A status report on my feelings about South Africa
now that I have been here for two months:
Facts: South Africa is single-handedly keeping
Blackberry’s in business, people dress up for class which means no more rolling
out of bed and going to class, no one really goes to class on Friday except for
American exchange students, people love Obama (along with loving America every
person has their own idea on how the US should be run and what we should do
about current policies), if someone says they are going to do something “just now” it
means that it will get done eventually, public bathrooms are surprisingly really
nice, people go to bars every night of the week, considering how far away we
are from Mexico there is a large number of things that are “Mexican Chili”
flavored, and finally people in the United States complain about the disparity
between different social groups need to come to South Africa because in the US
there is no where near the same amount of disparity that there is in South
Africa. A fact that has stuck me
the hardest was when our IES seminar professor explained that kids
whose parents have died from HIV/AIDS in South Africa get 250 Rand a month to
live on from the government. That is the equivalent of 35 USD a month to live
on. Coincidentally, everyone in my
house just contributed 250 Rand for a TV and cable in our house. That amount
that we throw around casually for a TV, an appliance that is purely for
unnecessary entertainment, is the amount of money families get to live on from
the government each month.
One a different note.
August 9th
was a holiday here called Women’s Day, (glad that I found a country who has
decided to properly celebrate the importance of women) which is a way to overcompensate for the fact that South Africa is still extremely patriarchal!! Anyways we had that day
off of class so a few friends and I decided to go to Stellenbosch for a night and wine tour in order to gain a genuine appreciation for one
of South Africa’s favorite beverages. We arrived in Stellenbosch, after an
hour-long train ride on the metro-rail, around 10 o’clock and headed to
straight to our hostel to catch the wine tour. In total we travel to 4 wineries
in the Stellenbosch/Franschoek area and supposedly consumed a totally of a
bottle and a half of wine. Needless to say I have gained a new appreciation for
wine (not that I didn’t like it before), but it is nice to see where it comes
from, how it is made, as well as how to “properly” enjoy it. Stellenbosch was a
nice break from the hussel and bussel of Cape Town; people actually gave
pedestrians the right-of-way. There was also a large amount of nice Dutch
architecture that gave the town a nice European feel. It was almost like stepping into a little European town for the day. After a long day of
enjoying wine we headed back to our hostel and took a well-deserved nap, got up
and explored the city at night. The next morning we got a nice breakfast and
shopped around the little town for the first half of the day then caught the
next train back home to Cape Town. It was my first African adventure outside of
Cape Town and I am safe to say that it was a pretty successful one considering
I have never planned a trip outside of the USA by myself.
Spring Break 2012
This spring break I went to the two other
biggest cities in South Africa, Johannesburg (because I’m a local now I will be
referring to it as “Jo’burg") and Durban. The first trip to Jo’burg was an IES
planned trip, it consisted of a 2-day safari in Kruger national park (which is
Northeast of Jo’burg) and a one-night stay in Soweto, the biggest township in
South Africa. The trip started off with a lovely plane flight at 8 that
morning, meaning we had to get up at the crack of dawn to catch our flight;
fortunately for me this is a common occurrence in the Jamison household. The
rest of the day followed the same transportation and ended with an early night
at a very nice backpackers outside of Kruger by one of the World Cup stadiums. The second morning was another
Jamison style morning of getting up early (this is a theme throughout the
trip). But the second day was more exciting because I fulfilled my African
dream of going on a real life safari. Even better I saw all of the big five
(lion, leopard, elephant, buffalo, rhino) the first day! Seeing the same animal
in the zoo pails in comparison to seeing them in their natural habitats
exhibiting natural behaviors. The highlight of the safari was when my group got
to see a pack of female lions stalking and attacking a heard of buffalo. I was
experiencing the “circle of life”, if you will, in person. Something I will
never forget. After the 2-day safari we headed back to Jo’burg, specifically to
Soweto, the largest township in South Africa which has anywhere from 3.5 to 5
million people living in it at a time. The reason for the variation is because
many of the people that are living in Soweto are living in shanty houses that
are not recognized by the government so they are not counted in the census.
Soweto is also famous for its activism during the Apartheid; it was the scene
of the Soweto student uprisings. These uprisings were in response to the
government passing a law that all schools children would be taught in
Afrikaans, which was not many peoples first language.
The first thing that we did after arriving in
Soweto was a bike tour, being the clumsy person that I am, I was the only
person to fall of my bike. Despite my unfortunate accident, the bike tour was a
really good way to explore the township because it allowed us to cover more
ground than walking but also allowed us to get up close and personal. After the bike tour we headed back to
our backpackers, across from the backpackers was a playground built for kids in
the townships to have a safe place to play. Meaning that for about 2 hours all
of the people in my program and I gave piggy back rides, learning some cool new
dances, and played soccer with the kids at the playground. This was one of the
highlights of my trip to Jo’burg/Kruger.
Durban
Five friends my program and I decided
a few weeks ago that we wanted to visit the city of Durban after Kruger. This
was an attempt at a more traditional beach spring break that most Americans
enjoy. Durban, in my opinion, was the South African version of Gulf Shores, Alabama but weirder. One of the
biggest attractions in Durban was a place called UShaka Marine World, basically
Sea World on the beach with a weird Durban twist. It was also nice to be able
to go to the beach without freezing because Durban is a lot warmer than Cape
Town this time of the year. Overall Durban was really fun because it
allowed me to see a different city in South Africa on my own without IES’
guidance and allowed me to test my Keith given travel skills in action. Thanks
Dad! I even got to attend a music festival while in Durban,
despite not knowing any of the bands that were playing it was nice to do
something very American specifically very much like home.
…In conclusion of my blog post (sorry it has
been a while since my last post) it is weird to think that I only have two
months left in South Africa because it is just now starting to feel like home. Especially
after visiting two other cities in South Africa, I realize how much I have
gotten use to life in Cape Town as well as how much I am going to miss this
crazy city after my departure in November.
PS: Shout out to University of Cape Town for
getting 3rd most beautiful campus around the world!
Cheers,
Claire
Vamos a la playa!!!
