the big H word

HIV/AIDS is the virus that is killing South Africa. With one in four people infected, everyone is affected. Children are raised by grandparents as their parents died a long time ago. The rates just continue to increase. This country is quite liberal, especially in regards to sex. Quite different to some very Christian African nations.

So there are condoms everywhere. In every toilet in the University of Cape Town- there is a massive box of condoms. I was impressed coming from Queens where you would be shot or at least deeply frowned upon for suggesting encouragement of safe sex.

I thought this article was funny- Britain donating condoms in anticipation of the world cup...or in anticipation of a lot of horny Brits on holiday.

lol.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/09/condoms-south-africa-world-cup

My work for the past week is to research different HIV programmes for high-risk youth. While there might be condoms in all the toilets, it doesn't mean that people are using them. And with statistics like one in four, your chances are not looking positive. My boss wants to create a new HIV/life skills course for high-risk young adults. For those living in townships surrounded by poverty and violence. She wants to make the course fun and engaging- to try to teach life skills to prevent violence, to respect women and relationships. Sexual violence and HIV are interconnected and women are three times more likely to be infected. And with one in four women being victims of sexual violence, things are not looking good. So the goal: find a programme that works and change society. It's overwhelming at times.

Waka Waka...It's time for Africa

I really don't know anyone who hasn't heard the World Cup songs- Wavin' Flag and Waka Waka...though according to Amelia- the USA has completely ignored these songs and the world cup and africa in general. However, in South Africa people are obsessed with these two songs. They are played everywhere, all the time. It's exciting. It leads to impromptu dance parties in the toilet queue with strangers (though she could dance better than I could).

Interesting football songs/mashups with these two songs:

http://www.footballandmusic.co.uk/world-cup-mashups/

Moving

We had to move houses from the lovely, leafy suburban neighbourhood of Pinelands to the Observatory. Obs is a bit more dodgy but certainly more lively. The hipsters have moved into this neighbourhood and put in their own cafes and bars amongst the city houses. It should be a fun adventure. We (Amelia- the other American intern and me) are the only ones in the house at the moment. It's a brand new house (two houses actually), renovated to a big, long-term hostel place. However, the house is currently massive with just us two. It's an interesting place. The kitchen and lounge are in two separate houses. Getting out of bed for late night munchies requires unlocking four doors and crossing the terrace in the cold darkness, while the mysterious neighbourhood dogs barks away. Interesting. I think I might miss 18 Stranmillis Park....though not that much.

On Moving Day, I also realised that a) South Africa is a lot more expensive than planned for and b) I have a lot of crap. My suitcase has already rapidly expanded. Those 20 kilos are going to be hard to keep below on the 5th of August....and I still need to buy three more vuvuzelas.

parking: take two

With my car's poor turn radius, lack of experience and driving capability- parallel parking is a problem. Especially on a massive hill where the cars are parked very close together. But you look over in desperation at the situation and see a man in a fluorescent vest waiting to help you back up into the spot. These parking attendants are in every car park just waiting to help you for .20p. They are a godsend. Sometimes a bit annoying as they show you a spot in an empty car park, but they still mean well. Although there income may result in a less than a fiver for the whole day and night, they still sit out there in the cold trying to track down the an odd job to make some money for food. They don't beg or pester you like some other people in the city but genuinely help you (especially people like me who are inept at parking :). Without a few of these attendants, I would have been stuck- literally.

driving

I had to hire a car last week. At first I was terrified, given my driving record and driving being on the wrong side of the road down here. Turns out I am a better driver on the left than the right lol. Everyone kept telling me, 'oh this is South Africa, rules don't really apply'. Apparently they do apply and I have just been breaking all of them. Take turning left on a red light. Acceptable in the US and UK. My assumptions about South Africa following the same rules were unfounded and I am just lucky I haven't received a ticket. Also, the curbs are extremely high. And my crappy rental car has a turn radius of a tractor. It makes for a very awkward and long process to turn around while on-lookers laugh.

Theft

Everyone knows that South Africa is notorious for crime. This story made me chuckle though.

Two areas of concern: 1) why the police didn't notice that their station was being robbed...says a lot about the police. 2) slightly stupid robbing the police- or not depending on number one lol.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/africa/10414055.stm

Penguins

Everyone knows that I love penguins. And last Sunday I had a lovely day to myself driving down to Simon's Town, which is a lovely seaside village notorious for having penguins on their shores. I was in heaven and spent the morning stalking the adorable things and then enjoying the sunshine with a glass of wine by the harbor. Here is the short video that still makes me giggle looking at the waddling penguins. I really do want one...

World Cup Fever

The World Cup is insane here and so much fun. The whole country is just alive. Apparently for the past few months the government has encouraged everyone to celebrate Football Fridays and wear football attire to work to get in the mood. Although the locals make fun of the foreigners and how everything seems to have been built for the World Cup, they still have fun. South Africa played on Tuesday and it was insane. I didn't think that it was going to be that busy because the match was on at 4pm and most people are working... apparently a lot of sick days were phoned in that day. We were walking around the Waterfront trying to find a place to watch the match and the roar that erupted from the street after the first goal was insane, you would have thought that there was a terrorist attack. We ended up watching the match not in a 2,000 person fan tent, but in a very quiet jazz bar. But it had cold beer and a giant screen tv- so it was fine in the end. Although South Africa won the match, they didn't make it through to the next round. First host nation ever who hasn't made it through. Oh well. The parties were insane and everyone is still flying their flags prouder than ever.

Tonight the Netherlands beat Cameroon and the entire city was orange. I didn't know you could make that many things orange. But another reason why I love the Dutch.

Donations from anywhere

It always surprises me where certain organisations get their funding from and in the cases of most, where they don't get funding. Take Belfast for example. The only Rape Crisis Centre in Northern Ireland receives no government funding and couldn't afford electricity last year. It is now being supported by students through lovely RAG pub crawls. But now they have electricity and people get to have fun on pub crawls, so it works for everyone. Still you would think government funding might help a little...

Reading today I found out that the Uitenhage Phapamani Rape Crisis Centre receives no funding, despite the fact that police utilise their services by recommending them to rape survivors. The centre is supported by Volkswagen. Hmm, I thought. Now that is interesting.

It is lovely when you read about people or massive international car companies caring and helping those who really need it.

Singhi the radical cabbie

Singhi was my first encounter with taxis. The very very expensive taxis that are the biggest fraud I have yet to experience. But Singhi was a lovely smiling man who seemed quite taken back after I asked him how his day was going. That polite commonality opened the floodgates to Singhi’s thoughts, and yes he has many in that crazy Zimbabwe, Rastafarian mind of his.

On Irish aid workers- “Well there are a lot of people who come down here to build houses, and the Irish come as well. But they party a lot. A lot. I have seen the Irish clear out a bar and drink all of the beer. However, they get up in the morning and finish the house, they are so hungover. I have never seen better houses built with that bad of a hangover”.

He claimed I was the only person he had met who didn’t believe in leprechauns and wondered if he chased the rainbow that he had seen in the morning if he would find a pot of gold.

On video games: “Well my girlfriend told me that I needed to stop playing video games. It was either my toys or her. She is now my ex-girlfriend. But see I didn’t have video games growing up and now they excite me. I spend all my time playing them. Sometimes when the road is wet, I pretend I'm on Mario kart on playstation. Just look how shiny the road is. I like to break all the road rules”. Brilliant I thought, though his car clocked out at 50mph. making for a very expensive cab ride.

Hmmm...

South Africa is a country of contradictions. Some people are so affluent and there are those who stand outside the suburban supermarket begging for just £0.10 to feed the baby in their arms. It pretends to be a modern city, but it is a city without a proper welfare system or public transportation. Everything is just a mish-mash. Reading through statistics you realise how random this place is. Some hospitals are donated by the US and some by the Japanese embassy (wtf?). I went to Camp’s Bay and it’s the most popular spot to film in Africa and where the models go to sunbath (the bus driver was quite excited by this fact).

You become paranoid, because you have to be. You start thinking- ‘which bag should I put my valuables in, so that when they get stolen it wont be that bad?”

First Impressions

The first time that I went to Africa, I went with an amazing organisation, The Cunningham Foundation, to one of the poorest countries in the world- Ethiopia. The experience was amazing. I had properly prepared to go to ‘africa africa’ and filled my immunization record with exotic shots like yellow fever. My second time back on the continent was so incredibly different. I had accepted an internship at the University of Cape Town. I sent three emails confirming my placement and my dates of travel. That was it. Perhaps it was six straight weeks of exams or that my mind was preoccupied with the joys and lack of responsibility of student life- but I didn’t really think twice about my choice. I made a choice and that was the end. I got on that plane with some vague notion of a summer filled with research and put the majority of my energy into saying goodbye to those who I would miss over the next two months. 29 hours on a flight later and I woke up amidst a pink and orange sunrise over the mountains, as I tried to stay awake.

I arrived and after making the necessary purchase of an adapter, I then preceded to have two panic attacks convinced I had lost and/or my blackberry was stolen. Five minutes later the same thing happened with my purse. They were, like usual, at the bottom of my bag. But unlike ‘usual times’, I was in South Africa- the country notorious not for peacefully overcoming apartheid but for the crime ridden streets and rape capital of the world. I was terrified. I was also tired, a bit delirious and frankly unsure of what the hell I was doing. I was picked up by a guy with dreads and a car that shook to the beat of ‘gangsta shit’. I got in and quickly made friends discussing the joys of the world cup (I quickly became a massive football fan) and the easiest conversation starter- drinking.

I unpacked, showered and started the next two months of life in cape town.