Gezellig

English - He zell ick ... not sure if that's the best pronunciation, but it's mine for now.

Gezellig is a Dutch word which has no English translation. It is a beautiful word which encompasses the whole experience of being around loved ones, having a good time, and a nice chat -- it means warm, friendly conversation , happy times, and family all at once. I have had several gezellig experiences while in Holland... all with Leen's amazing family.

Hot December

I spent my first Christmas away from my family, in a new place, in the heat. I'm not sure which part of that was the weirdest. The away from my family part, I'm sadly getting used to. We've figured out skype and email and facebook and all the ways to stay connected. I don't think we're doing as well with all of it as we could, but it works. I was in a new place... Cape Town is increasingly becoming familiar, safe, home. I've been here nearly a year and I know where all the taxi routes are, I look forward to seeing Table Mountain when I've been away, I have friends, a boyfriend, a nice flat, and a sense of community. I know the carguards by my house by name, I wave at the same taxi drivers every day, I am getting into a routine. I feel like I'm just living life. It's so weird to me to feel so comfortable and so at home in a place that I've only been for a year. I guess this is what growing up is about, moving away from home, making a place for myself. I'm glad I have. I feel happy. I feel proud. I feel independent. What scares me is whatever is next... moving away from here... doing this again... making a new "home". I wonder how many times I will do this in my life, where I will go, what I will do, how often I will see my family the next few years. I miss them, I really do, but I also feel fulfilled living away from home in a way that where I grew up hasn't fulfilled me in years. I love Murrells Inlet, and Charleston, and South Carolina. They'll always be there and will always be fond, warm memories, but for now, I'm getting used to the new places, stretching my boundaries, experiencing life at its fullest. Having Christmas in summertime... maybe the weirdest experience of the three! :)

Second Semester (tutoring, teaching, and volunteering!)

So, what have I been up to all semester? I know my blog posts have been kind of few and far between for the past few months, but it's honestly because I've been very busy.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I have been volunteering with the Township Debating League (TDL). I continued with that this semester, which was amazing! Two of the debaters from LEAP school made it onto the Western Province team and competed at the National Debating Competition. I was so proud of them.

In addition to debating, I also went to LEAP School on Saturdays to help with Foundation (8th and 9th grade) level English and Math. The students at LEAP have school on a Saturday morning (to my knowledge no public schools in South Africa do this regularly, but LEAP is privately funded by donations, etc.) LEAP, as I'm sure I've mentioned before, is an amazing school and they bus in students from all of the townships surrounding Cape Town. The school is a unique opportunity for these students to access an excellent education and a huge step toward tertiary education. For more information about LEAP school, check out http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/09/world/africa/09safrica.html?_r=1&ref=africa (yes, they were recently featured in the New York Times). Also, if any of you have any questions about LEAP -- please let me know. I think they're fantastic and I've really enjoyed working with the students there. And if any of you are interested in helping out some LEAP students, one of the English teachers was telling me about a small project that needs contributions -- their school library is sadly under-resourced (it's about the size of a closet). Many schools in South Africa do not have school libraries at all, which I realize is also significant, but the difference at LEAP is that they actually have teachers and staff who are willing and able to take care of the books, library, and encourage students to use the resources. The English teacher at LEAP expressed her concern that there are very few teenage fiction books for students who just enjoy reading and want to have something on their level to practice English, reading, etc. So if any of you feel so inclined, let me know and we can make a plan to donate some books to the library! :)

I have also had the tremendous honor of tutoring at UCT this past semester. I was given a position as a tutor for two sections of a first year International Politics course. Tutoring is actually quite a big responsibility and quite different than what I previously thought of as tutoring. Instead of just helping students who need extra help, which is what the name implies in the US, tutoring in South Africa actually requires teaching, grading, and office hours. I started with two sections of the course with 10-15 students in each and we met once a week. My job was to make sure students understood material from lectures, were aware of assignments, and marking their assignments. As the semester progressed, several of the tutors realized the disparity between what UCT and the Politics department expects from students and the skills they come into university possessing. There is also quite a vast array of skill levels even in my small classes. I had several students from disadvantaged backgrounds who had never written a non-fiction academic paper before coming to university. Several of my students had difficulty with academic reading and writing. As a result, some of the tutors put together (mid-semester) a curriculum to respond to this disparity. One of the department teaching assistants lobbied for funding to add additional tutorial sections for students who were struggling significantly. This past semester, we were able to add about 6 sections of supplementary tutorials to assist these students. We taught reading, writing, note-taking, and study skills and watched the students' confidence and abilities increase over the course of the semester. It was one of the most rewarding things I've ever done. From the beginning of the course, I had students who were barely passing and by the end some of them were getting the highest marks in their courses. It's amazing what a little support, extra teaching, and encouragement can do!

I was able to do some evaluation of that program for the department and the results were amazing. Over the course of the semester, the students who were involved in the supplementary program improved quite dramatically and nearly 100% of them enjoyed the course and would recommend it. Also, about 94% of students who attended said that their confidence improved significantly as a result of the course.

Now, the Politics Department and the UCT Centre for Higher Education Development are funding the production of course materials (a reading and writing guide for first years) and curriculum development for a supplementary tutorial program for first year UCT Politics Students for next year. I'm so excited about it! :) I'm happy to be involved with the development of those resources and to participate in the program again next semester.

Oh yeah, and I also took a class on Regionalism in Africa, which was very interesting! I'm also proud to report that it's the class that I've done the best in this year.

I hope this has caught you up a bit on what I've been up to this semester and some of the amazing projects I've been able to be a part of!

Sandboarding in Namibia

No visit to Namibia is complete without sandboarding on the amazing and massive sanddunes in the desert. So beautiful, so much fun, such a tough walk up those things! :)

So sandboarding... it's kind of like snowboarding except you do it in shorts because it's a hot desert outside and when you fall the sand is soft and doesn't hurt like snow and ice (which is really nice!). I have never snowboarded on really soft powdery snow, but I imagine that the sand is a lot more like powdery snow than the hard icy stuff that I've snowboarded on before. So much fun!

Namibia

Well... as I said in my last post -- I got to Namibia all by myself and aided by some very nice guys who were friendly enough and uncreepy enough to offer me lifts across 2 borders. I arrived in Katima Mulilo in Namibia as the sun was starting to go down and had to find a place to stay. Fortunately by now, I actually had some money to pay for the room :). I went to the only backpackers (hostel) that I had heard of, but they were completely booked. I found this surprising because this was a very small town and I hadn't seen anyone else who looked like they were traveling. Anyway, I tried another place which was called a guest house but seemed more like an extra room in someone's home -- normally a kind of cool experience, but a freaked me out a bit and was a bit expensive, and I normally try to heed my gut when traveling, so I tried a third place. It was a sort of camp site and bungalow sort of accommodation and they were willing to negotiate the price, fortunately. I was given my own private bungalow, complete with a small bathroom and mosquito net over the bed. It was winter at the time (July in the Southern hemisphere), so I didn't really need it. It was weird spending my first night alone while traveling. I felt a bit uncomfortable, afraid of being unsafe, and unsure of what I should be doing. I'm so used to traveling with other people and so used to being busy and having something to do when I'm in Cape Town that I finally had to just sit and figure out exactly what I wanted to do -- me, and nobody else. No pressure from friends I was traveling with, no schedule, no friends smsing me to do something that night. It was weird. It was good. I learned a lot about myself. I got myself dinner, came back to the camp and chatted with the women in the office. I got back before dark because I don't like being out after dark in a place I don't know.

Another interesting thing about all my travels is the fact that everywhere I went (Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Namibia), people were surprised that I lived in South Africa. Not because I'm American or anything like that -- but because they thought it was so dangerous. I know that South Africa has quite a reputation at home for being dangerous and there is reason for that statistically, but I never imagined that other countries in the region would also have that perception. Especially not places like Zimbabwe, where I've been taught (through the media mostly) that life is dangerous.

The next day, I walked around town a bit, organized a bus to Windhoek, and visited a primary school. I went into the school and asked if I could help out with anything that day or just hang out a bit. They were kind of surprised that I would just come in and offer to help out. This was a small town, by the way, and I was the only foreigner that I encountered until about an hour before I left. They principal and some of the head teachers thought it would be a good idea to give a short presentation to the students about the United States. They had a big assembly, which was outside and consisted of a few hundred students in rows according to grade and class. The short (very impromptu) presentation was translated to the students line by line and then they asked me several questions. One interesting question was about uniforms and whether I wore them in school. Every primary and secondary school that I've seen in this part of the world must wear uniforms... I never did and they thought that was really interesting. Other questions consisted of the weather, what it's like to be from the United States, why I was in Namibia, etc, etc. After my talk, I helped out in a 3rd grade class for the rest of the afternoon... so fun! :)

I had such a great time in this small town. I really got to see how people live and had the opportunity to talk to some very interesting people. It was so lovely.

Later that day, I hopped in an overnight bus and went to Windhoek. It wasn't a big bus like, but an Iveco -- a small 15 passenger bus. It was the coldest, most miserable bus ride ever. Everyone else brought blankets, you know because it was winter time. The day was so hot that I didn't think the night would get that cold. Oh how wrong I was. The cold paired with the loud blaring music that the drivers insisted on playing made it a less than desirable night. We arrived just after sunrise the next morning in Windhoek.

Vic Falls-Botswana-Namibia

After a few days in Victoria Falls, it was time for Sarah to make the trek up to Tanzania to fly back to Beirut and time for me to make my way back toward Cape Town. We parted ways at the Zambia border... after a bit of fear and frustration at me not being able to use my ATM card. Yes, folks, please take a few types of cards to Zimbabwe because the banking system is less than stellar. Being the good friend that she is, Sarah left me with what cash she had on her (I wouldn't let her draw more because I knew she had a long journey ahead with unknown costs) and I went back to town.

I literally tried every ATM in town and none of them worked. I took only my South African bank card (from Standard Bank in SA) thinking that of course it would work in Zimbabwe. And it did, a couple of times, which is why I didn't have any reason to think that I would be left with about 18 USD and no formal transport to my next destination. I asked some people around town how to get to Botswana because I knew the border was about 80 kilometers away and perhaps there would be an ATM close to the border that would work for me. Everyone suggested I go to a "hiking spot" -- yes, for hitchhiking and wait for someone who was headed that direction. It didn't take long... a nice man named Canaan picked me up and drove me all the way to the Botswana border. He would have driven me further, but the cost of taking vehicles into Botswana was higher than he wanted to pay. We waited for public transport to town together and chatted about both our lives. He is Zimbabwean, but studying in Italy... he was back to visit his family and traveled to Botswana for building supplies for a garage at his home. Sadly, most products like this are much more accessible and inexpensive across Zimbabwe's borders in neighboring countries. Just a byproduct of the political situation in Zimbabwe. We finally got a lift and made it to town where we parted ways. Canaan and I are still friends, though, on facebook! :) I began my ATM search in town.. by this time it was about 2pm and I knew that I had to make a plan before sunset or it could be bad news. Again, none of the ATM's worked and this was quite an expensive place to stay because it was nearly in the middle of the Chobe game reserve, so I didn't have enough cash on me to stay and travel to the next city that might have a working ATM. As a sidenote, it's fortunate that I had some fruit, bread, and peanut butter, so I didn't have to spend money to eat (a nice thing i do whenever i travel to save money -- stock up on cheap eating supplies). I ate the biggest avo of my life for lunch that day. It's also fortunate that people in this region are some of the friendliest that I have met in my life!

Also, I had a small travel guide that told me how much it cost to cross borders in each of the Southern African countries... I decided to go toward Botswana and Namibia becuase their borders are close and it doesn't cost anything for Americans to go into Botswana and Namibia as tourists... unlike Zimbabwe and Zambia.. it cost me 30 USD (actually 300 Rand because I didn't have cash and they pegged the exchange rate at an unfair 10 to 1 ratio, instead of the accurate 7 to 1) and it would have cost me 50 USD to cross to Zambia with Sarah.

Once again, I found myself sitting at a "hiking spot" waiting for a lift. Again, it didn't take long before someone picked me up, this time Moses! Moses is a Namibian who delivers medical supplies to rural hospitals and clinics -- he was so friendly and very helpful. He drove me another 80 or so kilometers to the Namibian border. Once in Namibia, my friendly driver had to work in some remote places and thought I'd be better off catching a taxi (yes, like the mini-bus taxis in South Africa, cheap, run frequently, and have regular routes, but not like a private taxi that many of you may be used to).

About an hour or 2 later, I made it to Katima-Mulilo in Namibia after crossing 2 borders, hitchhiking about 250 kilometers, and spending about 3 dollars in public transport (sadly, I only spent a few hours in Botswana, I definitely want to go back, though). I arrived around 5pm and got there, fortunately, before the sun went down. The first place I went in town was a Standard Bank ATM that fortunately worked and I withdrew enough money to last me for several days. It was quite a relief.

Although I was scared at some points during this adventure, it was one of the most invigorating and challenging things I've put myself through... to literally travel and do what needed to be done with nearly no money. I realized what I was capable of .. it was amazing! I traveled the rest of the way back to Cape Town alone and learned a lot about myself in the experience. More on my personal experiences in the next post -- and more about Namibia! :)

Victoria Falls

Easily one of the most beautiful natural sites I have ever seen. Sarah and I woke up before sunrise to enjoy the falls as the sun creeped out over them. It was amazing... well once we got in of course. We had to wait until just after daylight for the guards to arrive at the park and let us in. We were the only 2 in the park for quite a while, which was awesome. Check out the photos -- just amazing!

We also rented rain jackets for 2$ each, which we thought was a waste of money until we got to a ledge that literally looked like it was raining permanently.

After our visit to the park, we went back to town and found a nice place to have breakfast, scouted out town, and did a bit of shopping at a craft market. While Sarah was planning her trip to Tanzania, I met a few schoolgirls and they took me to their school and showed me around. It was so awesome... just making friends with some seventh graders and having candid conversation about Zimbabwe and America. Thanks Rotary -- for the "ambassadorial" component of this scholarship, I think that experience was one of the most classic examples of what that component is meant to be.

While we were in Victoria Falls, we also enjoyed a boat cruise on the Zambezi where we saw Elephants, Hippos, and Crocodiles! :) It was awesome. Following the boat cruise, we ate at this amazing restaurant at our hostel called In-Da-Belly ( a pun from the Ndebele tribe in that part of Zimbabwe) and ate warthog, crocodile, fish from the Zambezi, and other yummy food.

Throughout our adventures in Zimbabwe, Sarah and I called it "the magical land where dreams come true"... mostly because every time we wanted something (a hostel, a drink when we got to Bulawayo, lunch at the bus station, to try warthog... literally everything), it was made possible in just a few minutes... by the magic of Zimbabwe :) Also, Zimbabwe had one of the most beautiful night skies and some of the most friendly people I have ever encountered! Amazing!