Valentine’s House Dinner and Shark Diving = Best Weekend Ever

On Friday, February 17^th, (exactly 6 months until my 21^st Birthday WHOOT WHOOT,) we went into Camps Bay, which is a beautiful beach, wealthy town. We went to a restaurant called The Bungalow; the whole restaurant is outside on a cliff that looks right at the ocean. All the tables are couches and there is even a pool. I had sushi and tried one of the specialty drinks. We all got dressed up and beforehand took pictures like it was prom, it was very cute. After dinner we went out for ice cream and tried to return home early because we needed to be up at 3:45am to go SHARK DIVING. At 4:15am the diving company picked us up and we drive 2hours to the #1 shark hotspot of the world. We were given breakfast and coffee (finally) and then brought to the boat. We were only 15minutes away from shore when we saw our first shark. We all suited up in wetsuits and 7 of us at a time were able to be in the cage. We saw SIX different great white sharks; they were literally inches away from our faces and one even jumped out of the water. After the dive we returned to shore around 9:30am, had an early breakfast and were driven back home. On the way home we saw baboons crossing the road, apparently it is equivalent to deer crossing the road at home, there are even signs saying “beware of baboons” on most the roads.

“Sharks are friends, not food.”

Valentine’s Day Fundraiser for The Place of Hope

To give you a quick overview of how AMAZING the night was this was my facebook status that I posted right after returning home from the fundraiser:

“Least touristy experience I'll ever get in Africa + The most spiritual understanding I'll ever have + Meeting/ sitting with a chair of the Economic Development committee of Cape Town + Being randomly honored for my service + randomly running the raffle of an event I wasn't even supposed to attend = Best Night in South Africa so far aka The Place of Hope Valentine's Day Fundraiser.”

I returned home from service around 3:30pm and at this point Emily and I hadn’t officially accepted the offer to attend the Fundraiser with Jenny, the director of The Place of Hope. I had a safety and spring break meeting and Emily didn’t want to attend alone. So I decided to go grocery shopping and while out we made the executive decision to go – this meant I had less than 2 hours to find an appropriate outfit, shower, and get ready before Jenny would pick me up! I was literally running around the house like a chicken with their head cut off trying to find something that would be appropriate, and since Jenny didn’t explain what to wear I was a little stressed out. I finally settled on a black and blue skirt I had brought, my housemates black top, a black sweater, and flats. My friend Corinne did my hair in this adorable braided bun. I attended the beginning of the safety meeting where we discussed past incidents, the possibility of a night security guard, and how the camera system works. Basically, the house is as safe as you make it – if you bring people in you risk things being stolen, and when you are out, if you walk with a group and are aware of your surroundings you are more likely to be safe.

I was then picked up and we drove to this sports complex in town- surrounded by baseball fields and located in front of the Mountains, it was beautiful. The event consisted of a traditional dinner, live music, and speeches. I sat at a table with Emily, Jenny, Jenny’s family, and the Economic Development Chair of Cape Town, and his wife. The man who was singing - only love songs of course because this took place on Valentine’s Day - was amazing. The food: 3 types of chicken, potato salad, regular salad, noodle salad, potatoes, rice, and fruit all prepared in the traditional African way. The speeches were amazing- women who used to live in the shelter came and told their stories. Jenny spoke about the importance of the shelter, and even honored Emily and me. And by the end of the night I ended up being the person running the raffle – butchering the South African names to the best of my American ability J

Hearing the stories and the spiritual component used at Place of Hope was extremely eye opening and I can’t even imagine missing this event. 

First Day of Service

On Tuesday, Feb 14th,  I had my first full day of service at The Place of Hope. When I arrived it was explained to me that the woman who runs the shelter, Jenny, had meeting sin town and wouldn’t be in till mid afternoon so I should work in the “crèche” or daycare. I was lead to the daycare where I met the main teacher Veronica, and the other intern, Emily, who is from Germany on her gap year, working at different non- profits within South Africa. She has been at Place of Hope for a month and will be moving on to her non- profit mid- March. Emily and I were put in charge of the younger group of children, 0-3years old. These kids just looked like a bio-hazard, covered in snot, and dried food on their faces. YUCK. I was disappointed because I was told that my internship would not include babysitting but tat is exactly what I was asked to do. Emily and I spent the next 3 hours trying to entertain the younger kids, who were just not having it. While we were with the one group, Veronica was working on a Valentine’s Project with the 4 and5 year olds. These kids seemed excited to see a new face in the classroom, but shortly turned into obnoxious, rude kids, telling me they didn’t have to listen to me. At this day care all the children have a 2.5 hour nap time after lunch, during this time, Emily, another teacher, and I walked around the local town in which Place of Hope is located. This town had many different sized houses, but the town itself is what I imagined most south African towns to look like, more desolate, lots of street vendors, with more obvious signs of poverty one might not see in Observatory or in the more “posh” areas of downtown cape town. After we walked around Emily and I met with the director of the shelter, Jenny. She explained to us that in the future we would not be in the daycare but organizing donations, running classes and programs for the women, and helping with fundraising, and other departments where they have had to let people go because of financial difficulty. During this time I also met woman who for the last 20+ years has been on the committee for the largest bicycle race, which happens in South Africa every March. This year, she is organizing a way to get the women from the shelter involved – the racers need these bags for belongings and something to do with the timing mechanisms they use for the race, so she has found someone to teach the women how to sew and the women will be sewing thousands of these bags. At the end of our meeting we were also invited to the Valentine’s Day Place of Hope Fundraiser, which happened to be that evening, and Emily and I graciously accepted the invitation. By this time it was a little before 3:00pm and my transportation had arrived to pick me up to go get another housemate and return home. 

Everything is starting to come together

Everything has finally started to come together. Most of the house has started working at their service sites (I start Tuesday.) My friends Lauren and Charlie seemed to have he most intense experience so far, they are both working at a school and after their tour the principal just dropped them off in their own classrooms and said "okay, teach whatever!" Unbelievable!!! Lauren said she taught math for 2 hours and Charlie said he tried natural sciences but eventually they just spoke about America! To me that is the coolest and scariest experience ever!
Besides that we have been going to classes for 2 weeks now. I handed in my frist paper, watched some ridiculous movie about Botox and what is happening to women in society and had my first group presentation this morning. For my Leadership in Grassroots Organizations we will have group presentations every friday morning. ugh.
Last night we had our second reflection where we talked about our expectations going into the program - how much would be South Africa how much would be service and how much would be learning compared to how its actually been (it was an art project and we all know my art skills lol.)
Most of the house joined the hiking/ camping club at school and are on a long weekend trip, there are 8 of us home and this weekend the plan is to go this restaurant known for its desserts, check out The Old Biscuit Mill, go watch Kevin (our housemate) in his volleyball tournament, and attend a bbq on Sunday!.. Oh, and homework of course :)

Make sure to check facebook for updated pictures!!!

Marquette Classes: Day 1

Today, Friday, we had our first Marquette sponsored classes. First from 9:30-11:30am we had Leadership in Grassroots Organizations, the professor has lived in townships for her research and is very interesting. For the class we will be working up to a huge end of term Advocacy project where we write a 10 page paper, interview locals, and put together a presentation to advocate some idea within the community. After our lunch break we had our second class, Theology of Reconciliation and Justice. The professor had us go around, introduce ourselves and our religious backgrounds. In this class we will be reading books about the reconciliation process after the Apartheid and having weekly discussions. We also will be learning about Christianity in Africa, which is very similar to a class I already took at marquette.
Both seem to be a lot of work, but the professors are very similar to Marquette professors and since the call is all America students, I believe it'll be easier to understand and keep up!

Care Package List *hint hint*wink wink*

Hello again!
Every day I realize how many things I love in America that are not available here! So if for some lovely reason (mom and dad) you have some desire to send me some love from home :) here are a few things I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to have.
- Annie's Organic Mac n' cheese
- Newmans 97% Fat Free Popcorn: tender white or kettle popcorn
- Organic Peanut Butter
- Crystal Light lemonade packets
- Starbucks Instant Coffee Packets (if they come flavored: Hazelnut) ---> We don't have a coffee maker in the house but we have some european hot water maker thing!!! and the early riser house mates have noticed my morning need for coffee :)
- My blue checkered Madewell shorts - should be in my closet or the dresser without the mirror.

I know I've forgotten something but those would mean the world to me!
Miss you all!

Class Day 2

Day two was not as positive of an experience as day one was. Because my class was at 12pm I had to go to school with the early group at 7:30am. After sleeping way past my alarm, I was forced to realize I did not purchase breakfast food and that I was expected to socialize with the morning people. I enjoyed my ride to school in the back of the van, basically asleep. Once we arrived on campus some people went straight to class, while others, including myself, had errands to do. I went to the Great Hall to try to get my student ID, and after sitting in the wrong line, and then being cut by a ton of people in the correct line, I was able to get my ID. Here nothing is labeled and no one is very helpful, I asked for directions and got several mumbled or even more confused answers. Once I got my ID (the picture looks like a mug shot) I had to get into another line to activate it. Then I attempted to find the office where you go to register your laptop with the campus Internet network. After walking through various buildings looking like a lost tourist I found an ally which lead to the tiny room filled with students and their computers. I was some how able to jump the line, only to find out my ID number has not been registered in the system and therefore I could not register my computer. I then ran into Devin, who lives in the house, and we tried to see if we could get into the library with our IDs, which did indeed work. I stayed in the library attempting to find an open computer to get on my email/ facebook to kill some time, but EVERY computer was in use. When I finally found one, and thought I was so lucky since it was in a prime location, I was informed I needed to leave because I was in the staff only section (oops) GET SOME SIGNS PLEASE!!!! By then it was only 10am, so I found a place to sit in the library and listened to music/ typed some blog posts to upload later. By 10:30am I had typed out three separate blog posts and didn’t know what else to do! I really want to join a club but can’t find the student center that would have that information. The UWC campus is about 4 times the size of Marquette, and you would never guess that until you leave the courtyard and realize every sidewalk does not take you back to where you came. Also nothing is actually labeled, and we were informed not to depend on the campus maps because they have not been updated or include building names!

To say the least, this morning was very frustrating and confusing. I’m hoping that when I’m on campus on Friday with everyone we will be able to register laptops and find sign ups for clubs. Until then I am the lost and clueless international student, that at Marquette we always laughed at under our awkward smiles.

Lion’s Head Hiking Trip

On Tuesday, January 31st, after spending the afternoon tanning while others were in class, Charlie, Lauren, Corinne, Bridget, Marie, and I went on our first hike. We went to Lion’s head, which is supposed to be a simple hiking trail. The first 15min is straight uphill on a dirt road, and then you hit all rocks. The hike turned into rock climbing; there were even spokes and chains built into the rocks for us to use to pull ourselves up. And every time you think you made it to the top, it was NOT the top! It was really fun though, once on the top we could see Cape Town, Camps Bay Beach, and Robben Iland. Plus we got to watch the sunset. Then we climbed down, which was also difficult, especially since it was in the dark (oops.) We left our house around 5:45/6pm and returned a little before 9pm!

First Day of School

Our first day of school was Monday, January 30^th. Luckily I did not have class until the afternoon so I was not picked up for class until 12:15pm, unlike others who had to be picked up at 7:30am. According to the book my class started at 2pm and ended at 3pm, however, upon entering the class we learned it is in fact a two-hour class starting at 1pm. To say the least the professor was not amused. The class Gender and Development, seems like it’ll be very interesting and focuses a lot on the perspective that a social worker will need to understand. And we already have a paper due Monday!!! AHHH! Since most of the house is in this class we could be picked up after class. When we got home I took a nap and after dinner we played various card / board games.

Based on others’ experiences on the first day I’d say mine wasn’t half bad. Hearing about the course load and being late was a little stressful, but some people went to the wrong building or even the wrong class!