This weekend was one of the most incredible weekends of my semester so far! A few weeks ago, a friend of mine from class mentioned that she had volunteered at a kid's camp for a weekend, and was going back for another. Since we had bonded over both being camp people, she suggested I come along for the next one, and that is just what I did!
The camp is called Umthombo weSizwe, which means Spring of the Nation, and is part of an organization whose mission is to train preteens and teenagers in understanding and appreciating diversity as well as with leadership skills, emotional literacy, and teamwork skills. Umthombo seeks to break the cycle of prejudice in South African society by bringing together children from a variety of backgrounds in one space. The kids at camp ranged from ages 11-13, and came from a variety of schools, including some from townships, others from wealthy white suburbs, and other middle class schools. This weekend was the second of three weekend-long camp retreats for these kids. I had missed the first weekend, but other facilitators told me the kids had already improved greatly at branching out and befriending kids from different backgrounds.
Although the camp tries to tackle some serious topics and even directly addresses the inequalities of the lives of the campers themselves (more bluntly than I expected), it was also nonstop fun. The campers were adorable and hilarious, and it was amazing how quickly we got to know each other. Even though many of them were from such different backgrounds than my campers at Camp Micah, they really reminded me of them! In addition, a lot of the ice-breaker/energizer activities we did were similar to ones we do at camp back home.
I was really impressed with the programming at Umthombo, because it mixed fun and education very well, which is really difficult, and the kids were incredible receptive to it! This weekend, we covered sharing and learning about our own cultures, empathy and perspective, the constitution and children's rights, and class inequality. For sharing our cultures, the kids were broken up into groups, and each group was assigned a life event, such as birth, coming of age, death, weddings, etc... Within each group, each camper shared how their culture celebrates or marks the event. In my group, we did coming of age ceremonies, and I learned how this life event is marked in Xhosa culture, in Malawian culture, in Zimbabwean (Shona) culture, as well as what some white Christian South Africans do to mark adulthood. In turn, I told my campers about Bar and Bat Mitzvahs! It was neat to see kids proudly represent their own cultures, but also frustrating because some of the white kids didn't enjoy the activity because they felt they "have no culture," which is super problematic since it designates whiteness as a norm or base line of humanity, and everyone else as "Other" cultures that are exotic and different. This was one of a couple aspects of camp that were unfortunately indicative of the kind of prejudice embedded in society, such as some kids' impatience with other's difficulty speaking English (particularly Xhosa and Zulu kids who are learning it as their second language).
The next program was on empathy, where the kids did some exercises with a partner from a different school and a different gender than themselves. They then had to do a few different activities, including switching shoes with one other and literally walking in each other's shoes. This was funny and really adorable, but also turned out to be a great way to explain kids what empathy means.
The last program that really stood out for me was an incredible exercise that basically explains capitalism to children. The kids were divided into groups of about 6, and told they had to construct houses out of materials provided, and that the best house wins a prize. What they weren't told, however, was that some groups would receive an abundance of materials, including cardboard, tape, glue, markers and paper, while others just received paper and rubber bands. They weren't allowed to ask the facilitators for more materials, but they were never explicitly told that they couldn't share with each other. Watching this play out was almost poetic, because it was such a microcosm for society. Once the kids started to realize that other groups had more than they did, some felt dejected and wanted to give up, some asked the groups to share and were rejected, others even tried to steal materials. After the activity we did a debrief, and the kids seemed to really understand the meaning behind the activity, and the winners even shared their prize with all the other kids!
The entire weekend was so memorable. I made really good friends with the other facilitators, who were some really cool young people from Cape Town, also from a variety of backgrounds. They welcomed me in so warmly, as did the campers. This weekend also provided some really positive and helpful closure for my semester in Cape Town, in that children can tell you a lot about a society. I've spent so much time being negative about the state of society here, and although there was definitely evidence of some ingrained prejudices among the children, so it was incredible refreshing to see such positive action being taken, and targeting children as agents of social change. At first I was hesitant about the use of the hackneyed "Rainbow Nation" discourse that is often used to mask all the inequality here, but Umthombo really addresses the inequality and its roots, while inspiring the kids to lead the way towards equality and integration. I'm devastated that I can't keep coming back, and that I probably will never see these kids again, but I will definitely remember this weekend for the rest of my life.
I walked away wondering if there are camps like this in the US (sort of like Seeds of Peace or Camp If, but about racial/socioeconomic diversity), and how they would function. I think because of the legacy of apartheid, there is a more immediate need for such programs here, but in the US, integration and racial equality are considered issues of the past that no longer need to be addressed, particularly with children. I think the US could really benefit from such camps however, because, like South Africa, statistics show that our schools are still heavily segregated by race and by class, and people often grow up only in contact with those similar to themselves. Camp is such a positive environment for kids to have growing and learning experiences, and to formulate their identities, it provides the perfect forum for such life lessons! I hope to bring a lot of what I learned this weekend to camp with me this summer. All in all, this was the highlight of my time in Cape Town, and I am so grateful for my experience at Umthombo weSizwe!
Monday 28 May 2012
Tuesday 8 May 2012
Only a month left!
Hello! I haven't posted in a while because the last few weeks have been super busy in terms of school work, so I'll just catch you up on the funnest/most interesting things of the last month!
On Friday I went to a professional soccer game between the Cape Town Ajax and the Orlando Pirates (Orlando is in Soweto, the largest township in South Africa) at Green Point Stadium (where the world cup was). It was sooo fun and way more exciting than the professional rugby game we went to earlier in the semester, even though the teams tied.
The next day I went to Old Biscuit Mill, this incredible food market situation, where tons and tons of local restaurants, bakeries, wineries, breweries, and other artisans and whatnots sell their stuff in the most glorious and overpriced fiesta of deliciousness. (I have to keep reminding myself that when I translate the prices into dollars, it's all still pretty reasonable priced, actually). One of my friends here's best friend from home who is studying abroad in Botswana was visiting, so the three of us hit up OBM and then went into the city to go to the District 6 Museum, where we met up with another friend and looked at the exhibit. The other reason for coming to the District 6 Museum was that every Saturday in May, the museum is showing two documentaries on hip hop in Cape Town. So after we looked around, we attended this film festival, where the filmmakers and some of the people who were in the films spoke after their screenings. It was really interesting, and the subjects of the documentaries shed interesting light on how hip hop (a style of music that originated with African Americans) was transported to Africa, and how many of its themes resonated with black and colored South Africans in townships, as well as discussed "colored" identity in South Africa and its relationship to black consciousness. The films and the filmmakers were all super interesting!
On Tuesday, we had an activity sponsored by CIEE for my RA group where we went to Bo Kaap, the famous Cape Malay neighborhood in downtown Cape Town. So, for some cultural clarification, at this point in time, Cape Malay refers to descendants of slaves brought to the Cape from India, Southeast Asian Islands (including Malaysia, although Malaysians only made up a small portion), Madagascar and other parts of Africa, as well as Europeans. The neighborhood used to be slave quarters, and is got its name from the fact that all the slaves from different places used a Malay language to communicate between themselves. Today, most of its inhabitants speak a version of Afrikaans, and practice Islam. They are also all considered "colored" South Africans, although not all colored people are Muslim or identify with Cape Malay culture (some are the descendents of Khoisan, also known as Bushmen, for example).
Anyway, we got a brief tour of the neighborhood, which is still inhabited by the descendants of many of its original slave occupants, and then visited a local mosque. After that we were invited into one of the homes and given a cooking lesson on traditional Cape Malay food, as well as treated to a delicious meal. Cape Malay food has tremendous Indian and South Asian influences: we made samosas, roti, daal, and chicken curry. Pictured to the right is my RA, Stanley making a samosa!
So last weekend was a super long weekend because it encompassed two public holidays, Freedom Day and Workers Day. Some of my friends went on the Garden Route, others went to this art/music festival in the desert called Afrikaburn, but I stayed here in good ol' Cape Town. Fortunately, my weekend was nice and eventful as well.
On Friday I went to a professional soccer game between the Cape Town Ajax and the Orlando Pirates (Orlando is in Soweto, the largest township in South Africa) at Green Point Stadium (where the world cup was). It was sooo fun and way more exciting than the professional rugby game we went to earlier in the semester, even though the teams tied.
The next day I went to Old Biscuit Mill, this incredible food market situation, where tons and tons of local restaurants, bakeries, wineries, breweries, and other artisans and whatnots sell their stuff in the most glorious and overpriced fiesta of deliciousness. (I have to keep reminding myself that when I translate the prices into dollars, it's all still pretty reasonable priced, actually). One of my friends here's best friend from home who is studying abroad in Botswana was visiting, so the three of us hit up OBM and then went into the city to go to the District 6 Museum, where we met up with another friend and looked at the exhibit. The other reason for coming to the District 6 Museum was that every Saturday in May, the museum is showing two documentaries on hip hop in Cape Town. So after we looked around, we attended this film festival, where the filmmakers and some of the people who were in the films spoke after their screenings. It was really interesting, and the subjects of the documentaries shed interesting light on how hip hop (a style of music that originated with African Americans) was transported to Africa, and how many of its themes resonated with black and colored South Africans in townships, as well as discussed "colored" identity in South Africa and its relationship to black consciousness. The films and the filmmakers were all super interesting!
On Tuesday, we had an activity sponsored by CIEE for my RA group where we went to Bo Kaap, the famous Cape Malay neighborhood in downtown Cape Town. So, for some cultural clarification, at this point in time, Cape Malay refers to descendants of slaves brought to the Cape from India, Southeast Asian Islands (including Malaysia, although Malaysians only made up a small portion), Madagascar and other parts of Africa, as well as Europeans. The neighborhood used to be slave quarters, and is got its name from the fact that all the slaves from different places used a Malay language to communicate between themselves. Today, most of its inhabitants speak a version of Afrikaans, and practice Islam. They are also all considered "colored" South Africans, although not all colored people are Muslim or identify with Cape Malay culture (some are the descendents of Khoisan, also known as Bushmen, for example).
Anyway, we got a brief tour of the neighborhood, which is still inhabited by the descendants of many of its original slave occupants, and then visited a local mosque. After that we were invited into one of the homes and given a cooking lesson on traditional Cape Malay food, as well as treated to a delicious meal. Cape Malay food has tremendous Indian and South Asian influences: we made samosas, roti, daal, and chicken curry. Pictured to the right is my RA, Stanley making a samosa!
As for regular life, classes are beginning to wrap up, although finals don't start until May 24. Also, still doing Capoeira, and I think I'll get my first (and hopefully not last?) Capoeira belt at the end of the semester! It's definitely turning into winter here, and starting to get pretty chilly actually. Oh well, only a month till I'm back in summer! Miss you all!
Tuesday 10 April 2012
Spring/Fall Break!
Last week was our mid-semester vacation (I keep calling it Spring Break, but it's fall here, so Easter Break or Fall Break or Vac is what people actually refer to it as)! I went on a guided tour to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, Chobe National Park in Botswana and Kruger National Park in SA. It was incredible! It was a budget trip, so we camped out every night and made our dinner on the campsite most nights (also, ate a lot of fast food).
It was 8 days, but I'm just gonna give you the highlights of the trip:
It was 8 days, but I'm just gonna give you the highlights of the trip:
- Victoria Falls was one of the most breath taking things I've ever seen, and my favorite part of the trip. The town of Victoria Falls is also cool, it's small, and pretty touristy, but not in the upscale way that Cape Town is. This was the only place where we really got to hang out and get to know local people, and we made a bunch of friends there.
My friends and I at the hostel/bar we stayed at before we met up with the tour
Elephant ride safari! (btw, i'm afraid of animals)
So many rainbows at Vic Falls!
The mist was sooo intense, we got completely soaked!
In the Zambezi River canyon those of us who were way to scared to bungee jump went zip lining and gorge swinging!
- After Victoria Falls, we drove 2384098 hours across the border to Chobe National Park in Botswana. We did some game drives there, but most note-worthy was our sunset cruise safari.
A family of elephants!
Hippo
The sunset was incredible here
Buffalo!
- After we did Chobe National Park, we drove through Botswana, crossed the border (over a full day of driving) and went to Kruger National Park in Limpopo, SA. I'm not going to bore you with 80813 pictures of animals, so here are a few nice ones:
Most incredible siting of my entire life: we spotted two lions mating on the side of the road. Apparently when its the season, the male and female leave the rest of the pride, find a secluded location and mate every fifteen minutes (it only lasted like 30 seconds) for a couple of days. Powerful stuff, man.
- After a few days in Kruger, we began our drive back to Johannesburg, through the Blyde River Canyon, which made for another breath taking view:
Yeah, so that's the highlights, hope you enjoyed it!
Friday 23 March 2012
Read this!
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/23/world/africa/in-cape-town-many-black-south-africans-feel-unwelcome.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&smid=fb-share
This article is a really apt description of what I've observed here (particularly the exclusive, white spaces in the city), including the denial of white Capetonians that racism is still a huge problem.
This article is a really apt description of what I've observed here (particularly the exclusive, white spaces in the city), including the denial of white Capetonians that racism is still a huge problem.
Tuesday 13 March 2012
Some things
Soooo I need to fill you in on the last few weeks! I did a bunch of cool things worth noting:
1. Last weekend my RA group through CIEE (my abroad program) went to Mzoli's, a world famous (or maybe just SA famous) meat restaurant in the township of Gugulethu. Again, I'm a little uncomfortable with how voyeuristic it seems to do touristy stuff in townships, but Mzoli's is a hot spot for South Africans and tourists alike, and it's really more like a famous restaurant than any kind of poverty tourism. It's this big outdoor awning with lots of tables, and you go inside the building, pick out the hunks of raw meat you want and then they cook it and you go pick up your big bucket o' meat! We got lamb, chicken, beef, pork and sausage, pap (which is kind of like grits but with the consistency of mashed potato), bread, and this salsa-y thing on the side. No forks or knives or plates (except eventually we broke down and asked for plates, cause things were getting ugly)! CIEE paid for our food, so we ate a massive amount of meat. Mzoli's is famous for having this great party atmosphere and lots of drinking and music and dancing, but after we ate, we all got sooooooooo tired. Needless to say, I need to go back and bring some caffeine with me next time!
This actually looks so gross to me now
Note the sign in the background
Here is a disgusting picture of our dirty table
Alright, that's all for now! Miss you all!
PS My parents are coming tonight! Woo!
1. Last weekend my RA group through CIEE (my abroad program) went to Mzoli's, a world famous (or maybe just SA famous) meat restaurant in the township of Gugulethu. Again, I'm a little uncomfortable with how voyeuristic it seems to do touristy stuff in townships, but Mzoli's is a hot spot for South Africans and tourists alike, and it's really more like a famous restaurant than any kind of poverty tourism. It's this big outdoor awning with lots of tables, and you go inside the building, pick out the hunks of raw meat you want and then they cook it and you go pick up your big bucket o' meat! We got lamb, chicken, beef, pork and sausage, pap (which is kind of like grits but with the consistency of mashed potato), bread, and this salsa-y thing on the side. No forks or knives or plates (except eventually we broke down and asked for plates, cause things were getting ugly)! CIEE paid for our food, so we ate a massive amount of meat. Mzoli's is famous for having this great party atmosphere and lots of drinking and music and dancing, but after we ate, we all got sooooooooo tired. Needless to say, I need to go back and bring some caffeine with me next time!
This actually looks so gross to me now
Note the sign in the background
Here is a disgusting picture of our dirty table
2. On Friday, two of my friends and I went into the city to see this cool public arts festival called Infecting the City! Throughout the weekend were different performance and visual arts displays. We only caught two performances, one was an aerial gymnastics/dance performance, and the other was this modern dance piece, in the court yard of Cape Town railway station:
3. So as I mentioned in an earlier post, I joined UCT Capoeira, which is a Brazilian martial art that is sort of a combination of dancing and fighting. I've been going twice a week now for about a month, and it is so fun! It's also really difficult and I'm perpetually sore, but it's worth it, because I'm gonna be a master by the time I leave. Jokes, I suck. But anyway, I've met some awesome people through this club, and on Friday UCT Capoeira had its "opening function" which was basically a party at one of the group leaders' house. There was lots of food and drinks and music and most of it was Capoeira/Brazil themed. We also played, which I wasn't expecting, so I had worn jeans. It is a miracle my jeans didn't split right down the middle, because I was forced to get in the middle of the circle and Capoeira with one of the advanced guys (which entails a lot of cartwheels and kicks and lunges). Here are some pics from that (not of me, though):
The guy in the green is our coach, Esperiño and the most strong/flexible person I have ever met.
4. Today, for my class Race, Identity and Culture, we went for a walk around UCT campus to this spot next to campus that used to be a zoo! To back track a bit, we were learning about the history of UCT, particularly its legacy of being a largely segregated, discriminatory institution, built with the money of Cecil Rhodes, the eurocentric, crazy British guy that was obsessed with conquering Africa. He had a zoo built next to the campus, which was set up in a hierarchical design, (just like the campus itself), along a hill, with the lion's den at the very top. The zoo was filled with different animals from all the British colonies, as a tribute to British greatness, I guess. Anyway, this zoo existed until the 1980's, and no one has done anything with the property yet (except for destroying a lot of the structures because too many homeless people were seeking shelter in them), so it's just chilling and becoming old ruins. Our walk around it was so eery, and a disturbing reminder that, down to its very landscape, the university we're attending is very much a part of Cape Town's oppressive and racist past (and present). Here are some pics:
outside the lion's den
inside the lion's den
PS My parents are coming tonight! Woo!
Sunday 26 February 2012
Home stay
This weekend we did a home stay in a colored township called Oceanview! I think I can safely say it was the best weekend I have had here so far. In case you're just joining me, the term colored, although soo not pc in the US, is a socially acceptable term (albeit problematic) in South Africa that refers to people of mixed-race descent. During Apartheid, when the government divided up South Africans by race, they separated whites from blacks from colored people. They did so by initiating forced removals of black and colored people from their homes and into designated areas, which became the townships. When Apartheid was ended, Nelson Mandela promised the millions of black and colored people of South Africa that they would be provided with homes by the government, in order to right the wrongs previously committed by the Apartheid government. Unfortunately, millions still await the houses they were promised and continue to live in poverty in the townships.
This weekend, my perception of what the townships were like was completely overhauled, however. Although many townships are characterized by the corrugated metal shacks their residents live in, most of the houses in Oceanview were quite nice. At first I didn't understand why people who could afford nice cars and nice homes still lived within the township when they appeared to have the social mobility that allowed them to move elsewhere in Cape Town. However, after only a day in the community, I realized that the extremely strong sense of community, as well as strong extended family ties made Oceanview their home, even if originally they were forced to live there. In fact, most of the people I met were born during Apartheid, and didn't know a life anywhere else.
My host mom was an extremely generous lady named Lena, who is 62 and lived in Simons Town and was 21 when she was forcibly removed from her home there. Simons Town is now a high end beach town about a 40 minute train ride from the city, and is a primarily white area. Lena works at the navy base in Simons Town now, as a office clerk. I can't imagine what it's like to work in the place she once called home and watch it be changed into a whites only neighborhood. In one of my classes, we learned that 2/3 of Simons Town's population was forcibly removed during that time.
Lena was incredibly warm and generous, and fed me and the other two girls staying with her like there was no tomorrow. She is an excellent cook! We got in to Oceanview on Friday night and ate all together as a large group in a community gymnasium. The next morning, after Lena's homemade breakfast of cereal, fruit, yogurt, eggs, bacon, tomato and mushrooms (cooked tomato and mushrooms are really big here for breakfast), her nephew, Regan, picked us up to go for a drive. He was hosting three other American students, and brought a slew of other family members (it was so unclear who was related and how) along. We had the best day ever! They first took us to a little shop that sells biltong, which is basically beef jerky, and a South African favorite. I tried a piece, but wasn't really feeling it, as a vegetarian. Then we drove around the peninsula some more, and ended up in Simons Town, actually, where we got ice cream and went to the beach. Also, somewhere in the driving we saw a baboon jump out of nowhere on the side of the road. It was terrifying, because apparently they will reach right into the car and grab your stuff!
Then we drove around the peninsula some more (amazing views) and went to a black township, called Site Five. There, we hung out for a while and talked to some people there, which was fun, even though it still feels uncomfortable and poverty tourism-y. I met some interesting people there, needless to say.
We then went back to Oceanview, and the guy driving our car, Donovan, picked up his two kids who joined us at this other guy, Mark's house. There, we ate these sandwiches that are really popular here, called Gatsbies. They're like heros or subs, and you can put basically everything in them. The ones they got us had steak, fried egg, french fries, lettuce, tomato and some delicious sauce on it. (I hope you are noting how much meat I'm eating, because it was about to get real at dinner) We hung out for a while at this house, and then they took us up to this Rastafarian community that lives on the hill above Oceanview. The Rastas were awesome! They were so nice and welcoming and they are vegetarian and all about living off the earth and all this great stuff.
Then we went back to Mark's house for the braai, which is the South African version of a barbecue, except its way better and way more popular (they do it every weekend). Braais are great, because they cook copious amounts of meat, perfectly. So while that's all cooking, they were making sure our beer glasses were never empty, which made for some good bonding time with the whole extended family! When we did eat, it was amazing: beef, chicken, sausage, pasta salad, potato salad, regular salad. I ate chicken and sausage! (if you're not keeping track of the meat I've been eating, so far we've got bacon, biltong, steak, now chicken and sausage)
So, it turns out that Mark and Regan are both DJs, and Mark has super nice spinning equipment, so the braai was also a dance party, equipped with lasers and everything. By the time we came back from the Rastas, more of the family had arrived, and it became a full on dance party/barbecue. It was so fun!!!
The next morning, Lena cooked us Sunday lunch, which is a big deal meal. It was a pretty epic meal, considering only four of us were eating it. She made carrots with cinnamon and sugar, mashed pumpkin with cinnamon and sugar, rice and veggies, roasted potatoes, squash with melted cheese and corn, beet salad, and get this: lamb, chicken AND ham. I ate all of it. So, to tally up the meat count, we've got: bacon, biltong, steak, chicken, sausage, lamb, chicken again and ham. Please take a moment to let that sink in. It was so delicious! And she made this amazing pineapple cream pudding for dessert!
Ok, this blog post just got way out of hand with food details, but this weekend was awesome not just because of all the delicious food, but because of the great conversations and relationships formed with some really cool people. I know I'm missing some pictures of some of the things I described, and all of the people, but it felt more important to just be there and enjoy the moment then to take pictures of everything and everyone (also, it's not right to post pictures of people on the internet without their consent). Anyway, I hope to come back and visit them again this semester!
This weekend, my perception of what the townships were like was completely overhauled, however. Although many townships are characterized by the corrugated metal shacks their residents live in, most of the houses in Oceanview were quite nice. At first I didn't understand why people who could afford nice cars and nice homes still lived within the township when they appeared to have the social mobility that allowed them to move elsewhere in Cape Town. However, after only a day in the community, I realized that the extremely strong sense of community, as well as strong extended family ties made Oceanview their home, even if originally they were forced to live there. In fact, most of the people I met were born during Apartheid, and didn't know a life anywhere else.
My host mom was an extremely generous lady named Lena, who is 62 and lived in Simons Town and was 21 when she was forcibly removed from her home there. Simons Town is now a high end beach town about a 40 minute train ride from the city, and is a primarily white area. Lena works at the navy base in Simons Town now, as a office clerk. I can't imagine what it's like to work in the place she once called home and watch it be changed into a whites only neighborhood. In one of my classes, we learned that 2/3 of Simons Town's population was forcibly removed during that time.
Lena was incredibly warm and generous, and fed me and the other two girls staying with her like there was no tomorrow. She is an excellent cook! We got in to Oceanview on Friday night and ate all together as a large group in a community gymnasium. The next morning, after Lena's homemade breakfast of cereal, fruit, yogurt, eggs, bacon, tomato and mushrooms (cooked tomato and mushrooms are really big here for breakfast), her nephew, Regan, picked us up to go for a drive. He was hosting three other American students, and brought a slew of other family members (it was so unclear who was related and how) along. We had the best day ever! They first took us to a little shop that sells biltong, which is basically beef jerky, and a South African favorite. I tried a piece, but wasn't really feeling it, as a vegetarian. Then we drove around the peninsula some more, and ended up in Simons Town, actually, where we got ice cream and went to the beach. Also, somewhere in the driving we saw a baboon jump out of nowhere on the side of the road. It was terrifying, because apparently they will reach right into the car and grab your stuff!
An ostrich farm we passed
Just imagine a baboon jumping out on the left! (I didn't get a picture of it)
The beach at Simons Town: that's two girls we were with and the son of one of the guys showing us around
That's me with Shivani and Annie, the two girls who stayed at Lena's with me
We then went back to Oceanview, and the guy driving our car, Donovan, picked up his two kids who joined us at this other guy, Mark's house. There, we ate these sandwiches that are really popular here, called Gatsbies. They're like heros or subs, and you can put basically everything in them. The ones they got us had steak, fried egg, french fries, lettuce, tomato and some delicious sauce on it. (I hope you are noting how much meat I'm eating, because it was about to get real at dinner) We hung out for a while at this house, and then they took us up to this Rastafarian community that lives on the hill above Oceanview. The Rastas were awesome! They were so nice and welcoming and they are vegetarian and all about living off the earth and all this great stuff.
Then we went back to Mark's house for the braai, which is the South African version of a barbecue, except its way better and way more popular (they do it every weekend). Braais are great, because they cook copious amounts of meat, perfectly. So while that's all cooking, they were making sure our beer glasses were never empty, which made for some good bonding time with the whole extended family! When we did eat, it was amazing: beef, chicken, sausage, pasta salad, potato salad, regular salad. I ate chicken and sausage! (if you're not keeping track of the meat I've been eating, so far we've got bacon, biltong, steak, now chicken and sausage)
Donovan showed us the prettiest view from Oceanview
The braai spread, looking even nicer in front of Mark's motorcycle
So, it turns out that Mark and Regan are both DJs, and Mark has super nice spinning equipment, so the braai was also a dance party, equipped with lasers and everything. By the time we came back from the Rastas, more of the family had arrived, and it became a full on dance party/barbecue. It was so fun!!!
The next morning, Lena cooked us Sunday lunch, which is a big deal meal. It was a pretty epic meal, considering only four of us were eating it. She made carrots with cinnamon and sugar, mashed pumpkin with cinnamon and sugar, rice and veggies, roasted potatoes, squash with melted cheese and corn, beet salad, and get this: lamb, chicken AND ham. I ate all of it. So, to tally up the meat count, we've got: bacon, biltong, steak, chicken, sausage, lamb, chicken again and ham. Please take a moment to let that sink in. It was so delicious! And she made this amazing pineapple cream pudding for dessert!
lunch!
dessert!
Ok, this blog post just got way out of hand with food details, but this weekend was awesome not just because of all the delicious food, but because of the great conversations and relationships formed with some really cool people. I know I'm missing some pictures of some of the things I described, and all of the people, but it felt more important to just be there and enjoy the moment then to take pictures of everything and everyone (also, it's not right to post pictures of people on the internet without their consent). Anyway, I hope to come back and visit them again this semester!
Tuesday 21 February 2012
Robben Island
So this weekend we finally went on our trip to Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for many years. It was a really fascinating place, with a long history, having been a leper colony in addition to a prison for both criminals and political prisoners. Here are some pics:
Leper Graveyard
The limestone quarry where Nelson Mandela and other prisoners worked. A lot of them had serious damage to their eyes from working out in the sun all day on such a reflective surface. But, it was here that a lot of political planning for the ANC was done!
Table Mountain from afar
Some prisoners were able to receiving three letters a month, but political prisoners could only get one every six months, and the letters were severely censored.
Inside the maximum security prison
Nelson Mandela's cell (not his original things, though)
Overall, a very informative tour. The tour is led by an ex-prisoner of the Island, which is really fascinating. Many ex-prisoners, as well as ex-wardens, currently still live on the island with their families and work for the Robben Island Museum! I found this shocking that ex-prisoner and ex-warden live together harmoniously, but apparently this goes back to the notion of reconciliation and forgiveness that Mandela was big on. Still, it's hard to imagine having to relive the trauma of one's imprisonment every day for a living.
This narrative of forgiveness is all very nice, but I think it's also a little disingenuous. In my class on Race, Culture and Identity in Africa, we read about how the Robben Island Museum (as any museum does) constructs a very particular discourse around its history, and even though it employs former prisoners to tell their story, they still are instructed to adhere to this discourse, and maybe aren't providing as authentic an account as we'd like to think. As a museum that caters to mostly tourists, it's not surprising that they would want a narrative that is uplifting and about forgiveness. I think that would be more appropriate, however, if actual racial equality had been achieved in South Africa, which it clearly has not. The District Six Museum (which I haven't been to yet), on the other hand, apparently is much more devoted to continuing an ongoing anti-racist cause, even as it discusses the past. Yeah, so those are my thoughts on that. Thanks for listening!
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