Saturday, March 22, 2008

Mid-semester Update

So, let me just start off by saying sorry to all of you who have been looking forward to my posts, only to be disappointed by my lack of updates. But, worry no more, for I have finally decided to shape up and write a summative update of my semester so far.

Well, as I was reminiscing today about my arrival in South Africa, I realized that those blissful days seem like they were ages ago. It really is crazy how much can happen in two months. I’ve seen penguins, parades, presidential motorcades, private concerts of popular Afro-pop bands, and professional rugby matches played in Cape Town. I’ve been on top of mountains, seen sharks up close and personal, and been on more wine tours than I can count. These things have all been part of my experience here so far, but they are by no means all of it.

I’ve also had the chance to connect with South Africans, to serve them and hear what their needs are. My classes have really given me a unique perspective to see my time here. My core class, Service Learning in Community Development, is focused on both the service and the learning aspects of community development projects. It has allowed me to learn a great deal inside and outside the classroom, which in my opinion is the best way to learn. As part of the course, we are all assigned to volunteer six hours per week at a local social-welfare organization. This gives us the chance to apply in the field the theoretical concepts we learn in the classroom, and also take our field experience back to the classroom for reflection.

My site placement is at a place called Horizon House, which is a residential and therapeutic care center for the mentally-disabled. It is located in a suburb of Stellenbosch, and has 108 residents ages 19-68 with all different types of mental, physical and psychological disabilities. While I work with adults, the intellectual age of all the residents is between 6-10 years old.

I have been blessed with the chance to work most of my time one-on-one with one of the residents who suffers from bi-polar depression disorder. We have been assigned various jobs to do outdoors, with the ultimate goal of planting a vegetable garden and making a compost pile. Working with Rudi has taught me a lot about working with people different from myself, as I am confronted with language, cultural, and developmental obstacles, only to name a few. As we’ve started to become good friends, I can see that sometimes a community’s needs aren’t necessarily materially-based, but relational and represent abstract needs such as affection and dignity. And to break down the communication barrier, Rudi and I have made a sweet deal: he teaches me words in Afrikaans, and in exchange, I teach him how to woo women in both French and German.

This class has also given me a slightly different outlook on what my role is here as a student on study abroad. Being engaged in community service, and studying theories of community development, poverty alleviation, and transitional empowerment approaches has allowed me to learn, apply, and also observe the reality of the situation around me. It is my firm belief that South Africa, in a way, represents a microcosm of the world and all of the problems it is facing in a 21st century context. There is incredible cultural diversity, the clash between the developed and developing worlds, racism, violence, crime, corruption, environmental degradation, economic exploitation, massive inequality, and pandemic diseases all in one country. It certainly does not make life boring, being in the midst of it all.

Realizing that I’m also a little behind on telling stories about things I’ve been doing recently, I thought I’d now take the time to talk about my recent trip to the Karoo. The Karoo is South Africa’s dry, arid, deserty area with rolling mountains, almost no trees, and lots of ghost towns. It’s pretty much their version of Arizona, minus the golf courses and retirement communities. Well, we (as the CIEE group) had the opportunity to spend the weekend there two weeks ago on an old farm. We stayed in these very quaint, homey farm houses that had no electricity, but had oil lamps and antique raindrop shower heads. Needless to say, it was a very slow, relaxing and calm weekend away from the city. The farm we stayed on grew mostly figs, but had other fruits and some animals, too. It was a five hour drive from Stellenbosch, and was located in a beautiful valley with a river running through it. The nearest “town” was a 45-minute drive over a rough, unpaved, hilly road through the country. We ate HUGE farm-sized meals (all of which contained figs in some form), and lounged around all day. It was a much needed break from hectic student life, and even made me think that living on a farm wouldn’t be too bad. We went on a game tour and saw some antelope, zebras, and little deer-like creatures called “duikers.” Our last evening there we went on top of a hill and took in the (stormy) sunset while drinking our “sundowners.”



(Left) The CIEE dudes with a stormy Karoo sunset
(Right) A few antelope and zebras we found on our game tour

(Left) "Hey Carl!" *click*
(Below) The mid-westerners import Euchre to the Karoo




(Left) Here's the full CIEE Stellenbosch group, with Bradley, our most awesome director, on the far left (p.s. I don't know what I'm doing)
(Below) As part of our group bonding we all got fake tatoos. I got a pitbull on my wrist.
(Left) This pretty much sums up what we did the whole weekend.











Having complete isolation from civilization, lots of delicious food, beautiful scenery, rustic but homey living conditions, and game animals is pretty much my idea of a good vacation.

And as I finish describing my last vacation experience, I will now start telling you about my upcoming adventure for Fall Break (a.k.a. Spring Break for you northern-hemispherers). I will be going to Reunion Island for one week to stay with a family friend from France who now lives and works there. This is going to be a dream vacation, in every sense of the word: a beautiful French-speaking tropical island, with volcanoes, palm trees and coral beaches. And despite the airfare costing a price that only monopolies can charge, at least I’ll have a nice place to stay for free, and a local to show me around. My plans for the week are: 1) be a beach bum, 2) fit some time in to relax when I’m not beach-bumming , 3) take lots of hikes up the volcanoes (yes, more hikes!), 4) take lots of awesome pictures, and 5) more beach-bumming.

T-minus six hours until I depart on the trip of a lifetime… and don’t worry I’ll let you all know how it goes. Bye for now!

3 comments:

Unknown said...

im super glad you had fake tattoo's. They make life so much fun. well. except when you're on a train to DC and you forgot that you had a pink/purple flower tattoo on your neck. but still fun.

Unknown said...

yeah carl, you just had to get a tattoo on your wrist huh?

petit carl said...

of course rahul. at least it was a fake one, because had it been with a real needle, well, that could just have been very messy.

:-)