New Blog

Hi everyone!

I've been back in the states now for almost 8 months now! It's crazy how fast time has been flying!

Anyways I've really wanted to start blogging again, but it didn't feel quite right to post on here anymore since I'm no longer in South Africa, so I created a new blog: Laughing With Lindsay. Feel free to check it out, and I will most likely no longer be posting on this blog.

Goodbye may seem forever. Farewell is like the end. But in my hearts a memory, and there you'll always be. -The Fox and the Hound

Late response

I deffinitly wanted to post a long time ago. I had hoped that while in Amsterdam I could post a quick little post about what I had felt I learned and if there were any fears or anything about coming back to the states. Unfortunately on the flight from Cape Town to Amsterdam they didn't have me regesitered as a vegetarian and when I refused to eat chicken the flight attendent felt bad and went to the back. Once back there they put crackers, cookies, mentos, all the random little snack items they feed you on a plane on a plate and gave me that. Then in Amsterdam I was freaking out because some who went to go and get coffee were really pushing it when it came to time.

Some time on the plane between Minneapolis to Milwaukee I feel asleep and when I woke up my nose was running like no tomorrow. I was just passing it off as 28hours with no sleep, but that ended up not being what it was. When I got to Green Bay I was just so happy to finally be off a plane and with family. My runny nose and everything got worse. Then when that finally started to get better my throat got worse. For about a week when I talked I sounded like a guy teen who was going through puberty. My throat would crack in middle of sentences and at work I would get dirty looks from customers who clearly knew I wasn't healthy and didn't like that I was touching their food. I work at a grocery store. Then I was deaf because of ear infections.

Now 2 weeks later I am finally feeling 85%. Every now and again my voice does one of those cracks though and sometimes it feels like I have a piece of sand in my throat and I can't cough it away. I think being sick made it actually harder for me to readjust back to the states and everything. I just wanted to sleep all the time and so I didn't really see anyone to talk about my travels. Also when people do ask How was your trip they usually just want a quick good or okay or bad answer then nod and continue on. After getting a few pressuring texts/posts from fellow travelers I uploaded all my pics on facebook but now my whole family has looked at them while I was still sleeping away and feel like they know enough about what I did.

Much to my surprise my hardest part has been listening to what other peoples opinions are about South Africa and not being able to get through to them that their stereotypes aren't true. This has been such a challenge with some people that I actually just stop trying and nod my head. I have to go to work but I felt like I needed to do a quick post.

Graduation

So today was our last day of lecture and we were on the upper campus. Unfortunately I was hoping to buy both my aunt and myself some University of Cape Town apparel but the store was closed. Either way today was a big day. We got to see all of the students that were graduating and took our family photo on the steps just like we did with our first family photo. We also all got a little teary eyed when we were wrapping things up with Alan and Jane, saying how much we appreciated everything they have done for us on this trip. Everyone’s health also seems to have greatly improved and I can’t say enough how lucky and thankful we have been for the amazing weather! I’m really going to miss getting to see and take pictures of the mountain everyday, and I can’t wait to hear all of the quotes from Brian that he has accumulated over the trip.

It was after lecture when we headed off to the mall which I somewhat compare to MOA. It was here where Suzie, Riise and I went to build a bear and made a springbok. They made us do all the same things kids did, and then they also made us scream I love my springbok out loud, and take the pledge that my build a bear will be my best friend for life. A bit much since the day before when Cat made hers she didn’t have to do all of that. Nonetheless it was really fun and you can’t get a springbok anywhere but Africa.

After the mall we went to the Rainbow house. It’s the house that Alison has that I blogged about way back on the second or third day. It was so great getting to take time out and play with kids. I fell in love with one named Lulu and they were trying to convince me for a while that I needed to take her home, but she also has a twin brother and I told them I just don’t have the finances to take two kids let alone one. Really they are perfect because since they are afraid of dogs I would never have to worry about them asking me for one, with my own fear of dogs. She was so precious and would just stare up at you with big eyes and a huge smile. I think the reason why I fell in love with her and her brother is because they both are afraid of dogs.

My time is slowly dwindling down here in Cape Town, and I really don’t want to leave. If only my brother could have his ceremony here. Since so little time is left I have to make the best of it. Tomorrow I’m going shark diving and packing and sometime before we leave I’m hoping to get back to Long Street. They have these animals that people make out of old used soda cans. They are really neat. Luckily on this trip I’ve stayed under my budget.

Mmm Mhmmmm (head nod)

Today felt like a long day for me in lecture and I think it’s because I just wasn’t having the same thoughts as everyone else. Our focus for the day was on presence and identity. For presence we meditated a little bit, which I typically do at night before I go to bed. You just clear you mind and focus on things around you or your breathing. We then said what our presence is usually focused on and mine is typically on family and friends where as others are more so on the self. The main take away for everyone today was that to be present and useful all you have to give sometimes is yourself. Just a few minutes of listening can be more than enough.

After a while we started to talk about identity. Aaron had us make a web with 5 things about ourselves that we think define ourselves. Then we were talking about how those things are perceived or viewed here in South Africa. We had such a long conversation on what it means to be privileged. I was really struggling right her because everyone was talking about it in a far different way from how I would define it. They were having the typical view of being rich and always getting what you want, but I’ve always considered privileged to be when you are able to complain about unnecessary materialist things your privileged because there are people out there who can’t complain about those things either because they’ve never experienced them or because they know better then to complain about something they can never have. If you can complain about something that means you’ve either had it or you have the possibility of getting it. So I’ve usually considered myself privileged but the others in my group say that they’ve never or rarely consider themselves privileged. I also realized during the reflection part that I just have far different values from others. What I consider important or even just the way I define a value compared to how someone else defines the same value. When we were talking about typical American stereotypes I was having a bit of a flashback. A few days ago tension was being felt or rumors or something so we had a group meeting to discuss such things. I pointed out how I don’t always like to be with some people because when in public and private they have a tendency to yell random swears or dirty words just because they can. I said I didn’t like this because it feeds into the stereotype and then one in particular got all defensive on me saying that no matter what they did it wasn’t going to change anyone’s stereotypical views of Americans. Even after pointing out that that doesn’t mean you have free reign to do what ever you want because you don’t think it matters how people are going to view you they still were upset with me. What I really meant was the stereotype of me. If I’m hanging out with someone who swears at the top of their lungs then I feel like people will just assume that I also swear at the top of my lungs. Then I’m not even sure how it was that we got to on to this topic (I forgot), but we were talking about one of the home stay families that has a really nice house. She doesn’t like to spend money herself upgrading her house even more and we thought that this might be because she has a nice job and her house is even nicer so upgrading people might start to think of her differently and that say that it’s because of her job not because of her hard work ethic. This sort of made me think about how I myself don’t like to spend money on myself. Although I can think of many reasons why I don’t like to a possibility might be because I don’t want people to think I just have money cause I’m native.

It was after class that I started to get sort of upset. Everyone was going to Mzoli’s for lunch, which is a meat factory more or less that does BBQ. Then we were going to ask Godfrey to just drive us to the long street market instead of back to the lodge, but the problem was that someone had to drive back to the lodge to drop me off. Jane gave Shane and I 40R so we could eat something else somewhere else but the problem was me. Since Shane is sick now to I was worried that he wouldn’t even want to go out to eat so I was just going to end up sitting in the lodge by myself. Every time I suggested just going and sitting while everyone else ate they were all like no no no no no. I know that this isn’t how they meant it to come off to me, and I might just be weird for thinking this way, but I felt like people were taking pity on my since I had to have special treatment. Maybe pity isn’t the right word but I don’t like being the center of attention for reasons like “Oh going to Long street would be so great, but Lindsay has to be dealt with first. I would love to leave her behind but that’s not nice” I know I’m weird for thinking that way.

Once at the Long Street market after lunch though I had great time. I bought a sweet gift for my bro, and a cool street wire gift for my older sister. Along with a sweet gift for my little sister. I just loved the atmosphere of the market and I got to perfect my bartering skills even more. I helped Cat get this giraffe down to 40R from 100R. I’m super great since I still have skills left over from China bartering. I just really can’t believe that tomorrow is Friday. This week has just blown by me faster then the last two weeks, and Dylan’s eagle scout ceremony is in a few days!

Mmm Mhmmmm (head nod)

"Something" Together, Lovely!

Today we got up early and went to Robben Island. We took one to the island that prisoners were once brought on. It’s always awesome to me getting to see the city from different angles, and the mountain. I filled my quota of about 20 pics of it today. What I didn’t know is that there is so much more on the island then just the prison. I had an Alcatraz sort of thought in my mind; one island and one prison nothing else. It actually has different military things, a school, homes, a church, and obviously the prison. It’s also home to wild animals like ostriches, springbok and is the 7^th largest penguin colony. We saw a warning penguin crossing sign, and I just love that wild animals here are penguins not bears! The tour of the prison wasn’t really what I was expecting either. We had a former political prisoner showing us around inside and to the different wards/sections. Others had told me that the experience was going to be really moving and sad, but I didn’t really get that all that much. He didn’t tell us to much about himself or what happened to him or others around him, just what room this was used for, and what room this was used for, and who walked in this hallway. Not that was bad, just not what I was expecting. We also got to see the cell that Mandela was kept in.

After we were done we went back to the waterfront, which is just shops, restaurants, and a giant ferries wheel. We had lunch at a super offensive resturant. The food was decent, it was only offensive because the theme was Native American, and the way they were portraying it was just so wrong. We were given almost 3 hours to just wander around until pick up so that’s what we did. I bought a shirt for my bro that hopefully fits, a painting for myself from my new “best friend” and really regret not buying a springbok from build a bear like Cat did. 

Winelands

On Saturday, the day after we arrived back from Gugs, we went to the Winelands. It’s one of the richest places in South Africa and the point of going was just to see the difference between there and Gugs. Since I’ve never gone wine tasting before it was an experience for me. The first wine estate that we went to was so beautiful. It sort of made me think of old plantations back in the South, just the architecture of the building. There was a bit of coffee tasting, but since the smell of coffee is revolting to me and gives me migraines I stood outside and looked around at the beauty of the place. We went inside and sat at a nice table and then we were given 3 types of wine that were paired with 3 types of chocolate. I don’t drink wine other than what I get at church so that might be part of the reason why I only found one of the wines okay.

The second wine estate that we went to was very different from the first. We didn’t wine taste while we were there, but there was so much more to see. It was on a lake and we got to take amazing senior pictures. It also had an area designated for birds and the smallest of cages in which you could pay to go in and pet a cheetah. Since I didn’t agree with the conditions that the cheetah was kept in and I also don’t know if there was a reason but some of the birds were chained down to keep them from flying away. We ate lunch at a restaurant on the estate called 8. It was pretty good and I loved the décor and lighting so much so that I took pictures of it just so when I get home I can show it off to my family.

The last wine estate we went to we were given a tour of all the buildings on the land. It was organic and the weather also made for great pictures. We sat outside to do the wine tasting and we got to try seven different wines. This is where we took the cute picture that Aaron uploaded and tagged us all in on Facebook. I bought a pear cider that I surprisingly loved. I just figured since I hate apple cider that pear cider wouldn’t be that much different but it was good, and with a price tag of about $3 I couldn’t pass it up. I also bought a sparkling wine called Cape Jazz and will be honest in saying that I only really enjoyed this because it reminded me of sparkling grape juice. Now I’m just living with the daily concern of how I’m going to get it back home to the states through customs.

Throughout the whole day I found myself struggling with a lot of things inside of me. How can so many people be living such a high life when so many others need there help. It was showing us the tale of two cities the exists here in Cape Town. I also noticed a huge difference just in my perspective while we were in the Winelands. The first and biggest difference in my perspective that a lot of us noticed, is that we thought the bathrooms at the winelands were high class ritzy joints just because they had soap. One of them was even more amazing and suitable for a president because it had soap and towels to dry your hands on. When we got back to Riverview I also was so thankful to have a shower that previous complaints I had about it were gone, same with the toilets. Then thinking back to my home I live in a palace and I’ve always taken that for granted. Talking with some other students in my group about this they all reminded me of the basic thought that you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone. Just because of the way we lived in Gugs I was so glad that we dressed up to go to the winelands because it was a place that I instantly felt I needed to be dressed up for. I know when I get home I’m going to be far more appreciative of what have.

In Country Assingment Number 2

This last week in Gugulethu was an emotional roller coaster for me. Living with a new family I’ve never meet in conditions I’m not used to and in a place I’ve never been. Getting to hear from so many indiviuals experiencing things that I can’t even imagine what it must be like, and yet seeing so many happy people who were so thankful and appreciative of everything they had even when they are in the worst of situations. Trying to pick just one thing that impacted me most is impossible because everyday something new changed me. What I think will have the longest impact on me will be my experiences with all of the children.

            We went to Noxie’s school and got to see how thing go in a typical school. Then we went to the school for children with special needs and knowing that they were just as happy about things and cheerful when singing for us brightened my day. I also loved helping the kids in the afterschool program because some of them talked with me about things giving me a child’s perspective. Some of the kids I worked directly with received food parcels and they weren’t ashamed like some people in the states are when they need to go to a soup kitchen, but so grateful. I have a ton of younger kids and made all my money as teen by babysitting so working with kids is one of my passions, and I’m so glad that we got to interact with them so much during the week. They always tell it like it is, which I appreciate. I also was then able to do a lot of comparing and contrasting from the children here and those back home. What sorts of toys they preferred, songs they sing, jokes they tell, and lives they live. Also the way that they interacted with there elders. I noticed that the majority of kids tend to feed their parents or help their parents feed the guests before they themselves eat. Typically back home we feed the kids first to get them to sit down and be quite, which also pointed out to me how much more control and respect typically all of the parents and elders of this community get from the kids than do kids back home in the states.

            On the topic of community I noticed that the strongest one I’ve seen in Gugs is the one at JL Zwane. Typically because of tradition women can’t preach, but Fundi preaches and the church accepts her. Or when we were doing food parcels on Tuesday; when our group took a break members of the community jumped in without being asked and helped.  The biggest strength of this community is just how accepting they are. When Charlie came in and spoke to us about his experiences with the church I was so moved because that is unheard of both in the US and here in South Africa. The community is so strong that people experiencing such issues that can cause huge friction are accepted and appreciated for who they are.

            Reverend Xapile being the Reverend is one of the biggest leaders in this community, but not the only one. He organizes and makes sure all is right with the groups that JL Zwane has, such as the Rainbow After School Program, the AIDS support groups, and also planning and implementing new groups the church can offer. The reason why I say he’s not the only leader I saw in action in this community is because I was blessed with the opportunity to get to talk with Nombeko. She’s a woman who was gang raped and contracted HIV from it. She’s been positive for quite a while now, but she has a more positive outlook on life then she originally did. She is in charge of the HIV/AIDS support groups that the church offers. She goes into the community and encourages those who have been infected to come in and in a private and welcoming area speak with others also infected. They share their stories and the challenges they have overcome hoping to help each other.  They give advice on where to go to receive the drugs they need if they can’t afford them, and also provide just a listening ear to those who want nothing more than to share there stories. Organizing all of this takes great amounts of time commitments, organization skills, patients and more than anything passion. She’s also in charge of deciding which people infected with HIV/AIDS gets to receive a food parcel. She has to make difficult decisions that go with being a leader, but because she is so strong in the community people accept her decisions.

            When we were at Siyaya the director said that when people are in buses driving around Gugs they have a look on their face that screams shame or pity, but when your on the streets everyone is happy and doing good. This is the only way of life that they know so they are content with it. I keep trying to remind myself of this when I encounter difficult situations or reflect back on them because it’s true. So much happened this last week in Gugs that it’s really hard to summarize all the events into a few words, but it was challenging and life changing.