Every Day

This post really won’t be in order about things…just random thoughts that I’ve been having.

First, things I’ve noticed about Americans that are different from South Africans:
-We announce our questions, most Americans say, “Can I ask a question?” or “I have a question.” Or “I was wondering…” Why don’t we just get to the point and ask what we want to ask?
-We are obsessed with being tan, why do we attribute darkness to attractiveness? So much so that people use tanning beds and spray tanner? Thandi, my RA, asked us about this last night. She asked, “Why do you like getting so tan?” and the only reply was that it is viewed as attractive. This absolutely blew her away because here in South Africa, especially because of apartheid, paleness is more attractive. The order went white, colored, black. It’s interesting to think about. Tanning.
-We interrupt a lot. All the time. When someone else is talking, people will just interrupt when, if we just wait, we can find out what we had wanted. Patience people patience.
-We want things FAST. Walking, talking, getting picked up, starting a meeting, food, getting tickets to a play, everything we want fast. This goes along with the previous one a bit. I for one am enjoying going at a bit slower of a pace.
I’m sure there are more but I’ll keep ya’ll posted

The sweet potatoes look normal on the outside but here are white inside and not orange!

In other news, our group continues to bond-we have
some really great people here. Exploring Capetown together has been a blast. Taking the train to different beaches and small towns, walking around, grocery shopping, going to the market ANNNNDD the BIKE SHOP!!! That’s right, I now am the proud owner of a mountain bike! It was quite the trying decision to choose mountain bike over road bike, but apparently mountain biking is much more popular around here and is one of the best places in the world to mountain bike! So I’m taking up the sport of mountain biking, first ride tomorrow  I’m also biking the Cape Argus Cycle Tour, a race/ride in which over 30,000 riders participate (including Lance Armstrong) and all the roads in Capetown shut down. It’s world famous and I’m going to do it!! So excited!

This past week, and also next week are pretty laid back because classes don’t start until February 14. In the meantime we continue to visit the possible service sites and try to narrow down our selections. I still have no clue, any advice is welcomed. We have also met our professors (they came right to our house to have a meeting with us! It seems like we are treated like royalty around here). Service Learning CIEE students get many perks that Arts and Sciences CIEE students do not. Our excursions and activities are so wonderful. The mountains still catch me off guard, when I turn my head and there’s the mountain! Right there! So big and majestic and powerful. Soon I will conquer it with my new (used) bike!

That’s it for now, I’m still loving every moment, still stunned by the beauty of it all and still heartbroken by the suffering and need that is surrounding this city and country. Every day.

Pictures

First of all, these pictures are all in backwards order, and I cannot move them without wasting more megabytes so I'm sorry about that. ON to the pictures!!!

These are part of the colony of Jackass Penguins on Boulder beach, we did not spend a whole lot of time there, but it was quite the adventure, and the penguins were so adorable!!!
Enjoying the pier at Kalk Bay, there was a seal in the water but I couldn't capture a picture. It was beautiful!
We took the train to get to the previous two places (Kalk Bay and Boulder Beach in Simon's Town) What a gorgeous ride?! Right along the coast, it looked like you could jump into the ocean.

This is my bedroom, I'm in a double room with another girl in my program. Her name is Jessica and she's great :)This is my house, "Big Chapel" It is very old and beautiful!!
I sit on the porch of our house to journal and blog and spend time with friends. LOVE porches.
Pictures from London! (before I was in Capetown I had a 13hr layover in London, so I explored the city a little)
I met up with Chelsea (another girl in my program) while we both had layovers and we explored together!

Ashamed

The fancy dinner at Stellenbosch, which I mentioned in the previous post, was probably the best dinner I have ever had in my entire life. The restaurant was called Moyo and it was SO BEAUTIFUL! It was on a winery, with tables underneath these huge trees with lanterns hanging from them. I then participated in the largest buffet I have every been a part of. Seriously. I ate three plates of food, probably 8 different kinds of meat and 7 kinds of veggies, along with 6 desserts. And the wine. the wine is quite good here. Quite good indeed.

Also, Phil Pleune, I tried some Castle beer at another establishment on Long Street.



Anywho, that dinner was absolutely incredible. So much good food that I didn't even know-I just tried everything. Dancing afterwards with African music and drums then back home to Chapel.



The next day we had a tour of Bo-Kaap, and the slave lodge. This was were the Dutch enforced slavery and held slaves en route with the Dutch Indian Trading Company. It was very sad, I was ashamed of my heritage a little bit. The Dutch did some not very nice things, which I had known before but it didn't really sink in until this tour. Our guide, Bilquees, showed us all around the area, the houses (brightly colored!), took us into the oldest mosque in South Africa (and Capetown for that matter), built illegally when the Dutch Reformed church was the only religion allowed. After that we were taken into the home of a couple and ate some incredible traditional Malay (which is not Malasian food, but a combination of the different ethnicitys that make up the region). SO GOOD. I've eaten so so so much good food so far, all different and delicious.



Later this night, we had a chill evening, chatting sharing lives with each other. Enjoying our beautiful new home. The people in my program are wonderful and I love them.

Woke up early the next morning for 8am church service at the Methodist church right behind our house with Alyssa and Megan. Then 9:30-3:30 Tobo took us on a township tour of Langa (South Africa and Capetown's oldest township/slum area). Looked at art, listened/watched music and dance, walked around through the shacks and lean tos, drank African beer from a bucket in a shack, tried to visit a medicine man, and were basically exposed to the 3rd World part of Africa. The contrast is so immense between white, colored, and black areas. Between where we live and the townships. For lunch Tobo took us to Mzolis, famous for their brai meat. We were served a HUGE platter the size of car tire piled high with chicken, lamb, beef and sausage. Along with it was served mealy white cornmeal-that looked like mashed potatoes, served with salsa. This all was eaten with our hands. After we returned home, several of us hiked up part of Table Mountain, its only a 30 minute walk from our house to the base of the mountain. SO BEAUTIFUL. SO STUNNING! We had family dinner, lots of veggies due to the mass amounts of meat we had been eating. It was wonderful preparing the food, eating, talking and cleaning up all together as a family. Sharing food and life are two of my very favorite activities. Then another chill evening. I like it.

Today: Early morning hike (wake up at 5:30 am)-met up with Remmy from Rwanda who bikes trails on a unicycle!!!, orientation meetings, tour of campus, lunch, chill, Coco Wawa for free internet with coffee, visit friends house, back home to journal and chill more, finish decorating room, talking with friend, blog posting!

peace and love

kristen

I get to live here for 5 months!?!?!?!

Currently sitting on the front porch on one of our three houses just off the campus of University of Capetown (UCT). Beautiful colonial architecture, flower gardens, palm trees, patios and porches, view of table mountain, really really wonderful.

To pick up where I left off, our last day of meetings at the hotel went well, and we ate more delicious food and explored the famous “Long St.” We didn’t end up taking the cable car up Table Mountain because it was too windy and cloudy, but rescheduled for another day. I also want to both hike and bike up it. On our way back down after our attempt to go up, we saw a biker coming down! I was super jealous and had to be restrained from jumping out and giving the man a hug before stealing his bike. It’s a good thing I was in the very back of the minibus.

The next morning we had another great breakfast-I know I’m talking a lot about the food, but really. It’s good. Fresh fruits, different kinds of food that I don’t even know what they are, fresh juices. Yummmm. And then we moved! Packed up all our stuff and settled into our home for the next 5 months. I’m sharing a large room with Jessica, a girl from New York. It has a fireplace, two huge bookshelves built into the walls, light yellow trim, and a window onto our porch. Soon after moving in we met up with the 150 CIEE Arts and Science students to do the “Ama-Zing” race around the UTC campus, kind of like a scavenger hunt with clues to help orient ourselves around campus. It was fun and my team won second place! We now have R100 (currency in rand, this is about $15 US) to spend at the bookstore for UCT gear! The rest of the evening was fairly chill, we went to the grocery store, made dinner, drank tea (Rooibos!), talked and unpacked. I still need to get some tape so I can put up all my pictures J

Today we first had a lecture about Poverty and Development, and then went on a tour of three of the five sites we can choose for our service. This took us through the townships to two schools and then to a program that works with youth in prison. Next week we will see the other two sites. I’m excited to get to work, although it is going to be very very hard for me to choose what service site I want to work on, and what project I want to develop. So many things are going through my head right now! For now we are just relaxing a little before going out to a fancy dinner in Stellenbosch (wine country) about 45 minutes away.

Some things I am learning:

Racial discrimination is still a huge issue here, only 14yrs out of apartheid. The three races of white, colored and black live in obviously different areas and are treated differently.

Time is very…fluid. Very chill and relaxed, 15 min late is the norm. Time signs like “just now” and “now now” mean within 30min and 15 min respectively.

It is going to be hard for me to go from 3^rd world Africa to 1^st world Africa every day between where I do service and where I live and take class. And even harder for me to return home at the end of the semester.

I am so in love with mountains. I practically drool every time I turn my head and there it is! Table Mountain. Nature is so beautiful. I will need to live by mountains

There is much more, and I will keep you updated. For now I have to prepare for dinner!

MUCH LOVE to you all!!!

I'M HERE!

I'm currently sitting on my bed in the hotel our orientation for three days in Capetown, South Africa!!! I made it!

Just a quick update, because I have to pay for the internet at the hotel, but I knew you all would like to know that I arrived safely, zero problems.

Once I arrived in London, I was able to meet up with Chelsea (a girl in my program) and we explored London together. Pictures will be along shortly. Big Ben, Parliament, changing of the guard, lots of awesome statues and other cool things just to name a few. Then we went to the airport.

Flight from London to Capetown also went smoothly, had two seats to myself which made trying to sleep easier. Arrived in Capetown at 10:30am this morning and got picked up by CIEE staff and taken to the hotel. Where I could shower! Then out to lunch and back in time for orientation meeting number 1. Many more tomorrow. After a short nap we explored the town a little more and ate supper. Most of us are retiring early tonight especially having traveled the past two days straight with little sleep. Meetings all day tomorrow, and then a trip up Table Mountain!!!

It is SO BEAUTIFUL here. So beautiful. I cannot form words yet to adequately describe this. Perhaps when I have more sleep.

peace and love

kristen

Here we go!

Well, I am so so very close! Currently sitting in the Detroit airport, at gate A24 with a little under an hour to go until boarding. My whole family drove me to the airport which was nice, and I’ve been here about 2 hours. I cannot even really fathom that I am actually here now, watching our flight attendants and pilot enter the gate. Tomorrow morning I will be in London (meeting up with another girl from my program and exploring together hopefully!) and the next day in Capetown! Crazy. Maybe it will become real once I’m in the air. Or maybe when I am actually in Africa. Or maybe after I’ve been there a month.

Anywho…I have some goals I would like to share with you all for the next 5 months!

• Love people
• Make at least 10 lifelong friendships
• Begin the understand the current state of Africa
• Bike around in and out of Capetown
• Bike up and down Table mountain
• Visit Kate in Pretoria
• Make relationships with the organization I’m working with
• Meet/ play with children
• Go kloofing (or canyoning) google this-sounds like fun to me J
• Wine tours
• Become a more confident leader
• Understand and respect culture
• Learn a new language (or two)
• Surfing lessons
• Try LOTs of new foods
• Challenge myself physically/ socially/ spiritually/mentally
• Join a club or society at the University of Capetown

If any of you have other suggestions for goals, please share J

Here we go!!!!

8 days

Wait, what? Eight days until I fly to South Africa?

It's slowing becoming reality-so very exciting and I can hardly believe it!

My dear dear friend Kate leaves tomorrow for Pretoria, SA, where she will be working with a mission organization there writing a book while upkeeping their website and newsletter. Kate will be there for TWO YEARS! I am so very proud of her for her courage, talent, and servant heart. Hopefully we will be visiting each other while we are in the same country. Things like surfing lessons are in the works...

My flight leaves in the evening Sunday, January 23 and I will have a layover in London on the 24th and start orientation in Capetown, SA the 25th!

Looking over my last post I realize I really didn't explain what I will actually be doing in South Africa, well besides the basics of serving and learning and loving and biking and building. Half of the time I will be volunteering at one of five locations: an elementary school, a high school, a prison, a health care center or an AIDS center. The other half of the time I will be taking classes at the University of Capetown in Poverty, Community Development, Social Research methods, and a language class, either Africaans or Xhosa. The program is the CIEE Service-Learning Capetown, South Africa study abroad. Included in the program are excursions, which include cultural, historical, and adventure events. Going museums, dances, plays, rugby games, concerts, historical sites, the bush, mountains and more are all planned. I am beyond excited to immerse myself in the culture of South Africa and the people. And the other students in my program!

Earlier this week I had an online orientation so I found out lots of information about the program and got to meet some of my directors and classmates. It's going to be wonderful.

People keep asking me if I'm ready, and I think I am. Well, I haven't packed, and my visa still has to come in the mail, and I'm only 1/16 of the way through the book I bought about Africa...but I really think I'm ready for this. I am sad to leave so many friends and family, and am ESPECIALLY sad that I will not be here the last few months to help my best friends Kelly and Summer prepare for Bike & Build and see them off- but we shall remain in touch. I can teach bike maintenance over skype.

Speaking of skype....add me so we can still see and hear each other's faces and voices while I am gone! My skype name is kristen_dyke

yes, that would be nice to talk with friends from home on skype.

Yeah, so I'm getting ready. It's getting closer!

much love

kristen