ramblings from a scattered brain in cape town

i have a few minutes to myself tonight and a bar of dark chocolate at hand, so i thought i'd update the interwebz on my life. it's in no way cohesive or conclusive, i assure you.


we've been doing amazing sightseeing stuff mainly since arriving here. that's because south africa takes the holiday srrsly and basically stops functioning from middle of january till 1st/2nd week of january. (which means that a lot of the organizations we're meeting with aren't open till tomorrowish aka HI, free time for educational non-service-related ventures!) i've gotten tan already, except we've probably had too much sun because one of the group members is currently in bed with sun poisoning. ...we went to the beach yesterday for new years day and i don't know if she wore sunscreen. oops. but i swam on the africa side of the atlantic yesterday and OMG IT WAS SO COLD! but so worth it. i always swim in the ocean wherever i go. just putting your feet in isn't good enough. it's diving in that matters. i couldn't stop smiling.


correction-- i stopped smiling once i remembered seeing an article in saturday's paper with an article about shark attacks on the front page. remembering that great whites frequent the waters off the cape coast turned that smile into a gasp rather fast.


there's so much to cover, idk how i could accurately tell you what we've been doing. we've gone to the top of mountains and toured Robben Island, where Mandela was imprisoned. we've been to townships which are the equivalent of slums for south africa i guess. they started in apartheid and haven't changed in the 17 years since it ended. which is a whole other issue in itself. and we have had the privilege of spending hours with people who lived through apartheid, mainly black people or mixed people (south africa historically classifies itself racially as white, black, colored, etc. and in this case colored means mixed.) we learned basic xhosa phrases, xhosa being the largely spoken dialect in this province. "molo" means hi. i would say "molo bhuti" to a boy, you would say "molo sisi" to me. "kunjabi" means how are you. stuff like that.
oh, and i've started eating substantial quantities of meat, this time WITHOUT the four hour long stomach ache. i ate ham the other day actually, which made me quite proud of my progress. i'm realizing i like meat more than i thought but i'm still excited to give it up again when i get back, because i just love being a vegetarian. so much healthier and humane and environmentally sustainable. and cheaper. the guy i marry should be grateful for my eating habits, cause they're cheaper. bam.


i think the two biggest things running through my mind are 1) how recent apartheid was and therefore how recently it ended. it's not exactly like that in america because it's been around 150 years.. although current and institutionalized injustices in america still blow my mind. anyhow, people i meet here lived through apartheid (!!), and that's not the case for america in its present day state. 17 years ago was in my lifetime. and that just blows my mind. i interact with people everyday who used to or probably still do see the white as the oppressor, or with people who used to be seen as the oppressors themselves. for the former, they have experienced this oppression or torture or injustice or mistreatment or discrimination firsthand-- more than just through history books or family stories. sometimes in the places we go my group of mostly white people is the minority, and getting used to the fact that people may see me as evil or oppressive is hard. not because they're in the wrong, because they're allowed that. but because that's just painful for me to imagine being in their position. the stuff people have been through...
2) but then there's also indescribable joy. i think one thing i am realizing is that there is that human component to anything and everything and it cannot be smothered or vanquished or belittled. in every policy, behind every rule, in every family, in every situation, there's humanity. without recognizing this, good things go bad. great ideas go sour. i'm reminded that smiles and eye contact matter. just being in some of these peoples' presence is transformative. some of this just can't be taught in a class or presented through a documentary. i'm grateful to be in college right now and to have this opportunity and others like it to travel and seek to understand at least a little something about how the world works.


tomorrow starts our real "service learning" component of the trip. we're working on a cultural exchange venture with some middle school aged girls, and i cannot wait. i know and love dearly the director of the organization, a woman named eunice. i went over to her house for tea today and i'm pretty sure i coulda stayed there forever. just being in her presence makes me feel more whole. we have meetings all through the week and then start working with a new organization in a few days. i'm prepared for lots of dancing, lots of smiling, lots of questioning and sharing and learning.


it's weird not being in the everyday lives of the people i love most from back in amurrica. i feel bad, like i'm doing something wrong by abandoning them. i feel awfully selfish, but at the same time i know this is an adventure i need to go on. i know god has prepared the way for me to walk, and i know not walking in it would be a sin. so really, all is well.
i do, however, feel like a fifth grade girl saying this: i think the thing i miss most at the moment is not having the capability to text my friends. that disconnect is strange. but at the same time it's wildly liberating! so overall, i love it. i am excited, however, to rid myself of the burden called alternative break leadership (although it IS a wonderful role, i promise) and strike out on my own. in ghana. i'm excited for time to write you all and read the books i want to read. currently i'm reading ellen degeneres's latest book, and it makes me chortle pretty much every stinking page. people leave the room when i start reading it because i distract them too much with my laughter.


i pray you blessings over your New Year. 2012. crazy life right there. when did it become 2012. i remember it like just yesterday when it was y2k; people stocked up on water and food and camped out in their basements, prepared for the worst like there was some atomic bomb. i challenge you to do the opposite. stop preparing and just DO already, you know? don't make goals for yourself, make challenges.