Sunday, July 25, 2010

Is this real life?

Well, I’ve been putting off blogging for quite some time because I simply do not know where to begin. You’d think that, having been a chronic procrastinator for many years now, I would realize that that just leaves me more to do when I finally get around to the job, but that never seems to stop me. The past two weeks have consisted of one new and incredible experience after another. I don’t know how to cover them all here, but here’s my best shot:


First of all, it is beautiful here! In an attempt to share some of it with you back home, I've including some pictures. Here is the view from the parking lot just outside my building and the view from my kitchen window at sunrise. Below are shots of Table Mountain and the Waterfront in Cape Town (it's ok to be jealous).

What do you get when you mix a liberal, feminist lesbian with a conservative, traditionalist Catholic? I know you’re waiting for the punch line, but that’s my roommate and I. Throw in some exotic-looking bugs, a freezer that doesn’t freeze and a couple near-death experiences, and you’ve got a bad sitcom, I mean, our lives together here. As much as we may joke about it, the truth is that we get along quite beautifully, and I’m not sure I could ask for a better roommate. Obviously, we have to agree to respectfully disagree on a few issues and to live our lives differently. Differences aside, though, Sam and I have found that we have quite a bit in common – a shared taste in music, a love of chocolate, random physical ailments from which only bodies much older than ours should suffer, a lack of desire to get drunk almost every night (which many of the international students here seem to have), and a heart for children and the poor – and I am very grateful to have her friendship as we navigate this new country.

And my friendship with Sam is not the only one that has required me to bridge some gaps. All of my classes are with international students only, which disappointed me at first, and I know I will have to put forth effort to involve myself in the South African community. However, my classes have not contained the homogeneity that I expected. Differences in culture and thought are evident in my discussions with the many Europeans and even the Americans from other parts of the country who are studying here. I find it quite interesting that my many opportunities for personal reflection and growth stem not only from my interactions with the native South Africans, but also those with the people I expected to be more similar to myself.

Speaking of my interactions with European students, I must say that I am incredibly impressed by their ability to speak English despite the fact that it is not their mother tongue. I knew that many European schools begin teaching their students English at a very young age, but I have only started to fully realize it here. Most of the German students speak German and English fluently, along with a fair bit of French and/or Spanish. After taking four years of German, exceeding the language requirements in the US, I could barely attempt to greet them in their native language, and they always speak English around me. It’s the same with the South Africans. Even the young children from poor communities with whom I will be working speak isiXhosa and/or other indigenous tongues at home and Afrikaans and English at school, and they always speak English to me even though it may be their third or fourth language. I am realizing at an even deeper level how ethnocentric the US school system can be compared to those around the world, and the way people everywhere go out of their way to conform to our norms. I am humbled.

On a lighter note, I have been thoroughly enjoying South Africa before I get too busy with classes. My study abroad program brought us to Cape Town twice in the past two weeks to meet up with the University of Cape Town (UCT) students and attend events there. The first time, we went to a dinner theatre in an old church building in District 6, the township where the poorest of the poor live and which infamously evacuated all Black and Coloured residents during apartheid. The show was intended to entertain and to educate about race relations in Cape Town, and it included traditional and modern music and dancing, performed by a very talented and very young cast. We stood in a cafeteria-style line to get our food just like many of the residents of District 6 would have, and the performers taught us parts of the famous African “gumboot” dance, which was originally developed as a way for the slaves in the mines to communicate when they were not allowed to speak to one another. It constantly amazes me how, in the midst of great poverty, I always find the people full of great joy. Our program also brought us to Cape Town to watch a professional rugby game, and I found a new favourite sport. It has all the great aspects of American football – running, throwing, tackling – without the less awesome aspects – helmets, pads, stopping the play every three seconds – and it can actually keep my interest for a full 90 minute game.


Aside from those bigger excursions, we have been finding ways to keep busy. The international office had a showing of “District 9” followed by a wine tasting, where I watched the movie for the first time (it’s about District 6, and I very highly recommend it to anyone who has not seen it!) and had my first legal drink (I also highly recommend South African wine). Yesterday, we rode the train to Cape Town and spent the day shopping and wandering at the Waterfront, which was beyond gorgeous (plus we got to see the FIFA Soccer City). We have also been wandering around Stellenbosch, acquainting ourselves with the shops and restaurants, and simply going grocery shopping can sometimes be an adventure. When all else fails, you can find a braai just about any night of the week. What’s a braai? A South African barbeque where they burn lots of wood, grill and eat lots of meat, and drink lots of alcohol (the last part is optional). It seems like South Africans are always celebrating, even when there’s nothing to celebrate other than simply being alive.

And I’ve saved the best part for last: Church. The Catholic church in Stellenbosch is St. Nicholas, and it’s within walking distance of my residence. The priest works at multiple parishes, so the Masses are limited – only 8am on Sunday mornings and a couple other times throughout the week. Now that classes are starting again, they will resume student Mass on Sunday evenings, which I will begin attending next week and where I will be able to connect with members of the SU Catholic community (so excited!). The church is very little but very comfortable and beautiful, the people are wonderful and faithful, and I already feel at home there. Much as I expected, Mass is the same as in the US and easy for me to follow, but totally different at the same time. At the beginning of my first Mass, the priest said, “The Lord be with you,” to which I responded with a confident and solid, “And also with you,” before realizing that was not at all what everyone else was saying. Since then, I have mumbled my way through Mass, trying to learn the responses, which are almost all slightly different than at home (even the Nicene Creed and Gloria say the same thing but with different words and in a different order).

The priest is passionate and fiery but still compassionate and loving in his preaching. I love that he is not afraid to call us out, to light a bit of a fire beneath the rumps of our spiritual lives, as many of the priests at home seem to avoid out of fear of scaring people away. Last week was the story of Mary and Martha, and he talked about ensuring that we do not get so caught up in doing things, even good things, that we forget why and for Whom we are doing them. This week was Jesus’ teachings on prayer, including the Our Father, and he talked about approaching God as our Abba, Daddy, and ensuring that we don’t go into auto-pilot during prayer, citing Jesus’ warning against babbling like the Pagans. At the end of his sermons, you feel like you need to step up and make some changes in your life, but it’s a feeling of being lovingly compelled rather than condemned.

The sign of peace is during the offertory, which I just learned is specific to my parish and not characteristic of the country as a whole. The priest always gets up after the collection has been taken but before the gifts have been brought forward and cites Jesus’ teaching that, if we come to make our offering at the altar and realize we have not made peace with our brother, we should leave the offering and go to make peace before returning. He then invites us to at least make peace with one another, and many people move up and down the aisles, genuinely wishing peace to as many people as possible. It is beautiful. They also serve communion by intinction, the Eucharist minister dipping the Body into the Blood before administering it, so everyone receives on the tongue. Even though there is not a communion row, people act like there is. The altar is on a platform one step up from the main floor, and the ministers stay on the step while people fill in spaces along the edge. Some people choose to remain standing, but most people kneel on the step while the minister moves back and forth administering the Blessed Sacrament. Not too many people stay in their pew during communion, but certainly more than at home. While I would love to see everyone receive communion, I like to see that people are deliberate about ensuring that they are in a state of grace in order to receive and are humble enough to stay back if they are not. Kneeling to receive, receiving on the tongue, only receiving in a state of grace – it is all so reverent and beautiful.

And they love Mama Mary. There are statues of her everywhere in the church, we lift all of our prayers to her and recite Marian prayers at the end of the prayers of the faithful every week, and we invoke her frequently. I already love it here.

peace and love

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Welcome to Matieland

My dear family and friends! Most of you know that I recently arrived in South Africa (safely and with minimal difficulties, praise God!) and will be here until late November utilizing DU’s fantastic study abroad program. It will probably be difficult to stay in touch with everyone individually, so I’m going to try my best to post my adventures here regularly so that anyone who wants to can stay updated. PLEASE keep sending me updates on your lives in the States, and know that I will be reading and loving them even if I don’t always respond! You can reach me by email, Facebook or Skype – keep in mind that I’m eight hours ahead of Colorado time! I also pay for internet by the megabyte, so even these will be more limited than at home. And before you ask, no, I did not get to go to any of the World Cup. I landed in Cape Town around the same time the final was starting in Johannesburg (where I had been earlier in the day – the airport was deserted), and I made it to my residence in time to watch the last few minutes on TV. I saw the goal, so that's all that really counts, right?

A little context (the next few paragraphs are a little textbookish, so I won’t be offended if you skip them): South Africa as a whole is very culturally and racially diverse. It has 11 official languages, the two most popular of which are English and Afrikaans, and almost everyone speaks at least one of the two. In fact, I have yet to interact with anyone who does not speak English, though it’s normal to walk down the street and hear tons of conversations I can’t understand. Most people are Black, White or Coloured (people who would be considered lighter-skinned Blacks in America but are actually a different race here), though other races are certainly present. Yes, these are all politically correct terms and it is ok to call someone “Coloured” if they are. After the apartheid was officially over in 1994, there was a country-wide healing process (the equivalent of which doesn’t seem to exist in post-segregation America). Although there are still distinct differences among the racial subcultures, the races are fairly well-integrated. Most people are incredibly open to talking about race and apartheid (unlike in the US) and are very friendly (much like in the US). On the plane from Johannesburg to Cape Town, I sat next to a Black Afrikaner who grew up in the northern part of South Africa and goes to university in Cape Town. He was very kind, curious about American culture, and excited to share South African culture, and we talked almost the entire flight about everything from our religion and favorite music to Nelson Mandela and Jacob Zuma.

I am staying in Stellenbosch, a smaller (and safer) town in the Western Cape. It is about a 40 minute drive or an hour train ride from Cape Town and is close to the beach. The drivers here are crazy, but there aren’t many cars on the road since people can and do walk everywhere they need to go. There are tons of shops and restaurants in the blocks around campus, and I’m slowly but surely learning my way around. Most of the restaurants have tables on the sidewalk that are popular at lunch time, and people in Stellenbosch like to enjoy the sun, walk slowly, and not worry too much about being on time (this is my kind of place!). Stellenbosch is known as the wine capitol of the Western Cape, which is internationally renowned for its wine; vineyards and wine tours are plentiful. The drinking age is 18, and alcohol is readily available and is a big (but well-controlled) part of the culture.

I’m studying at Stellenbosch University, one of the top universities in the country. At about 20,000 students, it is quite a bit bigger than DU, but it doesn’t really feel like it (granted, most of the students aren’t back from winter holiday yet). It used to be a solely Afrikaans-speaking university but has introduced English in more recent years and, as a result, has experienced a more diverse student population, including many students from abroad. The shift has created some tension, mostly because it will severely limit the opportunities for non-English-speaking Afrikaners should English become too dominant (Stellenbosch is one of the only Afrikaans-speaking universities). Today, each class is specified as being taught in Afrikaans, English, or a combination of both, and students can register for any of them.

I am doing a service-learning program in community development, and everyone who knows about it tells me it is a very good program. I am registered for four classes: Service Learning in Community Development (which will include about 60 hours of service at a sister organization), Economic and Developmental Problems in South Africa and Africa, Sociology: Politics and Cultural Change in Contemporary South Africa, and Afrikaans for Beginners. I guess it’s up to me to learn South African English on my own (I knew flat = apartment and holiday = vacation, but robot = stoplight?).

I’ll also be working on my undergraduate thesis while I’m here – hopefully a comparative study of some aspect of Catholic culture in South Africa versus in Colorado. There’s a Catholic Church close to campus which has Mass almost every day, so I’m excited to find it soon and get involved with the community, both for research and, more importantly, personal reasons. Christianity is popular here but is split among many denominations. Jaen, our program mentor says that there are many Christian churches and student chapels near campus, so I’m interested to see what kind of Christian/Catholic culture and groups exist on campus.

I’m settled into my new home in the international student and upperclassman residence. It’s one of several student residences in a gated and guarded community just across from campus and is very safe. I share a two bed/one bath flat with Sam, a wonderful girl from Washington State. She is studying English and was so sweet when she knocked on my door and found me bawling on my first night (turns out I’m not the only one). It has been so good to have her and the other American students as we learn the ins and outs of living in Stellenbosch, from figuring out banking, to blowing a circuit in our flat with our crazy American plugs and waiting hours for our electricity to come back, to buying more airtime for my phone (don’t call them minutes – they look at you like you’re insane). Oh, and the light switch for the bathroom is just outside the door, which I always forget until I’m actually in the bathroom.

It’s currently winter here in the Southern Hemisphere. Online it says it’s typically 40-60˚F in South Africa during winter, which doesn’t seem very cold to a Coloradoan. Well, it has been around 50˚F and I will be the first to admit that it is COLD here! It’s a heavy, wet kind of cold that sinks into your bones as soon as the sun starts to go down. I have been sleeping in full sweats and under about 100 pounds of blankets and still wake up in the middle of the night shivering (did I mention our flats aren’t heated?). I broke down and bought a little space heater for my room today, so hopefully tonight will go better. It does get quite warm during the day, though, and we have had no trouble walking around and eating outside in light sweaters or shirts.

There are about seven South African rand to every US dollar, so I have a mini heart attack every time I look at prices, then remember to divide by seven (if nothing else, my mental math skills will certainly improve while I’m here!). In reality, everything here seems to be a bit less expensive than at home, and I have been impressed with how cheaply we’ve been able to eat and shop.

Sometimes I’m able to pass as a local – my new friend on the plane was surprised to hear that I was just visiting from the US, and a girl that boarded the flight with me said she lived in Cape Town and asked if I did too – and sometimes not so much. Last night I went to dinner with a couple other American students, and our waitress quickly switched to English after simply greeting us in Afrikaans and receiving blank stares. Just now the guys that live in the flat next door came to introduce themselves. The first thing they said after shaking hands and exchanging names: “Oh, you’re American? I can hear it.”

Everything here is comfortingly familiar and alluringly different and new at the same time. Evergreens and aspens stand right next to palm trees and lush undergrowth that would never survive Colorado’s dry climate. The campus sits right next to a beautiful mountain range that reminds me of home. The other day Sam and I saw a foreign bird that looked like a giant kiwi with wings, and this morning there were pigeons in the parking lot. Cars look the same but drive on the other side of the road, and street names are painted on the curbs instead of posted on signs. Popular music is either American or sounds like it could be, and the fashion trends are almost exactly the same, except that people tend to be a bit more fashion-forward on a day-to-day basis (no t-shirts here; people look like they stepped out of a magazine). The food selection is much like that at home – almost every type of cuisine is popular, but always has some kind of twist that makes it just a little bit new… and it’s delicious! It’s like South Africa takes the American “melting pot” idea to the next level – it is actually diverse – and its European colonial history, African identity and proximity to the Middle East/India are all evident in the unique culture. And the accent is pretty sweet.

Oh, and the mascot: we are the Maties, and Stellenbosch University is nicknamed Matieland. I’m still not really sure what a Matie is, but I tend to picture a flying squirrel – think Rocky from Rocky and Bullwinkle….

peace and love