molweni! kunjani? ndiyavuya. (hello! how are you? i am happy.)
so lest i forgot i live in a third world country the last few days have served as a wonderful reminder. in the last 4 days 7 people on my program have been mugged. one at gunpoint. a little scary considering these events have all been in the same area between 2 of the houses. also they were never walking alone. our program director is getting private security to start patrolling the area. we think it's the same guys who just figured out where the americans live. hence, why i feel trapped in my house at night. you honestly can't walk anywhere, especially since i live by a colony of bums who by the looks of the sidewalk are breaking bottles all night. however, please don't let this scare you, as we are all learning what to do and what not to do from these events. they also generally only want the bag you are carrying, they haven't made anyone empty their pockets. also one girl's package came, only there was nothing inside. if you send me anything, make sure it's labeled something like "old gym socks."
also, the western cape (my province) has two power plants. one of them is broken and is down on "long term maintenence." the other one is currently experiencing technical difficulties or a power shortage or something. (i don't know since i don't have television or radio and i have yet to find an english language daily paper). what these technical diffuculties mean is that the entire province has been losing power on a pretty regular basis. sunday we lost it for about 12 hours from about 1am to 1pm. then yesterday it went out during my class (we just kept on goin) at about 9:15 am and it stayed out until 2ish. Then at like 7:15 it went out again until 1 am. today it went out again at 9:15 and stayed out until 12:30. Everyone keeps spreading rumors about how long this will go, how long each outage is supposed to be. until then though, the world cannot function. the university doesn't have a generator (but the mall does) so the computers are constantly down. no one can check emails, or add and drop classes. no one can cook.
last night in an attempt to make dinner a couple of my housemates and the boys from next door started up our braai to make a 5 course meal of all our frozen meat (and eggs). the only problem was that our fire starters were wet (they don't have lighter fluid here), our coals were damp and it was REALLY windy. we wound up coaxing tiny little flames for about an hour before we had something. Girls were holding up tables to try and block the wind. i was holding up the flashlight, the boys were strategically placing matches. it was pretty hilarious, we felt like we were on survivor (only we realized that without matches we would starve). but eventually we got some heat, covered the whole thing in foil to keep it from the wind and started cooking. we had fish, hot dogs, bacon, chicken, and we put over a dozen eggs in our wok. then one girl in our house had bought supplies for smores (although they were nasty strawberry marshmallows and cookies instead of graham crackers) so we made those. pretty funny.
so today i realized i better try to prepare for more of these nights and i bought more fish, some seasoning, more matches (we used a whole box last night!). gotta love the third world.
on a happier note my classes are going well and i'm gonna be a great dancer when i get home. dance class is really challenging but so fun and in xhosa today i learned how to greet most types of people i could ever encounter. including a xhosa princess: "molo nkosazana" i'm not sure when that one will ever be useful. maybe at garfield it would since half the girls there are named princess (which i learned is also a common name here). when greeting a girl named nkosazana if you said "molo nkosazana" it would be just like greeting any other girl your own age.
so lest i forgot i live in a third world country the last few days have served as a wonderful reminder. in the last 4 days 7 people on my program have been mugged. one at gunpoint. a little scary considering these events have all been in the same area between 2 of the houses. also they were never walking alone. our program director is getting private security to start patrolling the area. we think it's the same guys who just figured out where the americans live. hence, why i feel trapped in my house at night. you honestly can't walk anywhere, especially since i live by a colony of bums who by the looks of the sidewalk are breaking bottles all night. however, please don't let this scare you, as we are all learning what to do and what not to do from these events. they also generally only want the bag you are carrying, they haven't made anyone empty their pockets. also one girl's package came, only there was nothing inside. if you send me anything, make sure it's labeled something like "old gym socks."
also, the western cape (my province) has two power plants. one of them is broken and is down on "long term maintenence." the other one is currently experiencing technical difficulties or a power shortage or something. (i don't know since i don't have television or radio and i have yet to find an english language daily paper). what these technical diffuculties mean is that the entire province has been losing power on a pretty regular basis. sunday we lost it for about 12 hours from about 1am to 1pm. then yesterday it went out during my class (we just kept on goin) at about 9:15 am and it stayed out until 2ish. Then at like 7:15 it went out again until 1 am. today it went out again at 9:15 and stayed out until 12:30. Everyone keeps spreading rumors about how long this will go, how long each outage is supposed to be. until then though, the world cannot function. the university doesn't have a generator (but the mall does) so the computers are constantly down. no one can check emails, or add and drop classes. no one can cook.
last night in an attempt to make dinner a couple of my housemates and the boys from next door started up our braai to make a 5 course meal of all our frozen meat (and eggs). the only problem was that our fire starters were wet (they don't have lighter fluid here), our coals were damp and it was REALLY windy. we wound up coaxing tiny little flames for about an hour before we had something. Girls were holding up tables to try and block the wind. i was holding up the flashlight, the boys were strategically placing matches. it was pretty hilarious, we felt like we were on survivor (only we realized that without matches we would starve). but eventually we got some heat, covered the whole thing in foil to keep it from the wind and started cooking. we had fish, hot dogs, bacon, chicken, and we put over a dozen eggs in our wok. then one girl in our house had bought supplies for smores (although they were nasty strawberry marshmallows and cookies instead of graham crackers) so we made those. pretty funny.
so today i realized i better try to prepare for more of these nights and i bought more fish, some seasoning, more matches (we used a whole box last night!). gotta love the third world.
on a happier note my classes are going well and i'm gonna be a great dancer when i get home. dance class is really challenging but so fun and in xhosa today i learned how to greet most types of people i could ever encounter. including a xhosa princess: "molo nkosazana" i'm not sure when that one will ever be useful. maybe at garfield it would since half the girls there are named princess (which i learned is also a common name here). when greeting a girl named nkosazana if you said "molo nkosazana" it would be just like greeting any other girl your own age.
posted by kerry at 5:46 AM
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