Firsts

first international flight
...time in Europe
...time in England
...drink in a pub
...time crossing the equator
...time on the African continent
...time in South Africa
...time staying at a backpackers' lodge/hostel
...time living in a homestay
...time living in a city
...time riding in a mini bus
...time swimming with penguins
...time taking a 5+ hour overnight bus trip
...time going on a game drive
...time touching the Indian Ocean

...time eating springbok
...time eating sheep
...time going on a vineyard tour/wine tasting
...time living in an apartment
...time buying electricity
...time going sea kayaking

...time conducting research
...time conducting interviews
...time writing and submitting a 20+ page paper

...time getting my nose pierced
...time opening and closing a bank account on my own
...time in Asia
...time in Turkey
...time going out of my comfort zone everyday

Wait, I only have a week left in SA???

Hi friends!
Sorry I've been incommunicado for the past three weeks. I've working on my independent research project, which took up a good chunk of my time between reading sources, revamping my project after hitting a dead end, interviewing, and writing up the final document. After days and days of writing, I turned in a 39 page bound document entitled "Interviews with University of Cape Town Students about Gender-Based Violence on their Campus with regards to their University’s Sexual Harassment and Offense Policies" Tuesday afternoon and presented my findings to my classmates and SIT staff on Wednesday afternoon. So as of Wednesday, I'm officially a senior in college!!! AHHH!!! Where has the time gone?
In case you're interested (which I hope you are) here's a list of things I've done between working on my research the past two weeks:
- spontaneous trip to Muzienburg via the train with Lara for coffee and a stroll on the beach
- day trip to Simons Town with Lara, Allie, and Liyah
- attended a showing of "Nothing But the Truth" at the Artscape Theater in Cape Town
- Old Biscuit Mill (x2)
- trip to Seapoint
- potluck supper with the other twenty-six members of my program
- hiked Table Mountain with Allie

- got my nose pierced (!)
- attended the Justin Bieber concert in Greenpoint with Lara and Carrie

Next up: evaluation week in Franschhoek Sunday-Wednesday, and then final goodbyes in Cape Town on Wednesday night and Thursday morning as most of my classmates depart Thursday. I'll be staying an extra night in town, right down the block from my flat, in a hostel with Carrie and departing Friday afternoon! The past 14 weeks have gone by so quickly and I know this last week in South Africa will too.

ISP Weeks 1 and 2

Since my last post I've moved into my flat at "The Decks" in the city center with four other girls from my program, Lara, Carrie, Allie, and Liyah, and begun my independent study project period. Living in on Long Street has been great! We're a short walk away from grocery and clothing stores, the gym, and the train and bus station. We're also on the same street where all the nightlife is so when we go out for drinks and dancing we don't have to worry about calling a cab home. 
We've been in the flat for almost two weeks now and it's been quite the experience. I haven't had to share a room with anyone the last three semesters as I've had a single, so sharing a bedroom with two other girls that isn't completely closed off from the living room has been interesting. I've also been in charge of cooking for myself for the first time! Lara and I decided to try to save money so we've been splitting groceries and cooking together, which has been challenging but fun. We're definitely not master chefs yet, but we do make some pretty good guacamole, veggie stir-fry, personal pizzas! 
Between handing in our final assignments and working on our ISP's, my friends and I have tried to make time to have fun too. Last Saturday Carrie, Allie, Lara, and I spent the day at the beach with our friends Becky, Ashley, Carol, and Kelin. It was one of the last warm weekends of the season, so we tried to soak up as much sun as we can! As I was told by Lara's 10 year old sister from her homestay in Bo Kaap who was also at the beach, "Megan your stomach is white, white, white!" Clearly I need all the sun I can get!

Lara, Becky, and I at the beach

 The following day Lara and I decided to be tourists for the day and buy day passes for the double-decker city sight-seeing bus. The bus drives around Cape Town and has about twenty different pick-up and drop-off spots where you can get off to see the sights. Lara and I decided to stay on the bus as we had been to many of the spots already thanks to SIT, and had tons of fun riding around and seeing our city from the eyes of tourists for the day.

Lara and I on the sightseeing bus!

On Wednesday night after turning in my book review I joined my flat mate Allie and nine other girls from my program to see a show at the Baxter Theater Centre in Rondebosch. Allie is doing her ISP at the theater and has been able to get free tickets through her contacts. The show we saw that night was a one-woman show called "the List". Here's the description given on the theater's website: "Winner of the Fringe First for script (Edinburgh Festival) and the Canadian Governor General's award for a French-language play, The List is a compelling and masterfully crafted tour-de-force which tells the story of an urban woman adjusting to rural life. Increasingly isolated, she keeps her life in order by obsessively making 'to do' lists. When a friend requests a favour from her, she adds it to her list. The difference between remembering to do it and neglecting to take it seriously is at the heart of this moving story." The play was incredible! I was very impressed by the actress and enjoyed the story line, though it was very sad. Thanks again to Allie for getting us tickets!

"The List" - a one-woman show!

That's a quick update of what I've been up to recently! I hope everyone at home is doing okay in the wake of the recent tragedies in the US. You're all in my thoughts.

"The Danger of a Single Story"

Hey friends,

I meant to post this video a couple of months ago when we watched it during our first "Narratives of Identity and Social Change" class, but alas, time (and lack of reliable internet) got the best of me. Here it is now though! I definitely recommend watching it if you have twenty-or-so free minutes. Chimamanda's talk is about how only listening to a single story about particular place or person risks misunderstanding.

Johnny Clegg Concert

On Sunday April 7th, a group of us from SIT went to the Johnny Clegg concert at Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens. I had never heard of Johnny Clegg before, but my homestay coordinator Tabisa is a huge fan and SIT was willing to pay for our tickets if at least ten of us went so decided to go with my best friend Lara. The concert venue is incredible! The long slopping hill surrounded by Table Mountain on its left side creates a natural arena. Everyone sits on folding chairs or blankets and brings a picnic to eat while enjoying the show. Lara and I had originally planned to bring crackers, dip, and wine, but as we found out when we arrived at the grocery store, alcohol isn't sold on Sunday's. So we trooped off to our favorite restaurant  Cocoa Wah Wah, for chocolate vodkas and an Irish coffee, before grabbing a cab to the venue.
When we arrived at the show the grounds we completely packed! Instead of hanging out at the top of the hill behind a tree with the rest of the group we decided to go up and stand in the front with Tabisa. This was the closest I'd ever been to the stage at a concert and it was so much fun! Even though we didn't know any of the songs, Lara and I swayed and danced to the music with the rest of the crowd and pretended to sing along.
Being close to the stage also had other perks. Lara and I spotted a cute guy on stage who was in-charge of tuning Johnny's guitars and taking pictures for the band, and decided to stay behind after the show to try and get a picture with him! Raeven was very flattered that we found him attractive and exchanged contact information with Lara so the three of us could hang out later. Unfortunately we never got our picture or a chance to meet up as Raven had to fly to Qatar with Johnny and the band the next day, but it was cool to make a new South African friend.

the concert venue!

Johnny Clegg

Lara and I

Lara and sisi Tabisa, our homestay coordinator and friend

Here's the youtube video of one of Johnny Clegg's songs "Great Heart"

Bo Kaap: the Final Homestay

For my last homestay of the semester I spent twelve days living in Bo Kaap with a colored family. In South Africa the term colored is used to describe people whose ancestors were either cape slaves or Khoisan, or people of mixed race. The families we stayed with were Muslim and drew their ancestry from the cape slaves, whom were brought to SA by the British from islands and countries that touch the Indian Ocean. Bo Kaap is by far one of the most beautiful places to live in Cape Town. The community is built at the base of the mountain and the homes are painted in every color imaginable. While my family didn't live in one of the bright houses, our apartment’s balcony offered a breathtaking view of all of Bo Kaap, the city, and harbor. After living here for almost two weeks it is unsurprising to me that more and more (non-Muslim, non-colored) people are trying to move into this community.

This homestay was very different from my other three homestays, in terms of size and gender ratio; my other three families were small and female-dominated, whereas my Bo Kaap family had nine members, six of whom were men. Not only was I living in a male-dominated household for the first time in my life, but I also had older siblings: a sister and four brothers! All five of them lived in their parents’ home, along with my sister’s husband and their one-year old daughter, Zara. While that might seem strange to my readers back home, it’s not unusual for children to remain at home until they get married or even live with their parents in the early years of their marriage to save money to buy a place of their own. We also had four large fluffy cats who really liked to hang out in my room and sleep on my bed and legs. Even though our apartment was full of people, my family still gave me my own small room with a bed, desk, and closet to stay in. As usual I felt guilty to have my own space because it meant other family members were cramped, but I was grateful to have a space of my own to unpack, study, and sleep. The one big challenge of the week was bathroom time. There was only one bathroom for the ten of us, so my mom had to make a schedule for the mornings so that each of us got at least fifteen minutes to use the toilet, brush our teeth, and bathe. The rest of the day we had to fight for time to use the loo. While it seemed like a real hassle the first couple of days, my (real) sister Erin pointed out to me that it wasn't really that different from living at home as we only have one shower. I definitely learned how to be patient this week living in such a big household and sharing the facilities!

One of my favorite parts of the week was, unsurprisingly, the food. My mom made stews or curries over rice almost every night which were very delicious. I haven’t had much experience with curries before, but I found myself really enjoying them, even if they were a little spicy. My favorite dish was seafood paella over white rice – yum!

Another thing I enjoyed about living in Bo Kaap was our proximity to the city. Unlike my other homestays where I had to take a taxi or car to go to town due to distance and safety reasons, here I could walk, skip, jump, or run down the hill to downtown Cape Town. The closeness to the city definitely made weekends more enjoyable!

Here are some pictures I took while walking around the community with Lara this past Saturday.

I spy with my little eye, Lara!

my apartment building (top right, second floor)

view of the mountain and city from Signal Hill

It was bittersweet saying goodbye to my last host-mom yesterday, knowing that I was moving in to my own apartment with a group of four other girls from my program instead of in with another South African family. On the one hand, I'm going to miss meeting new people, gaining new lens through which to view South Africa and the world, and having someone to cook dinner for me every night. On the other hand, I'm ready to live on my own in downtown Cape Town, have the freedom to come and go as I please, and make my own meal choices.
Let the final segment of my adventure, known as ISP (independent study period), begin!

Gone Camping

panorama of our campsite by Lara

After our week in Stellenbosch we spent two days camping at !Khwa ttu, a San culture and education centre about 70km from Cape Town. The San people, also known as Bushmen, are the descendants of the first indigenous people in southern Africa. This group of hunter-gathers is comprised of many smaller tribes who speak numerous distinct languages from four language families (Ju, Khoe, Taa, and !Ui). Today there are approximately 100,000 San living in southern Africa, with 6700 of that number living in South Africa.

The goal of the centre is to educate the general public about the San culture and provide job training for San descendents. During our time at the centre our guides taught us about traditional practices, gender roles, and hunting and gathering techniques. One of the things that stuck out to me was the San’s sustainable practices. For example, if the men were out hunting and found an ostrich nest, they would take on egg, drain its contents, and use the egg as a water bottle. If the egg broke, the pieces would be given to the man’s mother, wife, or sisters to make jewelry. In this culture everything was used and nothing went to waste.

After dinner each night, which usually included eland meat, we returned to our camp grounds across the road. Our camping was very luxurious… camping was honestly easier for me than living in the rural village! Each tent slept two and was sheltered beneath a grass hut like the San would sleep in. Inside the tent there were two mattresses with blankets and pillows and a solar-powered light. Our camp grounds also had bathroom facilities, which included a toilet, sink, and shower with hot water. I shared a tent with my best friend Lara and we had a blast! One might even say that we had too much fun.

As always, I enjoyed my experience learning about another cultural group that contributes to the complex society I'm studying in called South Africa!

Lara and I on the tractor during our tour

learning how to identify animal tracks

some friendly zebra we spotted on our tour of the centre's land