First day of classes!!

As I've mentioned before, its quite a hike from my house to the University--the whole walk is uphill. This posed a big problem for my newly broken foot. My program arranged for a driver to take me to and from classes. I think I look pretty stylish with my moon boot and crutches while riding in an old, blue VW van.

I'm enrolled in four classes, but only two professors showed up today. The two classes were "Poverty, Development, and Globalization" and "Medical Anthropology." They were both pretty cool, but I have to drop one of the classes I'm taking (I'm enrolled in too many) so we'll see how the other two work out next week. I'll post my final classes when I figure them out.

My classes seem to have a lot of international students, but I did meet one South African who told me that he's obsessed with American politics. The conversation took a weird turn when he compared white South Africans with African Americans--not a comparison I would make. He told me that both are trying to make inroads in the mainstream culture and politics; he went on to say that African Americans are doing really well in this area. Examples of this include Beyonce Knowles, Chris Rock, and Barack Obama as the best America has to offer. I thought it was surprising to hear the three of them grouped together! I didn't agree with much this guy had to say, but it was definitely interesting to hear how he views American politics and culture.

Wine Tour

Cape of Good Hope

The view from Lover's Walk

hospitals, wine, and internet

There's a lot going on in my life these days. As Emily wrote, I went to the hospital on Sunday night and found out that I had broken one of the bones in my left foot. The doctor put a temporary cast on, and I had to use crutches to get around. And, as Emily said, I learned a lot about the South African health care system. Although they would not take my insurance, it wasn't any where near the amount you would have to pay without coverage in the States. Also, the hospital was clean, efficient, and modern. I hadn't expected much less than that, but I was also quite nervous on the way to the hospital. My blood pressure was unusually high when the nurse checked me in and she asked if I was feeling nervous or anxious about anything.

The next day I was off to Stellenbosch where we planned a wine tour. This trip was a little tougher than I thought it would be. I found that walking more than half a block was exhausting! This is the first time in my life that I've had crutches and they are definitely hard on your body. But everyone tried to help me out by giving me piggy back rides, and our bus on the wine tour tried to drop us off as close to the tastings as possible. The wine was great, but I didn't drink as much as others because I am still getting used to crutches. I hope to go back to Stellenbosch when my foot is healed so that I can take another wine tour and explore the beautiful mountains.

We got back yesterday, and today I met with an orthopedic surgeon who looked at my foot. Apparently, I have a Jones Fracture (named for Sir Reinold Jones who broke the same bone dancing) which is really common. It should heal in six weeks. That seems like forever to me, but as my roommate pointed out, my foot will be healed by Spring Break. For now I'm wearing a "moon boot" which pretty much describes what it looks like. My foot really isn't in any pain, but the rest of my body hurts from using the crutches.

Its been tough to have this happen without my family and friends from home, but everyone here has been great! There are few things i can do for myself right now and my house mates have all been great about helping me up and down the stairs, making my food, and giving my piggy back rides!

Finally, we just had the internet installed in our house. Its perfect timing for me because its hard for me to walk to the internet cafe and I hope it means I'll be able to be in better contact with all of you!

An Unfortunate Accident in a Canoe

Hi This is Emily Witt, SG's traveling companion and guest blogger extraordinaire.

SG limped off to Stellenbosch today to do some wine tasting and traveling. You might be asking yourself why SG was limping. We went for a 3 day canoeing expedition this past weekend. On the third day, an exhausted SG and I rounded a bend only to encounter hectic and dangerous rapids. From my steering position in the back of the canoe I made a costly mistake sending our canoe into the air and dumping ourselves and our belongings into the rushing water. SG was throw onto a nearby rock and the canoe came crashing down on her, fracturing her right foot. I had to carry her the more than 6 miles to the nearest road.


.....and now for the story of what actually happened. SG tripped coming down the entrance to our house and injured her LEFT foot. I gave her the great advice that she would probably just sleep it off. Against this advice, SG went to a clinic yesterday where she learned that her foot was fractured and was informed that if she hadn't come in, her bone might HAVE DIED! She was given some sweet crutches by an apparently attractive young doctor who looked like he had just come in off the beach in order to wave her x-rays around in the air and tell her that her bone might die.

So, Today, armed with a cast covered by a plastic bag, SG trooped off to Stellenbosch, which is why I have the honor of writing this guest post. Nothing was going to keep SG, the insatiable lush, away from her wine tasting!

I'd also like to mention how good natured SG is being about all of this. Today she told me that she's happy to have the experience of being exposed to the South African healthcare system!

Beachin' it up!

Yesterday was a great day at the beach! My house mates and I all went down to Clifton 4. There are 4 Clifton beaches and they each have their own personality. There's one that's a nude beach, one that's a gay beach, one for models (or model wannabes) and finally the beach we went to is for young people and families. We spent the afternoon there and then stayed for some music in the evening.

Although the water is totally freezing, I went for a swim. Once you go under your whole body becomes so numb that you don't really notice how cold the water is! I know this sounds like some kind of perverse torture, but the beach was so hot you had to something to cool off.

Later that night my roommates and I went shopping for dinner; unfortunately as I came through the gate to our house I tripped on the step and hurt my foot. I didn't twist my ankle, but I landed really hard on the side of my foot. I'm trying not to let this get in the way of my plans. I have no classes next week and we've booked a wine tour for three days. I'm going to ice my foot all day today and hopefully it will be fine for my trip. I think the key is positive visualization. At least, that's what my mom would tell me.

Freshers Braai

So, I'm learning some new South African terms. For example, "fresher" means freshman or first year student; "braai" means barbecue; and "varsity" means school.

On Thursday I hiked up to varsity for a braai with the freshers. It was much colder than we expected and the wind was really blowing. When we finally got to the rugby field for the braai, it was packed--tons of freshers. There was a big stage and long, long lines for free food. For the Trinity community reading this, it was a mix between the Spring Weekend concert and the crazy bbq which always follow. . .Even though it was discouraging, we stood in the long lines for food; when we finally got our food it was sooo windy that we tried to seek cover by sitting between some cars and a wall. We were not particularly successful. After much laughing over the craziness of the situation, we ended up eating at a restaurant. Even though it was kind of horrible, we ended up having a good time and laughing about our first experience at a braai.

Pictures on blog?!

I'm trying to figure out how to post pictures on my blog...but its not working. I think the problem is that the pictures are too big. Does anyone have ideas about how to do this? I was able to do it back in the States, but now that the internet is a little slower, it won't work. I could really use some advice!

Cape Town, South Africa

Greetings from sunny Cape Town!! I’ve been here for almost a week now and I am experiencing a mixture of excitement, awe, and a little bit of homesickness.

I arrived early on Thursday morning; I was greeted at the airport by several University of Cape Town students who herded us all on to buses which took us to our new homes. Unfortunately, my bus had a new driver who did not know the area around the University and I ended up spending over four hours on the bus. It was pretty inconvenient since I was starving, tired, and dirty but everyone on the bus was friendly. Finally, I arrived at my new house, with Emily (my travel companion and good friend, not to be confused with my sister) which is beautiful and definitely worth the four hour bus ride. We share the biggest room and have our own bathroom; the house is pretty big and there are 9 of us Americans living here. The highlight of the house is a sun room and the beautiful garden which surrounds the house. Everyone in Cape Town is obsessed with security, so we have a big fence surrounded by shrubs—it actually makes the house quite beautiful. Conveniently, its right across the street from UCT and our trek up the mountain to class shouldn’t be too far. Can you picture me here yet?

Speaking of mountains—all of Cape Town has a beautiful view of mountains (including our house). I feel lucky to live in such an inspiring place. Sitting on the beach yesterday, I was able to enjoy the beauty of bright blue (but icy cold) water and giant mountains. Not a bad spot to spend the afternoon.

Our orientation has been acquainting us with many parts of Cape Town. I live in the Southern suburb of Rondebosch, but I’ve already been downtown, had lunch in a township and traveled along the peninsula. I hope to be able to go back to some of the townships and do some volunteer work—our trip consisted of lunch and kids performing hip hop. I did not feel like I learned much about the history of townships nor how they function today. On the same trip we got to explore Cape Point and Cape of Good Hope (not actually the southern tip of Africa) which is definitely one the most amazing places I have ever been. I took lots of pictures and as soon as I have internet in my house (I’m currently at an internet café) I will post some of them here.

Along with meeting tons of nice people, these have been the highlights so far. However, there have been some things that take getting used to, for instance there are rolling blackouts because there is not enough power to supply the whole country. And on Friday night the whole city lost power which was both annoying and, frankly, pretty scary. There is also the constant discussion of safety; everyone focuses on what to do be safe—I obviously want to follow their advice, but it’s hard to be aware of so many dangers without becoming overly anxious. One other thing that is frustrating (but much less serious) is that internet access is nothing like what we have in the States, it’s often slow and can be hard to come by. Hopefully, we’re going to pay for wireless to be installed in our house, but it may take a while. Lack of internet makes it hard to talk to people back home (I left home a week ago and still haven’t talked to my parents…) but I also know that I can do without the luxury of internet for a little while.

I hope to write more about my experiences soon. This is just a brief overview of what I’ve been up to but I hope in the future I will be able to write more about the culture, history and politics of South Africa. Classes don’t start for another week and a half but I think that will give me a better chance to understand the complexities of the South African situation, not just because of the course work but also the interactions I’ll have with the students. So, keep checking!