Molo! It has been quite an eventful week in Cape Town to say the least.
I finally began classes on Friday – we haven’t really done much yet, but everything is going well. I am picking up some phrases in Afrikaans, and struggling in my pronunciation of Xhosa (the Xh in the beginning of that word makes a click – there are 18 different clicks sounds – c, q, and x have a different click, but then when combined with certain letters you get different sounds!). Luckily, my house res, Lindizwe, his best friend, Thapz, and our cleaning lady, Cleo all speak Xhosa, and so I have many people to tutor me (and to laugh at me). The sounds and clicks are just so difficult to make correctly! However, they are more than willing to help – especially because I am a white person trying to learn their language. Xhosa is a black South African language, and apparently very few white South Africans attempt to do so. On the other hand, they don’t really care about Afrikaans, which was the white language imposed on blacks during Apartheid, and is still seen on almost all signs, along with English, here today (yes, everything is still all about race). It is funny because the professor for each class fits into the stereotypical image of those who speak each language – my Afrikaans professor is an older white man who continually drills the class in grammar while my Xhosa professor is extremely chill and gentle older black man. Both classes will be hard work, but it’s worth it!
As for my recent activities: Last Wednesday, CIEE took us to our own private concert to see the popular South African pop band, Freshly Ground (I highly recommend checking out their music). The concert was a blast since they played in such an intimate venue where we could dance right alongside the band. The weekend started off very relaxing with a night spent home drinking wine and watching a movie with a couple of my housemates. On Saturday, I woke up to a proposal to go to the beach – my dream come true – within an hour I was lying on the sand watching the waves come to shore. The picture that I’ve posted is from a beach hut at Muizenburg. My skin is quite the mix of colors right now, ranging from bright red (ouch!) to dark brown – the sun is so intense that you even get burnt with high SPF sunscreen. It was such a relaxing day on the beach, but little did I know that Saturday would turn into quite the stressful night.
Late on Saturday night, my entire house ventured off to another CIEE house’s party – as always, it was a fun night spent talking to friends and meeting new people. When Lindizwe got back home before the rest of us, his girlfriend, Yanga, who had stayed at the house while we were gone mentioned to him that his friend KG was resting on the couch in the living room. When Lindizwe said that KG had never come to the house (as he was possibly going to), she said she saw someone who looked like KG open the bedroom door, mumble something, and close it again (she couldn’t see because she didn’t have her glasses on). When we got back to the house around 12:30am, everyone sat in the living room talking for a while and Lindizwe mentioned Yanga’s sighting and we all discussed whether or not we believed in the supernatural, as we passed it off as possibly being a spirit or a dream. Two hours later, everyone decided to call it a night – as I was brushing my teeth upstairs, I heard my housemate Andrew downstairs exclaim that all of his valuables were gone from his room – the man that Yanga saw must have been the robber. Luckily no one was hurt during the break-in, but it was a scary dose of the reality of the crime situation in Cape Town. I’ve never felt so vulnerable and so anxious. It is difficult to constantly be thinking about whether someone is watching the house looking for the opportunity to come back again. CIEE has been working non-stop to reassure us of our safety and to tighten security measures. With lots of support from friends here, I am doing much better as the week progresses. Many people have asked me if I still want to be in Cape Town after this incident – my answer is 100% yes – while I am still a bit shaken, I wouldn’t give up my experiences thus far to be anywhere else. This may have been a bump in the road, but I have many more exciting things to see and do here...
Cheers!
P.S. – I have posted photos on Snapfish, so if you would like me to invite you to view the albums, shoot me an email at bef2102@barnard.edu.
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