Women's Day Weekend

Molweni,

I have just celebrated my first Women's Day. Women's Day celebrates the a multiracial group of women who marched on the against the Apartheid government in the 1950s. As a result I had no work or school today. We celebrated Women's Day yesterday, by going to Mzoli's Meat (a restaurant in the Gougalethu township). We were there from 12 to 630, eating, dancing, and listening to music. The only bad part was that they only played House and Kwaito (similar to techno). It's not my favorite type of music, but they play it at most clubs and parties so I have gotten use to it. Not all of it is bad, it can be repetitive and difficult to dance to. When we came back and a few of us went out to eat and then came back and watched The Beach. So the end of the night was not so hectic as most people were tired from Mzoli's.

We also had pretty big weekend outside of Women's Day. On Friday I stayed home while everyone else went to Long St. because I had to get my computer fixed (still waiting to get it fixed). I then brought back KFC to the house, where it was to be ravaged by Ronel and Tabbi. We then went out and bought food for the braii that we hosted that same night. A lot of people were attendence and we after the braii we watched three movies: Superbad, Kill Bill, and Step Brothers.

The next day was the day of the rugby game. We started off the day with a hike around Table Mountain with Simon and some of his friends. We got back in time to relax and then go to watch the rugby game at Cybar. Unfortunately the tickets for the game fell through, but we were able to watch the game on TV at a bar. It was a good game and South Africa handily defeated the Aussie's by of score of 29-17. Following the game a group of us went to our friend Kent's cousin's 21st birthday party. Apparently the 21st birthday for unmarried and childless people is still a pretty big in SA even though the drinking age is 18. This is because you have made it to 21 without doing anything to severely screw it up. It was an extremely nice house, but we were really under dressed so we did not stay for very long. We then took a 30 minute walk through the cold back to cybar where we stayed for another hour.

So that was my weekend. Today was pretty uneventful. The majority of my time was spent buying groceries and playing basketball with Simon and Kent. I have a shortened week coming up so I am hoping it will be a good one. Until then... salani kakuhle.

-Pat

Started at Equal Education

Molweni,

Ndiphilile (I am alive/I am doing well) I have started my first week of work at Equal Education. Everything has been good and I am learning my way around the office. I just started on Tuesday, but everyone at the office seems pretty cool. I have been making calls for the most part at this point. Equal Education is preparing for a Youth Career Expo this coming Saturday so a lot of attention is devoted to that. We are also gearing up for our Libraries Campaign, which is to improve/construct libraries in Khayelitsha. Khayelitsha is primarily Black township just outside of Cape Town with probably over 1 million residents (official numbers are pretty sketchy). Only 7% of schools in South Africa have functioning libraries, only 25% of schools in the Western Cape have functioning libraries (the majority of the functioning libraries are suburban fee-charging schools), and in Khayelitsha only 5 of 53 public schools have functioning libraries. So that is what we are currently looking to improve.

Besides that, this weekend, we have quite a bit planned so far. We do not have school or work on Monday due to Women's Day, so we have a 4 day weekend. On Saturday we are going to the Tri-Nations Rugby Cup. The three nations participating are South Africa, New Zealand, and Australia. We are going to the game between South Africa and Australia, so it should be a pretty good game. Currently SA is at the top of the tournament with 3 wins and no losses. I am really looking forward to the game. We also plan to go walk around on Long Street on Friday and visit Mzoli's Restaurant in the Gugulethu township on Women's Day.

I hope you are enjoying the warm weather, because here it is 50 and raining.

Talk to you soon. Salani Kakuhle

-Pat

The Weekend

Hello All,

The weekend has past and we have now started the 2nd week of classes. Its crazy to think that we have already been here for 3 weeks. Regardless, this last weekend was a lot of fun. We started it early on Thursday night when we went to a poetry reading at the Aquarium. It was so awesome, there was free wine and cheese, we got to look around at all the fishes, and then we stayed for about 40 minutes of spoken word. It was really awesome and by some miracle it was only 40 Rand (about $5). No where else in the States can you get that kind of deal.

Following the spoken word we went out to dinner at this place called San Marco. The five of us had a great dinner for a total of about $50. The food is considerably cheaper here than back home which is pretty cool.

Friday we went to the University of the Western Cape where we had a lecture about the history and politics of South Africa. It was an extremely impressive lecture, as he gave a through lecture in under an hour, that would have normally taken 4 semesters to cover.

Then on Saturday we went to the Castle of Good Hope which is the oldest building in Cape Town/South Africa. This is base that the Dutch build upon the arrival of the Dutch East India Company (VOC). There we learned about early SA and its military history. Following the Castle we went to the Slave Lodge, which is a building where slaves were brought to be traded. The museum is based where the slaves were housed before the they were sold out front on a tree stump.

Sunday wasn't too eventful and I did laundry. The highlight of the night was free dinner at a restuarant. The catch was we had to listen to a talk about traveling in and out of SA during breaks. However, it was quite informative and some of the trips look pretty cool.

Today we had class and after a group of us went to Long St. and 3 of the girls got piercings. The bad news is that my laptop is not really working at the moment. So I am trying to get it fixed at the university's IT place. So at present I am unable to use a computer as much as I would like, but I am using Eva's laptop for the moment.

But for now, I will bid you goodbye. I hope you are doing well.

Lalani Kakuhle. (Sleep Well in Xhosa)

-Pat

1st Week of Classes

Moloweni (Hello all in Xhosa),

I am here to update you on the last couple of days, but before I do that must mention the events from last weekend. Last weekend we went off to Worcester (a little over an hour away from Cape Town) for team building exercises and workshops. While we were there we did ropes courses and had talks about our service sights. It was an extremely nice set-up and the food was great. The first night we were there we had a braii (BBQ), roasted marshmallows, and played games like charades. That night was when we found out the worst part about Worcester. That was the cold. It got extremely cold at night and in the morning, because Worcester is further inland. However, the weather improved as the day went on. The next day we talked about our service projects and where we did the ropes course. The view from on the ropes course was beautiful. The last day we climbed the rock wall and had our final discussions about our service sites. So the trip was an overall success.

We have had our first week of classes this week. I am really enjoying my Xhosa class we are practicing quite a bit even in our off time. Our clicks and pronunciations are still off, but we are getting there. Our social research methods class seems interesting or as interesting as it can be. Our professor appears to be very knowledgeable and she is extremely nice.

I also met with the Equal Education and Young in Prison service sites. After talking with both groups I think I will be working at the Equal Education doing some form of policy work. It may seem boring but I think this is the best way to make a difference with my set of skills. So I probably will be starting on Monday.

Today I do not have anything scheduled, but tomorrow I have a lecture on Understanding Cape Town. This is a series of lectures about the history and culture of Cape Town. That is then followed by an excursion to the Slave Lodge and Castle.

Well thats it. Nothing too exciting at the moment.

Hamba kakuhle.

-Pat

The First Two Weeks

Hello All,

I realize that this is rather late for my first post, but it has been quite hectic the last 2 weeks. I arrived on July 12 and started my experience in South Africa with a 10 hour layover in Johannesburg followed by an overnight stay in the Cape Town International Airport.

Since then all has been good. We spent two days in a hotel to help us get acquainted with South Africa, the CIEE Staff, other CIEE service-learning participants. Since then we have moved into our permanent stay for the rest of the semester. For those who do not know, I am living in a house with eight other participants and one RA. The RA (Patrick) and myself (also Patrick) constitute the only males in our household of ten residents. Everything is working out very well thus far and everyone is gelling together quite nicely.

After our arrival in our house we went through our University of Cape Town orientation, the school in which we are attending (kind of). The majority of our work is done through CIEE and we don't have classes with other UCT students. The nine of us all take our classes together. However, we have full access to UCT libraries, computer labs, societies, athletic clubs, and our classes are held on the UCT campus. The service-learning program used to be more affiliated with UCT, but it was interfering with our service work so it as moved in another direction. This way makes sure that we can attend all of our classes and be at our service sites on time and daily.

Regardless, during UCT's orientation we took a trip to Cape Point/The Cape of Good Hope (the most south-west tip of Africa). Along the way we saw penguins and a hip hop song and dance performance in Ocean View. Ocean View is a colored township, just outside of Cape Town. Colored has a different meaning in SA than it does in the US. In SA colored refers to people of mixed race. Even though it many colored people appear black or white, the majority of South Africans can tell the differences between white, black, and colored. Also when I mentioned townships I was speaking of communities in which blacks and coloreds were segregated and removed from there homes in the cities. Townships for the most part are impoverished and have large numbers of unemployment.

We have taken two tours through townships. During these tours we have visited the various sites in which we can serve throughout the semester. I am currently deciding between two sites. I am currently leaning on working with an organization that works for equal education, but I am also considering an organization that works with young people in prison.

This is the week where I will decide what I site I will work at. We started classes today. We only have one class on Mondays and it is my language class. I chose to take Xhosa instead of Afrikaans. Xhosa is one of the 11 official languages in SA, and is spoken mostly by blacks in the Western Cape. Afrikaans is spoken by white Afrikaners (dutch decedents) and colored people. We had our first class today so I am still learning all of the clicks, but it was fun.

Well this was a lot, and I promise my other posts will not be so long. But I hope you are all doing well. Talk to you soon.

Salani kakuhle. ("Good-bye" to a group of people in Xhosa)