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Cultural Experience:
So I went to the Neelsie, the student center, the other day for lunch and noticed two things. One, never go to the Neelsie at 13:00... it is packed and ridiculous. Two, there is racial division in the student cafeteria. I could not find a place to sit in the main area, so I decided I would sit in the second seating area that is back by the door. Well I noticed something while there, everyone son black/ coloured. There are of course a few exceptions to every rule, but a majority of the white people seemed to stay out of this area. In fact, I could count the number on cross racial people in each section on one hand. It's weird to see such strong segregation still alive on campus. An while there is not rule making it this way it seems that habit or comfort levels have made it this way.
Service Learning Placement:
For my service learning class I will be at Kayamandi, the township that I visited last week. I am really excited to have this opportunity and have no idea what to expect. Basically I will be working with other volunteers (who I and another service learning student will be helping to organize) and 50 7th grade students. So every Tuesday and Wednesday I will be working at this after school program doing tutoring and whatever projects I can help organize (if anyone has ideas, I am open).I will write on my first experience after next Tuesday… so far all I can say is that the school has the best view I have ever seen, and there will be a whole lot of chaos as it starts up.
February 18, 2008
A recap of my weekend:
To begin with I had a very interesting experience on Friday night. I went with a few of my German friends for dinner and came across someone I would call many choice names if I did that sort of thing. Well, long story short, it was about 9 o'clock meaning it is bar time here in Stellenbosch so the streets were packed with people. Well at one point there was a girl a bit younger than me who went over to a passing older black lady and asked her for something and then when the lady refused she was called a "sissy" by the white student. While this may not seem like a completely awful thing, you must keep in mind that a "sissy" is a black maid during the Apartheid because the white people didn't care to learn anyone's real name. I have never had such an urge to yell at someone in my life. But, I have to remember that these cultural racisms run deep and being yelled at by a hippie American will not end well for anyone. So, I moved on upset and disturbed by the human race.
Saturday, I went with a group on international students to 3 vineyards for wine tasting. This is a basically magical world where one gets 8-9 free tastes of wine (about 1/3 a glass) for free or less than 20 R (3 USD) while taking in the view of mountains and farm lands. Then with lunch at the second place we paid about 15 USD for an all you can eat buffet of cheeses, meat, bread, salad, and dessert. PS. I thought of Sarah the whole time I tried all of the different cheeses J Then at our final wine tasting we got about an hour to walk around during which time I say cheetahs, pet a random pony that was giving children rides around, chilled on a bridge overlooking a duck pond, and walked through an African craft market. I'm pretty sure actually that I'm in some sort of a dream state at times. This may not be Africa, but it is amazing!
Then on Sunday I went to a little place we have deemed heaven. It's called Kristenbosch Botanical Gardens, but it is heaven on earth. Basically it's a place in Cape Town that is set aside as a private botanical garden. At first glance it's just a lot of gorgeous plants and local sculptures. But then you walk up into this field that is surrounded by trees and mountains and have a picnic in the grass. Then just as the meal is ending and everyone is happy off the free bottle of wine you get when buying a CD or t-shirt from a nearby tent… the band began to play. The band was a reggae/ska band… which I thought was a very bad idea. But, it was absolutely amazing! The combination worked really well and I was sent back to the high school for a bit as many of the fans were about that age, and that was the last time I have heard ska. It reminded me of Alex, Joe, Ben, Botini and Get Yexm playing in one of their random venues. You guys would have loved it! We all danced and enjoyed the evening.
So, basically the fun continues!
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