Ok, so I didn’t get to post this after I actually wrote it because I was writing it in the airport and on the 19 hour airplane back home, which had no internet access. I have decided to post it now, a little more than a week since I arrived back in the States. It actually sort of feels like longer than a week because it has been a weirdly easy transition back into my life in the States. So much so that it feels like my time in South Africa happened months ago, even though I know I can think back a week and remember being at Wits. I was warned about ’culture shock’ both going into South Africa and coming back to the United States, and surprisingly I didn’t really notice experiencing it either time. So anyways, I think this post will serve as a good last or near to last post for this crazy semester.
(Nov 18, 2009)
Last night was our final get-together for IHRE. We had little finger food, everyone got dolled up and lots of hugs were given out and pictures taken. I also have been going through my room, throwing away a lot of the staples that have gotten me through this semester (my granola, pasta, garlic, stupid bag of rice I could never seem to cook correctly, oatmeal… yeah ok, I ate other things, but I kind of stopped shopping recently, so those are the things that have remained despite a lack of shopping expeditions). Anyways, all of this sort of finalizing has made me come up with lists about what I am going to miss in South Africa and what I am looking forward to having back in the States. I thought I would share.
What I will miss (not necessarily in any order):
-The International House community (mainly the other American students, but others of course) which have fostered many game nights and tennis adventures, as well as just being a really nice base to come back to every day.
-Bunny Chow: this is an amazing Indian dish that I have never heard of in the States. Basically, you hollow out a loaf of bread and fill it with a slightly spicy dish including chicken or lamb etc It’s so yummy!
-Informal clubs on campus, I don’t feel like I really utilized these as best I could, but they had a really nice atmosphere and it was a great place to meet students who may or may not live on campus. Plus the atmospheres were a lot chiller than real clubs where you actually get dressed up and have to pay a cover fee etc.
-Walking around and being surrounded by all different languages and types of speech. While the language thing made me feel incompetent with my one language I am fluent in, it was so cool to be able to be around people with such language knowledge.
-All of the amazing people I have met through this program. While I feel like five months is a good amount of time for me personally to spend away from my friends and family at home, I do think that more time to bond with people here would have been amazing. I am a little disappointed I did not always take the most initiative to hang out with people, and I think I would start doing that more if I was here longer. However, I thoroughly appreciated every person I met through this program and the international house at Wits.
-The vuvuzelas blasting into the night keeping me awake and making me believe there was some sort of party going on that I was missing out on…. Oh wait, I can live without that actually.
-Staying at pretty nice backpacker establishments in places in the world that sound foreign, and learning that these different countries are not really as foreign as they are sometimes portrayed.
-Living in a place where the people are still very connected to their political situation and consciously working to move past the horrors of their very recent past.
-Cheap food. I love cheap food.
-The constant harmonizing and group singing. I am going to work to bring this back to the States. Haha
-People’s expressiveness. I feel like people here are much less reserved in expressing things like how they feel about situations or performers or anything.
-Clothing stores that sell clothes I can see myself wearing. That is kind of hard for me to find in the States sometimes, probably because I don’t do trendy that much. Not that South Africa isn’t trendy, but I think clothing stores may not focus as much on it or something.
-The expressions people use to punctuate sentences or thoughts. These include saying ‘aish’, kind of like when people in States may exhale in an audible way (So are you working this summer? Aish I don‘t know, I haven’t heard back from anyone yet). Also using hey at the end of sentences (it‘s been such a hectic semester hey?). Oh, and everybody calling each other ‘bra’ in replacement of ‘bro.’
-Summer
Things I am looking forward to going back to:
-My friends and family (surprise surprise)
-Progresso soup, especially minestrone. Yep. And on the subject of food: salsa (it’s not the common here)
-Driving on the right side of the road, and driving in general. And the prevalence of automatic cars. My mom and I had some major issues with the standard car that we rented in Cape Town. No crashes though, so yay!
-Not having to worry about how the dollar is doing versus the rand and getting upset about how much worse it is getting.
-Not having to worry about cooking for myself, eating delicious food cooked by my parents
-Speaking of which, Thanksgiving!
-Visiting Vassar
-Seeing David in My Fair Lady (and Full Monty at Vassar)
-Unlimited texting and not having to worry about buying airtime
-Student-run theater. Why do you not really have this Wits?
-Hanging out in my house, getting to see my dogs, sleeping in my own bed
I feel like that kind of diminishes both South Africa and home a bit because I can only outline a few things that stand out to me at this particular moment, but I hope it conveys how much I like both places. I don’t know if I will ever have another travel experience quite like this. Well, obviously not exactly because I finish school next year and will not be going abroad again for studies, but I mean the kind of emersion that I vaguely got to experience in South Africa. Yes, the studying part of study abroad is important and everything, but I think the most valuable thing you can get out of a study abroad experience is being able to truly experience a culture different in va personal way. Living in an area instead of traveling as a tourist is such a unique experience, because you interact with people in a different way, you get to do regular things like shop for food etc and you’re forced into the culture. You may not completely belong within the culture per se, but you certainly get a very good feeling for it and can learn how to interact within in it. This kind of experience is really why I decided to do a study abroad program and I think I got as much out of it simply through the cultural immersion as I did through the classroom, and honestly I probably got even more out of it in that sense. Anyways, I am incredibly grateful I got such a wonderful cultural experience, and actually I am also glad to be back with family and friends... even though my winter break is now two months long and I'm not sure if I'll be able to keep myself occupied for that long. I'm planning on filling my time with lots of trips to see people at Vassar, and maybe some time earning money.
Anyways, happy thanksgiving everyone. I hope you enjoyed reading this blog because I really liked having this place to record my experiences. I'm guessing this will be my last blogging attempt, at least for awhile, so I am signing off for now.
Friday, November 27, 2009
Saturday, November 7, 2009
And a semester comes to a close
So my last final was yesterday. Everyone is making plans to travel now that we have no classes or exams to worry about, and I will be joining them when my mom comes to visit me today. I am so super excited to see her! We'll be going to Kruger National Park (safari central) and then back down to Cape Town. I actually also traveled last weekend and I didn't write about it this week because I was really busy um studying. But no excuses now that exams are done... so you all get a lovely recap.
All of the Americans (one of the only times all seven of us girls have traveled anywhere together apart from our epic journey here back in July) joined a friend of ours from Botswana to go home with her for the weekend to see a traditional wedding. Her brother was getting married and she offered to take us to see the wedding. In this case, and I believe most cases, the couple had already been married legally at the courthouse and this ceremony was more for tradition sake than anything. Our day started out very early. We got up around 6:30 and arrived at the bride's house (where the wedding was to take place) at about 8:00, under the impression that the wedding would be taking place at 9. Now have I talked about Africa time on this blog? I believe I have, but I will stress the idea anyways, punctuality is not held in such intense reverence here as it is in the States. In fact, often set meeting times are more rough estimates at best. This was no different. The bride's family had been cooking since the day before for all the guests, but by the time we arrived, the bride still had not even started to get dressed. In fact, this did not start happening until maybe around noon. The actual ceremony didn't get going until maybe 2:30 or 3 in the afternoon. How did we entertain ourselves you might ask? Well, let me tell you. Teresa introduced to us all this wonderful card game called Monopoly Deal which we got intensely involved in for the better part of several hours. It is amazing and I will be buying myself a set and I advise everyone else to do so as well.
So, anyways, at around 3 we all got out of the van we had been sitting in and got ready to walk over to the bride's house.
The whole gang. Our host is the far left
What I found most interesting was the fact that the majority of the group we were gathered with was made up of older women, who were very enthusiastic. They kept making that stereotypical Native American noise, but instead of hitting their mouths with their hands they would make the noise by moving their tongues really fast. It's much more difficult that way, we all tried to perfect it. We then all gathered together and walked as a group to the bride's house.
And here's a picture of that!
The male section of the wedding party. Since we were part of the groom's side of the wedding we went with him to get the bride
On our walk over we sang a traditional song in Setswana (and by we I mean the older women were basically doing all the singing, though a few of us picked it up after quite a few repetitions). Basically the song we sang was simply asking permission to get the bride from her house, or something along those lines. There was a dance that went with it that involved very specific stepping which we were all getting to be good at by the time our ten minute walk ended. Then the groom approached the house and the flower girls and bridesmaids came out followed by the bride. The two stood together while people sang around them in circles.
I love how much people sing here. And no matter where you are, people harmonize and it sounds wonderful. I wish that was a tradition in America and people could grow up learning how to harmonize like that. I feel like Americans have a lot more reservations about singing in public and even singing in groups, its sad. Anyways, then the bride and groom kissed and everyone danced out of the yard. I am still not 110%, but I believe that little thing right there was the entire ceremony. After the bridesmaids and wedding party all piled into cars, with the bride and groom in a fancy old-timey car, and drove out for about fifteen minutes to this lovely little area near a stream with mountains in the background and took pictures. They set up this cute little table and posed around it.
Ok, there were closer pictures, but this one gets a sense of the landscape
Anyways, after that we piled back into our respective cars and headed back to the house where the meal was waiting. What followed was very similar to what happens after an American wedding I believe. There were toasts (none of which we could understand, but that's ok), dancing, a cake (which no one ate, it is apparently kept for one year before being eaten) and wonderful food. We all had not eaten since that morning, so I think we would have eaten non-edible things like sticks or something, but this food was very good.
Reception tent
Wonderful looking cakes which we all fantasized eating. No such luck unfortunately. One thing I wanted to know about though, why is the couple white? The only explanation people could give me was that the concept of 'white wedding' is more catered to white couples, but I think this is silly.
The wedding party went in and out, each time changing outfits and when they came back they would do a dance to enter back into the tent. It was very coordinated and even the little flower girls participated. I wanted to know how many practices it took for them to get to that level, but no one seemed to have an answer for me. Once it got dark the wedding tent was packed up and we all headed out. All in all it was (for us at least) a twelve hour experience, and a very interesting one at that.
The biggest culture shock moment in terms of the wedding did not occur during the wedding actually. The night before we were all hanging out in the living room area near the door and all of a sudden men start coming through the door with huge sections of a skinned cow. And before our eyes the entire cow crossed the threshold in parts and was placed into a giant freezer, including the head with all its teeth and its eyes. We were told that the cow was a gift from the bride's family to the groom's family. Apparently not everything fit in the freezer though, because when we woke up the next morning and went to cook breakfast, the cow head and neck was just lying on the kitchen floor in front of the oven. It was a little difficult to cook around it because it took up a lot of space, but Kelsey, who was put in charge of the eggs, did an excellent job.
The wedding itself overall felt like an informal section of a wedding I could see in the States, though with more group singing and dancing and less talking and no one really leading the ceremony. I guess that was pretty interesting actually. Everyone seemed to know what to do, but there was no minister or anything comparable to take a leadership role. Which of course meant that those of us who didn't know what was going on really didn't know what was going on. It didn't make it any less fascinating though. I also thought it was interesting how the majority of the people actively participating in the ceremony were not friends of the couple but older relatives etc. Though I don't think this is that unusual. People often argue that weddings are not for the couple, they are for their parents and their friends. I guess I can see how this is true.
I like how weddings like this in Botswana seem to be a melding of tradition and modern, since you have two sort of weddings (one legal and one traditional). A bride price is still figured out (interesting fact, Botswanan currency is named after their word for rain because they are a farming country dependent upon rain), but often the money goes to the couple rather than the bride's family. Also, the bride is 'given away,' which is similar to Christian culture, except that here it seemed like an entire community was involved in the process, where it is just the father in Christian ceremonies. Both of those are obviously more symbolic than anything else, but its nice to keep some tradition to center the ceremony.
Anyways, I have to go clean my room so that my mom doesn't judge the state of my room too much when she gets here. Enjoy your weekends everyone!
All of the Americans (one of the only times all seven of us girls have traveled anywhere together apart from our epic journey here back in July) joined a friend of ours from Botswana to go home with her for the weekend to see a traditional wedding. Her brother was getting married and she offered to take us to see the wedding. In this case, and I believe most cases, the couple had already been married legally at the courthouse and this ceremony was more for tradition sake than anything. Our day started out very early. We got up around 6:30 and arrived at the bride's house (where the wedding was to take place) at about 8:00, under the impression that the wedding would be taking place at 9. Now have I talked about Africa time on this blog? I believe I have, but I will stress the idea anyways, punctuality is not held in such intense reverence here as it is in the States. In fact, often set meeting times are more rough estimates at best. This was no different. The bride's family had been cooking since the day before for all the guests, but by the time we arrived, the bride still had not even started to get dressed. In fact, this did not start happening until maybe around noon. The actual ceremony didn't get going until maybe 2:30 or 3 in the afternoon. How did we entertain ourselves you might ask? Well, let me tell you. Teresa introduced to us all this wonderful card game called Monopoly Deal which we got intensely involved in for the better part of several hours. It is amazing and I will be buying myself a set and I advise everyone else to do so as well.
So, anyways, at around 3 we all got out of the van we had been sitting in and got ready to walk over to the bride's house.
The whole gang. Our host is the far left
And here's a picture of that!
The male section of the wedding party. Since we were part of the groom's side of the wedding we went with him to get the bride
I love how much people sing here. And no matter where you are, people harmonize and it sounds wonderful. I wish that was a tradition in America and people could grow up learning how to harmonize like that. I feel like Americans have a lot more reservations about singing in public and even singing in groups, its sad. Anyways, then the bride and groom kissed and everyone danced out of the yard. I am still not 110%, but I believe that little thing right there was the entire ceremony. After the bridesmaids and wedding party all piled into cars, with the bride and groom in a fancy old-timey car, and drove out for about fifteen minutes to this lovely little area near a stream with mountains in the background and took pictures. They set up this cute little table and posed around it.
Ok, there were closer pictures, but this one gets a sense of the landscape
Anyways, after that we piled back into our respective cars and headed back to the house where the meal was waiting. What followed was very similar to what happens after an American wedding I believe. There were toasts (none of which we could understand, but that's ok), dancing, a cake (which no one ate, it is apparently kept for one year before being eaten) and wonderful food. We all had not eaten since that morning, so I think we would have eaten non-edible things like sticks or something, but this food was very good.
Reception tent
Wonderful looking cakes which we all fantasized eating. No such luck unfortunately. One thing I wanted to know about though, why is the couple white? The only explanation people could give me was that the concept of 'white wedding' is more catered to white couples, but I think this is silly.The biggest culture shock moment in terms of the wedding did not occur during the wedding actually. The night before we were all hanging out in the living room area near the door and all of a sudden men start coming through the door with huge sections of a skinned cow. And before our eyes the entire cow crossed the threshold in parts and was placed into a giant freezer, including the head with all its teeth and its eyes. We were told that the cow was a gift from the bride's family to the groom's family. Apparently not everything fit in the freezer though, because when we woke up the next morning and went to cook breakfast, the cow head and neck was just lying on the kitchen floor in front of the oven. It was a little difficult to cook around it because it took up a lot of space, but Kelsey, who was put in charge of the eggs, did an excellent job.
The wedding itself overall felt like an informal section of a wedding I could see in the States, though with more group singing and dancing and less talking and no one really leading the ceremony. I guess that was pretty interesting actually. Everyone seemed to know what to do, but there was no minister or anything comparable to take a leadership role. Which of course meant that those of us who didn't know what was going on really didn't know what was going on. It didn't make it any less fascinating though. I also thought it was interesting how the majority of the people actively participating in the ceremony were not friends of the couple but older relatives etc. Though I don't think this is that unusual. People often argue that weddings are not for the couple, they are for their parents and their friends. I guess I can see how this is true.
I like how weddings like this in Botswana seem to be a melding of tradition and modern, since you have two sort of weddings (one legal and one traditional). A bride price is still figured out (interesting fact, Botswanan currency is named after their word for rain because they are a farming country dependent upon rain), but often the money goes to the couple rather than the bride's family. Also, the bride is 'given away,' which is similar to Christian culture, except that here it seemed like an entire community was involved in the process, where it is just the father in Christian ceremonies. Both of those are obviously more symbolic than anything else, but its nice to keep some tradition to center the ceremony.
Anyways, I have to go clean my room so that my mom doesn't judge the state of my room too much when she gets here. Enjoy your weekends everyone!
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Pictures take 5
The vineyard! So pretty
Haha, candid of Ameet, Teresa and Nathan with his camera. I have yet to see the pictures he got, but I'm sure they were amazing (these are all stolen from Teresa)
The whole gang after our wine tasting
View outside of our car window of a bit of the coast. I wish we had some more photos of this because it was gorgeous. If I come across some I'll post them
Sasha, Teresa, and me right near some hidden penguins
And this was the beach
Penguins!!
More penguins! They are so cute.
Ok, Teresa took over 200 pictures in the 3 days we were there, so this post may have a follow-up one with more photos. Very exciting
Monday, October 26, 2009
Cape Adventures
This weekend I went with five friends on an epic journey to Cape Town. It commenced on a 5:55am flight on Thursday and ended when we got back to International House around 11am that Sunday. The trip involved little sleep, much travel, and some amazing sites of the city in South Africa I am vaguely regretting not studying in.
Unfortunately my camera is still dead, so pictures will not be forthcoming until I steal them from others, but I can go through some highlights from our crazy but short trip down to the southernmost part of the African continent.
-Thursday, after waking up at 3:30am, booking it to the airport, getting held up and almost missing our flight and finally getting on and reaching Cape Town two hours after, we spent the day exploring the winelands of Cape Town. It was about an hour drive from where we were staying (a pretty nice backpackers place near the center of downtown Cape Town. Ok it's a backpackers, so my standards were fairly low, but still... nice) which we got to on a nice road-trip in a car we rented. The vineyard we stopped at was very nice with picturesque rows of grapes amid mountains in the distance. Cape Town is cool because it's right on the Indian Ocean, but it also has these gorgeous mountains. I experienced my first wine tasting and felt really sophisticated. Kind of. I had absolutely no clue what I was doing, but I think I pretended really well. I'm pretty sure the wines I liked were the less classy ones (judging from their pricing) but I don't care.
-Friday: In the morning we explored the downtown area, went to some markets and bartered for some souvenirs. I suppose we probably still got ripped off, but we did argue the prices down. Afterward we took a car tour of the coast. It was so pretty! We were trying to compare it to beautiful places in the world, but we couldn't think of something that quite matched. Nothing in the States at least. We stopped at this place that supposedly had penguins, but we didn't find any at first. Sasha and I went exploring over rocks and through the water and after a bit of trekking we finally found quite a few. They are so cute and awkward, they put so much effort into walking because it takes them so long to pick up their feet. We got like three feet away from a couple of them. It was so cool. I think there were some good pictures from that, so hopefully in my next post I can include those. We watched the sun set over the ocean while sitting on a rock ledge above the water. It was breathtaking.
-Saturday was our last full day in Cape Town. Sasha, Teresa and Nathan (the three other Americans who came along) went up Table Mountain by cable-car. Apparently you can see the entire cape from there. I didn't go up because I'm coming back to Cape Town with my mom in a few weeks (I'm so excited for that!) and I wanted to leave at least one thing to do new with her. That night we went to one of our friend's friend's birthday party which basically lasted until we had to get going for our flight home. We ended up packing up at 3:45am and heading out to catch our 5:45am flight back to Joburg. We were all pretty delirious at this point, and again we had some issues with getting onto our flight (mainly because two of our crowd booked for the day after accidentally) but we all made it back in one piece. Yay!
I am so glad I got the chance to visit Cape Town. Honestly I don't know why on earth it didn't happen earlier. And while I have enjoyed my time at Wits, I would not have complained if Wits happened to be in Cape Town rather than Joburg. I guess you can't have it all though.
Unfortunately my camera is still dead, so pictures will not be forthcoming until I steal them from others, but I can go through some highlights from our crazy but short trip down to the southernmost part of the African continent.
-Thursday, after waking up at 3:30am, booking it to the airport, getting held up and almost missing our flight and finally getting on and reaching Cape Town two hours after, we spent the day exploring the winelands of Cape Town. It was about an hour drive from where we were staying (a pretty nice backpackers place near the center of downtown Cape Town. Ok it's a backpackers, so my standards were fairly low, but still... nice) which we got to on a nice road-trip in a car we rented. The vineyard we stopped at was very nice with picturesque rows of grapes amid mountains in the distance. Cape Town is cool because it's right on the Indian Ocean, but it also has these gorgeous mountains. I experienced my first wine tasting and felt really sophisticated. Kind of. I had absolutely no clue what I was doing, but I think I pretended really well. I'm pretty sure the wines I liked were the less classy ones (judging from their pricing) but I don't care.
-Friday: In the morning we explored the downtown area, went to some markets and bartered for some souvenirs. I suppose we probably still got ripped off, but we did argue the prices down. Afterward we took a car tour of the coast. It was so pretty! We were trying to compare it to beautiful places in the world, but we couldn't think of something that quite matched. Nothing in the States at least. We stopped at this place that supposedly had penguins, but we didn't find any at first. Sasha and I went exploring over rocks and through the water and after a bit of trekking we finally found quite a few. They are so cute and awkward, they put so much effort into walking because it takes them so long to pick up their feet. We got like three feet away from a couple of them. It was so cool. I think there were some good pictures from that, so hopefully in my next post I can include those. We watched the sun set over the ocean while sitting on a rock ledge above the water. It was breathtaking.
-Saturday was our last full day in Cape Town. Sasha, Teresa and Nathan (the three other Americans who came along) went up Table Mountain by cable-car. Apparently you can see the entire cape from there. I didn't go up because I'm coming back to Cape Town with my mom in a few weeks (I'm so excited for that!) and I wanted to leave at least one thing to do new with her. That night we went to one of our friend's friend's birthday party which basically lasted until we had to get going for our flight home. We ended up packing up at 3:45am and heading out to catch our 5:45am flight back to Joburg. We were all pretty delirious at this point, and again we had some issues with getting onto our flight (mainly because two of our crowd booked for the day after accidentally) but we all made it back in one piece. Yay!
I am so glad I got the chance to visit Cape Town. Honestly I don't know why on earth it didn't happen earlier. And while I have enjoyed my time at Wits, I would not have complained if Wits happened to be in Cape Town rather than Joburg. I guess you can't have it all though.
Friday, October 16, 2009
A Reflection
Classes ended yesterday for me. It's a little funny to hear about everyone doing midterms back home, but not all that funny because I have to worry about finals. During my last couple of classes this week I was reflecting back on the program and why I came and what I expected out of it and what I actually found and I thought I would share.
Honestly, I did not come on this program for the academics. I care about human rights in a disconnected, I want to help people kind of way, not exactly in a I want to study this for the rest of my life kind of way. I figured I would get an ok academic experience at Wits, but honestly knew nothing about the school. When it comes down to it, I decided to go on this program because I wanted to experience a different culture (where I could speak English) that wasn't a country I had already experienced (ie England) and I really liked the internship aspect of the program. In my mind I figured that putting a semester-long internship in South Africa on my resume would look really good. And I had been wanting to do an interesting internship in a different sort of environment. I also wanted a study abroad experience that would give me a different academic experience than what I could find at Vassar or on a Vassar program where basically you were doing the same sort of classes, just in a different location. Very honestly, those were basically the only reasons I went. And there's the fact that sometimes I just like to be spontaneous. Not in the sense that I just packed my bags one day and left, but in the sense that this was not the most thought-out venture I have ever committed myself to.
Coming out of this program though, I actually really enjoyed my classes, surprisingly enough. I obviously didn't love everything about every class, but I enjoyed aspects of every class, even the core law class which was pretty awful for us not studying law. Through interaction with students here I feel like I have a much better sense of world politics in a way that I have never connected to at home. This could be because it seems like students here are much more politically aware. I feel like Americans sometimes have less of a sense of what is going on around them. Maybe this is because we are a super power and feel like we don't need to worry less about smaller states, which is a really bad excuse. I have gotten an even better sense of how other countries view the States (which is not well) and why this is. It makes me want to figure out a way of changing the world's perspective of the States, not sure how I could accomplish this though. Thoughts? haha
My last psychosocial class was basically forty minutes of all us gushing about how it was one of the best classes we have ever had. Not only were the teachers awesome at leading discussion, but the variety of views and opinions in the class made discussion really interesting. Not to mention that we read some amazing theorists on subjects pertaining to colonization, entanglement and how teaching can be used as a way to get out of these negative societal relationships. It felt like a really good sociological/education class. We also got to have really great talks about things like language, something I wrote about a couple of posts ago, which (Fiona pointed out in class) could never have happened in the States.
There were of course a lot of frustrating aspects of the program. I mean, it has been pointed out quite a few times by different writers that working with human rights, while important, often feels, I don't know, like you are trying to build this sandcastle, but you are building it right near the water and the waves keep washing most of it away. It often feels pointless. Of course, I'm sure that when it feels most pointless it is most important to keep fighting. Plus, it isn't like there have only been failures trying to get people equal rights. It just is a little bit of an uphill struggle.
So ultimately I feel like I was possibly the least academically committed to this program when coming here, but I got a lot more out of it academically than I was expecting. I feel a lot more interested in the international aspect of politics, even though I have also gotten a sense that the level of state inequality is just one of those international aspects which will keep the strong states (what up US) from respecting the international system. I also would love to further explore how things like the media we are presented with can influence the way we interact with each other, positively and negatively. This program hasn't taught me things like how to write a better paper, honestly I feel like paper writing is approached so differently here and plagiarism is not something you just hear about occasionally. We got back our law papers and she told us that she found that 1/3 of the papers had plagiarized. 1/3! I will not get over that. But anyways, the things I have learned within my individual classes I feel very confident in my knowledge of, which I am really grateful for. Sometimes I feel like I get out of a class and I know I learned a lot of important things, but I wouldn't really be able to give you a comprehensive sense of the class without looking at a former essay or my class notes or something. I'm not really expecting to go on to study human rights further than this program, but I appreciate the human rights focus that has given me a different perspective on things such as politics, international relations, media etc. I feel like the best kind of academic experiences give students a range of different ways of encountering material. So ultimately, while I may have been a tad impulsive with this voyage into South Africa, I am ultimately really glad I decided to do it.
I am just four exams away from the end of this program. It doesn't feel like I've been here for four month. One month to go.
Honestly, I did not come on this program for the academics. I care about human rights in a disconnected, I want to help people kind of way, not exactly in a I want to study this for the rest of my life kind of way. I figured I would get an ok academic experience at Wits, but honestly knew nothing about the school. When it comes down to it, I decided to go on this program because I wanted to experience a different culture (where I could speak English) that wasn't a country I had already experienced (ie England) and I really liked the internship aspect of the program. In my mind I figured that putting a semester-long internship in South Africa on my resume would look really good. And I had been wanting to do an interesting internship in a different sort of environment. I also wanted a study abroad experience that would give me a different academic experience than what I could find at Vassar or on a Vassar program where basically you were doing the same sort of classes, just in a different location. Very honestly, those were basically the only reasons I went. And there's the fact that sometimes I just like to be spontaneous. Not in the sense that I just packed my bags one day and left, but in the sense that this was not the most thought-out venture I have ever committed myself to.
Coming out of this program though, I actually really enjoyed my classes, surprisingly enough. I obviously didn't love everything about every class, but I enjoyed aspects of every class, even the core law class which was pretty awful for us not studying law. Through interaction with students here I feel like I have a much better sense of world politics in a way that I have never connected to at home. This could be because it seems like students here are much more politically aware. I feel like Americans sometimes have less of a sense of what is going on around them. Maybe this is because we are a super power and feel like we don't need to worry less about smaller states, which is a really bad excuse. I have gotten an even better sense of how other countries view the States (which is not well) and why this is. It makes me want to figure out a way of changing the world's perspective of the States, not sure how I could accomplish this though. Thoughts? haha
My last psychosocial class was basically forty minutes of all us gushing about how it was one of the best classes we have ever had. Not only were the teachers awesome at leading discussion, but the variety of views and opinions in the class made discussion really interesting. Not to mention that we read some amazing theorists on subjects pertaining to colonization, entanglement and how teaching can be used as a way to get out of these negative societal relationships. It felt like a really good sociological/education class. We also got to have really great talks about things like language, something I wrote about a couple of posts ago, which (Fiona pointed out in class) could never have happened in the States.
There were of course a lot of frustrating aspects of the program. I mean, it has been pointed out quite a few times by different writers that working with human rights, while important, often feels, I don't know, like you are trying to build this sandcastle, but you are building it right near the water and the waves keep washing most of it away. It often feels pointless. Of course, I'm sure that when it feels most pointless it is most important to keep fighting. Plus, it isn't like there have only been failures trying to get people equal rights. It just is a little bit of an uphill struggle.
So ultimately I feel like I was possibly the least academically committed to this program when coming here, but I got a lot more out of it academically than I was expecting. I feel a lot more interested in the international aspect of politics, even though I have also gotten a sense that the level of state inequality is just one of those international aspects which will keep the strong states (what up US) from respecting the international system. I also would love to further explore how things like the media we are presented with can influence the way we interact with each other, positively and negatively. This program hasn't taught me things like how to write a better paper, honestly I feel like paper writing is approached so differently here and plagiarism is not something you just hear about occasionally. We got back our law papers and she told us that she found that 1/3 of the papers had plagiarized. 1/3! I will not get over that. But anyways, the things I have learned within my individual classes I feel very confident in my knowledge of, which I am really grateful for. Sometimes I feel like I get out of a class and I know I learned a lot of important things, but I wouldn't really be able to give you a comprehensive sense of the class without looking at a former essay or my class notes or something. I'm not really expecting to go on to study human rights further than this program, but I appreciate the human rights focus that has given me a different perspective on things such as politics, international relations, media etc. I feel like the best kind of academic experiences give students a range of different ways of encountering material. So ultimately, while I may have been a tad impulsive with this voyage into South Africa, I am ultimately really glad I decided to do it.
I am just four exams away from the end of this program. It doesn't feel like I've been here for four month. One month to go.
Friday, October 9, 2009
And for the Prize
So, it came out today that Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize. The reasoning behind it was that the award givers wanted to show their support for his efforts to promote peace, diplomacy, and create "a new climate in international politics" (BBC News). We've been studying the UN a lot here in South Africa, which I thought was strange at first because we talk about it very little back home. Mainly because the United States, all big and mighty, hasn't always been much of a world player in the cooperative sense of the phrase. I mean, from a liberal international perspective, since the US is such a major power, it should be able to whatever it wants to.
Obviously this is not the absolute best attitude for world harmony, however in the current international atmosphere, where sovereignty of states is valued above everything else, there does not seem to be much of a move away from it. So, the fact that Obama seems to be respecting the international community a little bit more than we as a country have in the recent past apparently is one of the reasons he received the award. I can understand this, providing incentive for a powerful country to continue to play by the non-enforceable rules, but is it reason enough for a Nobel Peace Prize? I am certainly not saying I don't support the efforts of Obama to foster more international peace, but giving a prize for intention over results seems a little odd. You don't give a prize to the runner who has the best intention to cross the finish line first.
BBC.com quoted several different people's views on the matter, here are two from opposite sides:
Interesting points. I have not yet figured out my own opinion, but right now I fall in the middle. I do think that it makes an important statement giving Obama the prize, especially since the world opinion of the US in the past years hasn't been the most positive, but was he the absolute best person for the award... especially since he has not even been in office for a year?
Obviously this is not the absolute best attitude for world harmony, however in the current international atmosphere, where sovereignty of states is valued above everything else, there does not seem to be much of a move away from it. So, the fact that Obama seems to be respecting the international community a little bit more than we as a country have in the recent past apparently is one of the reasons he received the award. I can understand this, providing incentive for a powerful country to continue to play by the non-enforceable rules, but is it reason enough for a Nobel Peace Prize? I am certainly not saying I don't support the efforts of Obama to foster more international peace, but giving a prize for intention over results seems a little odd. You don't give a prize to the runner who has the best intention to cross the finish line first.
BBC.com quoted several different people's views on the matter, here are two from opposite sides:
SIAMAK HIRAI, SPOKESMAN FOR AFGHAN PRESIDENT HAMID KARZAIWe congratulate Obama for winning the Nobel [Peace Prize]. His hard work and his new vision on global relations, his will and efforts for creating friendly and good relations at global level and global peace make him the appropriate recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.
KHALED AL-BATSH, AN ISLAMIC JIHAD LEADERObama's winning the peace prize shows these prizes are political, not governed by the principles of credibility, values and morals.
Why should Obama be given a peace prize while his country owns the largest nuclear arsenal on Earth and his soldiers continue to shed innocent blood in Iraq and Afghanistan?
Interesting points. I have not yet figured out my own opinion, but right now I fall in the middle. I do think that it makes an important statement giving Obama the prize, especially since the world opinion of the US in the past years hasn't been the most positive, but was he the absolute best person for the award... especially since he has not even been in office for a year?
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Pride
So last Saturday I went with Sasha to my first gay pride event. I had been meaning to do this in Boston, but it never really happened. Next time I'll be sure to wear a costume, man we got shown up by so many people. Jeans and a t-shirt really don't do it in the gay pride parade.
We got there around 11:30 and weren't really sure where to go to get to the parade, but then we saw some people in wigs and matching outfits and figured if we just followed them we would end up in the right place. Luckily this was a good guess. We got there just as the parade was heading out, so we joined the mass right next to a float which was playing so awesome pop music (it is possibly one of the floats in the next picture down). I stole these pictures from the website dedicated to the event, since I forgot to get pictures off of Sasha's camera. I wish mine wasn't broken. So, there will be no pictures of Sasha or me, but the pictures should give you some sense of the event.
So something I was extremely surprised about was the fact that floats like the picture below were common and that there were not any Christian protesters on the side with mean signs. In fact, the only signs I could see that people were holding next the parade were things like 'we love you' and 'God loves you' which I was honestly shocked to see. From what I can tell, pride parades in the United States are always being protested, which is one of the big reason they happen. They are meant to challenge societal norms. In fact, when Act Up (the gay rights group in the 70s) was first coming into force, they relied on tactics to emphasize the fact that they were part of every aspect of society and were not going away. This is partially the reason for the use of so much spectacle (shiny costumes etc). The other reason is that they are just so much fun. Haha. Anyways, pride parades have been going on for quite some time in the States and they only just started in the 1990s here. It was mentioned at the festival following the parade that the first marchers walked with paper bags over their heads to protect themselves from abuse etc, and yet today there is a much more vocal supportive community than non-supportive coming out to watch the parade. What's the deal, USA?
Supportive church group! And I didn't see one member of the other kind of church group
Such awesome costumes all day! For serious.
Another comment I want to make. In my media class last half of the semester we actually talked a fair amount about gay rights and homophobia in the media etc. It's interesting because South Africa has one of the most progressive constitutions in the world and is one of the few places where discrimination against people because of sexual preferences is constitutionally not allowed. It is also one of the few places that allows for gay marriage anywhere in the state. But (there is always a but) the public opinion I have learned is often not so progressive. For one thing, it is common to hear that homosexuality "is not an African problem." As in, it doesn't really happen here and that it was unheard of until Europeans came in with colonization. While that is utter crap, it is a very pervasive opinion. In the media as well, homosexuals are portrayed more as wealthy, white guys living the fashionable life. There is little coverage of homosexual individuals and couples who appear just like their heterosexual counterparts. Of course they exist, they are out there in droves, but they get no coverage. Possibly this is because they don't conform to a stereotype, or maybe just because people don't want to hear about the ordinary, they want to hear about the spectacular. However, because the aspects of the gay community that get covered are ones that other people will be less likely to relate to, there is this element of 'othering' that happens. Through this, communities can believe that they know no one who is gay, so it must not exist in their little part of society. I find it so interesting that a country can have such a disconnect between the constitution and a serious section of their population.
But at the same time, no crazy protesters. Johannesburg seems to not be quite sure how to make up its mind about its homosexual population. Hopefully the more conservative parts of the community will come around. How this can be achieved is of course another area of speculation. Is it simply through exposure? And does this mean in the media or do you have to have real-life exposure to a different element of the society before you begin to accept it? Like in many places around the world, helping people create a healthier, more accepting environment will be an uphill battle. Homophobic violence is still very present in South Africa, with a lot of attention going towards the idea of "corrective rape" where men try to 'turn' lesbians through rape. Putting aside how incredibly disturbing a concept like that is, what does it say that men have ideas like these? Is this something that is being expressed within the South African culture? And is this simply because of homophobia or is it also men trying to reestablish the culture of male domination and gender hierarchy, since lesbians do not fit within the 'correct' female role?
I have no answers, which is why I am posing the questions to you. Make of them as you will.
We got there around 11:30 and weren't really sure where to go to get to the parade, but then we saw some people in wigs and matching outfits and figured if we just followed them we would end up in the right place. Luckily this was a good guess. We got there just as the parade was heading out, so we joined the mass right next to a float which was playing so awesome pop music (it is possibly one of the floats in the next picture down). I stole these pictures from the website dedicated to the event, since I forgot to get pictures off of Sasha's camera. I wish mine wasn't broken. So, there will be no pictures of Sasha or me, but the pictures should give you some sense of the event.
So something I was extremely surprised about was the fact that floats like the picture below were common and that there were not any Christian protesters on the side with mean signs. In fact, the only signs I could see that people were holding next the parade were things like 'we love you' and 'God loves you' which I was honestly shocked to see. From what I can tell, pride parades in the United States are always being protested, which is one of the big reason they happen. They are meant to challenge societal norms. In fact, when Act Up (the gay rights group in the 70s) was first coming into force, they relied on tactics to emphasize the fact that they were part of every aspect of society and were not going away. This is partially the reason for the use of so much spectacle (shiny costumes etc). The other reason is that they are just so much fun. Haha. Anyways, pride parades have been going on for quite some time in the States and they only just started in the 1990s here. It was mentioned at the festival following the parade that the first marchers walked with paper bags over their heads to protect themselves from abuse etc, and yet today there is a much more vocal supportive community than non-supportive coming out to watch the parade. What's the deal, USA?
Supportive church group! And I didn't see one member of the other kind of church group
Such awesome costumes all day! For serious.
Another comment I want to make. In my media class last half of the semester we actually talked a fair amount about gay rights and homophobia in the media etc. It's interesting because South Africa has one of the most progressive constitutions in the world and is one of the few places where discrimination against people because of sexual preferences is constitutionally not allowed. It is also one of the few places that allows for gay marriage anywhere in the state. But (there is always a but) the public opinion I have learned is often not so progressive. For one thing, it is common to hear that homosexuality "is not an African problem." As in, it doesn't really happen here and that it was unheard of until Europeans came in with colonization. While that is utter crap, it is a very pervasive opinion. In the media as well, homosexuals are portrayed more as wealthy, white guys living the fashionable life. There is little coverage of homosexual individuals and couples who appear just like their heterosexual counterparts. Of course they exist, they are out there in droves, but they get no coverage. Possibly this is because they don't conform to a stereotype, or maybe just because people don't want to hear about the ordinary, they want to hear about the spectacular. However, because the aspects of the gay community that get covered are ones that other people will be less likely to relate to, there is this element of 'othering' that happens. Through this, communities can believe that they know no one who is gay, so it must not exist in their little part of society. I find it so interesting that a country can have such a disconnect between the constitution and a serious section of their population.
But at the same time, no crazy protesters. Johannesburg seems to not be quite sure how to make up its mind about its homosexual population. Hopefully the more conservative parts of the community will come around. How this can be achieved is of course another area of speculation. Is it simply through exposure? And does this mean in the media or do you have to have real-life exposure to a different element of the society before you begin to accept it? Like in many places around the world, helping people create a healthier, more accepting environment will be an uphill battle. Homophobic violence is still very present in South Africa, with a lot of attention going towards the idea of "corrective rape" where men try to 'turn' lesbians through rape. Putting aside how incredibly disturbing a concept like that is, what does it say that men have ideas like these? Is this something that is being expressed within the South African culture? And is this simply because of homophobia or is it also men trying to reestablish the culture of male domination and gender hierarchy, since lesbians do not fit within the 'correct' female role?
I have no answers, which is why I am posing the questions to you. Make of them as you will.
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