It's that time of year

     First off, sorry for not posting in such a long time. It's just I have this funny thing called school and it gets in the way of everything else I want to do while I'm here, like blog about my current life! And school gets in the way of getting to do cool things while I'm here. Maybe, I should talk to my professors about it?
     Classes started about a month ago, which means that this week is the normal week to have papers and tests. When I'm at GW though, I can usually just buckle down for a day or two and git 'er done. Here, I would rather go to the aquarium and see divers feed sea turtles and stingrays, or go back to Old Biscuit Mill to have a nice Belgian waffle with bananas and chocolate sauce. I don't want to be stuck inside all day writing a paper about modernization and dependency theories. Especially when I can sum up a 4,000 word paper into 35: two theories, one thought up by the West during the Cold War (modernization) and the other thought up by developing countries in response (dependency). Neither work very well, typically because of poor implementation. The end. Luckily, this is what I write about at home, so I can look at two years of paper writing to fluff it up a bit!
     Since I had a lot of work to do last weekend, of course I decided to go to the aquarium. Like I said, it was mostly to watch the divers feed the animals. There are tons of fish, turtles, stingrays, and sharks in this one tank. I really wanted to see them feeding the sharks, but it was the wrong day. Instead, the divers fed the turtles and the stingrays. Stingrays' mouths are on the bottom of their body, so the divers literally place the food in their mouths. And the turtles get so hungry and aggressive, the divers hide their food behind a little board and quickly toss it into the turtle's mouth. I also got to see penguins, my best friend's and brother's favorite animal. I went home and youtubed penguins afterwards. So cute!
     A lot of kids are getting discharged from Brooklyn Chest in the next month. It's so exciting, but sad because a lot of new kids are coming. On Monday, one little girl, about 1-2 years old, would not stop crying so I walked her around the ward. It turns out, she could still see her mother signing all the papers she needs to admit her. It was heartbreaking. Of course, today when I saw the same little girl, she was perfectly happy. We got to sit in on a doctors' meeting this morning and learn about the new cases. It was interesting to learn about the kids' home lives and how they were infected and their past medical history. I didn't know that the stigma that comes with having TB can be just as bad, or worse, as the stigma of having HIV/AIDS. People here seriously don't talk about it.
     I don't have a lot of pictures to show you. I went to a soccer game in Green Point last week, so I'll get those up soon.

Sara and me at the aquarium, at the Nemo exhibit.

Western Province: Jou Lekker Ding

You cool thing

Women, Wine, and Picnics

     So, so much for updating you all on a more regular basis. I just get caught up in a lot of different things during the week. Sunday night blog writing is an excellent way to put off some homework though..

     I was actually pretty busy this week, considering I was only in class for 3 days. Since Tuesday was International Women's Day, classes were cancelled both Monday and Tuesday. On Monday, Sara and I went to service in the afternoon. Another girl in the program, Emily, tagged along because her site was closed for the day. It's so much fun bringing people to Brooklyn Chest. Who doesn't love playing with little babies?! Tuesday was actually Women's Day. People here treat it like the big deal it is. All the men wished us girls well. We celebrated by going to the Company's Gardens and having a picnic lunch. It was a beautiful day, so I just wandered around outside and some of the others went and explored some museums. It was nice to be apart from everyone, if only for a few hours. It can get a bit hectic living, learning, and servicing together. For dinner, David and Joel, the two boys in the house, cooked us a lovely meal in honor of Women's Day. I'm definitely bringin the seriousness this holiday is celebrated with back home!
     Wednesday and Thursday brought normal classes. We had a guest lecturer talk to us about the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) that attempted to help heal a deeply split South Africa after the abolition of apartheid. Basically, victims of apartheid were given an opportunity to publicly tell their story. At the same time, the perpetrators of apartheid were able to request amnesty in exchange for their honesty in telling their stories. There are many different views on the success of the TRC. This is a trend I'm noticing in SA; mixed reviews of the post-apartheid government and how successful they actually were at alleviating the massive amounts of inequality that was so evident during apartheid.
     Service was pretty exciting this week. One of the girls, Asive, was discharged on Friday. Sara and I brought in lollipops for celebration. It's a great thing when the kids are discharged, but I can't help but feel sad at the same time. In many situations, life at the hospital is much more stable than what the children face at home. Balanced meals, no violence, no drugs or alcohol, mandatory school, and friends around all the time are things that might not be so available at home. On a lighter note, all those years in elementary school learning how to type on those silly programs came into use when I caught a boy "hunting and pecking" instead of proper "asdf jkl;" finger placement. I began to teach him how to type properly and he loved it! I have never felt like such a proficient typer before last week!
     On Saturday, CIEE took us wine tasting. I am not the biggest wine lover. In fact, I usually take a sip of my mom's and make the same face I've made since I first tried wine at church. This changed yesterday. I actually found two kinds I like. One of them is called Cap Classique. It's champagne, just not from France. Typical French won't let other people use the same name! I learned that vintage basically just means the year it was made, not that it IS vintage. We also learned about the process of making wine. Apparently, some of the best oak to put the red wine in is from America! Woohoo! All I could think of when we were in the wine cellar, was the wine barrel lid my mom sells as a lazy susan.
     We also went to a rugby game. It was raining and the men's white shorts were completely disgusting before they even finished warming up. I loved it. Rugby players are actually just monsters. Their thighs, arms, and necks are just too big to be normal humans. I just don't believe them! Apparently, doping is totally taboo in rugby. I read in the paper last week that 19 university players had tested positive and the union is punishing them very severely.
     Here are some pictures from this week! Enjoy!

The ladies enjoying our home cooked meal!

Me at Simonsig, where we had our wine tasting

Getting excited to watch the rugby game!

At the Company's Gardens for our picnic. They have massive dinosaur-esque birds there. Not so relaxing for me..

James Lebron..

Sara out with the kids during their recess. Antique rollerblades=stressful, but fun, time for the two of us..

At the vineyard, part of the separation process. It was a little too science heavy for me. But, they do have a four year degree in wine-making here!

New lazy susan product, Mother?

My new drink of choice!

    

Time flies

     It's hard to believe I have been here for over a month. This is the longest I have ever been out of the country. It has really flown by. It seems like I've been here my whole life practically. It probably helps that I wasn't very busy before I left. This experience has been great so far. The group I'm with are a bunch of exciting people. No one wants to sit in the house and do nothing. We've done some exciting trip every free minute. It's funny because everything is still such an adventure that even taking a 10 minute bus ride to a big grocery store can be fun. Hopefully, the next 3 months don't go as quickly though. I don't want this adventure to end!
     I finished my first full week of service. It was amazing. I got to know the school age kids really well. They are a super diverse and lively bunch. It really does make an interesting dynamic having first graders in the same classroom as eighth graders. The teacher has me go work with the little kids learning to count, spell, etc. I had to explain division to a girl and I think I just confused her. I'm horrible at math and apparently, that includes third grade math. In my defense, the teacher lets them use calculators and I'm trying to explain it to them the way I vaguely remember being taught. I also couldn't understand a boy when he was saying his name and I was writing it in dot letters for him to learn how to spell. I think I may have given him a slight identity crisis..
     We have a long weekend right now. South Africa celebrates Women's Day, so no service or classes on Tuesday. South Africa is one of those countries that has a billion public holidays that everyone has off. It's strange though because the primary and high schools all have Monday off as well. A four day weekend rarely happens at home, I feel like. This is also coming from the girl who had the most snow days of her life once she got to college. Everyone here is planning their spring breaks. It's weird to think of spring break in general because at GW, that would mean more practice and some meal money. Here, it means "cheapest safaris in SA" or "all inclusive trip to Mozambique." Or for those of us on a stricter budget, googling "cheapest rental cars" to do the Garden Route, a coastal driving route that has a lot of cool activities to do. It's the first week of September, so for all the American teachers and students still studying at home, you'll just be starting. If my mom doesn't come during spring break, then I'll brave the open road and visit various beaches along the eastern coast of SA and, hopefully, swim in the Indian Ocean!
     This weekend, we went to a market in Bo-Kaap. It was exciting because one of our tour guides from a few weeks ago saw us and was so happy we could make it. Unfortunately, it was the least exciting markets I have been to since coming here. Afterwards, we took a train (first class...5 rand) to a beach town yesterday. I had fish and chips and it was amazing. I walked into some really great beachy stores and I got excited to think my summer is just starting again. Almost, it's still really chilly here. Today, we went to a market near the Green Point Stadium, where the World Cup was. The taxi driver said he was driving some Asians around and they said after their 2008 Games, a bunch of the stadiums were torn down and the materials and land were re-used. Cape Town spends millions of rand a year to maintain the structure while they are installing public bathrooms in the townships for people to use as their main toilet.  It seems like a lot of people wish the World Cup had helped them financially a lot more than it ending up doing. The market was amazing. It's been my favorite one thus far. I bought a beautiful painting and want to go back to buy some more.
     Here are some pictures from this week. Hope you enjoy

My new friend, Cole, and I sitting in the circle before class starts. The teacher tries to make light of the kids' illness in order to keep them happy. When they have to get their blood drawn, she says they're visiting the vampire.

Sara and the boy I gave the identity crisis to. His name is Ayubulela

Harry Potter appreciation is universal, naturally.

This girl, Asive, is going home this Friday. She can be a bit of a diva sometimes.

A picture of the beach we went to on Saturday, Kalk Bay. I can't wait to go back there when it's summer!

And here is a picture of one of our mini-bus adventures. They are always interesting

Hakuna Matata

     I know The Lion King takes place in Kenya, but I'm still on the same continent so I feel connected to it still! The running joke here is that all foreigners (aka Americans) expect to see lions as soon as they step off the plane. Anyways, I watched and realized that the theme for my past weekend was close to Timon and Pumbaa's life motto. It was our first free weekend since beginning the program and we managed to still pack it pretty full.
     On Friday, I somewhat finalized a service schedule. It's nice to finally have something concrete. I'm going 4 days a week from 2-5 hours a day, coming out to about 20 hours a week. As of now, I'll be working with the children who are too young to go to school, but still need to be stimulated in some way. Basically, I'm going to research engaging activities that small children do in preschools and pre-kindergartens. I'm also going to see if I can do an after school program with the older kids because they are free from 2PM until dinner. That may be too much though. We'll see! (see my use of hakuna matata there?)
     Saturday morning, we went to Old Biscuit Mill. For all you locavores, it is heaven! I have actually never seen so much good food in one place. It's not quite like a farmers' market because most of the food is already prepared, but it's like a farmers' market restaurant type of thing. They also have some really great and unique clothes, shoes, blankets. Those come with your typical farmers' market price though. But, my group and I decided we're going back there every Saturday because the food was amazing! I had an eggplant sandwich that the woman said would change my life, and it did. I finally found an eggplant product that I liked!
     Saturday afternoon, we went to the Waterfront. I don't think I will ever get sick of that place. We took a minibus, which is a super cheap taxi. It's cheap because they squeeze 30 people into about a 15 passenger van. They have a guy who sits behind the passenger seat and yells out the window to people on the sidewalk. It's mayhem. Here is a video of a relatively tame one, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPeJkw8koZo&feature=related. I'll try to take a Flip one myself. Minibusses are super cheap. It's about a 15 minute drive from the Waterfront back to our house on the UCT campus. The 10 of us hired and it only cost me 7 rand, or about a dollar.
     Sunday, we decided to hike Table Mountain. This trip really put to test my hakuna matata-ness. For those of you who are lucky enough to be a Riley (or a rower), you know that we don't do anything that late in the morning. For those lucky to have my Dad as a father, you certainly know that starting a hike close to noon just won't go well. For those of you lucky enough to have a brain, you know that hiking without a map is just plain stupid. Well, we didn't start our hike until noon and our directions were written on a scrap piece of paper that included things like "turn at the square house." We also started the hike off by going down a path. I had given up finding Table Mountain long before any of this. However, our detours led us to some zebras and I got to see an exciting arrest over the illegal picking of Table Mountain National Park flowers. We didn't get to Table Mountain and some of us only got a little bit up Devil's Peak. Luckily, we still have a teensy bit longer here.
Here is a picture of the tables at Old Biscuit. They're old doors! And they had hay stacks with turf around tables for people to sit on outside!

The remnants of my crepe. And the ever present Exeter Cycles water bottle that doesn't leave my side.

Did I mention that while at the waterfront we saw The Real Houswives of Atlanta filming their vacation episode? I don't watch the show, but will keep an eye out for this episode

And here are the zebra we saw. I got too excited and forgot to zoom in all my pictures, but if you look in front of the second tree from the left you'll see one. *Note to self, don't wear tight white jeans..

I'm going to try to update this a little more often in order to stop this novel writing that I'm doing. For most of you it's summer and you should be outside enjoying the beautiful weather. At least when I'm writing this, it's in order to avoid some homework!