Volunteering!

Molweni!

That means "hello everyone" in Xhosa, which, if you didn't know, is the "click" language in Africa. Today we had a little lesson in Xhosa to help us with our volunteering because most of the kids we work with speak Xhosa as their first languages. Here's a little bit of Xhosa for you all!

There are three types of clicks in Xhosa. C, X, and Q. The "C" makes a click that sounds like "tutt tutt", which is like the sound we make when we're correcting someone or scolding someone. Think "tsk tsk". The "X" makes a side click sound, think of the sound horses make when they run. The "Q" is the poping sound that we make, the straight up click where you make an "o" with your mouth. Here's a basic conversation in Xhosa:

A: Molo sisi! (Hello sister, used to talk to any girl)

B: Ewe, molo sisi! (Hello sister)

A: Kunjani? (How are things?)

B: Ndiphilile, enokosi. Wena? (I'm well, thanks. And you?)

A: Ndiphilile nam, enkosi. (I'm well, also. Thanks.)

The N is kind of silent, the ph makes a "p", so Ndiphilile sounds like "dePILEEleh" and the "ewe" sounds like "ewayy". Okay, that's enough of Xhosa for now.

Here's some info on my volunteering since I haven't said much about it. I'm working for an organization called CHOSA, which organizes volunteers from CIEE to help work at a township called Baphumelele. The place we work is basically an orphanage, but it's called a children's home. The kids are organized into "clusters" of different age groups, and they all live in individual houses within the township. Each cluster has two caregivers that switch of night and day shifts. Theres also a separate house for the babies, who are ADORABLE. It seems to feel more intimate and have a better family-feel than most orphanages, but of course the kids don't have parents. The thing that struck me the most when I first got there was the independence all of the kids have. Even the little toddlers and young kids have free range and walk around on their own all over their little area.

My group of kids are the 14 and 15 year olds. We are basically given free range to do any type of program we want with them throughout the semester. I decided that I wanted to help them publish magazine with cool things we do together. So far we've done haiku's, comic strips, and are going to start on short stories next week. For teenagers, they are really hard to handle. They have trouble listening and focusing, their spelling is atrocious, and it is a constant reminder for them to speak English and not Xhosa. Three members of our group speak no English at all, so the others help us translate. One new boy entered our group last week, he's 16 years old and has never set foot in a school. He doesn't know the alphabet and can't spell his name. These past few weeks I've been working individually with him to help learn the alphabet. I gave him a worksheet to work on over the week, not expecting he would do any of it. But to my delight, he came running into our group the next time we came with the completed work! He was so proud of himself and is SO eager to learn. It is truly wonderful. Unfortunately, because I have a group of 12 other kids, I can't give him as much time as I would like. I've found one of my friends who is willing to be his personal "tutor" and so she will be taking over for me. I'm looking forward to seeing his progress!

Every time I walk into Baphumelele the kids give us the most unreal greetings. I don't know if I'm allowed to put photos or names up quite yet, but I will let you know. Anyway, there are two little boys, about 4 or 5 years old, who are basically my little sidekicks who come running up to me and jump into my arms when I get there. They are SO cute! They come yelling "Jul-LEAH! Jul-LEAH!" (which is how they pronounce my name) and it pretty much melts my heart. The first day I came there one of the kids got the idea in his head that I looked and sounded like Michael Jackson (???) so now a lot of the kids just call me Michael Jackson. Sometimes, to be considerate, they modify it to Janet Jackson, but I never really know what they'll call me next.

Since I can't post photos yet, here's the link to the organization I work with in case any of you want to get a better sense of it or if I haven't explained it quite right:

http://www.chosa.co.za/OngoingPartnerProjects/Baphumelele/tabid/56/Default.aspx

I'm pretty exhausted, it's 9pm here and I just got back for the first time since 2pm and I had early class today, so sorry if I sound a bit out of it! I'm gonna go finish up reading Frankenstein and Little Dorrit before maybe indulging in a TV show or something. Still missing and loving you all, and obviously am still having the time of my life.

Salani kakuhle (the "hl" sound is like the sound that an egg frying sounds, so keep that in mind), which means goodbye, be well,

Jules

P.S. I feel like in Africa things are moving in hyperspeed, while at home time is still going in slow motion. We're already almost on our mid semester break here and everyone else is just about to start their semesters!

Some musings about South Africa

Hey everyoneeeee!

First off, I found the pictures of the cheetahs, so here they are:

Okay, besides those, I don't have any pictures to post really, so instead I thought I'd give you some general idea of the odd/different/interesting things about South Africa. Here goes...

1) Avocados are EVERYWHERE and so inexpensive. I almost feel like I'm getting sick of them, which I previously thought wasn't possible. Also, they call them "avos" here.

2) The library is closed on Sundays... what?!

3) Lime's are inexistent. Lemons replace them. Tequila shots? With lemon. Mexican food? With lemon. Gin and Tonics? With lemon. It also doesn't make as much of a difference as you would think.

4) I'm sure most of you know this already, but the way that race is broken down here is very different. There are basically 3 races: White, Black, and Coloured (none of which are considered offensive terms). White refers to, as you'd expect, white people and Black refers to dark skinned people. Coloured refers to anyone in between, basically "mixed" race.

5) Flip flops are incredibly hard to find. When I realized I had forgotten my shower sandals I went all around Rondebosch looking for flip flops and failed miserably. This is why I now have a pair of fake crocs. For the record, crocs are not good as shower sandals...every time I get out of the shower I have to shake my feet to get all the water out of them.

6) Most people here use PCs rather than Macs.

7) Most of the time, the books assigned by professors are not carried by the University's bookstore. Makes sense, right? I'm still trying to find one of the books and have checked 5 bookstores so far.

8) Movies are a little behind the US here. Currently playing in theaters: Grown-ups, Twilight, Inception, and Shrek 4.

9) When you order coffee, you are asked if you would like cold or hot milk, kind of nice actually

10) African time is very different. "Just now" means anytime in the future, not necessarily soon. For example, "I'll call just now", could mean anytime in the future: 10 minutes, or two weeks. "Now-now" means soon or shortly, for example if a professor says I"ll give your papers back now-now it means they will give it back soon.

11) Traffic lights here are called "robots"

12) Heating and AC don't exist in South Africa

13) We call BBQ's "Braais" here

I think that's all I have for you now. I'm starting to realize I won't actually be at Kenyon this fall which is really weird. That means I only have one more fall left at Kenyon before I graduate... and I also realized I will never be under 21 at Kenyon ever again, which is also weird. Everyone is going to Kenyon soonish and I really wish I could be there, just for Beer and Sex (I hope you all know about this program...I don't mean literal "beer" and "sex) and being a UCC and SMA and everything. Oh well, I hope you guys all have fun and bring them freshmen in with grace!

More to come soon!

Love,

Jules

Stellenbosch (again!) and Mzoli's

Hello everyone!

I see that my fan base has grown significantly! 14 whole followers... wow I never thought it would happen! Anyway, welcome to the newcomers (Trudy, Izzie, Cyo, Nat...whoever else) and thank you to the oldcomers. I miss you all so much. It was fantastic video chatting with some of you... William, Sarah, Brine. Still trying to work it out with others... my bad.

This weekend was very eventful. CIEE sponsored a trip to Stellenbosch for wine tasting, a picnic, and cheetah-viewing. Because the expenses of the trip are included in our tuition, I figured I'd go again and get my money's worth! Apparently, according to all our South African RA's, CIEE is truly ripping us off. Anyway, I was very glad to go because we had a wonderful time!

This time around, we actually got a tour of the facilities and got to see exactly how they made the wine. Then we did some wine tasting (this time I was more cautious), and headed for a beautiful outdoor picnic at this very nice little park. Here's a picture from the park where we ate our meals. We got our food from inside this little shop where they only sold packaged meat that looked really sketchy, but it turned out to be delicious!

After our peaceful picnic we had some time to walk around and check out the cheetah rehabilitation center right near by. We got to see these cheetahs up close and, for 100 rand, you could go and pet them. I opted out for petting them because they seemed so out of it and drugged out and it wasn't really worth the money, but instead enjoyed the view from afar. For whatever reason, all my pictures of the cheetahs have disappeared... I have no clue how or why. Instead, I'll post a cute cartoon picture of a cheetah so you get the idea... why not?

Okay, so on to Sunday. We went to this place called Mzoli's. It's basically a well known restaurant that's in the middle of a township (for those of you who don't know, they're very impoverished communities of shacks...if you've seen District 9, they look exactly like that). It's very well known for it's meat... as you can see from this photo:

Here is a picture of the township surrounding Mzoli's.

What I didn't know exactly about Mzoli's is how it all works. Our RA booked a table for us at around 11am on Sunday morning. You get there and immediately everyone goes to buy alcohol. I was a bit surprised at that... but figured I should get the full experience. Anyway, we placed our orders (or shall I say, our RA's placed our orders) and the waiting began... Little did I know that Mzoli's is actually not just a well known restaurant, but a raging block party every Sunday! In a matter of minutes the place started filling up, the live DJ went on, and the whole place was having an awesome time! Here are some pictures of the festivities:

So the atmosphere at Mzoli's was a lot of fun, but I still haven't gotten to the main part... the FOOD! So basically it takes hours for your food to arrive, during which you pass the time by drinking and talking and meeting new people. By the time our food came I was ready to eat anything. Before I even tell you what the food looked like, look for yourself:

Yes, the meat comes in big buckets. Yes, that is a combination or sausage, pork, chicken, and beef. Yes, you must eat with your hands because there are no utensils, no plates, or napkins. Yes, I did eat that. And, YES, it was amazing!!!!!! Probably the most unreal meat I've ever had, but I've never felt more of a carnivore in my life. Here is a pic of two of my guy friends chowing down like animals.

Disgusting, I know! Sorry Ray I hope you're not vomiting right now. Anyway, I had a really fun time at Mzoli's, it was quite an experience though! I will leave you all with a picture of me and some of my friends at Mzoli's.

Lots of Love and Lots of Meat-filled Kisses,

Julia

Weekend in Hermanus

Hey Everyone!!!

Cool, so I just electrocuted myself trying to find an outlet in the library. Doesn't feel too good, as it turns out. That's how devoted I am to all you readers (all 6 of you...). Anyway, here is my lengthy, photo-rich post, as promised, about our three day weekend! First of all, we had Monday off this week because in South Africa it is Women's Day. Basically, it is a more legitimate version of Mother's Day and it applies to all women. People take it really seriously, all around Rondebosch women were walking with flowers given to them, people go out to really nice dinners, etc.

Our weekend started (after a bit of a rough patch) in the later evening on Friday. We all rented cars and drove about 45 minutes to Hermanus, a nice beachy town near Cape Town. We checked into our hostel, which was alarmingly nicer than the last hostel we stayed at. Big beds, clean sheets, maid service to make our beds, and even towels!!! Here's a pic of some of my friends in our room.

After getting settled in on Friday night we went out to dinner. It was a really cool atmosphere at the restaurant, live band and really cool fire places everywhere. But the service was awful! It literally took over 2 hours to be served, and keep in mind we were the only people being served at the restaurant. It seems like this is a pattern in South Africa... really bad service. I think we've spent what has accumulated into days waiting for our food here so far.

The next morning, we all got up relatively early to head to the beach. We went with a group of guys that are really into surfing so we all sat around on the beach, watching them surf. It was a little overcast that morning unfortunately, but here is a picture of some of the boys going out in the ocean.

After lounging about for awhile, we decided it was time to explore! We took a nice luxurious walk on the beach. We saw some really cute kids and really cute dogs running all over the place. Here's a picture of us walking on the beach!

After our nice walk, we decided to climb the beautiful rocks that were all over the beach. The weather was starting to turn up, thankfully. Here is a picture of the rocky beach from above. It was unbelievably beautiful.

As we continued climbing the rocks, we discovered more and more beautiful rocky terrain and all these stunning little hidden beaches. Here is the pathway that we found and a picture of a large stretch of beach. Pretty amazing, eh?

And here is a lovely picture (self-timeded, I might add) of us at the top of the rocks.

After a nice day at the beach, we all went back to the hotel to relax a bit before cooking dinner. Dinner was a project, to say the least. We cooked for 12, which included 7 hungry boys, so we made 4 pots of pasta, cooked 8 chicken breasts, and cooked broccoli and peas for everyone. Oh, did I mention we were using the most ghetto kitchen wear? Yeah, we used what could only be described as a glorified bunsen burner to cook all of this. We were all incredibly proud of ourselves.

After dinner, we went out that night to check out the night life in Hermanus. We were not impressed, to say the least. We went to a place called Bojangles. The crowd consisted of a population that was either under 15, over 70, and the sound system was so awkwardly quiet that you could hear everyone's conversation at once. The theme that night was toga wear (?), but only the people over 70 had dressed up. One man was wearing a full on toga, but it was cut too short so we could see his boxers. It was rather uncomfortable. Next we went to a little bar (the only other place open), that was an Africaans bar that blasted Africaans metal music. It was pretty ridiculous, but we all had a really fun time making fun of the interesting night life.

The next day we had breakfast (that took 2 hours, of course), and drove back home. Here is a picture of Hermanus on our way out, just to get a sense of the place. I'd compare it to a San Diego type town.

We stopped at a little wine tasting/food tasting fair on the way home. It was really fun, they had samples of cookies, olive oil, cheese, turkish delight, and wine. These types of fairs are all the rage in South Africa, which is fine by me, because it is always lots of fun. It's a little bit like the farmers markets we have in the US everywhere, but because it's South African it's automatically a bit cooler. Plus they have wine tasting and lemoncello tasting, which is always more fun. Here's a picture of the inside.

On Monday, since we had the day off, we decided to go horseback riding on the beach. It was unbelievably gorgeous! We went around 4pm so we got to see the sun set. The beach was really amazing, the tide goes up really high earlier in the day and then in the afternoon goes down a bit. It creates a really nice place to ride because the ocean is on one side, and these cute little mini ponds (from where the high tide was) are on the other side and you are surrounded by water. Here are some pictures.

Now of course, what would this blog be without a little bit of complaint or some type of issue? It is still I, Julia, writing this blog after all, so it is to be expected. As magnificent the sight was during the ride, I had a bit of an unruly horse. Now I know I'm no experienced rider, but I've never felt uneasy or uncomfortable on a horse; that us, until Nutmeg. Nutmeg, I was told, didn't do so well with the other horses. I asked if it was possible, perhaps, to be given a more easy going horse. But no, I was assured everything would be fine. Everything was not fine. Before we had even left the stables, Nutmeg got snippy with one of the other horses, rearing back a bit (WITH ME ON TOP OF HER). So we started off on the wrong foot and I was afraid for my life for probably 2/3 of the ride. And towards the end Nutmeg decided to lag behind all of the other horses to leisurely snack on the grass to her side every 3 seconds. I could NOT get the horse to cooperate with me. Here is a picture that I think captures our relationship brilliantly.

So that is the summary of our nice 3 day weekend. Oh and a quick update on classes: I told you the 4 classes I'm taking, but in addition I have 3 seminars. One is on African Short Stories, another on Charles Dickens (we're reading 2 1200 page books!), and my favorite is a seminar on Serial Killer films. That's all I have for you. I miss you all terribly, but am honestly having the time of my life over here.

Julia

Getting into the groove of things in Africa

Hey all,

Sorry it's been so long since my last post. I haven't taken many pictures these past few weeks and I didn't want to bore you with my words, but I don't want to lose all of my followers (all 7 of you!). So here comes a more wordy post...

Classes started last week, and let me tell you, UCT is so much more confusing, complicated, and annoying than Kenyon. From registration (which entailed 4 hours of line-waiting), to class sign ups (somehow I was enrolled in a class from last semester...), to seminar allocations (which are basically 3 extra classes in addition to my 4..by the way, one of them is a class on serial killers in film.. awesome!). It was really frustrating. As time progresses, I'm starting to really realize what it means to be living in Africa for 5 months. This means that I can't do things the way that I can in America (duh). For example...

The Internet is really starting to drive me crazy. South Africa has an internet system that charges you per the amount of data you use. So first of all, that means that the internet is NEVER free, and second of all, that means that the more data-rich things the internet has to offer, I can't use. That includes downloading movies/TV from iTunes, watching Netflix or any type of movie online, and skyping. So that's getting frustrating. All I want is to watch the Bachelorette (I know, it's my guilty pleasure).

The minibus' are also starting to drive me crazy. They're these vans that are really cheap and take you wherever you want. You cannot walk down the street without having an obnoxious man scream at your face, asking you where you want to go. I just don't understand. If I wanted to go to Weinberg (which is what they're ALWAYS advertising for), I would make it abundantly clear. No need to scream at my face and ask me if I want to go! Oh and the birds here are equally annoying, there is this one bird that lives on our street that hoots the same pattern hundreds of times a day. It's like this annoying techno beat that is INFURIATING.

Another thing that is beginning to frustrate me is my ghetto cell phone. Yes, I knew parting with my iPhone would be tough, and yes, I knew that I wouldn't be getting a phone that is nearly as advanced as the iPhone. But I was not prepared for my phone. It doesn't have a color screen, of course doesn't have a full keyboard, and doesn't have a "sent" messages folder. It also doesn't have an alarm clock, and did I mention it doesn't vibrate? Here's a pic of my loser phone so you can see for yourself.

The other day, I needed to find a movie to watch for my film class. Easy right? NO. NOT EASY. I couldn't download it on the internet because it's too expensive, I couldn't go to the cafe that gives you free internet because they have a cap off for amount of data to download, and they didn't have it at the DVD store in Rondebosch. So I decided to go to the movie rental place, which I had heard didn't rent to Americans but didn't believe it. I got there, asked for the movie, he literally FAKE typed on his computer and said "nope, don't have it." My friend noticed that he hadn't typed anything and called him out, to which he responded by fake typing AGAIN. Oh my God, I can't even tell you how infuriating it was. Okay, enough of my spoiled complaining, I just had to vent for a little. Sorry about that.

The last two weeks we did two fun activities. First, we went to Old Biscuit Mill which is a little farmers market that has the most AMAZING food. Mom- they have macaroons there like the ones I love! They have anything from pastries to flat breads to Thai food (yeah Ray!) to Ostrich burgers (yuck). We had an awesome time. Here are some pictures from the market.

The other fun South African thing we did this last week was go to a Rugby game. It was very interesting, a cool sport to watch, but because of certain circumstances was NOT an enjoyable experience. First of all, they don't allow you to bring alcohol into the stadium. So they have this gross grungy bar where you have to speed drink your drink of choice so as not to miss the game, and then continue to go back and forth if you decide you would like more to drink. So un-American and so unlike the spirit of sports events. The other problem is that Rugby fans are rude! I was talking with my friend and asking about the rules of the game when the woman in front of me turned around and interrupted us, rudely asking me "if you don't know the rules, then why are you here?" So rude! All the men either cat called us or mocked us for being there. So frustrating. Here's a picture of the game.

On my way home from volunteering (I'll post later about it with pictures), the sun was setting and WOW it was unbelievably gorgeous. It was like a neon orange color, unlike anything I've ever seen, and just like it is in movies and photographs. It was really amazing.

This weekend we have a three day weekend and have plans to go to a lot of cool places, so check back on Tuesday or later next week for a jam packed post. Miss you all and hey, you're welcome to send me an email guys... anyone... waiting... Just cause I have a blog doesn't mean you get to ignore me...

Love Always,

Julia