Here is just a small blog post. As I was visiting Boulder Beach these boys were performing by the open markets (the markets where you can barter for prices... and I am no good. I have decided that I am taking one of my local friends with me next time I want to go so they can barter for me!). These boys were really good performers - but the video is rather short because people kept stepping in front of me.
I believe that they are singing in Xhosa.
Enjoy!
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Friday, February 19, 2010
They Didn't Die to Have a Memorial...
As I am living in South Africa there is no possible way to step around the issue of apartheid. In a country that abolished it only a few years ago, the air is still sometimes thick with separation. In one of my classes Negotiating Transitions we are currently on the topic of apartheid, but I think we actually finished with most of the topic today and will be moving onto the DRC (Democratic Republic of the Congo).
Before I continue with what I have to say regarding Negotiating Transitions I'd like to pass on some of the things I learned when I first got here - I should say some I learned and some were refreshers...
Here there is a difference between 'colored' and 'black'. If you tell a colored person they are black or vice versa, you have insulted someone. Plain and simple. Moving on with insults... if you have ever heard the word kaffer, you know not to use it - unless you are looking for serious trouble. Kaffer = non-believer (in a nutshell). When I got here, I already knew that term, but what I didn't know was that there is also a term to insult the white Afrikaaners: boer. That is a name you don't just throw around. Some people here use it as slang with their close friends, and there is a way to use it so that it is not an insult, but being a foreigner I WILL NOT be using that word. In my eyes, I don't have the right to use the word.
On to what my class discussed today...
When I quote my teacher "...they didn't die to have a memorial..." I am referring to some of the discussion our class had on the Gugulethu Seven. The Gugulethu Seven was one of many murders in the fight against apartheid. It is hard for me to explain about these murders because I am just learning about them myself.
The movie Long Night's Journey Into Day explores some of the TRC (Truth & Reconciliation Commissions) and the Gugulethu Seven are one of four murders featured, and like I said, I can't fully explain them, so I will let the following websites be your teachers.
Website to the movie:
http://www.irisfilms.org/longnight/ln_biehl.htm
Please try and read all four stories. I have given you the link to the description about Amy Biehl's murder to start with. If you then look at the left hand screen you will see Stories in red, please view the other three below: Cradock 4, Magoo's Bar Bombing, and Guguletu 7.
I wanted to post a blog about this because... well... I was moved. There is no other way I can put it; there are no words I can form to explain to you what I felt when watching the tears fall from the faces of the victims' family members who were left behind to deal with the aftermath of their loved one's demise. If you can, watch the movie.
More interesting websites:
http://www.justice.gov.za/trc/index.html
http://www.capetown.dj/Regions/CapeFlats/Gugulethu/GugulethuSeven.html
http://www.sa-venues.com/attractionswc/gugulethu-7-memorial.htm
In one of the articles I had to read for class, which was actually written by one of my teachers and a colleague of hers, they started their article with a poem that I would like to end my post with.
Untitled
When the first slave was brought to the cape
he looked at the awesome mountain
which roots us to an eternal beauty
hundreds of years later affirmed
I am as free and as tall as this mountain
this mountain is more chained that I am
I will climb to the top one day
and call the adhaan before dawn
My voice will carry across the seas
to my loved ones in a land
I may never see again
and they will know that I
and the treasures I carry with me
are safe and always will be
for as long as beauty
and this mountain survive
- Shabbir Banoobhai
Before I continue with what I have to say regarding Negotiating Transitions I'd like to pass on some of the things I learned when I first got here - I should say some I learned and some were refreshers...
Here there is a difference between 'colored' and 'black'. If you tell a colored person they are black or vice versa, you have insulted someone. Plain and simple. Moving on with insults... if you have ever heard the word kaffer, you know not to use it - unless you are looking for serious trouble. Kaffer = non-believer (in a nutshell). When I got here, I already knew that term, but what I didn't know was that there is also a term to insult the white Afrikaaners: boer. That is a name you don't just throw around. Some people here use it as slang with their close friends, and there is a way to use it so that it is not an insult, but being a foreigner I WILL NOT be using that word. In my eyes, I don't have the right to use the word.
On to what my class discussed today...
When I quote my teacher "...they didn't die to have a memorial..." I am referring to some of the discussion our class had on the Gugulethu Seven. The Gugulethu Seven was one of many murders in the fight against apartheid. It is hard for me to explain about these murders because I am just learning about them myself.
The movie Long Night's Journey Into Day explores some of the TRC (Truth & Reconciliation Commissions) and the Gugulethu Seven are one of four murders featured, and like I said, I can't fully explain them, so I will let the following websites be your teachers.
Website to the movie:
http://www.irisfilms.org/longnight/ln_biehl.htm
Please try and read all four stories. I have given you the link to the description about Amy Biehl's murder to start with. If you then look at the left hand screen you will see Stories in red, please view the other three below: Cradock 4, Magoo's Bar Bombing, and Guguletu 7.
I wanted to post a blog about this because... well... I was moved. There is no other way I can put it; there are no words I can form to explain to you what I felt when watching the tears fall from the faces of the victims' family members who were left behind to deal with the aftermath of their loved one's demise. If you can, watch the movie.
More interesting websites:
http://www.justice.gov.za/trc/index.html
http://www.capetown.dj/Regions/CapeFlats/Gugulethu/GugulethuSeven.html
http://www.sa-venues.com/attractionswc/gugulethu-7-memorial.htm
In one of the articles I had to read for class, which was actually written by one of my teachers and a colleague of hers, they started their article with a poem that I would like to end my post with.
Untitled
When the first slave was brought to the cape
he looked at the awesome mountain
which roots us to an eternal beauty
hundreds of years later affirmed
I am as free and as tall as this mountain
this mountain is more chained that I am
I will climb to the top one day
and call the adhaan before dawn
My voice will carry across the seas
to my loved ones in a land
I may never see again
and they will know that I
and the treasures I carry with me
are safe and always will be
for as long as beauty
and this mountain survive
- Shabbir Banoobhai
Penguins and Beaches.
The reality of how poor some people are in South Africa is everywhere you go... but there is also beauty everywhere you go as well. Many people have a negative outlook on South Africa... well Africa in general, and through some of my postings I'd like to change that outlook - even if it is just a few people. South Africa is a place that I would recommend to anyone to come and visit; just don't expect to have a week of vacation here, plan on making a month out of it. Trust me, you will want to make a month out of it after you sit on a plane for almost 24 hours.
The following pictures are from Boulder Beach where penguins reside and also from Cape of Good Hope/Cape Point. Enjoy. :)
The first picture here is the lighthouse at Cape of Good Hope.
The second is come of the coast by Cape of Good Hope.
The third picture was taken closer to where the penguins where. These boys perform on the street as entertainment and as a form of making money... They were actually very talented.
1) Granted this picture is of just a mouse, this mouse is still part of South Africa's wildlife. I am trying to get as many pictures of any wildlife I can. Striped-mouse is the species. Birds here are too fast to get a picture of... more animal pictures to come! :)
2) Baboons are mean, take these signs seriously. I am honestly trying to get a picture of baboons but a) I can't get my camera out fast enough before they run off and b) Ive been in a moving car. Neither option allows for quality picture taking... and I am not going to get close enough for one of them to STEAL my camera, as that would be the demise of my blog.
3) More coast at Cape of Good Hope/Cape Point
1) Lighthouse from further away
2) Coast by Cape Point/Cape of Good Hope
3) Coast closer to penguins... also was a good swimming spot! :)
1) Coast close to penguins
2) Boy jumping into the water to cool down
3) Coast by Cape Point/Cape of Good Hope... on the way home in the bus snapping pictures
1,2,3.. PENGUINS, need I say more? :)
More penguins...
Best Valentine's Day EVER. What more could you ask for? Penguins are by the far cutest date I have ever had. ;)
The following pictures are from Boulder Beach where penguins reside and also from Cape of Good Hope/Cape Point. Enjoy. :)
The first picture here is the lighthouse at Cape of Good Hope.
The second is come of the coast by Cape of Good Hope.
The third picture was taken closer to where the penguins where. These boys perform on the street as entertainment and as a form of making money... They were actually very talented.
1) Granted this picture is of just a mouse, this mouse is still part of South Africa's wildlife. I am trying to get as many pictures of any wildlife I can. Striped-mouse is the species. Birds here are too fast to get a picture of... more animal pictures to come! :)
2) Baboons are mean, take these signs seriously. I am honestly trying to get a picture of baboons but a) I can't get my camera out fast enough before they run off and b) Ive been in a moving car. Neither option allows for quality picture taking... and I am not going to get close enough for one of them to STEAL my camera, as that would be the demise of my blog.
3) More coast at Cape of Good Hope/Cape Point
1) Lighthouse from further away
2) Coast by Cape Point/Cape of Good Hope
3) Coast closer to penguins... also was a good swimming spot! :)
1) Coast close to penguins
2) Boy jumping into the water to cool down
3) Coast by Cape Point/Cape of Good Hope... on the way home in the bus snapping pictures
1,2,3.. PENGUINS, need I say more? :)
More penguins...
Best Valentine's Day EVER. What more could you ask for? Penguins are by the far cutest date I have ever had. ;)
Didn't Know I Had So Many Fans.
Now that I know I have more people that are interested (thanks to my mother haha!) in my travels and stay within South Africa I will try to write more within the blog posting then just posting pictures with a little description. Feel free to pass my website along. If anyone has any questions just ask my Mom and she can either tell you what I have told her, or she can pass the question on to me.
I have been posting all these awesome pictures of amazing things to do and see... but there is also a reality to South Africa as well - and I would like to share just a few pictures of that.
Reality: Near Cape Town there is one of the largest "townships" that is extremely poor. Khayelitsha is huge; its population is around 2 million, give or take because how can a real census ever be done? One of the primary languages spoken there is Xhosa (and yes for my American friends, there are clicks in this language). Take these pictures for what they are: reality.
I have been posting all these awesome pictures of amazing things to do and see... but there is also a reality to South Africa as well - and I would like to share just a few pictures of that.
Reality: Near Cape Town there is one of the largest "townships" that is extremely poor. Khayelitsha is huge; its population is around 2 million, give or take because how can a real census ever be done? One of the primary languages spoken there is Xhosa (and yes for my American friends, there are clicks in this language). Take these pictures for what they are: reality.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Beach Day
Saturday was beach day. A few of us went to Strand beach and Bikini beach. The weather was a bit windy, but the water of the Indian Ocean was really warm - we just had to look out for sharks... and no, we didn't see any! :)
We also went for a drive after the beach and saw some of the African Penguin... as well as a rodent that is called a Dassie - which, it sounds like the rodent is more of a pest than anything.
Cederberg
These are a few of the pictures from our first AIFS excursion to the Cederberg Mountains. Berg in Afrikaans translates to mountain, so when we say Cederberg Mountains, its like saying Cedermountain mountains...
The vineyard picture is what most of the land looked like around some of the mountain and close to where our cabins were. We stayed in cabins. The family that owns the camping area actually makes most of their living from the wine industry. It was beautiful country, as you will see looking at the pictures.
You can see some of the cave drawings we also saw. Many of the cave drawings are thousands of years old... the oldest we were told were 88,000 years old.
The pictures below are before, during and after our hike up Cederberg. The hike was incredible, but extremely tiring. It was a steep, zig-zag climb...but well worth it! The picture with the four girls in it from left to right are Mary Afton, myself, Nicole, and Teresa. The picture with just the two girls is myself and Mary Afton.
The vineyard picture is what most of the land looked like around some of the mountain and close to where our cabins were. We stayed in cabins. The family that owns the camping area actually makes most of their living from the wine industry. It was beautiful country, as you will see looking at the pictures.
You can see some of the cave drawings we also saw. Many of the cave drawings are thousands of years old... the oldest we were told were 88,000 years old.
The pictures below are before, during and after our hike up Cederberg. The hike was incredible, but extremely tiring. It was a steep, zig-zag climb...but well worth it! The picture with the four girls in it from left to right are Mary Afton, myself, Nicole, and Teresa. The picture with just the two girls is myself and Mary Afton.
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