Hello [mostly] Americans!
It’s been another week here in South Africa, and a busy one at that. Because we spent all of last weekend learning about the Indian Culture in Pennington, we had a lot of homework to catch up on. The stress level was pretty high among everyone and it was definitely noticeable. There was a lot less game playing, jumping, laughing and general adventuring. One picker-upper for me was my first mail! Thanks, Kayla! Your letter honestly made my week and a card went out in the mail today to get to you. Everyone else, if you write to me, I promise I’ll write back! I’ll post the address at the end of this blog.
We had another field trip for biology on Thursday. It definitely was not as exciting as last week. We went to a bunch of streams and had to measure the pollution and think about the industrial effect on them. I know, really exciting stuff. It is interesting in theory, but when you have to make a scale to measure how badly a polluted stream smells, it’s not so much fun. Then we headed to a nature reserve. We saw a bunch of giraffes and got really close, but that was by far the highlight of the day. The rest of the afternoon was spent measuring species along a quadrat and literally bushwhacking our way through vegetation higher than our heads. With thorns. And mud. And ticks. Again, not so much fun. To really put the cherry on top, the temperature was somewhere between 90 and 100 degrees with a heck of a lot of humidity. We were not happy campers, that’s for sure.
On Friday though, the spirits were back up. I turned in 2 seven page papers and a 5 pager after that, so there was a lot of weight off of my shoulders. Friday started off with our Kwase Afrika (About Africa) chapel. We heard from Clementine, a woman who lived through the Rwandan genocide and now lives in Pietermaritzburg. It was so incredible to hear her story.
I was thinking a lot about the genocides in the recent years and what we’ve been learning in History and Culture of South Africa. Did you know that the first concentrations camps were not from World War II? The first modern(ish) concentration camps were in South Africa in the 1600s (I think. Don’t quote me on any dates here). The people in the camps were not native Africans—they were the Dutch colonists, under control of the British. Of course there’s a lot more to it, but I wonder why everyone knows about the Holocaust, but most don’t know about the camps in South Africa and many don’t even know what Apartheid was. I wonder why our priorities lie where they do.
Feet dipped in the Indian Ocean at sunrise!
We spent Saturday in Durban. It was quite an experience roaming the market. I was very much reminded of the markets I’ve seen in China, the Bahamas, Venezuela and Hungary. The crafts and artwork was beautiful and I bought a few souvenirs there. We spent the rest of the afternoon at the beach…I still haven’t gotten badly burnt here!
Sunday was the best day of the week by far. It was Valentine’s Day of course, and we couldn’t resist a celebration. We had the option at the beginning of the semester to join a leadership committee, and I joined the activities committee. We decided to go big this weekend.
We found a recipe for chicken alfredo have the kitchen staff make, along with garlic bread and Caesar salad. We decorated Jabulani Lapa, a giant thatch-roofed tent by the waterfall with tablecloths, roses candles and dimmed lamps. We played Frank Sinatra, Harry Connick Jr. and Nat King Cole all night. Everyone dressed up nicely, took lots of pictures, enjoyed dinner together and we even danced some swing and salsa after dinner! Another favorite of the evening was the gift exchange. We all had drawn names earlier in the week, made valentines and bought a small gift in Durban. The evening wouldn’t have been complete had we not also converted our training wing into a movie theater by dragging in couches and topping it off with warm buttered popcorn and the movie 50 First Dates.
Kristen (roommate) and I before heading up to dinner.
Now we’re back into another weeks. Enjoy the pictures that I couldn’t post last week, and expect to hear from me again next Monday!
Mailing address:
African Enterprise
Hilary Hall
PO Box 13870, Cascades 3202
Pietermaritzburg, KZN
South Africa
Photo album that I’ve added on to (South Africa Beginnings): http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2046002&id=1037910026&l=89c4a544dc
Biology Field Trips: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2046258&id=1037910026&l=e1013496fc
New photos! Indian Ocean: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2047551&id=1037910026&l=19dadeee39
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