Durban Goodbye

Hello there!

I am officially on winter break! I finished my paper and now I’m off to adventure around South Africa. It feels wonderful to be done with all of the academic work, but obviously it’s tough because that means I have to say goodbye to people and places. It has been a long goodbye process, so I’m actually happy that today I leave Durban and just rip the Band-Aid off. It’s tough now, but it just has to happen.

These past few days have been packed with last minute activities. I have spent much of my time just walking around, taking pictures, shopping at street fairs, packing, and saying goodbyes. And I ended on a great note yesterday with the first soccer game to ever be played in the new World Cup soccer stadium! It was pouring down rain, but that didn’t damper our spirits. The game was also sold out so we had to scalp tickets…but it was SO worth it.

So today I leave my home city of Durban to go on a two-day safari with my class in St. Lucia. On Thursday we travel back to Johannesburg to catch our flights to various locations. I am first flying to Cape Town to go on a bike-riding-wine-tasting tour, visit penguins on Simon’s Island, and visit Robben Island where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned during Apartheid. Four days later a friend and I fly to Kruger National park to go on safaris. This is the leg of the trip that I am most excited for…I can’t wait to spend some quality bush time with lions and elephants! Lastly, I fly back to Johannesburg to spend a few days venturing around. I then hop on one last plane to be back on December 18th! It for sure will be a whirlwind tour and I hope to be able to post at least a few more updates.

I hope everyone is getting ready for the holidays because I will be ready to party hard!
Miss you all!

Porridge Love

Good weekend. Friday night was absolutely amazing. I went on an outstanding beach run in the afternoon to clear my mind. I will definitely miss running in the sand along the beautiful Indian Ocean with the warm South African sun heating the air. I then came back to my apartment and baked a few chocolate cakes to give to all of the wonderful people that I work with at the Down Syndrome Association. I quickly spiffied up and was escorted by two friends to a hotel just down the street where I met Jörn and Christa Moeller from Germany! Over a delicious buffet dinner we shared four years worth of stories. Once midnight hit I decided I should finally leave their hotel because they had to get up early the next morning to catch a flight to Cape Town. Words cannot explain how awesome it was to see their familiar faces after three months of continually meeting new people.

Saturday was the last day I spent working with the Down Syndrome Association. I attended a support group for mothers of children with Down syndrome at a local church. I loved speaking to the mothers and playing with their adorable children—plus I gained some crucial data for my paper. Always a plus. Afterwards I met with my project advisor to discuss the direction of my paper. Saturday was definitely bittersweet because I finally finished collecting all of my data, but I also had to end my time with the Down Syndrome Association. All of the people with the association took me under their wings and really helped me in any way possible. It makes me feel warm inside to know that there are people who really want to make a difference in others lives and actually succeed in doing so.

Saturday night and Sunday consisted of a rotation of relaxation and work periods. I have been working fairly diligently on my paper, but taking numerous study breaks whenever needed—usually about every hour. My paper is actually coming along quite smoothly and I have about 30 pages written. I’m guessing another 20 to 30 pages and I will be set! My project advisor was really happy with all the progress was made, so hopefully that happiness carries over another week for when she grades my paper. As for the study breaks, I have done more street shopping (probably my favorite past time), sunbathed on the beach, swam in the ocean, went on beach runs, ate some ice cream, made phone calls to the states, and had deep discussions with my flat mates about our lives in South Africa. I also have a new obsession with porridge. I picked up a bag of vanilla flavored porridge in the grocery store last week and now it’s all I can think about. When I finish a section of my paper I reward myself with a bowl of porridge. When I’m hungry for dinner and I try to think of what I should make, porridge consumes my thoughts and that is all I can fathom of eating. Luckily I discovered this fetish in my last few weeks here, because if I had discovered it earlier I would probably return back to the states extremely malnourished. Anyways, overall I had a very fulfilling weekend in the good ole city of Durban.

Aaaand now it’s Tuesday morning. I have spent the last day and a half locked away in my penthouse dominating my paper. It has entirely consumed my life. I realized at 5 p.m. yesterday that I had not left the apartment so I took a brisk walk along the beachfront. Luckily I have actually been enthusiastic about writing my paper and it’s still coming along nicely. I also motivate myself to work on my paper by telling myself that this is nothing compared to University of Puget Sound finals.

Colors

I think I mentioned this previously, but I have found a GENIUS way to rapidly dry small articles of clothing! All of my flatmates LOVE it!
This is a family penthouse dinner that we shared a few weeks ago. One of my flat mates, Sonika, cooked us an Indian style dinner then showed us how to eat with our hands.

My German parents! Here is visual proof that I actually met up with them in South Africa! Shout out to Jorn and Christa!

German Parents

It surprisingly has been an uneventful week for once. At times when things were hectic I had hoped for a week like this, but then when I actually had a slow pace week I missed the daily chaos. I have decided that studying abroad plays major mental and emotional games with you. You think you want one thing, and then you realize you want the other.
It’s a possibility that I want the chaos to return because this week has just been filled with the monotony of working on my independent project. I have actually hunkered down and started writing, which can get old in just a short amount of time. I have also been experiencing cabin fever in my apartment because of a large storm that rolled through Durban. It was so rainy and windy that my rides were unable to pick me up to take me to work. And needless to say, I wasn’t really able to leave the apartment to go on a jolly ole stroll through Durban. So as study breaks my flat mates and I have dance parties to MTV music videos. Although I was unable to leave the apartment, it was pretty amazing to watch such a powerful force come over the ocean. I don’t think I have ever seen such large white caps.
Okay prepare yourself for something that will blow your mind. Andrea, a German exchange student that lived with my family in high school, sent me an email earlier this week saying that her parents are currently vacationing in South Africa. They happen to be passing through Durban tonight. Not only are they staying in a hotel literally two buildings down from my apartment, but they are free tonight and want to take me out to dinner! I have not seen them since I spent a summer with them in Germany four years ago. And to think that of all the places I would meet them again it would be in Africa! I absolutely cannot wait to see some familiar faces tonight.
This weekend will consist of one last day with the Down Syndrome Association and more paper writing. Unfortunately not the most exciting way to end my time in Durban, but I guess I am here to be a student. I just need to keep reminding myself of that. Salani kahle!

A Few Visual Images

To supplement today's post, here are a few pictures from the past month or so:

This is my Mama Ningi, bhuti Aslam, myself, and Ben at the farewell dinner for our families. This is right before my Mama pressured me into giving a speech about how wonderful she is. Ben is also proudly showing off a bracelet he made.




We planted trees for a rural community using pick axes, shovels, and pitch forks...all while wearing long skirts. No big deal.

This is a view from my 13th floor penthouse's balcony. Incredible.

Bafana Bafana

I have officially realized that my time here in South Africa is rapidly dwindling. I took a good look at my calendar and realized that I have exactly two weeks to finish my project, write my paper, venture around Durban, and say goodbye to everyone. It makes me sad to think that I have to leave a place that I have grown so close to in just a short time. However, I am looking forward to returning home to a familiar and comfortable environment. Plus, it will be Christmas time, meaning family, friends, and food.
Last week I continued to work on my practicum with the Down Syndrome Association. I visited a school for special education and helped out in a classroom. When the teacher asked what famous people come from the United States, the top two answers were Michael Jackson and Barack Obama. Obviously the students were up on their contemporary news. Later in the week I walked through a therapy center in the township of Phoenix. I was extremely impressed by what the center had to offer as far as multidisciplinary healthcare goes, but disappointed when I learned that it is the only such center in the entire province of KwaZulu Natal.
This weekend was relatively relaxed, which is what I wanted for going into these next two hectic weeks. On Saturday, I visited my Cato Manor family one last time. Once again I felt right at home hanging out on the plastic covered couches and watching Usher music videos. Unfortunately my older brother, Mino, was working overtime on Saturday so I did not get a chance to see him. Luckily he called me today to at least say goodbye over the phone. It was extremely difficult to say goodbye to my Mama for good. There were definitely tears shed.
After my farewell I went over to a friend’s house to watch the Bafana Bafana soccer game. “Bafana Bafana” actually means “Boys Boys” in Zulu, but it is the name of the South African national soccer team. The game was against Japan and was relatively uneventful with a final score of 0-0. Silly soccer. To celebrate the boring game we naturally had a braii like true South Africans. We went to this awesome “buy and braii” where you buy all the meat you want and then grill it on a provided barbeque. You all sit around the platter of meat and scavenge over it like starving dogs. Braii’s may be one of the top things that I will miss the most about crazy South Africa.
Sunday was a relatively uneventful day. I had planned on taking a surfing lesson but apparently the waves were not big enough. I tried letting the instructors know that despite my outstanding physique and incredibly good looks, I probably would not be riding any 10 foot waves at my first lesson so they should just take me out. It didn’t work. So instead I went to a local market and spent dollars like they were pennies on wonderful items, such as paintings, jewelry, and slingshots. I spent the rest of the day taking cat naps and working on my project. Needless to say, Sunday was a pretty solid day.
And now it is Monday. I’m sitting in our school room trying to convince myself to work on my paper. Hopefully when I write next I’ll have a more positive outlook on the progress of my paper. Wish me luck!

The City That Never Stops Having Fun

85 degrees. Blue skies. 30 second walk to the beach. Guess how my weekend went? J

It all began on Friday night. Since Durban has the slogan of “the city that never stops having fun,” naturally there is quite the night life. We have done a fairly decent job of hitting up a few of the safe dance clubs in large groups. So on Friday night we went to a club called “The Lounge” and danced the night away. As some of you know, I like to dance away the week’s load of stress and baggage.

The next morning I woke up early and headed to a farmer-market-style street fair. This market had an interesting compilation of both boutique-esque artwork and traditional zulu artwork. I managed to drop a few hundred Rand on some wonderful souvenirs and gifts to bring home. Here’s hoping that they will all fit in two suitcases! After the market I went to my first South African soccer match with a few friends and brothers from Cato Manor. It was amazing. I have never experienced such a sporting event. It was a relatively important match between two professional soccer teams—one of them being the “Golden Arrows” from Durban. People were dressed up in choir robes blowing on “vuvuselas,” or horns, and banging drums. We knew this coming in, but myself and the two other girls I was with were the only white people at the game. I felt totally comfortable there because we have lived with black families and whatnot, but you could tell that people were staring at us because they expected us to be uncomfortable. South Africans remind us frequently that “rugby is a white man’s sport and soccer is a black man’s sport.” I guess it’s true.

Sunday was a relaxed beach day. The weather was absolutely gorgeous so the beaches were packed. My friend Rainey and I rented boogie boards and body surfed for a few hours. It was so much fun to ride the warm Indian Ocean waves. We didn’t let the fact that we were the only ones over the age of 8 riding boogie boards stop us from having a good time. I came back to my flat and hand washed some clothing for the first time in my life. I discovered that I actually really enjoy hand washing clothes. I was planning on only washing the bare necessities (socks and underwear), but I found myself having so much fun that I washed just about everything that could possibly need washing. I think I even washed a scarf that I have only worn once. After my escapade of washing I realized that our small drying rack could not accommodate all of my hand washed clothes. Luckily for me I found out that my flat mates do not mind if I hang my underwear from the ceiling fan.

Independent Study Time

It’s the week’s end once again. As the cleaning man of my apartment building told me this morning after I told him TGIF, “time keeps moving quicker and quicker.” Amen to that one, brother.

This week has been filled with work. Sometimes the work is enjoyable, sometimes tiring, and sometimes heartbreaking. I have been traveling around to clinics and hospitals in the Durban area with Dumisani, the outreach coordinator for the Down Syndrome Association. Dumi is a very vibrant and talkative man who is not afraid to talk to people…or introduce me to anyone and everyone. I can’t even tell you how many people I have met this week, but I think it may be a PR. I’m gaining quite a bit of pertinent information for my project, but I’m a little concerned as to how it will pull together into one coherent essay. Somehow things like this always work out in the end, so I’m not too worried J

One thing I have learned from my project so far is that the government-run medical centers vary in the quality and type of care provided. Today I visited a new hospital that is absolutely spectacular. There was local artwork everywhere, the medical staff was very attentive, and the patients seemed relatively relaxed. It made me so fuzzy inside to see a government hospital functioning at a high level. However, once I thought about a hospitals I have visited that are poorly functioning, I realized that care is not equal across the board. The other hospitals are old and literally falling apart. These hospitals seem to have a severe shortage of medical staff and equipment, and the patients were crammed into small, hot rooms. As with many other aspects, South Africa’s medical system has made progress post-Apartheid, but gaps and holes still need to be filled.

As for fun things of the week, the highlight was definitely Wednesday Night Karaoke at a local pub. I will not divulge what time I actually made it back to my apartment, but we all spent a good chunk of the night singing corny American songs and dancing like baboons. The rest of the nights have been relatively low-key with a few NBA games, ice cream runs, and shopping thrown in. This weekend I hope to visit a market I have heard so much about and possibly take a surf lesson! I think the waves here will punish my body, but it just looks like so much fun.

Upon request from Man Cub (aka my brother Conner), my things I like/don’t like list is returning. So here it is:

Things I like about S Africa:
1. Watching surfers at 5 am in the morning ride the Durban waves
2. Incredible lightning storms that roll over the ocean at night
3. Peoples incredible and legitimate interest in getting to know you
4. Observing Zulu mama’s excitedly roll around in the surf because most cannot swim
5. Men that address a group of girls with “hellos” as the plural of hello

Things I don’t like so much about S Africa:
1. Lack of reliable public transport
2. People thinking you are wealthy because you are white or an American
3. Remembering that South Africa functions on ‘African Time’ or 30 minutes late
4. The constant construction for the 2010 World Cup
5. Having to do schoolwork when the beaches are so sandy and warm

Cato Revisited

Happy belated Halloween! And happy belated birthday to my wonderful mother dearest J

This past week was absolutely nuts and chaotic. I spent the majority of the week fine tuning my 25 page paper on South Africa’s Brain Drain. Not necessarily the most fun I have ever had, but I guess it didn’t kill me to act like a student for a week. Actually, after a few days of absorbing myself in stacks of literature on my topic, I started to have this sick desire to continue my work. I guess that helped me get through the week.

After we handed in our papers, all we wanted to do was have fun. But no worries, I restrained myself from having too much fun because I started work with the Down Syndrome Association the next day. So far everything has gone splendidly with the association. I have already had the chance to conduct several interviews and meet many influential people in the field of Down syndrome. Today I actually visited a government hospital with the outreach coordinator. It was quite shocking to see the hundreds of people waiting throughout the hospital just register to see a nurse. Sadly, many of the people arrive at 5 am in the morning with their children and will never see a nurse.

Going back to the weekend, on Saturday afternoon I traveled back to my home in Cato Manor. It was absolutely wonderful to see my family again and have a tasty, home cooked, South African meal. I felt like I was back where I belong…I knew where all the cups were kept, sat on my Mama’s plastic covered couches, and most importantly, watched Janet Jackson music videos. It was really hard for me to leave my family again after such a great evening with them. I hope to be able to visit them at least one more time before I must leave the city of Durban.

Yesterday, I went on a run, napped on the beach, and went shopping. Probably one of the most relaxing days I could ever have. It was amazing.

And now it’s the week. I will visit more hospitals and clinics this week with my organization. It’s going to be a great week of learning and challenges. Have a good one!