Advancing my palette

We haven't done any tourist things since we started volunteering so I was excited to do some touring. Also, I had never been wine tasting before and I was excited to see the beauty of a vineyard. We arrived at Groote Constanstia just around 10:30 and did a quick tour and learned about the wine making process. We began tasting around 11am. That's appropriate right? (it was 12pm somewhere) The vineyard was absolutely beautiful! The mountains overlooking the vineyard was gorgeous. According to our tour guide the mountains made this a prime location for growing the grapes used for wine because they blocked some of the sun. I don't have much of an advanced palette but I enjoyed the tasting for the most part. I liked the white wines and one of the reds. I know my mom would have loved it there. She's a wine fanatic. The grounds of the vineyard were full of flowers and trees (perfect for senior pictures).

After spending time in the affluent area around the vineyard we headed for lunch with mama Thope in a township about 30 miles away. She prepared a delicious authentic South African meal filled with chicken, butternut squash, and fried bread. Everything was delicious. It was shocking to see the dichotomy between the two areas. Although they were relatively close in proximity, it went from expensive houses with manicured lawns to one roomed shacks made out of scrap metal. Mama Thope told us of the history behind her bed and breakfast and where she is now with it. It's amazing that she has been all over the world! I guess I automatically assumed that people living in townships never really left the township. I know I was just giving in to stereotypes and I shouldn't have made that assumption. I have learned so much in the short time that I have been here from the adults I have encountered. Mama Thope, Andrew, Ivy, and Sedick have such pride for where they come from and embrace it every day in everything they do.

Oh yea, and I pet a cheetah.

Day 2 Learning

Second day at Gugulethu  clinic and I tried to go in with a positive attitude. Then Andrew told us we would be in our same areas and I was bummed. Since I spent most of my time at tea yesterday, I knew today would be different, but it turned out to be pretty much the same. We were placed in the HIV clinic which was a small room with two nurses who talked to patients in Xhosa. We observed the nurses fill out the forms with the patients. Occasionally we were able to ask questions or the nurse would come show us a form or something. The importance of confidentiality was always in my mind and I kept feeling like I shouldn't have been looking at the forms they showed us. What I found most interesting were the posters for practicing safe sex and what to do if you find out your pregnant. The posters are similar to what I've seen in the US, but it just felt different. Like when I read them I imagined a person with HIV reading it and seriously taking what I said into consideration. I think in america HIV is one of those things that we think "oh, that can't happen to me." since it isn't as prevalent at home, if we have unprotected sex the first thing you worry about is an std or pregnancy. Reflecting back on it, I am not happy with the way I perceived those posters. I considered them more of a necessity in the African clinics than in the American ones which is not the case. HIV is a serious condition that can happen to anyone if the right precautions aren't taken. I guess because HIV/AIDS isn't the top priority in the news, Americans tend to take it lightly. So far this experience in increasing my knowledge of HIV/AIDS and breaking some of the preconceived notions I had about the disease. 

After volunteering, we heading to one of the wonders of the world to have dinner. Table Mountain is the mountain range associated with Cape Town. It is definitely a must see! As its name suggests, it is literally flat at the top. The view of the city and ocean were absolutely breath taking. When I was younger I always wondered what it would be like to be in a cloud. Now I know! The clouds rolled in as the sun began to set and we were all surrounded by the clouds. It was kind of scary because we couldn't even see the edge of the mountain! We were literally on cloud nine!

Day 1 Volunteering

Our group will be volunteering for the next 10 days at various health sites. 3 of the sites are orphanages working with kids and 2 are at clinics in townships. I was placed at the Gugulethu clinic in Gugulethu. I was kind of bummed i wasn't going to be working with kids but from what Jan has told us, everyone has had a good experience. Well all last night and this morning I was having stomach problems so that wasn't a good start to my day. Apparently there is some stomach bug going around because a few other students are experiencing the same ailments as myself. We arrived at the clinic around 10am and spoke with the manager of the facility. She was great. She talked about the mission of the clinic was to improve the health of the Gugulethu township by testing everyone for HIV and providing birth control and pap smears to women. She explained the importance of teamwork and if one group was lacking them everyone wouldn't be able to work together as a cohesive unit. Her passion for her job was inspiring to me. She said everything she does is for God and she works for Him. She mentioned she was apart of the Soweto uprising and that because she was not hurt or killed during it, God wants her to do something important in her life which is why she feels so committed to the clinic and improving lives. After this, I was very excited to get started. I thought, "wow this is going to be a life changing experience." I was pretty disappointed when I ended up spending half my time there in the "tea room" which is basically the lunch/break room. Although I did have some good conversations with some of the workers in the room, this is not how I wanted to spend my volunteer day. There was some miscommunication on my part on what the tea room was, but she said she would be back for me in  30 min. After a little over an hour I went back to where some of the other student were working. To my surprise, the students were the only ones there. The nurses had left them by themselves to take blood pressure and blood glucose. I guess it was really frustrating and stressful with the lack of communication, the immense amount of patients, and the differences at hospitals in the US. I expected to see workers not using gloves or hand sanitizer, but it was still very shocking. I tried to go into the situation with an open mind, but it was difficult to adjust to the system especially when I wasn't given a job to do. I told Jan and Andrew of the issues I faced at the clinic and I understand that the staff was very busy with patients, but I don't feel like if every day is like this one, I will not learn or gain anything from this experience. With the stomach problems and lack of involvement at the clinic today, I can say that today wasn't my best in Cape Town. My goal for tomorrow is to stay positive, keep an open mind, and be patient. At least I learned one thing today, that the "T room" literally means a room to have tea!

Robben Island and Minstrel Carnival

 On our agenda for today was a visit to Robben Island and attend the minstrel carnival. Robben Island is the prison Nelson Mandela was held at during his jail time during apartheid. In "A Long Walk to Freedom" we read all about his time in jail. While there, the political prisoners weren't allowed to talk about politics or write political paper. While in prison, Mandela wrote a long walk to freedom and hid his work in a garden in the prison.  We were able to see this and Mandelas cell. His cell only consisted of a bucket and a blanket on the floor. We passed by the limestone quarry where the prisoners would work. Our tour guide told us that when the prison no longer needed the stones, they would still make the prisoners dig for rocks as punishment. One of our tour guides was an ex prisoner so it was interesting to hear about his experiences. Overall the experience at Robben island was a good one. I learned many interesting stories like how one guy tried to copy the master key and escape from the prison. I really liked how the tour stressed how Robben island wasnt a reminder of the struggles of apartheid but more of the strengths and gains that were made to get to the end of apartheid. 

 We ended the day going to the minstrel carnival. This was a lively parade of individuals of all ages dressed up I'm bright costumes marching, singing, dancing, and playing instruments. It was really exciting! The carnival is in celebration of the new year and has roots in the minstrels from America that came to South Africa. Opposite from minstrels in America, they whitened their faces with white face paint and glitter and imitated their masters. The bright costumes were so cool and it was great to see the excitement in everyone. We got to take pictures we some of the people in the parade. The children were the cutest thought dressed up in their little outfits. It was a great way to experience the lively culture in South Africa.

Good Hope to start off the New Year

I have been looking forward to this day since I found out I was accepted to the study abroad program. On our agenda was to visit cape point and see the penguins at boulder beach. Penguins are my absolute favorite animals, so I was really excited to see them up close on the beach. First we arrived at the Cape of Good Hope before almost anyone was there thanks to our driver Sedick. He's the greatest! The view was absolutely breath taking. The pictures I took don't do the scene justice. It took us almost 45 min or so to reach the top because we stopped at took so many pictures. Once we got to the top it was just nice to look out over the edge and admire the beauty around us. I could have stayed up there for hours. We were on the most south western point of Africa! I never thought I'd say that anytime in my life. What I liked the most was how Ciara found a paper lodged into the lighthouse tower. Of course we all thought it was a secret treasure map or something like that. Turns out it was just a piece of paper but we all wrote our names on it and put it back in the crack. So now a piece of us is still left at the top forever...or until some other student group decides to unlodge it from its space. We climber another mountain next to it and on the way down we ran into these rock dassies, little fuzzy fat rodent things. Of course I screamed when one ran right in front of me. I guess the little families were cute but I still was not a fan of them. We ended our experience at Cape of Good Hope with a delicious lunch compliments of ivy by the rocks by the beach. It was perfect!

After leaving the Cape of Good Hope we made our way to boulders beach. There were a lot of tourist there so it was a bit crowded. I was expecting to be able to go on to the beach and have the penguins just come to me. Unfortunately it was more like a zoo. The penguins were still really cute so I enjoyed it.

Lastly, we rung in the new year as a group at a bar in Observatory. I had so much fun! My group is amazing and i really enjoy their company. We drank, danced, and had a fantastic time. At midnight we counted down and took Springbok shots when the clocked turned 12. Best NYE thus far.

Shopping, district six, Linda Fortune

Long day! In the morning we went to this craft market and I wanted everything! I literally could have bought everything there. The jewelry was so pretty, I wanted it all. We were able to bargain down prices for things but I always felt kind of bad. I did get some good deals on things (I think) but I didn't want to rip them off or be ripped off.

After shopping we went to the District Six museum and got to meet Linda Fortune. She grew up in District Six and we read her book during our class. She was amazing! I loved hearing all her stories about growing up in District Six and the history behind the removals. She took us to Odekraal, a secret beach in Cape Town with caves! It was so beautiful. The pictures I took don't do it justice. The ocean water was a spectacular blue and the mountains overlooking the beach were breathtaking. Linda talked about how her and her family would go to Odekraal during vacations and live in the caves. It hit me when she mentioned how one time they went there and set up and began cooking like usually and then were kicked out because it had now become a white only area.
Odekraal had such amazing scenery and I can't imagine not being able to experience it because of my race. We climbed through caves and hiked up hills and enjoyed the fresh air. I ate lunch looking out onto the ocean and the rocks...beautiful. It was a perfect day.

And 30 hours later...

I'm finally in Cape Town! What a long flight! From Chicago to DC to Johannesburg and ending in Cape Town. Total trip time from when I left my house to when I stepped into the Cape Town house is about 30 hours. Travels didn't go exactly as planned when I was stopped in customs and had to go to the immigration office and when my bag arrived in Cape Town on the wrong flight. I did see Akon though at the airport so that was pretty cool. Other than that it was fine, the airplane food wasn't terrible like I had expected. Lots of chicken and beef. When we got here I found myself wanting to look at everything. Even though it was 10pm when we arrived here I still wanted to take in every little detail of what I saw. The house we are staying at is really nice! We all have our own room and the living space is huge! Im excited to explore on our first day around our neighborhood, "the observatory" and go to the beach!