can chose to pull anyone anytime that they put in these seats if those serving are not following the party/peoples wishes. Also, 3 of the 10 seats for each province are rotating. So, any given day depending on what is being discussed different experts come in. I.e. during the recent sessions dealing with the current energy crisis different people who know about electricity and the power stations, etc. filled those 3 seat for each province.Inside the National Assembly part of parliament. These are 400 positions total filled be people electing who they want to represent them as a nation. It is possible to vote for one party for the provincial representatives and another party for the national ones. Also, the president has no veto power in their government, and the two parts of parliament are considered equal in power. View of part of the downtown from right outside parliament.

After parliament we walked over to the Cape Castle. This is the fortress/castle that was built by a combination of Dutch and British over time. We went on a tour, but the history they gave was very one-sided. They did not really mention that it was slaves that were forced to build the castle and that continuously through history it was used to house prisoners and torture some of them. As a group, we actually confronted the tour guide and her manager about it after the tour. It was an extremely intense meeting to say the least. My head actually hurts thinking about it right now. Anyway, after all that, we went out to lunch (we were starving!!!) Then some people stayed downtown- I chose to head home.

Tomorrow we are going to a bursary ceremony held by the DACPM. It is a ceremony giving scholarships to mothers of people lost in the freedom struggle for use with their surviving children. After that, we are making the trek to Spier winery in Stellenbosch for a poetry/hiphop/art festival that is going on all weekend. We're so excited! We expect to arrive home at midnight to 2am that night.

After all that, Sunday we are headed out for the several hour drive to Paarl. Doogs, the guy from the DACPM who has arranged all of this amazing stuff for us, is from there and showing us around. We are going to a wine and cheese tasting at an all-black run winery that some of his friends own. Additionally, we are meeting up with some of the former leaders of the ANC from the 1950's. We are also possible talking with former trade union leaders, and two men who were political prisoners at Robben Island for 30 years.

I'm gonna need a break after my weekend!!!!! Also, Thursday at 7am is when we leave to go to Port Elizabeth. I dont think we're gonna have a break for at least 10 days here! Now I'm off to go try and rest up for the rest of our weekend!