Lion's Head Hike

This past Monday evening we decided to take a sunset hike up to the top of Lion's Head Mountain for a picnic. It was initially a steep dirt pathway that carved sharply against the slopes of the hill. The smooth terrain soon transformed as the rocks crumbled into bluecheese-esque blobs. The trek got a little trickier as the path morphed into stair-like jags, but not hard enough for the two dogs that bounded past us with their tails wagging like locomotive flagellum. The propelled up their custom off-road pathway and made it look so easy. We made pit stops for the winded and cherished the hazingy stunning panorama of Table Mountain, Signal Hill and the waterfront dock. We climbed the last portion that required the use of steel handles and chains that were implanted into the stone, then arrived at the relatively flat top that was scattered with fellow picnickers. One crew was on their weekly\y hike/picnic triple date which, by observation, they had mastered. As we munched on our corner store snacks and subway sandwiches they indulged in shrimp skewers, white wine (don't forget the ice in the Tupperware darling!) and cheese & crackers. We all shared the same magical view of the endless Atlantic Ocean that looked like a sheet of rippled smooth leather. Sharp rocks protruded out of the coastal waves with currents swarming around them. Bree thought that one was actually a whale swimming in the water. Four boats were anchored between Robben Island and the dock, and they ignited with lights as the sun set. Cliffs hung parallel to the bustling city below Ro and Kenzie swung their feet against the wind that was starting to chill. Although it was rather cloudy, enhanced the tablecloth effect over Table Mountain and beautifully blurred the line between the sea and horizon. Once we realized the looming darkness, we scurried down the “recommended route” of the hill that brought us to one last sunset view which had enhanced into a crease of hot pink against the dark grey clouds. Turning on the flashlight made me think of my nights at camp arrowhead during the summer, so I started to sing camp songs. Ro and I, with the holidays constantly on our minds, managed to draw an outline of a Christmas tree made out of the lights of the city- one edge was carved out be the coastline and the other along signal hill. The roads between them created the swooped tinsel and the neon lights of stores formed the ornaments. The city shined with a stagnant, static flutter of lights that went for kilos and kilos.

The Final Countdown

Less than two weeks until we're back in the states! Trying to soak in the life of Cape Town without getting preoccupied with leaving this amazing group. Lais and I have been blessed with an amazing homestay family, who is really hip and relaxed- our Dad's name is Fergie (we catch ourselves singing Fergilicious numerous times a day) and he is an ex-navy engineer who used to work at the waterfront port as a ship bolter and welder. Before that he worked for 6 months at a time at sea on oil rigs. Now he has a private workshop in his garage where he is welding in his jumpsit and cap all day on furniture, railings, and other steel products. Mom works as an anaylist for a petroleum company here and welcomed our estrogen open-armed; she has three sons (Shadli-30-technical engineer/works with steel with Dad, Shahin-27-IT guy, and Hisham-20-works the night shift for Walmart telecommunication customer service). We have a pet pitbull mix, Titus, who is a friendly 12-year old stalky fellow who roams the streets and nibbles on our dinner leftovers, and a pet bird Charlie who Fergie trained to make kissy noises and cat-call whistles. Our rooftop provides us with the perfect 360 view of Signal Hill, Lion’s Head mountain and Table Top Mountain- we’re at the top of the hill of Bo-Kaap that is lined with brightly painted houses (it reminds me of Old Town Puerto Rico that has a law that houses can’t be painted the same color as their neighbor). Mom has cooked us delicious cape-malay food like Frikadelles (fish or beef mixed with spices, garlic, ginger, bread  and an egg- similar to a homemade burger), and beans and rice that have hints of cardamom (throw back to India!).

This weekend Mark hooked us up with a private van tour of the peninsula with his previous director of World Teach, Peter, who is in essence a guidebook of South Africa and Cape town from his history of teaching, living, and working here all is life. We went through Camps Bay and Clifton Beach that were swarming with people playing beach volleyball and sitting under the umbrellas of quaint restaurants. We drove along Chaplin’s Peak on a road that was carved in the hill and paved by POW’s and is now owned by a company to promote black empowerment but has created new tolls and charges for the population. We climbed down to the stoney waterfront and held Perriwinkles- mini starfish- and snails that held tight to the granite rocks that were glazed with bird poop from flocks of gulls that swarmed around us. We saw a wide beach that is well utilized by horse stables close by and has houses with grey thatched rooftops that look like a mixture of the Goetheanum and the Houseboat from Kottayum in India. We entered the Cape of Good Hope National Park that inhabits over 1300 species of flora and fauna- many of which are mutually exclusive and are unique to this single area of the world. Troops of baboons, ostriches and zebras usually can be seen milling around but we only spied a couple baby baboons on the roof of a house and picking from a trashcan at Cape Point. There are little white monuments topped with crosses for both Vasco de Gama and Bartolomeu Dias for their historical maritime influence in the Cape. We drove through a seaside fisherman’s town that has some of the highest rates of teen pregnancy in the area due to the lack of presence from  a patriarch for most of the year. We also stopped at Kalk’s bay for a glimpse at the harbor that was scattered with colorful boats-even one named the Taj Mahal (what are the odds..).  

Yesterday we had a site visit to Kaylitscha which is a township just 20 minutes outside the city center and was historically created by the government during their messy period in the 80’s to relocate blacks in matchbox houses. We sat in a one-roomed church that had a banner at the front of the room “HIV no boundaries. You are Living with HIV. You are still my brother. You are still my sister in Christ”. Monwar and Zemtse spoke to us about their community outreach projects in support groups and social development for those suffering from HIV and AIDS. During our walk around the township we saw that inequalities are thriving in not only housing, access to water, electricity and sanitation but in employment, malnutrition, alcoholism and violence. We spoke with a representative from the Treatment Action Campaign about their efforts to provide treatment and preventative technologies to HIV/AIDS patients and to the community, and then spoke to Zemtse in her house-converted-support group facility about her struggles with supporting HIV patients, alcoholics, orphans, rape victims, and elderly in the community. The day was capped with 10 of us running/walking in the Twilight Community Chest 5K Silly Run around the city center  that consists of over 20,000 participants that dress up in crazy costumes and run/walk/drunkenly stumble around the city in support of over 400 local organizations. Mike and Greg wore silk dresses that they for some reason had from China, Colin wore her traditional Indian Salwar Kamis and I safety pinned 9 running numbers all over me (leftovers from people who had last minute dropped the run). It was a beautiful run down Long street that is now glistening with Christmas lights, and through the Company Gardens towards the huge red inflated Coke arches- commercialism shone through as only powerade and coke were provided at stops to runners. Returned home to some card tricks and Arabic lessons with the family- trying to learn a few words a day! Bahebak!

Leaving the "Land of Hope"

The academic program in Zwelethemba, "The Land of Hope", finished with a bang with our case study presentations that were held in more of a workshop setting, which enabled us all to really delve into the topics that our classmates researched over two days in a casual setting. The research questions were: "How do individuals in Zwelethemba negotiate which healing method to use, between Traditional, Religious and Biomedical?", "What are the determinants of health among farm workers and their families?, "What motivations exist for safety mothers? What compels them, why is there a need and why do they respond?, "How do grandmothers acting as primary caregivers in Zweletehmeba perceive their health to be affected by this role?", "What are the barriers to seeking ARV treatment in Zwelethemba?", "How is Traditional Medicine valued in Zwelethemba" and finally my group's "What is the role of community gardens in Zwelethemba?". Our Food and Nutrition group had a lot of fun stumbling upon gardens (we visited about 5 in the village), and speaking with the caretakers and school representatives about what was grown, who funded the garden and ultimately who uses the vegetables. We learned that much has changed with the recent influx of commercial grocery stores so the prevalence of personal gardens has decreased while gardening education in newer generations has decreased.

 The end of Zwelethemba was much more emotional than expected with our host mother reciting her mantra "I will not cry I will not cry" under a broken breadth that was filled with sadness. We all ended up teary together, but she blamed the “onions” that she had chopped that morning. I know her mind was with God that morning, who she always turns to in times of stress and sadness. “Grandma Titi”, our mentally-disabled neighbor who is always jolly and hugging, forcefully trust-falled into a final embrace with each of us and held us tight. She shook her finger at Max as she said she didn’t want him to leave. We waved to Mom through the window as we drove away, and her pearly white smile beamed as she blew her children goodbye kisses.
We drove through the cloud-shadowed mountains past Worcester towards Cape Town and alongside Display vineyards that striped the countryside. Susan explained that through her research on child labor in vineyards she discovered that these pristine and polished vineyards are placed alongside the road to tempt and deceive tourists of the actual work that goes into picking individual grape clusters and cutting them in a shape that resembles the continent of Africa. The slopes of the mountains were dusted with rough rock formations and dry shrubbery, and bright purple-blossomed trees sprung up like soft cotton balls along the countryside. The clouds lay so close to the earth and were sandwiched between mountains with their peaks just poking through to the hazy robin-egg blue sky. As we entered into Cape Town I felt a twinge of culture shock, with the pure cream columns of chic hotels planted firmly on the concrete grid of the city- a sharp contrast between the dusty pebbled shantytowns of Mandela Square.

Zwelethemba

Two weeks in Zwelethemba was an enlightening experience on the effects of the apartheid and poverty in a Township of Capetown. The dirt roads, shanty metal scrap houses and flocks of orphans were juxtapositioned by mountains that seemed to be painted against the bright blue sky and cottonball clouds (it reminded me of the wallpaper from Toystory). The scenery was so beatuiful that it looked like it two dimensional, or from the desktop background of Dad's PC. We stayed in a house that went above and beyond my expectations. I lived with Max and Mackenzie who were amazing additions to the wonderful family. We got so close with our host mother, who worked so hard to keep us happy and comfortable but treated us like her own children by having us take turns doing the nightly dinner prayer and dishes and encouraged us to keep our beds made and rooms tidy (I can hear real Mom's voice now when I get home and face the looming task of unpacking). Our host father works at the Cape Town military base in the transport sector of the logistics department, but took a week leave this past week so that he could spend some time with us- quite the mellow guy. We all had class and lectures about a 15 minute walk into the town at the library, where we had some really interesting guest appearances from an HIV panel (including a traditional Sangoma healer, a pastor and an adherance counselor from the local clinic), a panel of Host mothers (who described the lifestyle of Zwelethemba and their experiences with apartheid), a physician from the South Africa TB Vaccination Initiative, and from the Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Organization who had  unique presentation of rapping and motivational singing. They gave us all CD's of their music that is a mixture of many langauges (there are 11 national languages of South Africa). In Zwelethemba they speak the Xhosa language which characteristically includes 4 clicking sounds (one of the only clicking languages in the world)- it was really tricky but we had many trials with family and children who tried to perfect our clicking. In the spirit of Thanksgiving all of the students prepared Thanksgiving dinner for their individual homestay families, and Susan (one of the country coordinators) decided that this would be a perfect opportunity to create a mini documentary (she's a film making teacher on the side of her anthropology and health career)- called "Thanksgiving in Zwelethemba". She filmed many of the preperations of the makeshift traditional dinners and interviewed students and homestay mothers on their experiences- I was featured telling Thempsi (a homestay mother and the main homestay organizer, and activisit in Zwelethemba) the story and history of Thanksgiving and had to flashback to elementary US history- but I think Ms. Pavlides would approve. We prepared a roast chicken with lemon sage stuffing, roasted butternut squash, mashed potatoes, sauteed mushrooms, gravy and a peach-blueberry tart. The family loved it so much that our host brother ended up standing and scraping the leftovers from the serving plates. I had some pretty deep homesickness that day, and got a little emotional on the front step of our house while chatting with the fam who was all together in Connecticut- during the teary phone call my favorite adorable child, Soso, came over with his dusted bare feet and jolly smile and sad with his head on my shoulder and gave me a hopefull thumbs up as I walked inside. The sadness was bridged when we had such a magical experience with the homestay family, we were so happy that they enjoyed the meal (that tasted eerily similar to what we would normally prepare at home) and I couldn't have asked for a more unique and amazing experience on one of my favorite holidays- it was so special to share a glimpse of our culture with them.

5 minutes left at the internet cafe- bullet points here we go!
- had farewell Brii (barbeque) last night with delicious food, and amazing entertainment from a group of girls who performed traditional dancing and singing (that made Gemma and cry and get goosebumps).  We performed the Gumboot dance that we learned earler that day, that comes from when the men would dance in the mines and do lots of rhythmic slapping against their clunky rubber boots.
-arrived back in Cape Town today, met our final homestay families- house is beautiful, has a beaitufl rooftop deck (perfect for homework, working out, and working on the tan- and has a gorgeous view).

Will catch you up on the rest of the trip I promise!!

Cape Town

Arrived in Cape Town early Thursday morning to blue skies and a refreshing summer breeze. We drove along the hillside that overlooked the city below that is speckled with brightly colored rooftops and is bordered on one side by rugged mountains and on the other a flowy coastline. Our hostel is a backpacking lodge and travel center caled the Ashanti, and is conveniently located near the main Kloof street that has a great Califonia meets New Orleans vibe with the flowy white iron balconies and short flat buildings. A few of us indulged in our first taste of cheese in a month (wasn't seen at all in China), at a funky Mexican place then went out  to a bustling Irish pub that featured array of locals and travelers- among them was our crew of flight attendents who we had gotten to know pretty well by the end of our 9 hour flight. Yesterday we had a very informative orientation session with Susan, Angela and Rose- the three coordinators of this leg, who are all very excited and passionate about this country and our program. We had a simple lunch in the front yard of the hotel that peacefully clumps lounge chairs, hammocks and palm trees. Despite this tempting lazy venue, we went for a run through the Company gardens that has cobblestone paths and houses numerous national museums, sculptures and statues- and very friendly squirrels. We walked along Kloof street in the afternoon and admired the traditional African markets and spoke to some visitors from Memphis who gave us some tips for hiking Table Mountain. That's where we're off to today- a morning hike before it gets super hot and steamy- we're going to start at the trail that leaves from the national  botanical gardens and go up the "skeleton gorge" path for a 4 hour trek. Apparently the mountain is hollow with a dragon inside, so the last person up will be fed to him- on the table top..siezing the day early!

Shanghai

Our Shanghai adventure started with a pleastantly short and easy flight over the China countryside with a gorgeous ROYGBIV sunset peaking (peking..?) through the windows of the plane. After cheking into our hotel, the ladies enjoyed a traditional vegetarian dinner of beans and eggplant and dumplings, then we ventured out to a plethera of unique venues that Rosalie recommended from her summer internship in Shangahi. First was the British Bulldog Pub that had vitange framed record albums, sepia photographs and colorful pin-up posters scattered all of the walls and cielings. Next was the "Not Me" bar that featured stranded halloween jackolanters and an unfortanately empty dancefloor that was bordered with bright green couches in egg-shaped "pods". We hitched on to some locals with mbrellas as we trecked through a rainy drizzle to a place full of old ex-pats. We bumped into a couple Swedish businessmen who contract Chinese factories to produce nutritional supplements...they were surprised by our interest in their business endeavors. We started the dancefloor just in time to celebrate Rafat's 20th birthday then taxi'd back for some tasty late night street noodles. After a too-easy google search, we found the "Egghead Bagel" shop to treat ourselves toa rare western breakfast.. or in Conner's case, chocolate moose. A comical mural on the wall depicted quite the comical heroic quest of Mr. Egghead: He discoveres that his eyelashed bagel damsel has been captured by the ferocious fast-food villans; soda and fries. He fuels up on a bagel that privdes him with the strength to defeat the greasy monsters and retrieve his mistress. After a little chortle, we walked through a busteling commerical area around Ren Bin Wan Chan (aka People's Square). We tested out the subway which was the cleanest, most efficient and well-organized underground system I've every seen- DC should take notes. We explored some shopping markets, passed a store that was swarming with fans trying to sneak a peak at a Hong Kong movie star. We grabbed a milk tea at starbucks (their token cultural adjustment to the local menu) and napped before grabbing a late dinner at a Turkish restaurant. I had a babganoush-esque eggplant mush alongside zuchinni cakes. My favorite part of the trip was yet to come, as we walked along the Bund that gleamed with spotlighted European-influenced architecture on one side, and futuristic neon skyscrapers on the left. We went to a lighthouse that was converted into a restaurant/bar and hung out on the scenic rooftop that provided an epic view of the skyline from all angles. Our wild sides came out at Club 88 where we danced a lot, met some other travelers and Rosalie spn the DJ's record.

 

Satruday we had a needed lazy morning then a few of us wandered out into the rain to the old historic area of Shangai. The rain lured us into a small bubble tea shop where the young owner attempted to give us directions to a nearby temple, but happened to direct us through a street filled with quaint massage "parlors" ( a place with 3-4 comfy recliners). After a walk and travel-filled weekend, Gemma Sam and I treated ourselves to masssages. While Gemma got a head massage (turned body massage), Sam and I got hour-long foot massages, and it was the best 5 dollars I've ever spent. With well-oiled feet and zenned-out minds we explored the nearby neighborhood where we caught glimpses of some mysterious stone warrior statues (maybe some leftover Terracotta wariors?). Our last night we all got a little dressed up (boys finally clean-shaven) for a late dinner at the Radisson hotel restaurant. IT was a circular spinning room on the 45th gloor that provided a gorgeous evening view of the city lights below. Many of us got traditional foods like duck and  jiaozi (dumplings) while others indulged in some sushi and tempura- overall it was a delicious feast with a great group. I giggled a lot when Rafat and Rosalie held up their arms as if they were on a roller coaster.. as they soaked in the thrill of  having the dinner table ratotate around the city once every two hours- quite the adrenaline rush but I don't think it'd make it to Cedar Point. The excitement continued as we walked down the eerie stairs of a bomb-shelter-turned-bar that had domed tiled passageways and concrete tables that nested against the walls. Pipes lined the cieling and there was weak lighting that emphasized the creepy aura of the venue, it was really fun nightlife vibe.

 

Our morning consisted of subwaying to the Xintonging district which is filled with savy restaurants and shops that are sandwhiched along gorgeous renovated stone arhitecture and tree avenues. We found a place for brunch that gave us really high expectations in the atmostphere and delicious menu, but the service was beyond mediocre- in an ultimately funny way. They tried to make up for the innaccurate orders and 3-hour wait by serving us 16 unwanted side orders of french fries (there were twelve of us..)- a whopping value of about 80 american dollars. We wandered around the district a bit then headed to the airport for a quick flight back to Changsha- which welcomed us open armed with rain and cold weather for most of this week. We rationalized that this is a representative taste of what home is like in the northeast as winter is right around the corner! Christmas carols are slowly seeping in to our frequent break-into-song moments.. I ancipate some great sing-along bus rides once December rolls around even though we'll be basking in the glory of the summer sun! 5 more days in Changsha- it's wild how fast this leg of the program flew by, will hopefully submit one more update on China before we're in the next continent. Happy singles day!! (11/11/11- a celebrated day of the year here in China!)

 

Changsha

Going to China, I didn't really have many pre-conceived expectations or even a notion of what it would be like, I really prefer to formulate my impressions in person with first hand observations and experiences because that's what immersion's all about. Changsha is a large city, comparable to Philly or Baltimore with its bustling aura and metropolis aesthetic. We are studying at the Central South University that the main college in the Hunan province, with 56,000 undergraduate students. After the first few days if touristy sight seeing and orientation/histories and introductions, we finally moved into our homestays. I'm living with three other students- Iris (spunky art major from Seattle who’s super chill, has great music taste and is super motivational during our early morning workouts), Marjani (NYC native polisci major at Swarthmore who breaks into song and laughter with me all day long), and Sylvia (motherly and hilarious chica from Tanzania who has been pop quizzing me on new Chinese and Swahili vocabulary). We live a 12 minute walk from CSU in a 2-story apartment in a large complex right along the main road that thrives with street venders, stores and people-watching opportunities. 

Our host parents are both professors (Dad economics, Mom geography), and since they both speak minimal English they sorta hired two of their students to live with us part time as translators and roommates- they have been a great resource to have around during meals to help facilitate conversation. Our grandparents are preciously petite and jolly, and surprisingly mobile. They help a lot with household chores and cleaning, and go on daily walks- they have gotten some great stamina from living on a 5th floor apartment…we're still getting used to the hefty flights of stairs that await us every time we get home. We have been unexpectedly spoiled, as we each have our own single room and bed- and there are still about 4 free beds left over (we may host a sleepover one weekend). We have welcomed the traditional Hunan Cuisine with open arms and open chopsticks- the simple vegetable dishes are our favorite, especially the plethora of dark leafy greens and eggplant. We're still getting used to finding out what we eat after the fact…I now know that I like snails and chicken stomach! We also hung out with our 22 year old host brother who attends university about an hour away and is studying IT, he woke us up at 7am (ouch) Saturday and Sunday so we could have productive days exploring the Tangerine Island (in the river, has a huge head of young Mao Zedong at the tip of the 5km scenic park) and Walking Street (no cars or bikes allowed, many shops and even got a Starbucks treat- although didn't test out the green tea cheesecake…).

As for the program, it's obvious that the coordinators spent a lot of time arranging the content of the site visits and guest lectures so that everything is much more synthesized than India. After having a detailed lecture from a well qualified and experienced doctor about Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) we went that afternoon to the largest TCM hospital in the Hunan Province where we got to test our acupuncture (tried it in my leg and hand ahh! felt weird but cool...), peak into drawers and cabinets full of fragrant herbs and minerals (and beetles?!) in their pharmacy, speak to patents in the inpatient and outpatient sectors and even attempt a method of TCM diagnosis. They have 9 different ways of feeling a patient's pulse on along the radial artery on the wrist, using different amounts of pressure, that can reveal signs of certain diseases based on the strength flow and beat pattern. We also visited an elderly home (we played ping pong and chatted to residents), a primary community health center (focuses a lot on family planning on maternal/infant health to reinforce the one child policy), and just today a rural government-run school in Shoashan where we spoke with the principle, at a school lunch with the students then spent the afternoon touring their campus (which is right next to Mao Zedong's birthplace and house). A good chunk of IHPers were sweaty after trouncing some high schoolers in basketball, and playing ping pong/badminton/ultimate Frisbee. 

We just had a really fun unit between the HCC and GH classes about food, and how it relates to culture, security and policy. We had an exercise during lunch where we were given time to find a traditional food and to perform a food history to discover the background information on the food items that was discussed during a massive potluck feast- which included a cornucopia of noodles, rice, pancake things, miscellaneous meats on sticks, questionable gelatinous globs and even lemon tea-flavored bag of lays chips (comparable to the culturally adjusted Masala Spice flavor in India..)

Halloween was a blast- they arranged for a bus to take us across the river close to the hoppin' nightlight of Bar Street (Which we explored last weekend) to a KTV (karaoke) club where we had a private room with plenty of treats and drinks for all. The only trick was figuring out how to work the karaoke machine before Conner discovered how to turn on the English setting). Favorite song moments were the Spice Girls jamming out to some of their top hits, Katie singing Alejandro by Lady Gaga and Greg, Mark and I's debut of Love Shack. Favorite costumes were Mackenzie's barefoot doctor outfit, and Mike's Great Firewall of China (he dressed up in all red- from wig to sneakers- and taped websites like Google, Facebook and YouTube all over him with random holes cut in where he scribbled VPN on his skin). Thanks to Iri's creativity and considering its prevalence on dining room tables in this country, a lazy-Susan seemed to be the perfect costume for me- I had no problem sporting some frumpy floral pajamas and rabbit slippers- not my normal night wear choice but I could get used to such comfortable dancing garb. After a morning of class tomorrow we are off to Shanghai for the long 3-day weekend- can't wait to explore another huge city in China! Should be fun-filled…missing everyone and hope you all had a great Halloween!