Welcome to the Good Life!

Hello!

It’s been a few days since my last blog post. Unfortunately, I’ve been insanely busy writing project proposals and papers. I’m just finishing up my Community Health Seminar paper on the effectiveness of the implementation of the Department of Health’s leprosy control policy in South Africa. Woo that was a mouthful. I’ve submitted my project proposal for my ISP so that it can be reviewed by the ethics committee and I’m getting ready to embark on my independent research project! Like I’ve probably mention 1000 times before, I’ll be living in Durban with a few of my friends for the rest of the program. As of right now I’ll be staying at the Windermere beach front flats for the next 4 weeks. A lot of the other students are traveling to other locations: Pietermaritzburg, Impendle, Umthwalume, and even Manguzi (by the Mozambique boarder!). I’m totally content staying in Durban. Unlike the other students that are traveling out of the city, I’ll get to experience more of Durban than they will. I can’t wait to go to the botanical garden, UShaka Marine World, and the BAT centre. Maybe I’ll even get to go snorkeling! The possibilities really are endless! And the food here is amazing! My friends and I have been cooking for the most part, but we’ll probably try to go out to dinner once a week so we get to experience some of the amazing cusine here. The cool thing about Durban is that it’s a really rich cultural center with the largest Indian population in South Africa as well as multiple other cultural groups. The curries here are to die for! They’re often a blend of traditional South African, Indian, and Malay dishes. Plus, add in the abundant seafood and you get some of the best curries in the world. Good thing I can go running on the beach!

Enough of me gloating about how sweet my life is.

This Saturday I had one of the greatest experiences a young ethnographer could have. For those of you who don’t study social sciences, ethnographers do field research concerning cultural issues. Anyways, earlier this week I heard about a walk to raise awareness about cervical cancer. The walk started at Addington Hospital at South Beach and ended at City Hall. So being a good student, I decided it would be worth it to spend my Saturday doing research. I arrived around 10:30, which I figured was a good idea since the march was supposed to arrive at city hall around 10 and South African time generally means people will run late. Well I walked around city hall to see if I could find anyone walking with signs. First I found a group of about 10 young women holding pamphlets. I approached them and asked them if they knew anything about the cervical cancer walk. They all looked at me strangely. Turns out, they were Jehovah’s Witnesses. Oops. Later one tried to give me one of her books. I told her I’d take it and read it in exchange for an interview. She took the offer, which allowed me to at least get one interview just in case the picketers didn’t show up. After interviewing her, a nice Indian woman came over and talked to me for a little bit. She told me she overheard my accent and could tell I was American. She was so sweet and we talked for a few minutes about what I’m doing in South Africa and how much I love it here. While talking to her, I overheard the sound of chanting. Around the corner came a group of 25 women marching. They each carried signs in Zulu, but I recognized the word cancer on each of the posters. I followed the demonstrators to City Hall. After talking to the woman in charge about the purpose of my study, she gave me permission to interview the demonstrators. I got about 7 interviews done with a variety of women: old gogos, middle-aged mamas, and even some college students. One woman was a nurse and provided a good amount of info on current interventions available. The whole group was so welcoming towards me! When taking a group picture they had me join in. In fact, they had their photographer take pictures of me interviewing the women. I borrowed my roommate’s audio recorder, which I used in all the interviews. I felt like a legitimate anthropologist! I got so many hugs and words of encouragement. They were all so happy that an American was interested in their knowledge and opinions! When I had to leave, they all gave me huge hugs goodbye and wished me good luck on my project.

Such an amazing experience! 37 days until Cape Town and 45 days until I’m back in the US of A. Can’t believe it’s already ISP time. I keep saying that semester is flying by but it’s totally true!!! It’s weird, it feels like just yesterday like I hopped off the plane in Johannesburg and dipped my toes in the Indian Ocean for the first time. But I’m so comfortable here I feel like I’ve been here forever. Can’t wait to see you all!!!!

Love,

Leah

Week 9: Getting ready for my Independent Study Project!

It's official, I have an ISP project! I will be working with CANSA, the Cancer Association of South Africa learning about perceptions of HPV and cervical cancer in South Africa. I'll also be interviewing a ton of students at University of KwaZulu-Natal and hopefully visiting a clinic or two. Can't believe it's almost game time: this project will be the foundation for my senior thesis. I'll be living in Durban for the rest of the semester (some people go to rural areas or Pietermaritzburg) and will only have to conduct research (NO CLASS!). Until then, it's time to finish my project proposal and my Community Health Seminar paper... yikes! I wish I had Ladd to hide in for a few days to write these papers. Living by the beach is so distracting!

Despite the challenge of trying to study by the beach, life is pretty good! Every Sunday, there is a market across the street from where I'm living. So many cool things! People try to sell the typical touristy stuff as well as clothes and other assortments of goods. The produce stand has all sorts of crazy looking fruits! I've also become quite the chef. Sally (my roommate) and I have been cooking up a storm in our tiny kitchen. Last week we made fajitas, some red thai curry, and pasta with pesto. We even made brownies this weekend. YUM! tonight we're making some sort of curry dish.

This semester has been flying by, I only have 44 days left in my program and 52 days until I arrive back in Cleveland. Miss you all and can't wait to see you soon!

Living the good life, except for paper writing...

I'm now settling into living at Windemere holiday flats. I'm missing living in a homestay but I love the newly found freedom within my schedule. Now I can choose what to eat, when to eat, when to go on a run, when to go to bed, and what I do with my free time! Running on the beach is definitely a plus, although I've been a little lazy the past few days due to the rain. Now that it's sunny again back to trying to get in shape. Lacrosse training is going to be so rough when I get back! The only major bummer about this period is the surge of paper writing and prepping for my ISP. Right now I'm trying to make contacts to help my project along. I plan on studying cultural perceptions of HPV and cervical cancer amongst South African college students. For my friends who participated in my original study, this is a much more extended version and it's going to be used for my senior thesis. yikes. So much work to do but I know it will be worth it in the end!

Only 48 days left in the program! Can't believe how fast abroad is flying by. I miss everyone in the states and can't wait to see everyone again!

Last Hurrah in Cato, Amatikulu (Wangu), Umthwalume, and Slaying the dragon

Wow. This past week was amazing. It was my last weekend in Cato with my home stay family. I went to Wengu (Amatikulu), Umthwalume, and hiked the Drakensberg Mountains. Here’s the run down:

LAST WEEKEND IN CATO
Sadly, it was my last weekend living with my homestay family in Cato. On Friday night we had a farewell dinner with all the families. The food was pretty typical South African cuisine: tons of meat and carbs. After round one of eating, my mama had me snipe some of the food for leftovers. Once the meal was over, all of us got on stage to perform for our families. Being typical college students, we procrastinated practicing our performance until 5 minutes before said performance. We couldn’t decide what to do. Popular choices: “Don’t Stop Believin’”, “Waka Waka”, “Sweet Caroline”, and “God Bless America”. We ended up dancing to “Waka Waka” since pretty much everyone here is OBSESSED with the song. Who can blame them? It’s an awesome song and it’s so catchy. It was the theme song to the 2010 World Cup, if you haven’t heard it yet you should listen to it. Anyways, we got all the kids up on stage to dance with us. So cute. All the little ones were grooving and the gogos loved it! We also sang the Zulu version of “Head, shoulders, knees, and toes”. Saturday was boring because I had to work on a paper and Sunday was a chill day where I just hung out with my family. I also gave them thank you gifts on Sunday night. For Smu: 2 art kits and some mixes that I made (Rihanna’s Greatest Hits and Beyonce’s Greatest Hits). For Buwa: a huge bar of chocolate, a Bates lacrosse hat, and some mixes I made. For Mama: a nice throw the family can use. When watching TV, if they get cold they use an old towel with holes in it. I figured a nice throw would be great when mama gets cold. After saying my farewells, I left for my weeklong trip to rural villages...

AMATIKULU/WANGU
We arrived in Amatikulu (or so we thought) bright and early Monday morning. We arrived at the clinic to learn about the community health worker (CHW) program at the clinic. While there, we found out that the village was actually called Wangu and the clinic was called Amatikulu. Interesting. Anyways, after lunch at Steers (a ridiculous fast food chain) we met our homestay mamas. My mama was a sweet but quiet woman. Our house overlooked the ocean and was pretty big. Sally and I each got our own beds! Around their house was sugar cane field and groves of banana and mango trees. That night I discovered what lurks in the drop toilet at night. The drop toilet was one of the nicest I’ve seen, but it had HUGE roaches in it. Sally used it first, but when I opened the door and saw a roach crawl on the seat, I couldn’t bring myself to use the toilet! Thank goodness the roaches leave the longdrop during the day! On Tuesday we shadowed our mama on her route. Community health workers are trained members of the community who spread information concerning hygiene, nutrition, STIs, and TB. They go on a route around the community and visit people at their homes. We only visited a few homes, but it was nice to be out and about. We talked to people about washing their hands and how to make rehydrate. We went back to the house around 11 and watched Tyler Perry movies with my sisi Sne. I helped cook dinner. And by helping cook dinner, I mean chopping the veggies. After a delicious dinner of fried chicken, cooked veggies and pap we watched Generations and went to bed. On Wednesday, we left for Umthwalume.

UMTHWALUME
Umthwalume was by far my favorite of the rural homestays. We arrived in Umtwalume Wednesday morning. First, we visited a school. The school was amazing. For the limited resources they had, they had done so much! They teach the kids about sustainability and recycling: the kids help grow vegetables in a community garden and all the children learn how to recycle garbage into crafts. What’s most amazing about the school is the faculty. They are truly invested in the future of these kids. A big portion of the student body fits within the “Orphans and Vulnerable Children” category. Teachers will purchase students food and uniforms out of their own pocket money. They will take children into their homes to feed them dinner. They’ll repair their torn uniforms and wash them for them. It was incredible. Next, we visited a Love Life Y center. Love Life is an organization run through the South African government that focuses on HIV/AIDS prevention in the 12-19 year old population. Although the good intentions are there, they aren’t a highly functioning organization. The funding is limited and the peer mediators don’t practice what they preach. Many of them are teen moms but talk about having safe sex. There’s a big disconnect. After the downer at Love Life, I went to my homestay. My family was AWESOME! My mama was a Sangoma, a traditional healer. She spoke 4-5 words of English. Speaking with her required some miming and pointing at things. Thankfully, her daughter did the majority of translations for us. We had a baby brother who I was obsessed with (cause as we all know I love babies) and a 4 year old brother. The house was pretty small and a little intimidating. There were a lot of mice and geckos. We went to bed super early (7:30!). To our amazment, we shared a room with the gogo and the baby. We slept on the bed and the baby and gogo slept on the ground. During the night, Sally and I thought our house was going to blow over! The wind was so loud we thought something had fallen on the house! It didn’t help that our house had a tin roof which made a ridiculously loud rattling noise anytime wind blew past. Our gogo also woke up on several occasions to use the “pee bucket” in the middle of the room. Lucklily, Sally and I had access to our neighbors flush toilet. SUCCESS. After a rough night’s sleep, we went to visit a faith healer at her home and place of practice. She combines Christianity and traditional Zulu medicine as a mechanism of healing. Normally, she provides water that she blesses with the help of God. After that we went to a beautiful beach. It was too windy and too cold to go swimming, but we got a chance to admire the surroundings. Then, we went to a craft center where members of the community learn to produce craftwork. We learned how to make AIDS ribbon pins. Lets just say, I’m not so good at beadwork. The teachers felt so bad about mine they gave me a premade one. After that we went home. We spent the evening hanging out with our family without electricity: the electricity went out due to the strong winds. Once to electricity came back on, our gogo put on her sangoma apparel and had us take pictures with her. You’ll have to see the pictures on Facebook or when I get back! She put one of her wigs on Sally and a hat on me. We exchanged gifts with our family. Sally and I gave the family chocolate, dish towels, knives, and some bubbles for the kids. Earlier in the day, I was admiring the beautiful cloth our mama was wearing. When I asked her where she buys it, she took me to our room and pulled out a suitcase filled with tons of the cloths. She oftered me one! Shocked, I told her I didn’t have money to pay her, but she gave it to me anyways. Sally got one too. They’re beautiful. Mine is a garnet, black, and white one (YAY BATES COLORS) with a shield emblem on it. Pretty awesome. After a heartfelt goodbye with my family, we left in the morning and visited a TB hospital. After visiting the hospital, we headed to the Drakensburg Mountains!

SLAYING THE DRAGON: HIKING THE DRAKENSBURG

Apparently, Drakensburg means “Dragons back” in Afrikaans. We arrived on Friday to the campsite. We relaxed and prepped for one of the biggest hikes I have ever done. After a delicious dinner of pasta cooked over the campfire we went to sleep to rest up for the treacherous climb. On Saturday we began our 5 hour hike. The scenery was amazing! We hiked near a river until we got to the base of the mountain. It was so steep! Our AD Zed, who is pretty much a mountain man, was going so fast up the mountain. I ended up hiking with the EXTREEMM! Bunch. Also known as the stragglers. We had a technique of hiking where we would stop at the next rock with a tree. Unlike the other group, we spent more time admiring the scenery and enjoying the moment. Eventually we made it up to the top! We got to see the Khosian paintings at the top. The Khosian are the South African bushmen that were almost driven to extinction. Now they live in colored communities through out South Africa. The paintings were amazing, depicting scenes with hunters and warriors, contact with white settlers and their horses. After the paintings we made it all the way to the top. The view was amazing. I’m so proud of myself that I made it up such a huge mountain. I’m thinking that I can accomplish my goal of hiking Khatadin before I graduate from Bates. The climb down was almost as intense as the climb up! Eventually we made it to a river where we got to swim. It was so refreshing swimming in the super clean river. Don’t worry, no schistomiasis or scary parasites. After that, we hiked back to the campsite and ate a traditional South African brai (bbq). The food was awesome. I’ll have to bring some brai spice back for our BBQs at home.

Today we arrived back in Durban. I’m now living the life: living in a beachfront holiday flat for the next 2 months. Did some grocery shopping because now I’ll have to cook for myself! As a treat, my roommates and I went to get Indian food for dinner. That’s it for now. SO much happened in the past week. Miss you all and can’t wait to see you in 60 days!

Last Hurrah in Cato, Amatikulu (Wangu), Umthwalume, and Slaying the dragon

Wow. This past week was amazing. It was my last weekend in Cato with my home stay family. I went to Wengu (Amatikulu), Umthwalume, and hiked the Drakensberg Mountains. Here’s the run down:

LAST WEEKEND IN CATO
Sadly, it was my last weekend living with my homestay family in Cato. On Friday night we had a farewell dinner with all the families. The food was pretty typical South African cuisine: tons of meat and carbs. After round one of eating, my mama had me snipe some of the food for leftovers. Once the meal was over, all of us got on stage to perform for our families. Being typical college students, we procrastinated practicing our performance until 5 minutes before said performance. We couldn’t decide what to do. Popular choices: “Don’t Stop Believin’”, “Waka Waka”, “Sweet Caroline”, and “God Bless America”. We ended up dancing to “Waka Waka” since pretty much everyone here is OBSESSED with the song. Who can blame them? It’s an awesome song and it’s so catchy. It was the theme song to the 2010 World Cup, if you haven’t heard it yet you should listen to it. Anyways, we got all the kids up on stage to dance with us. So cute. All the little ones were grooving and the gogos loved it! We also sang the Zulu version of “Head, shoulders, knees, and toes”. Saturday was boring because I had to work on a paper and Sunday was a chill day where I just hung out with my family. I also gave them thank you gifts on Sunday night. For Smu: 2 art kits and some mixes that I made (Rihanna’s Greatest Hits and Beyonce’s Greatest Hits). For Buwa: a huge bar of chocolate, a Bates lacrosse hat, and some mixes I made. For Mama: a nice throw the family can use. When watching TV, if they get cold they use an old towel with holes in it. I figured a nice throw would be great when mama gets cold. After saying my farewells, I left for my weeklong trip to rural villages...

AMATIKULU/WANGU
We arrived in Amatikulu (or so we thought) bright and early Monday morning. We arrived at the clinic to learn about the community health worker (CHW) program at the clinic. While there, we found out that the village was actually called Wangu and the clinic was called Amatikulu. Interesting. Anyways, after lunch at Steers (a ridiculous fast food chain) we met our homestay mamas. My mama was a sweet but quiet woman. Our house overlooked the ocean and was pretty big. Sally and I each got our own beds! Around their house was sugar cane field and groves of banana and mango trees. That night I discovered what lurks in the drop toilet at night. The drop toilet was one of the nicest I’ve seen, but it had HUGE roaches in it. Sally used it first, but when I opened the door and saw a roach crawl on the seat, I couldn’t bring myself to use the toilet! Thank goodness the roaches leave the longdrop during the day! On Tuesday we shadowed our mama on her route. Community health workers are trained members of the community who spread information concerning hygiene, nutrition, STIs, and TB. They go on a route around the community and visit people at their homes. We only visited a few homes, but it was nice to be out and about. We talked to people about washing their hands and how to make rehydrate. We went back to the house around 11 and watched Tyler Perry movies with my sisi Sne. I helped cook dinner. And by helping cook dinner, I mean chopping the veggies. After a delicious dinner of fried chicken, cooked veggies and pap we watched Generations and went to bed. On Wednesday, we left for Umthwalume.

UMTHWALUME
Umthwalume was by far my favorite of the rural homestays. We arrived in Umtwalume Wednesday morning. First, we visited a school. The school was amazing. For the limited resources they had, they had done so much! They teach the kids about sustainability and recycling: the kids help grow vegetables in a community garden and all the children learn how to recycle garbage into crafts. What’s most amazing about the school is the faculty. They are truly invested in the future of these kids. A big portion of the student body fits within the “Orphans and Vulnerable Children” category. Teachers will purchase students food and uniforms out of their own pocket money. They will take children into their homes to feed them dinner. They’ll repair their torn uniforms and wash them for them. It was incredible. Next, we visited a Love Life Y center. Love Life is an organization run through the South African government that focuses on HIV/AIDS prevention in the 12-19 year old population. Although the good intentions are there, they aren’t a highly functioning organization. The funding is limited and the peer mediators don’t practice what they preach. Many of them are teen moms but talk about having safe sex. There’s a big disconnect. After the downer at Love Life, I went to my homestay. My family was AWESOME! My mama was a Sangoma, a traditional healer. She spoke 4-5 words of English. Speaking with her required some miming and pointing at things. Thankfully, her daughter did the majority of translations for us. We had a baby brother who I was obsessed with (cause as we all know I love babies) and a 4 year old brother. The house was pretty small and a little intimidating. There were a lot of mice and geckos. We went to bed super early (7:30!). To our amazment, we shared a room with the gogo and the baby. We slept on the bed and the baby and gogo slept on the ground. During the night, Sally and I thought our house was going to blow over! The wind was so loud we thought something had fallen on the house! It didn’t help that our house had a tin roof which made a ridiculously loud rattling noise anytime wind blew past. Our gogo also woke up on several occasions to use the “pee bucket” in the middle of the room. Lucklily, Sally and I had access to our neighbors flush toilet. SUCCESS. After a rough night’s sleep, we went to visit a faith healer at her home and place of practice. She combines Christianity and traditional Zulu medicine as a mechanism of healing. Normally, she provides water that she blesses with the help of God. After that we went to a beautiful beach. It was too windy and too cold to go swimming, but we got a chance to admire the surroundings. Then, we went to a craft center where members of the community learn to produce craftwork. We learned how to make AIDS ribbon pins. Lets just say, I’m not so good at beadwork. The teachers felt so bad about mine they gave me a premade one. After that we went home. We spent the evening hanging out with our family without electricity: the electricity went out due to the strong winds. Once to electricity came back on, our gogo put on her sangoma apparel and had us take pictures with her. You’ll have to see the pictures on Facebook or when I get back! She put one of her wigs on Sally and a hat on me. We exchanged gifts with our family. Sally and I gave the family chocolate, dish towels, knives, and some bubbles for the kids. Earlier in the day, I was admiring the beautiful cloth our mama was wearing. When I asked her where she buys it, she took me to our room and pulled out a suitcase filled with tons of the cloths. She oftered me one! Shocked, I told her I didn’t have money to pay her, but she gave it to me anyways. Sally got one too. They’re beautiful. Mine is a garnet, black, and white one (YAY BATES COLORS) with a shield emblem on it. Pretty awesome. After a heartfelt goodbye with my family, we left in the morning and visited a TB hospital. After visiting the hospital, we headed to the Drakensburg Mountains!

SLAYING THE DRAGON: HIKING THE DRAKENSBURG

Apparently, Drakensburg means “Dragons back” in Afrikaans. We arrived on Friday to the campsite. We relaxed and prepped for one of the biggest hikes I have ever done. After a delicious dinner of pasta cooked over the campfire we went to sleep to rest up for the treacherous climb. On Saturday we began our 5 hour hike. The scenery was amazing! We hiked near a river until we got to the base of the mountain. It was so steep! Our AD Zed, who is pretty much a mountain man, was going so fast up the mountain. I ended up hiking with the EXTREEMM! Bunch. Also known as the stragglers. We had a technique of hiking until we got to the next rock with a tree. Unlike the other group, we spent more time admiring the scenery and enjoying the moment. Eventually we made it up to the top! We got to see the Khosian paintings at the top. The Khosian are the South African bushmen that were almost driven to extinction. Now they live in colored communities through out South Africa. The paintings were amazing, depicting scenes with hunters and warriors, contact with white settlers and their horses. After the paintings we made it all the way to the top. The view was amazing. I’m so proud of myself that I made it up such a huge mountain. I’m thinking that I can accomplish my goal of hiking Khatadin before I graduate from Bates. The climb down was almost as intense as the climb up! Eventually we made it to a river where we got to swim. It was so refreshing swimming in the super clean river. Don’t worry, no schistomiasis or scary parasites. After that, we hiked back to the campsite and ate a traditional South African brai (bbq). The food was awesome. I’ll have to bring some brai spice back for our BBQs at home.

Today we arrived back in Durban. I’m now living the life: living in a beachfront holiday flat for the next 2 months. Did some grocery shopping because now I’ll have to cook for myself! As a treat, my roommates and I went to get Indian food for dinner. That’s it for now. SO much happened in the past week. Miss you all and can’t wait to see you in 60 days!