Tell the world, I'm Comin' home...

Blog 14

May 6, 2011

Tell the World I’m Comin’ home…..

                No, the title of this blog is not a joke. I am coming home in six days. Thus, this will be the last blog post from South Africa. I am sure some of you will be relieved not to get any more emails from me. It is a weird reality to face. I am so excited to be back in Colorado and more importantly to see my family but, it is weird thinking I am coming home and ending my year abroad. I am excited to get back some stability and consistency to my life but not really looking forward to leaving all the adventure behind. Not to worry I still have six full days to soak in all of South Africa that I can.       

                I know you all are wondering so, yes, I finished my project and have given my presentation. I am technically done with my junior year of college (okay my junior year of traveling around the world and calling it school).  Another weird thing to think about, I am rising senior in college, whoa. Any who, I completed my paper and the final product was forty three pages. I never thought I could write a forty three page paper on anything. It was such a feeling of relief when I held the printed and bound copies of the paper in my hand. I gave my presentation, yesterday, it was a little too short but I think it went well. I learned a lot in doing this project; about researching, and about religion in South Africa and the world. It was a lot of work but I am really glad that I did it and that it is over. All in all, I am done, and I get to enjoy the last few days I have here.

                We have moved out of our apartment and are on the move again. Until Sunday we will be in a backpackers place in Cape Town, doing presentations and soaking in the last days in the city. Sunday through Wednesday we will be about three hours outside of Cape Town at out “evaluation” sight. Here we will, obviously, evaluate the program and play around and relax. Then Wednesday back to Cape Town for a night, and Thursday, homeward bound. It should be an enjoyable couple of days to hang out with my friends and wrap up the program.

                As we all learned last week, I have learned a lot on this trip.  I have seen a lot of South Africa and I have made a lot of great friends. We were, my friends and I, talking last night about how this is undeniably an incredible experience. This trip has been something I will never get to experience again.  I think about all that I have done since January and it is hard to comprehend. I am so grateful in for everything I have been able to do and experience. This whole year has been a once in a life time opportunity. I also want to thank you all for reading about my experiences. As cool as I think all of this has been, I can’t imagine my writing being that interesting. So thank you, you have all made this journey better.

                In other news, today is my 21^st birthday! Hooray! My friends have already been wonderful in making me feel like today is going to be a wonderful day. Not to be selfish but I encourage you all to celebrate today. Not because it is my birthday (okay a little bit) but also because today is a great day. HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my wonderful cousin Valerie Blake. I could not think of a better person to share my birthday with! I hope your day is terrific!

I know this is short but I guess it is a small sum up of my semester. I cannot wait to see and talk to you all in real life. So for those of you in the states, be warned, I am coming home!

Miss and love you all,

Sala Kakuhle,

Keely

The following pictures are from a sunset we watched....Enjoy!

Time flies but your the pilot....

April 29, 2011

Time flies but you are the pilot…

                All week I have been pondering what I am going to write a blog about. I even considered not writing at all this week. So for those of you who were looking for a break from my scarily regular blog posts, my apologies. However, you only have to put up with my rambling on about my life in South Africa through this post and one more. That is right, two posts left before I will be back in the comfort of the Colorado Mountains. Back to my post this week. Nothing happened this week thus my contemplation of not writing. All I did was work on my project, had a wonderful Easter, and worked on my project.  Obviously I decided against not writing and am taking the advice of my wonderful mom. She suggested that I write not necessarily about what I did but take a more introspective approach and speak a little to what I am learning. So here goes it.

                For good or for bad, I have already reflecting a little bit on my trip to South Africa. I think this is due to the very real thought of going home. I have learned so much in this trip. I have learned a lot about South Africa, about myself and I have already taken a turn for the corny and cliché. It is even more unreal to think of myself back in September before I left for Ireland. I am getting carried away. This trip has taught me a lot and the rest of this post will consist of my sharing some of the small lessons I have learned in big ways.

Cherish where you are in life and make the most of it.  The first weeks here were very hard for me. More than anything I wanted to be back in Colorado with my family. I questioned my decision to study abroad twice all the time and worse I questioned my ability to make it through the program. What a miserable way to spend time. Regardless of how green the grass may seem on the other side, you are not on the other side. My mind was set on summer, I had to face the fact that I was going to be in South Africa for four months and I was not about to be miserable. Then I wanted to slap myself silly when I realized, I AM LIVING IN SOUTH AFRICA! What and incredible opportunity! And arguably one of the coolest experiences ever. I have not visited South Africa I have lived in a township, a rural village, wine country, in Bo Kaap, and in downtown Cape Town. That is unreal. Now I can see that going abroad twice was one of the best decisions of my life. Not that this has changed my looking forward  to summer at home, but more in the past two and a half months I have cherished my time and taken advantage of every opportunity. For some reason I think this is a lesson I will use again in my life.

You do not always have to have the answers to everything.  As a group of Americans on the program we have spent literally hours discussing the issues and realities of South Africa. We have studied race, poverty, politics, culture, religion, on and on.  We debate (I hate debating), discuss and rarely come to a clear answer. I do believe that many of the issues we discussed do not have easy answers or they would not be issues any more.  All of these discussions that went in circles and other experiences in my life led me to the idea that maybe we do not always have to have the answers. Maybe it is more about living the best life you can. I have now come to the conclusion that I do not want to know too much and I definitely do not want to think I have all the answers; cause I don’t and I never will.

 It is helpful to learn to go with the flow. They say that when you study abroad you learn more about America than you do about the country you are living in. I am not sure how valid that is but I have learned a lot about America. One thing is how time oriented we are. Everyone in our program, including me, was ALWAYS asking for the schedule for the next week or trying to figure out what we were doing, where we were going to be and what time we would be doing it. Not that this is terrible, it is how our society works. However, after a few weeks I learned that it is better to go with the flow. Let things happen. I am not saying sit back and let life happen to you, but I am saying in most if not all situations I have encountered it is better to be low maintenance. High maintenance people piss everyone off. J

Live simply and love well and laugh often.  Okay besides being a really corny saying that belongs on a picture frame or ugly sign, the latter statement holds a lot of truth. I have found that the simpler I live the more I get out of life. I think we try to complicate everything and I don’t think that is good. Love well. To quote the marvelous Beatles “All you need is love”. Love makes the world go round. It turns out all of that is true. I also think the people I know who love well, live well. Love is at the core of all of our being and there is no sense keeping it inside. Laugh often. I remember in seventh grade English class Mrs. Mac (here is your shout out Mrs. Mac!) shared a quote that said something to the effect of laughter bringing people closer together. That all sounded way better in my head. Moving on. The best memories often include laughter. I really think laughter heals and some of my favorite memories of this past month have been the times when the five of us flat mates have just laughed together. There is just something so wonderful about sharing in that pure joy with friends.

Relationships matter. Which brings me to relationships. If I know anything that matters in life it is the relationships you have with people. Friendships, marriages, dating, siblings are things to invest time into. To prove this theory I can tell you of my friends from Ireland and from South Africa. I have spent three months with each yet have developed what I consider deep and meaningful friendships with them. I can attribute this to cool people and the fact that we have spent and intense amount of time together. Also in a good way been forced to invest in one another. I know that these friendships will last for far longer than the program or the souvenirs.

God is good and He is everywhere. This sounds like something you learn in Sunday school but here I am 20 (21 next week!) years old and still learning. In doing my project on religion in South Africa I have read a lot of sad things about what has happened but also still can see God’s goodness prevailed.  There have also been so many times in everyday life where I find myself thinking “God is so good”. He has proven to carry me through challenges I never knew I would face. I am surrounded by people here who do not believe the same things that I do but have seen God’s greatness in them in ways they will never know. It is a beautiful thing. I have also traveled the world and have not found a place where God is not, so until further notice God is everywhere….how freeing and comforting.

So maybe these “little lessons” of mine are common knowledge but I have learned them in a new way since being here.  I am sorry if I just bored you or was far too cheesy but just some thoughts to leave with you this week. My project is coming along. I will finish early next week. We also move out Thursday. I have a big week coming up but am glad I was able to take a little to reflect on what I have learned. Not to worry you teachers out there, I have learned a lot academically as well. What a wonderful opportunity I have been given here.

Alright this has gone on long enough. I hope summer’s approach is coming with excitement for you all, I know it is for me. Have a wonderful week and sala kakuhle.

Miss and love you all.

Until next week (my birthday),

Keely

My flat mates and I..yep I am the dummy who can't jump on time

Being foolish at the  rugby game

In our flat :)

The five of us. From left to right Nora, Katharine, Tyra, Me, Maddy

Just in case Katharine reads this...thanks for the pictures:)

The more I see the less I know...

April 22, 2011

The more I see the less I know…

Another week has come and gone and here I am again writing a blog post with little to say. I am sorry if these posts are getting a tiny bit boring. I am not sure if this is due to my writing or the fact that I am not doing much these days. Either way, you have my apologies.

The four girls I live with and myself decided to make use of ourselves and go to the Old Biscuit Mill last Saturday. The Old Biscuit Mill is one of the places that I was told to go to before leaving Cape Town, I just had not done so.  Not knowing what to expect but really hoping there would be biscuits there (I love me some biscuits!) we found a taxi to take us to the mill. It was a really windy day in Cape Town but that did not stop us from fully enjoying what we saw. The Old Biscuit Mill is kind of like a giant farmers market. There are shops that are permanently there but also every Saturday a food market is set up and also other little market-y booths. It is a very….I am not sure how to put this. I guess a very uppity hipster place. It was good fun. The food there was delicious. Unfortunately not a biscuit in sight. Instead I had a coffee, a crepe with ham cheese and egg, and got a sandwich to go.  It was fun to shop around at all of the little boutiques and just to hang out as a group of friends.

In other news at the Old Biscuit Mill, I met a distant cousin of mine. Yes, that is right. I knew that this guy, Garrick was going to be in South Africa at the same time as me but I had not met him yet. Back in December or something, my Uncle Ted and Aunt Sharon mentioned that Garrick was going to study abroad in a different program but that we are somehow related through my Uncle Ted. It was just by chance that I ran into him at the Old Biscuit Mill. I had no idea what he looked like but he is also friends with another girl in our program. So we met and established that we are distantly related, I am not sure how really, but we settled to call each other cousins. All that confusion to say I met a distant cousin of mine from Chicago at the Old Biscuit Mill. Crazy and cool. Thanks Aunt Sharon and Uncle Ted!

For the first time since being in South Africa I was able to go to church last Sunday. I went to a Methodist church about twenty minutes from our flat. I was able to both be at church for me personally but also use the time there for my research project. Double bonus. It was so wonderful to be back in a church environment. The service was very interesting, it was interesting to hear the history and social aspects of South Africa come through in the message. It was such a terrific way to spend Sunday morning. Being in that church also made me very excited to go back to my church at home.  Then in the afternoon we decided to go to the beach. Sunday morning church, Sunday afternoon ice cream and the beach; not a bad day in any way.

Monday was not a bad day, not a good day but a very weird day in which I had to face reality. I registered for my fall classes. I know have my housing assignment and my classes for Wofford in the fall. I am taking Abstract Algebra, Disctrete Mathematical Models, Probability and Statistics, Digital Photography, Science and Religion, and Old Testament. The weird reality I had to face was that I indeed have to go back to school in the fall. Being gone for so long I kind of forgot that I would go back to Wofford when it was all over. I guess it is not really a bad thing but more just a weird realization to come to. It is real and official; I am going back to school. I suppose I could not travel forever; which is unfortunate.

Back to my time in South Africa. My research project is coming, slowly but surely. I am at the point where I have to start making sense of the information I have gathered. I still have interviews to conduct and several journal articles to read but I finally am getting a grasp on and a direction for the final paper. Crazy to think in two weeks I will turn in a fifty page paper.

I hope that you all are finding a joyous way to celebrate this Easter weekend. What a glorious weekend of hope. I hope that you all are well and that spring is treating you well.

Miss and love you all!

Until next week,                                                                                                   

Sala Kakuhle!

Keely

Dreams are more than bedtime habits...

April 15, 2011

Dreams are more than bedtime habits….

Alright so I am not sure why but I thought it would be so much easier to focus on school work than it actually is. It is not even that I am not interested in my project, because I am really interested in the topic. I think I have just become much better at playing than studying. I am going to need to get over that really quick because April is now half over and I still have fifty pages of paper and research to do. Oh my.  So let me tell you this week how I played around Cape Town…

Saturday, Maddy, Katharine, Andrew and I decided to go to a local rugby game. Now, I know nothing about rugby, but because it is a big sport here we thought it would be a cool and fun thing to do. We were right. It was a blast. We went early to get our tickets and walk around the stadium. There was the South African version of tailgating all around. It was so much fun. We enjoyed having lunch there and just watching all of the crazy rugby fans. The actual game was also very enjoyable, I feel like I learned a lot about the game (but I still don’t really understand it) and it was very interesting to be able to see that culture. We were in the standing section (i.e. the cheap section) but then Andrew paid the guard ten Rand to let us sit in the bleachers in front of the standing section. As it turns out you are supposed to be under seventeen years old to sit there. So the four of us sat in the kiddy section and it was fabulous. If I may just note at how crazy ridiculous rugby is…I wish I was tough enough to play.

Sunday, I spent Sunday lying on the beach reading my book and listening to music. Absolutely wonderful.

Wednesday, Maddy Katharine and I decided it was time that we hike Table Mountain. After spending two and a half months here looking at it, it was time to conquer it . We woke up early and took a taxi to the base and headed up. The trail we took ended up being pretty much just a a giant rock stair case. I have to admit that climbing a mountain via stairs is not really the ideal trail. Staircase aside it was a good hike. As you will see in my pictures it was a cloudy day on the mountain. It is hard to describe but the clouds kind of flow over Table Mountain. Kind of like a river flowing over rocks in a river. It was really cool to be in that. At one point we stopped and turned and watched the clouds move over the mountain covering the face of the mountain like a veil.  Like I said, it is hard to put into words but it was something like that. When we made it to the top it was so cloudy we could not see anything. Thus, we did not spend much time up there. When we returned to our apartment we ate some lunch and spent the afternoon lying by the pool.  Great day.

So I know you all are really concerned with my project and my lack of work. I will put your mind to rest by telling you I did do some work this week. First, I found an advisor; my meeting with her was extremely helpful in giving me a direction to run with my topic. After the meeting I felt I had a much better grasp on what I need to do.  Then on Thursday I had my first interview. My interview was with a minister at a church in Gugulethu. Gugulethu is another township outside of Cape Town. So I headed there and met with the man picking me up. I had the interview with the minister with ease. We spoke for about an hour and I gained a lot of perspective from him. He then insisted I spoke with two other people in his office. My one interview turned into three very helpful interviews, wonderful. It was a very successful day. I suppose I have a start on my project but I still have a tone of research and reading to do. I do not fear I will not get it done, I know I will, it is just a matter of when.

The weather has been fantastic here still. Sunny and warm without being terribly hot. I am glad for this because I heard it was supposed to be rainy in April, crossing my fingers that it will hold out for a little while longer. I have loved laughing and spending time with my roommates and exploring this great city in more depth. In other fantastic news, we have a coffee pot in the apartment and I found quality coffee beans. Put two and two together and I finally have a great, simple, delicious, cup of coffee. I believe it is important to find joy in the simple things in life.

Hopefully next time I will be able to report huge accomplishments on my project. Until then I hope you have all have a terrific week! Miss and love you all! Thank you for sharing this journey with me.

Sala Kakuhle,

Keely

Clouds coming down

Cloudy Mountain

View from the top :)

Clifton Beach where I spent Sunday

Bottom of Table Mountain

The cover of the night with diamonds in the air....

April 8^th, 2011

The cover of the night with diamonds in the air…

I think my last post may have been a little bit on the negative side. That is how I was feeling at the time but I am happy to report that this week has been a good week and I am feeling better overall. The end of my Bo Kaap homestay was good. I was really excited to move on from moving around and be in one place for a significant amount of time. The last times with my family were great. Looking back I had some great times with my Bo Kaap family. They were really nice to me and I learned a lot about the colored and Muslim communities in Cape Town. I was a bit negative about them before, and they still stand as the hardest homestay, but I think I was a little unfair before.

Moving on, Tuesday morning we packed up our suitcases and headed out of Bo Kaap to all of our various ISP accommodations. I am living with four of my good friends from the group. We had a little (by little I mean a lot) of drama among the group when it came time to decided who was living with whom. I guess that is to be expected with 23 three girls. When all of that settled the five of us we busy scurrying for an apartment. By Monday, yes the day before we moved in, we signed for an apartment for one month.  The concept of finding a fully furnished and equipped apartment for one month the day before moving in is strange to me but I am not complaining.

Our apartment is right in downtown Cape Town. It is a two bedroom two bathroom apartment with a fully equipped kitchen. The complex has a gym and pool and laundry for our use. It is really nice and I really am happy with our find. We moved in on Tuesday morning and I was able to unpack my suitcase for the first time since I packed at my house on January 26^th. It was the best thing ever! We also have been able to cook for ourselves. Shower in a place where not twenty five people are showering. Have my own space.  It is the simple pleasures in life.

This month is not just a free time to hang out though. I have this massive research project to do. I have decided to do mine on the relationship between Christianity and African Traditional Religion; specifically among the Xhosa speaking South Africans and how this relationship manifests itself in daily life. All that mumbo jumbo means that a lot of the black South Africans would claim Christianity as their religion but still practice a lot of traditions and rituals from African Traditional Religion. I am curious because I find it weird that it seems people are picking and choosing from two religions. We will see how the whole thing plays out. I think one of the major challenges with this will be to get motivated to work on the project and not play around Cape Town.

 It is so surreal that I will be in Cape Town now for only about 35 days and then I will be home. I have been planning and looking forward to this year abroad since I was a freshman in college. It is really strange to think of it as coming to an end. I feel like I am at the beginning of the end. I am going to do all that I can to thoroughly enjoy and cherish this last little bit and not dwell on the small amount of time I have left. 

I think that may be all for right now. I hope that all is well at home!

Miss and love you all!

Sala kakuhle,

Keely

The Kitchen in our Apartment

My room in the apartment

View out of our window

Another view out of our window

Sunset

Another shot of the sunset

We are in the same room just a million miles away....

April 1^st, 2011

We are in the same room just a million miles away….

Alrighty- well it is time for another post. How terrible is it that by the time Friday comes around I have forgotten what I wrote in my last blog post? I contribute this to the massive amount that happens in each week. First I am sad to inform you all that I have not been feeling great these past few days so this might be a not so good post. Not to fear mom and dad, it is nothing serious and I will rest this weekend and take care of myself. I suppose if I had to choose a broad topic of this week it is our last homestay in Bo Kaap.

                 I believe that I briefly touched on this last week but let me tell you there is much to tell now. I have had so many of what SIT would call “cultural experiences” in this homestay. This family is different than any other family I have stayed with. They are all running around busy all the time. Saturday most of the family went to a two year old birthday party for a nephew of my host mother’s. It was good; I was able to meet another exchange student from Norway; which I loved Norway so I loved talking to her about it. Saturday night my host mom, little brother and I went to a festival that was happing in Bo Kaap. Here we had delicious braai (do not know if I have explained that is like barbeque) and listened to the music and comedian MC. All of the music was local talent, which is way cool. I could not understand the comedian most of the time because he spoke in Afrikaans. We were standing to the side of the stage and probably ten rows of people back. The comedian at one point stopped his routine and looked right at me and said “Where are you from?” It was so obvious that I and my strawberry blonde curly hair did not fit it with the majority Muslim population. He proceeded to make some US jokes and then in Afrikaans said he was going to talk about me all night because I would not understand what he was saying. I only know he said that because my host mom told me. I think this was funny and took no offense at all but it was still very awkward.

                Sunday, we were meant to go to a traditional prayer meeting, where I would have to dress in appropriate clothing for a Muslim woman (i.e. dress to my ankles and head scarf). As it goes my family is often late and we only made it to the party for the part at the end where they eat; which I am totally okay with. The food was great. I did wear the dress and had the head scarf but did not wear it, it was all black and I kind of looked like I was a ninja. J  It was a great cultural experience.  Then last night we went to another prayer meeting. This time I did not have to wear the traditional dress but we were on time and I was able to see the whole thing. The meeting was not as uncomfortable as I anticipated. Obviously, all of the prayers were recited in Arabic so I understood…nothing. Also the night ended with enormous amounts of food.  I am glad I was able to get to see a prayer meeting actually happen.

There have been many times where I walk into a room full of people and I obviously stick out. I am getting used to it by now but it is still a little weird. I have learned a lot about the Muslim and “colored” cultures in South Africa. I have to admit that this is definitely my least favorite homestay. I am not sure it is appropriate to say that but I am just being honest. My host family is SO nice to be and I greatly appreciate them accepting me into their home. I think the one thing that is really hard is that three of the five people in the home smoke. And yes, they smoke in the house, all the time. It kind of grosses me out but I can deal with it. I am learning a lot in this homestay about adapting and just going with the flow.

ISP starts next week on Tuesday. As of right now my four friends and I do not know where we are living. This may stress some people out but I am not too worried about it. It will work itself out….hopefully. It is blowing my mind that I will be home from my year long adventure in six weeks. Whoa. All the more reason to cherish everything I can.

Happy April to you! Have a wonderful week. Miss and love you all!

Sala Kakuhle

Keely

All of the pictures this week are just more pictures from the Bo Kaap area....

It's just the strangest thing, I think I've seen your face somewhere....

March 25, 2011

It’s just the strangest thing I think I’ve seen your face somewhere….

                Last I left you our group was still in Stellenbosch. To end our time in Stellenbosch we took two wine farm tours. The first on last Friday afternoon was at M’Hudi; a black owned wine farm. It is definitely rare for a black family to own and run a wine farm. Unfortunately all I have to tell of this trip is that we sat and tasted about five wines and listened to the owner talk. I am not even sure what he talked about, he was all over the place. The wine was good. I am not sure I have a mature enough wine palate, like my brother, to say if it was great or not. Saturday, we went to Solms Delta. This tour I really enjoyed. We actually got to walk around and see the farm and learn about all the farm does and how it accommodates its employees. We then had a wine tasting where we were told about the wine we were drinking, so I learned a lot and then had a big delicious lunch. I really enjoyed Saturday but it was good to see two different farms as well.

                From Stellenbosch we finally went back to Cape Town for about two hours then headed west to !Khwa ttu. I really wish that I could hear people try to pronounce that name. Ha. !Khwa ttu is a cultural centre that helps educate the community and employ and train the San people. The San people are the indigenous people of South Africa and yet another culture. We were camping for the three days we were there. I was not excited about going to this place but as soon as we got there I loved it. I really enjoyed camping and learning about the San people. The stars were absolutely beautiful and it was cool to star gaze on the Southern Hemisphere. Also we had a campfire one night which is always fun. The San people like many other groups of people in South Africa have suffered a lot and it was refreshing to go to a place that was both educating the community about the San and also helping the San community.

                From !Khwa ttu we came back to Cape Town for good. Crazy I know. It had been 24 days since we had been in Cape Town for a full day. I have to say that I LOVED this excursion and ALL that happened on it but it feels really good to be back into Cape Town.  Last night we started our last homestay in Bo Kaap. Bo Kaap is I guess you could say the “colored” homestay. Colored under apartheid meant anybody of mixed race. Bo Kaap is a radiant area full of color (literally the houses are painted crazy colors) and liveliness. This area is also very much Muslim. The family I am staying with is a single mother with her four children. From the one night I have been there I can tell that there will always be something going on in the house. Different friends and kids going in and out. While my family is Muslim they are do not practice as strongly as some. This last homestay is twelve nights. I am sure I will learn a lot in those almost two weeks.  It will also be nice to be in one place for twelve nights. Almost two weeks in one place? Unheard of.

                I will be really busy in the next ten days preparing for my ISP; Independent Study Project that is a research project that consumes all of April. We research a specific topic or issue for the entire month and then compose a forty page paper at the end. During this time we live in apartments with other students, anywhere we want. I am really excited for ISP, I think it will be great but for now it is a lot of work looming over my head. Our proposal is due on Monday and I will spend most of my weekend working on it. My topic is going to be the relationship between Christianity and Traditional African Religion. It is very broad right now and I do not know a lot but I suppose that is the purpose. I am excited to start.

I think that is all for now. Still just living in a dream world. I hope that all of you are well whether you are starting Spring Break or ending or just enjoying the end of March. 

Miss and love you all.

Sala Kakuhle,

Keely

Sunset on the beach...bliss.

The Solms Delta Wine Farm vinyards

View from !Khwa ttu

Part of the !Khwa ttu Centre

More from !Khwa ttu

View of Bo Kaap and Table Mountain

A Street in Bo Kaap

If only I knew what I know...

March 18^th 2010

 If only I knew what I know....

                So I am very aware that the previous post was exceptionally long, not to worry I will keep this one shorter. I do want to say thank you for the responses I have gotten, I love hearing from you and it is so encouraging.  I hope that St. Patrick’s Day was fun for everyone!

                So after all of the excitement that happened in the rural village and in the Eastern Cape our group headed back to the Western Cape. We flew from East London to Cape Town and from Cape Town drove straight to Stellenbosch. Stellenbosch is about forty minutes from Cape Town and, like every other part of South Africa, is beautiful. The claim to fame for the area is wine. Stellenbosch is a predominantly Afrikaner area. Let me make a note here of the term Afrikaner. An Afrikaner refers to the white Afrikaans population of South Africa, obviously, but also a culture of people who is known for their rule during apartheid. Also note that there is a big difference between an English speaking South African (roots in England) and an Afrikaans speaking South African (More from the Dutch side).  Just as there is tension between the blacks and whites there is still a lot of tension between the Afrikaners and the English.

                So we went straight to a house in Stellenbosch to meet our third homestay family. Similarly to the previous, we were paired. This time I was with a girl named Olivia. We met our family and, yet again, I immediately liked them. They are a married couple with three boys. The father has a glass blowing company which makes scientific materials (i.e. lab equipment) and the mother is a former lawyer and has this year become more of a stay at home mom.  Their boys are 16, 12, and 10 and all of them are very involved in tennis and several other sports. The family is constantly busy with one thing or another. The family is not unlike my own in that sense. Just as my family was they are always going to some event for one of the three kids. They are a wonderful family and I loved living with them. The food has been delicious and they had the best coffee in South Africa. Overall it has been a low key week of hanging out with them and going to lectures.

                On our final night Olivia and I made dinner for our family. We made tacos and key lime pie. So simple but something our family had never had before. I love Mexican food so it was fun to share that with them. Buying ingredients at the grocery store was an experience in itself. You don’t even realize things that people would not have in other countries, like lime juice, sour cream, and pie crust. I was a little nervous that the family would not like our meal but as it turns out it was a big success. Hooray! Everything was delicious and they liked it all; at least they said they did. It was really fun to be able to cook again. All in all, a great last night.

Now that I have a moment I would just like to chat about less of what I am doing and more of what I am learning. So if you do not care what I am thinking, this is your cue to stop reading. Now that we are at the end of our third homestay and going into the fourth and final one and looking at our final project (which takes all of April) I am beginning to see how exhausting this program is. I have found that it is really challenging to be moving all the time and not just moving but moving into completely different cultures from week to week. As you can tell there are HUGE differences between groups of people in South Africa.  It is physically, mentally and emotionally draining to adapt from one to another in sucha  short amount of time. I am not by any means suggesting I wish I had not done this, I love what I am doing, but it definitely takes a toll on a person. I have also been thinking  a lot about the fact that I have learned so much but at this point am unsure what to do with all this information.  I really believe that it is crucial to do something with what we learn, otherwise there is no point in learning it. I can sit in classrooms around South Africa and experience some of the most surreal things but what am I going to do with it? At this point I still don’t know.

I know I have mentioned this before but staying with various families, all of whom have been great, has made me so grateful for my own family. They really are incredible and I do not know where I would be without them. So family, I love you and miss you!

Coming up in the next week, another wine farm tours, camping for three days, and headed into our next and last homestay. Stay tuned J

I hope you all are well and please please watch the Duke tournament games and cheer them on for me. It is killing me to miss March Madness, but not that much because I am living in South Africa and that is pretty incredible.

Sala kakuhle,

Keely

Sorry for the very random assortment of pictures but they are mostly from previous weeks but I still wanted to share them :)

Maddy Katharine and I

Maddy and I having fun at the Cape of Good Hope

Katharine and I at Cape Point

Maddy Kathrine and I

My firend maddy and I on the beach in the Eastern Cape

Me at the Afrikaans language memorial

Stellenbosch

Sunrise

my whole Tshabo family

From the wine tour we did this afternoon

All you need is love...

Blog 6

March 11, 2011

All you need is love…

What a week it has been since I last posted. Where to even begin? It is still so surreal to think of all of the events and places I have been and the things I have experienced in the past almost year. I am so grateful for this year. I will remember all of this for the rest of my life. You all may be sick of me saying things of this nature but I cannot even get over the overwhelming feeling of gratitude.

So the last full day in Simonstown we ventured to Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope. This area is known for being the southernmost point in Africa. What a crazy idea that I have now been to the most southern tip of Africa. It was incredibly beautiful and so crazy to stand in place where on one side you see the Indian Ocean and on the other side see the Atlantic Ocean. It was almost hard to fully comprehend but neat to see the different oceans and clearly be able to see that the desperate characteristics of each ocean. While hiking around  I could not help but be reminded of God’s vastness and the greatness of His love for us. May we all always remember that. The views were absolutely breathtaking and we saw ostriches just running around. So cool and kind of bizarre.  All in all a wonderful experience and another event on the list of things I will never forget.

Alrighty then, now to the bulk of what consumed my week; the rural village homestay.  As you may now I said I was a little nervous, in reality I was more nervous that I expressed. On the drive from the airport to the village I was trying to imagine what was ahead of me.  As we drove further and further from urban areas the road ceased to be pavement and became dirt. As we drove into Tshabo all of the mamas were there singing and clapping to welcome us, it is moments like this were nerves ceased to be and excitement took over. My host family was wonderful from the beginning. As Julia (the other student I was paired with) struggled to carry our suitcases across the rugged terrain we saw our humble blue rondival . A rondival is a home that kind of looks like a modern mud hut. It is obviously round and is a one room home. I have wondered before what it would be like to live in a one room house, and now I know. The house had electricity but not plumbing. It was kind of strange to walk in the door and look around to see the beds, the kitchen the living room, the closet, the TV all right in front of you. You may be wondering well where was the bathroom? And  how did you bath? The bathroom was a shack made of scrape metal and scrape wood with a big hole in the middle and a makeshift toilet seat made out of wood. If I can be blunt and honest, the bathroom made port-o-potties look nice. As far as bathing, I just did not bath for a week. Not really a problem at all. But the family uses a basin of water and kind takes a version of a sponge bath every day, in the house. Another major aspect of the rural homestay was the language. My family was actually fairly fluent in English, which was wonderful. There was still a lot of lauging to cover awkward misunderstandings and gesturing, but overall much better than anticipated.

The scenery of Tshabo was so beautiful. Not what I personally would have thought of for a rural African Village. It was so green with great views of endless green rolling hills. There were also animals running around all over the place. Not wild animals but chickens (that often wondered into the house), cows everywhere, dogs running about and lots of bugs. It was so funny to be in the front yard and have cows passing through and chickens running around your feet. Also a note, if I liked roosters before ( I am not sure I did), I do not like them now and vow that I will never own one.  

Okay, now on to my actual experience. As I mentioned my family was wonderful from the first minute we met. They were so welcoming and open to having two students stay with them. The house was always filled with laughter and love. There were a few times that my host mama mentioned that her life was a struggle and that she was suffering, but to me the family was the picture of love. They loved each other and Julia and I so well. Just observing the actions of the family you would never know that they were suffering. The house was always bustling with people. We lived with our mama, her two daughters who were 16 and 8, our mama’s sister, her two kids Phaphama 8 and Imange 14 months, and our older brother who was about 19. Yes, there were 8 people sharing a one room home. It was a lot of fun, we played so many card games and just spent time together.

I have so many stories from the week but I would like to share one particular one. My eight year old host brother, Phaphama (pa-pa-ma), loves soccer and plays every day. One day a large group of us went to a field and played an 8v8 soccer game. It is worth noting that only the American students were wearing shoes. It felt so good to play the game I love so much again with people who share the same love. Only for the purpose of the story I will share that I scored three goals, and yes, Coach Keidel two of them were low and wide. Phaphama was so happy and he said to me “Soccer. It is your favorite.” And I replied “Ewe” meaning “Yes”. He then told my host mama, his mama and my other host brother all about how we were on the same team and how I had scored the three goals.  It was so cool to see that despite the language barrier we bonded through a game we both loved. From then on we were much better friends and played many more soccer games together. Yet again, something I will never forget.

All in all the village homestay was very enjoyable and I learned so much about rural South African life. I intend to stay in touch with my host family from Tshabo through letter writing and look forward to continuing these new friendships.

We are currently staying at a backpackers lodge on the Indian Ocean on the eastern side of the South African cape. It is a really neat lodge and it has delicious food. This morning I had normal drip coffee for the first time since I have been in South Africa; compared to the instant coffee I have been drinking. It was just a joyous morning. Today we also went on a game drive.

A game drive is pretty self explanatory I feel. We went to a game reserve and got to see a ton of cool wildlife. We began the day by going to see the elephants. By seeing the elephants I mean that they brought the elephants to us and we got to feed them than touch them. It was fun to just kind of play and pet and elephant like it was a pet dog. They are such cool animals! They are surprisingly hairy and their trunks are insane but my favorite was to feel the tusks. After a delicious lunch we went to see the cheetahs. I was able to play and pet three different cheetahs. It was bizarre that they just sat and purred while we hung out with them. They we so beautiful and so calm. Incredible. Then after all of that we went on a couple hour drive around the park to see all sorts of wildlife. Ostrich, wildabeast, warthogs, giraffes, emu, a lot of crazy animals that I don’t even know the name of and of course lions. The lions are in a separate area for obvious reasons and as we eneterd the guide said “Don’t stand up or fall out because they will eat you and we will not be able to save you”. Always comforting. The lions were beautiful. It was crazy to be with wild lions and know they could charge at any moment. It was an awe-some experience. I say that in the literal sense that I was literally in awe the whole time. I am not usually an animal person but I LOVED it today! So remarkable.

Tomorrow marks the beginning of our third homestay in Stellenbosch. In this homestay we will be staying with an Afrikaner family. They will be a white family and we will experience a completely different side of South Africa. Our program is themed multiculturalism, and this is where we will truly begin to experience the many different cultures. I am eager to get a taste of another side of South Africa.

So many crazy things happening in South Africa and I am so happy to be able to share them with you all. I hope that you are well and that as spring is approaching you feel rejuvenated for a new season.  I also apologize for the extensive length of this post.

Miss you all!

Sala Kakuhle,

Keely

me next to a really cool tree

at the Cape of Good Hope

just a cool picture over the cliff

So  beautiful, the most south western point of africa

Yes, that is me kissing the head of a cheetah

and me feeding an African elephant

My host mama, little host sister and Julia & I

Just an ostrich on the side of the road

My home in the Village

Me my little host sister and Phaphama

 Cape Point