home sick.

i know this is lame, but i am getting homesick. like, i feel like "i came... i saw... i expierenced... and now i am ready to go home."

things have reached a plateau. without all of the activities, i have gotten home sick. i miss familiarity. i miss seeing something funny, turning to arielle or david law, and not having to say a word because they saw it too. i miss truly knowing people and having them truly know me. i feel like everything i say and everything i do is being examined with a fine-toothed comb because everyone is trying to figure out who everyone is. it's driving me nuts. there is no way someone is going to truly know me in 4-5 months. just quit trying and have fun with me instead.

i hate school. i am just sick of learning things. i should have taken a break after highschool or something. i am just sick of the education enviornment. am i really supposed to remember all that stuff anyway?

i miss my family. i miss david, paige, and pam. i just miss things that are familiar.

Smoke, birds, and men (witty observations)

EVERYONE SMOKES! I mean...EVERYONE! All of my professors... all of the South African students.. EVERYONE! Just to get to class, I must walk through a cloud of cigarette smoke. I don't want to judge people who smoke. My dad smokes. It's just that I didn't expect for everyone to smoke. The students from other countries also smoke a lot too. I think that only in America has smoking become unfashionable. Anyway, I'm sure my lungs are brown just from being around all of these smokers.

The birds here do not chirp. They have rhythm. It is the funniest thing I've ever seen and heard. I remember learning in African Music class at Vanderbilt that in Uganda, one of the instruments they use there is meant to mimick the sound of a particular bird there. I believe that the reason Black people are so rhythmic and musical is because of the birds in Africa. Each bird seems to have its own song here, and I'm sure the Africans couldn't help but pick up on the birds' music. Although waking up to some bird literally singing every morning gets annoying, I know I will miss their songs when I am back in America.

African men are... (looking for a nice word).... aggressive. Not all of them and definitely not the educated ones. The ones that are working class are the ones that scare me. When I am walking, they always whistle, honk, make kissing sounds, etc. This one guy had to have broken his neck looking at me when he drove past. The other day, this guy says something in Xhosa, which he realized I didn't understand. Then he goes, "Hey baby!" (sounds like "aye bah-bee"). It's not that men in America don't do the same thing, but here it happens everyday. I've had whole truck loads of men kiss at me and stuff. Even when I feel like I am looking ugly, I still get harrassed. It's ridiculous and scary.

Oh Stellenbosch...

Things are becoming a routine and time is starting to speed up a bit, which is good.

Classes are pretty good. They are kind of depressing though. All of them deal with Apartheid in some way. The only class that doesn't deal with Apartheid is my Photography class, but it still makes me depressed. For one thing, this class is not on campus. It is located across town, so I have to catch a van at 9:30 a.m. in order to get there. If I am late for the van, I miss the class. The second reason why I don't like this class is because I don't have a professional camera. I can't do the projects right, because my camera does not do all the things she asks for. It makes me mad because I usually like to try my best on things... and with this camera, I am not able to do all the things she tells us to do. The last reason why this class sucks is because the teacher is boring. She has to talk for 3 hours about photography. I learn stuff, but it's not terribly interesting. The class is just too early and too long. But, Josiah does not want to be the only Black person in the class for some reason, so he has convinced me to stick with it.

My schedule is like this...
Monday - South Africa and the Literary Imagination (9-11:50 but he always ends early)
Tuesday - Three African Women Writers (2-5)
Wednesday - An Overview of South African History (2-5)
Thursday - Social and Economic Problems in Africa and South Africa (2-5)
Friday - Photography (catch van at 9:30 and class is from 10-1)

I have a little problem with all of my classes except one. In "Three African Women Writers," the professor is a little too excited about the class and has way too many requirements. In the history class, the professor goes off-topic the entire time. The "Social and Economic Problems..." class would be perfect if it was smaller, but there are like 40-50 people in it, which is not condusive for discussions. And, I've already vented about Photography class. The only class that I really enjoy is "South Africa and the Literary Imagination," where I get to not only read good stories, but talk about South African politics and culture at the same time. I really like the class.

I must confess... I eat McDonald's like every other day. It's not that I don't like the food here. The food here is really good. I eat at McDonald's for the same reason I ate at McDonald's at home... because it's cheap and fast! I also eat at this place called Debonair's often. They have some of the best pizza I've ever tasted! There is this one place called The Hungry Lion, which is similar to Church's Chicken in America... the chicken is greasy and the prices are way too cheap. They don't have biscuits though. They don't have biscuits ANYWHERE in Stellenbosch. There is a KFC here, and it doesn't even have biscuits! When I'm not trying to eat cheap... I enjoy rice and chicken curry, pancakes (they are really more like crapes), sushi, bacon-banana-cheese toasted sandwiches, pastries with some kind of meat (or possibly bean) paste in the middle and all kinds of other items. I'm glad I am not allergic to eggs anymore, because every restaurant seems to serve omelettes all day here.There are many deli's and restaurants in town. I hope I will get to try them all.

The one thing I miss about home is the food! I MISS TACO BELL! I MISS CHINA GARDEN! I miss going to Cracker Barrel or Herman's with my dad and step-mom after church. I miss going to Red Lobster (Jasmine has an expensive taste in food) or Chili's with my momma. I miss Moe's burritoes... and cheap, salty popcorn from Target. I miss going to Ci Ci's Pizza with David. I get home a few days before Thanksgiving.. and between then and Thanksgiving, I plan on gaining at least 10 pounds. And, on Thanksgiving day, I plan on gaining another 10 pounds. Before I left the U.S., my pants were getting a little harder to get over my thighs. Now, they are loose and I'm already having a hard time keeping them on my hips. I need to buy a belt!

My friends' still like to go out partying too much. As a matter of fact, the whole school seems to go partying too much. They start partying here on Wednesdays, and they keep partying every night until Sunday. Everyone here is really social. So, people just go to bars and pubs to socialize and drink beer. Stellenbosch is a small town though, so the party scene is not that good, especially for anyone looking for a hip-hop club to dance in. All the good hip-hop clubs are in Capetown.

But, I do hear many cars blasting hip-hop music, and it's never a Black person driving the car either. It's always some White guy or girl blasting hip-hop music. Every store I've been into plays music too. Not that calm, elevator type music we play in America. They play real music. It's no thing to be at a grocery store and hear some Mary J. Blige or something. It's crazy. Also, people are big into techno music, and I can't understand why. We went to this one club and they were playing techno music... it was awful. And, people were actually trying to dance to it. Like.. they were bouncing up and down! It was funny.

I think I already mentioned how important wine is in South Africa, but let me just repeat that. WINE IS VERY IMPORTANT IN SOUTH AFRICA. Not only does everyone drink it and every restaurant sell it, but it's important to the South African economy. We went to the Wine Festival. There had to be over a hundred wine estates there giving out free samples of their wine. There were also people giving out samples of cheese, chocolate, jams, and other things. Now... I am NOT a drinker. I have a really low-tolerance level, and it doesn't take much for me to get drunk. Basically, I got drunk at the wine festival from all the glasses of wine! Everyone was making fun of me too because I got drunk off of wine! I can't help it.. I don't usually drink.

But hey, now I know that I cannot just drink wine lots of wine. Hahaha.. that's a good lesson to learn.

The Kayamandi Township

Kayamandi is a township in Stellenbosch where most of the Black people live. I didn't take any pictures of my tour of Kayamandi, because I didn't want to make a spectacle of the people or make the place seem like a tourist attraction or something. People actually live here! How would you feel if someone came to your neighborhood and took pictures.. yah know? There are pictures already on the internet though from other people, so I'll just post some of those.

Can you see all of those shacks? Thousands of people live in this township in crowded nasty conditions. On our tour of the township, there were people bar-b-qing piles of sheeps heads! There was also huge pigs heads just sitting out on tables! Some of the people are given animals to raise... they raise the animals and then give them back to the butcher shop or company or whatever, who in turn give them the worst parts of the animal (the head and legs). The Black people then sale or eat the head/legs in the township, while the best parts are sold by the company or farmer to the richer, White people in town. The Black people of Kayamandi barely make ends meet and on top of that, they are not eating healthy. Our tour guide, who still lives in Kayamandi, told us that many people in Kayamandi were on this type of plan.

I was lucky enough to get a volunteer position at the Pre-Primary School in Kayamandi! A lot of students wanted it, and I can't believe that I got it. I am a teacher's assistant in a classroom with children ages 4-6. Yes, they literally have students of different ages all in the same room learning together. Because of this some are faster learners than others. The teacher I assist is named Bukiwe. I was a little suprised because Bukiwe dresses so nice and modern. She been dressing better than me! Being a teacher is like the best position in the township to have. The classrooms aren't as bad as I thought they would be either. They are a little small, but they are colorful and bright.

I guess I came to the school thinking that I was going to be entering a wasteland or something. I expected the worst, but I've found the school to be a great enviornment for the kids. They do have 2 very small sets of playground equipment. It's not big enough for all the students to play on at once, but it's something. They also have a sandbox. The children aren't sad looking with flies on their eyeballs like they show on "Feed the Children" info-mercials. In fact, they are just like children in America. They are shy and loud. They want attention. They love to play, color, and sing. They also buy candy from a woman that sells chocolate and suckers at school. One thing that bothers me though is that they fight too much. When Bukiwe is in the classroom, they are so well behaved. But, if she steps out for a minute, they start acting a fool! The boys usually begin fighting a bit. They'll check the door to see if Bukiwe is coming, and when they see her coming, they go back to acting like angels. I guess we were the same way at that age! One problem though is the language barrier. I speak English and the children speak Xhosa! I cannot understand most of what they say, but we use sign language to communicate. They speak a little English also.

I see so much potiential in their eyes. The best thing I've seen in Stellenbosch is them. At snack time, the kids that didn't bring a snack are provided 2 pieces of bread by the school (I think the bread might have peanut butter in-between too). Then, the children volunteer to share their drink with the children that don't have any. I mean, they literally are eager to share their drink with the kids. They raise their hands so eagerly, it almost looks like they are asking to go to the bathroom, but really, they are just excited to share with their fellow classmate. It was one of those things that touched me deeply.

Every week, I, alongside my classroom partner Saila from Finland, will have to teach two activities to the children. The first one we taught was about "Winter." I've only been doing this for a week, but so far, Saila seems as though she will continuously set up times for us to meet and then cancel them. She's like, "Oh.. we need to do this!" Then, she will send me a text message changing the time. So, our first activities were pretty weak to me, but the children enjoyed them. They cut out snowflakes and colored children wearing winter clothing. Not too exciting. This week's activity is supposed to be "Emotions." Saila was like, "We should go ahead and meet tomorrow!" Then, that morning, after I had got out of my warm bed, she texts me saying let's meet later. I'll give her one more week before I get snappy with her.

The most important thing I want to tell the world is that these children need help! They need better school facilities.. better supplies... better food... better everything. However, don't pity them or look down upon them. They run and skip. They put their legos together and talk into them like telephones. It seems like they don't feel deprived of anything. They are happy, and many of us who do have are not even close to being as happy as they are.

Cedarberg Mountains

We went on another weekend trip. This time to the Cedarberg Moutains! Once again, I had to run to catch the bus, but this time, the bus was late. So, I ran for no reason! The Cedarberg Mountains are located about 3 hours north of Stellenbosch. We spent about an hour of driving on a bumpy, dirt road too. It was fun though. The ride there was beautiful.

There were tall mountains and lush green fields, but the Cedarberg Mountains themselves look nothing like that! The Cedarberg Mountains look like something from Mars to me! Rocky... red... and jagged. They were beautiful in their own way though.

When we got there, we stayed in lodges/cabins. The rooms were freezing, but luckily I got the cabin that the caterers cooked out of, so the kitchen kept my room a little warm. After dinner, we played games.... "Truth or Dare", "Fingers/I have never ever...," and "Suck and Blow." My favorite game was "Suck and Blow" where you take a playing card, and suck in air to hold it to your mouth. You have to pass the card to the person next to you by only using your mouth. Of course, if you drop the card, you sometimes end up kissing the person. I know it sounds gross and like a quick way to pass around oral herpes.. BUT, it was really fun!

Halley and Noel passing the card around. And, after we finally got 1 card completely around the circle.. we felt really accomplished!

The next morning, we went for a hike up Wolfberg Cracks. I took the advanced hike, which went inside the mountains. It was really fun! Inside the mountain, we got to see really cool rock formations, and we had to squeeze between cracks. It was really hard at times. At one point, I had to push myself up in an awkward position against a rock, and then once I was squeezed in-between the rock and the wall, I had to completely shift my body into a another position. It took a few hours to get to the top, but once we got there, it was well worth it. I felt like I had accomplished something.

After we returned to the cabin, we were exhausted. I took a 30 minute nap before dinner, ate dinner, took another nap, talked about old television shows, and then went to sleep for good. The next day, we went to a winery and tasted wines. Wine in South Africa is really important. The wines at this particular estate were really robust. I prefer a semi-sweet or desert wine.The wines were pretty nasty to me, but I learned a lot about wines.

After this, it had begun to pour down raining. It was also still freezing outside. But, we still took one last trip to some caves in the area. One cave was used years ago by the government officials who implemented Apartheid to have secret meetings. Some of them had done like hundreds of other people and signed their names on the walls. No one actually knows for sure what they talked about there, but if they had to go all the way to a cave to talk about it, it must have been pretty awful. The next cave we visited contained art work from hundreds of years ago and is considered proof of some of the earliest human life.

It looks like some people and some elephants. They don't know exactly how old it is, because it's so old that the paint is actually embedded into the rock. It cannot be washed off nor can good samples be taken from it. It was just cool being next to something so old. I felt apart of a bigger picture you know? A "circle of life" or something.

For more Cedarberg pictures, click here!