Happy Birthday Sisi!

It's my little sisters 2nd birthday today. I can't lie I've been homesick today, wishing I could be at home. I can't believe she's 2 already, I'm still remembering her at about 1, before the talking back started. She's a feisty one. So I dedicate this post to her so we can look back on it one day together.

Cleaner's Strike

We had talked about the cleaner's strike one day in my organizational management class, but it didn't really hit me until we got a e-mail from one of the senior managers at the school.

It reads:
"Update National Strike:

 

Unfortunately the National Cleaning Industry Strike is in full force, with no immediate signs of a resolution.

 

The majority of the full time contract staff have not been at work over the past week.

 

Where possible, casual labour has been supplied by the Contract Service Providers – however these casuals are often intimidated and do not return to work, making it almost impossible to skill and equip these staff.

 

I realize that the situation is very frustrating to all users, staff and students. My team is just as frustrated and as a support department we are trying to ensure that a basic service is being provided, but as the provision of Cleaning Services across all campuses is totally outsourced our hands are tied.

 

If there are essential areas that are receiving no service at all (this does not include your tea cups not being washed) please feel free to email me the details, but please be reasonable and bare the above in mind."

So this strike has been going on for quite awhile now, but it is getting more serious. So the average cleaner gets about R2400 (approx $375) a month. They are asking for an increase to R4200 (approx $656) a month. It is hard to live off of the what they get paid now, and the article I was reading was saying how many take out loans to pay for basic things because they cannot afford it. We were talking in class about how it seems to make perfect sense to increase the wage for the employers. We talked about it from different angles though, and mostly about how they can increase the wage for the employers but many people will get laid off. But also how at the same time, no one can live off of what they get paid now. I have attached a link below for further infomation. 

So this is not only affecting the university but many other places, since cleanliness is desired almost everywhere.

Contract Workers: We've had Enough

Offline?

I have been trying to get a library card to the public library here in PE, but its a lot more difficult than I thought it would be. First when I went they told me that I needed to  bring my passport and my proof and residence. Now normally I just don't walk around with those two things. So I went back today and had everything they needed, ready to check out some books...BUT they were "offline." I asked her what that meant because the bank told me that same thing once but I never understood it. Basically it means their internet is down, something with the server. So I was thinking okay I'll come back in a few hours, or maybe the next day....NO, she told me to come back in 12 day...12 business days! She said they had to order a new port or something like that and have it shipped. I think I seriously gave her a staleface look --> -___- (for those who don't know what that is). So for the next two weeks no one can check out books from the public library. But she said it may be sooner than that, I just have to keep calling and checking.

So by the time I make it back to the library to get books, I'll be super geeked :]

Sabbath

I was finally able to find a contact person who could provide me with church information of SDA services (Seventh Day Adventist). I went to the service today and it was quite an experience. I would say that there was about 80 of us total, give or take. Today was also YWA, with a Serving Women theme. The service was set to last the whole day, basically 9-1230 then 3-about 5 p.m. I only stayed for the first half. They did praise time, then Sabbath school for the whole group, then we split up into two different Sabbath school teachings. Then we got back together as a group for a presentation on what ‘Serving Women’ meant. They sang the hymns in Xhosa, but they did have the English translation on the screen. The English translation was British English so it was still somewhat different. SO everyone in that place could sing--like REALLY sing. I felt like I was sitting in a room with professional gospel singers lol, but seriously. And then when they made announcements the lady was saying when and where people who are part of the choir should meet. And I was thinking to myself “Everyone must be in the choir then.” They sang with ease and even harmonized. I bet I was the only one who couldn’t sing in there. I will not be going to any choir practices just an FYI. But it was really nice and everyone was really welcoming though and I enjoyed myself and the message was nice. Another things I noticed--I was the only girl wearing dress pants in there. All the other girls were wearing skirts and dresses. I definitely stood out. And it didn't help that they made me stand up and introduce myself. 

I use to work with a lady at JD who was from PE, and although I knew I wanted to go to SA for my study abroad, my interest was definitely increased when she talked about it. Anyway I got to finally meet her mom here. We went out for lunch and it was very lovely. She talked to me about the city and growing up here and places to go (and not go). So the day was really nice. 

I’m still trying to fight this cold I have, but I can’t seem to kick it. Hopefully the weather improves soon. 

15 Things Everyone Needs You To Do

Found this today. Thought I would share.

• Notice without critiquing.
• Appreciate without comparing.
• Listen without interruption.
• Question without objection.
• Challenge without mocking.
• Consider without doubting.
• Discuss without criticizing.
• Smile without hesitation.
• Give without expectation.
• Comfort without lying.
• Guide without misleading.
• Forgive without resentment.
• Rest without judgment.

Dare to reach out your hand into the darkness,
to pull another hand into the light.
-Norman B. Rice

Women's Day-SA

The turbulent 1950s- Women as defiant activists   <~~ Read some of this if you have a chance

"We were singing the song, which says 'Verwoerd the black people will kill you and we do not want Bantu Education' (Verwoerd, batho ba bantsho ba tlo go bolaya and gape ga re batle Bantu Education). And the song was saying: "If you strike a woman, you strike a rock' (Wathint'zBafazi, waThint'IMbokodo')"--Dorothy Masenya, parcipated in the 1956 March to Pretoria

Having never been exposed to South African history except for parts of the Apartheird Movement and Nelson Mandela, I was surprised at how much women in South Africa have done for the country and for the world. Taking this day to really educate myself on what I can get from reading, and talking to those I come in counter with. I think this day is just so lovely.

Happy Women's Day :]

Purpose

My purpose in SA? I’ve been thinking about this for awhile now. There are so many things that come to mind. Am I here to change one persons life? A group? Help someone out? Learn a skill or lesson that will help me in the future? I guess it could be all that and more or none of the above. But really I don’t think I’m here to affect or do anything for SA parse. I think I’m suppose to let SA do something for me. Follow me for a little bit. 

I think i am suppose to let SA, everything from the people,the culture, the beautiful outdoors work its way through me--do what it wants with me.  To learn how to let go and embrace. Not meant to impose anything on anybody or anything. Somewhat like a spong--to be able to take everything in, marinate on it, let it soak in, not rush anything. Possibly prepare me for something--something here in SA maybe, something back at home, something 10 years from now. This season in my life is meant for something. Something I may see in my lifetime, or maybe not. It’s kind of overwhelming to think about...to try and grasp the ideas of purpose...the concept of why I’m here. I can’t give a concrete answer to my purpose but all I know is that I will make the most of it while I am here. I won’t look back on this experience with any “shoulda, coulda, wouldas.” Maybe I’m being to vague, maybe I’m suppose to give a clear cut answer. Maybe I’m looking at the question from the wrong angle? Maybe I’ve said too much, or too little. But with all that put aside I will just ‘let it be’ and live, and allow myself to grow in a this new direction. 

“To thoroughly understand the world, to explain it, to despise it, may be the thing great thinkers do. But I'm only interested in being able to love the world, not to despise it, not to hate it and me, to be able to look upon it and me and all beings with love and admiration and great respect." Siddartha

Living "Green"

6 august

Ya howsit! It rained all day yesterday. I was feeling under the weather so i slept most of the day except when I went to eat at the cafe. I was really craving Panera’s chicken noodle soup today, and missing my parents TLC when I’m sick. I got neither, but hot chocolate and the apple pie did help a little. I should have brought my gloves/hat/scarf if I knew that it would be this cold here. Maybe I’ll buy some. 

Which reminds me, I have become very energy/water conscious since I’ve been here. Water is a scarce resource here and you pay for electricity by the usage. No like back home where you pay at the end of the month. This was a good year for South Africa with more rain than average. Before this year most of the country had a two year drought. So although the rain is an inconvenience to me, it is really good for the country so I won’t complain that much. To conserve water, we don’t take showers for more than 10 minutes, we also turn off the hot water when we are not using it. When we moved in we paid R600 (approx $94) for 577.8 kWh of electricity. The guy told us that should last us about 1.5 months. Right now we’re left with about 410 kWh in three weeks, so I’d say we are doing pretty well. We also turn off the stove circuit thing when we are not using it. So even though back home there is a lot of media about “Going Green” here it is more of a way of life I think. Well at least for the people I have spoken to so far. And they always have shows on TV about being using energy and water for efficiently. I think I’m learning to appreciate energy and water more, and hopefully I can still be conscious of it when I go back to the states. So basically everything has a switch to it so it is easy to control what is being used and when.

Pictures!

My grandpa helped me out and told me how to resize the pictures so they wouldn't take forever to upload. Thought I'd just put some put some up to show. I'll go back and post them to their respective posts. 

Playing the drums

Hiking

Right in my front yard

Mr. Mandela

World Cup Stadium

Surfers

Boardwalk

jogging route I take

“You think your a rockstar?”

So the professors here are not afraid to put students on blast, especially with talking during a lecture. One of my professors today told someone that if they wanted to have side conversations they could leave. I also noticed that when it gets too loud in the library someone comes on the loud speaker calling for silence. As a overall loud culture, its surprising to see that they have strong restrictions on noise level. 

I really like my organizational management class. The professor worked in HR for a long time and she also seems to have a lot of knowledge about people and behavior in workplaces. Today we were talking about competencies that managers have and what ways we as students could develop them. When we were on the global awareness competency she decides to put me on blast--like in elementary school when there was a new kid in class and they got a personal announcement. So I’m now the American girl who can pass for a Xhosa girl because I’m black lol. She was talking about how we should be open an sensitive to others from other cultures. To illustrate this she goes, “If I met Deana and heard her speak and thought ‘oh why does this black girl have an American accent? Does she think she’s a rockstar or something?” So I think I’ll take the title of a rockstar also :] I’ve enjoyed the class so far and I think I’ll get a lot out of it if I push myself to interact more with the south african students. 

I was riding one of the cabbies today and the money collector and the driver are cracking jokes and talking real fast. I couldn’t catch half of what they were saying. All of a sudden the money collector goes, “We have to joke everyday because being HIV positive you never know when your going to die.” I can’t even explain how my face looked. I didn’t know what to do or what to say. I wanted to say ‘oh shame’ but chose ‘sorry’ instead. Then there was this awkward silence...then they started laughing. They said that they were joking and that they like to mess with people, that people are too serious these days. I definitely let out a sigh of relief because I really didn’t know how to handle what he had said. But it got me thinking later that many people do have it here and that I guess since I’ve never had to deal with any real conversations on it, that could be something I’m exposed to while I’m here, we’ll see. But the cabbie drive was really fun and I kept asking the driver about how they got their licensees and how how the cabbie system worked. He was telling me how the government was promising to buy all th cabbies so then the drivers would not only get paid better but have better conditions but he said that the government is always promising things and never doing it. I was able to ask a lot of questions about the city during the ride. I half-joked that it would be interesting to be the hype-man/money collector for one of the cabbies and yell out the window. The driver said that if I wanted he would let me do it for a couple hours one day.  So I have a part time job if I want it lol. I don’t know if I’ll take him up on that but the option is good. 

So general observations while i was in class today:

• Professor will put people on blast, directly, not subtlety
• There is a major distinctions between their classified groups (black, white, colored, etc)
• The woman professors are called ma’am
• You cannot just leave the class without letting the professor know--even for the bathroom
• Everyone in SA usually speaks 2 languages (English and home language)
• There are no clocks in the classrooms
• They still use overheads

Cabbies

I don’t mind riding the cabbies but in the past two days I have ridden them more than I like. I had to go to the bank about 15-20 minutes away for the MoneyGram. yesterday when I went I forgot my passport so that was my fault. The lady at the bank told me that was all I needed to receive money. So I went today after class again and another lady tells me I also need proof of address. I was like wow seriously? I wish they would have just told me that yesterday. Now I have to find time to go back again. I guess I was a little bit frustrated today with all this. I had to do a couple breathing exercises so I would stay calm lol. 

Sidenote: I’m going to explain how the cabbie system works here (well as much as I know so far) so that it’ll make sense when I talk about how I think I got gipped out of 4 rand today (about 60 cents). 

So usually when you get into a cabbie it can be pretty empty or really full (like basically sitting on someones lap). There is always a driver of course, but some cabbies have the guy who collects the money and a guy who yells out the window (I like to call this guy the ‘hype man’). The hype man is always yelling where the bus is headed towards and usually that is ‘TOWN TOWN’ aka downtown. Sometimes the money collector is also the hype man for the bus. If there is no hype man or the bus is too full for him to maneuver the money is passed forward about 3 rows until it reaches him. So usually you pass to one person in your row who then passes it to the next row and tells how many people were accounted for so that the money collector knows how much change to give back. Sometimes though you can give change amongst each each other for example if I had a 20 rand bill and the person next to me had two 5 rand coins then I would take the 10 rand and get change from a neighbor and then we would pass the 20 accounting for 2 people. This usually works out just fine and it seems like a fairly honest system. But someone told me on the cabbie once that if someone doesn’t pay then the driver stops and doesn’t move until the difference is paid. And these people who run cabbie system seem to be very good at math and memorizing who gets in and out. If not they would probably not be making money. 

Well today I was on one going from downtown and it cost 6 rand. I only had a 10 rand bill so I passed that to the lady next to me but she didn’t have 4 rand for change. So she took mine and hers and passed it on. Well I never got my 4 rand. I think she saw my 10 rand and just added 2 rand meaning she didn’t pay her whole fare. I was going to ask the guy but I was thinking about it so long that by that time it was time to get off. And I had already witnessed a debate on the bus before and it was quite loud and obnoxious. I was too tired at that time to try and argue so I let the 4 rand go. 

So yes I like riding the cabbies but theres always a lot going on in them. I have a lot of cabbie stories if anyone ever wants to hear them :]

1 August

1 August

Aside from all the hectic running around, miscommunication, waiting in long queues (lines) the first week was classes went pretty well. The system for registering is just so much slower and confusing than what I am use t back home but I got though it pretty well. I wasn’t able to take a course a need for CBB but hopefully the philosophy course I am signed up for will be approved. I really like all my classes but my favorite so far is my International Marketing class. The lady is a Xhosa woman and she has so much energy when she is lecturing and already has my full attention. The class is a level 3 course (our senior level classes) and so there is more work, but it is a subject that I enjoy so I think it’ll be fine. Its chilly in the classrooms. They don’t have insulation, because they don’t really need it. Its interesting to see locals wearing hats and gloves in like 50-60 degree weather. I’ve been getting by with a light jacket but I’ll probably get something heavier because I can’t focus in a cold classroom. On Tuesday I went karoking with a bunch of the other international students sine I didn’t have a class the next day. Most people could obviously not sing but others got up there like it was American Idol. And I learned that almost nothing closes before 5 a.m. here which is very different from back home. I was definitely tired by midnight and went home but the next day most of the other students told me they stayed out until like 3 a.m.

Friday and Saturday were mostly spent braiding; my own hair and one of the other Americans from Georgia. Saturday we went out to eat a Barney’s and it was fun because they had live music there and they took requests. It was a nice and relaxed atmosphere. Then we went to the Boardwalk area to the News Cafe, which was more like a indoor/outdoor club the way it is set up at night. Surprisingly I met a fellow Congolese there and we talked in Lingala throughout the night. It was good meeting someone from my real home. 

Sunday a group of us went to the open market and walked around. they had a lot of things there such as: clothes, paintings, sunglasses, sculptures, toys, etc. I wish I could buy so many things, but I don’t know how I would get everything home. I met another Congolese at the market. It was a lady and her sons selling jewelry and home decorations. She was really nice, we were talking in Lingala to each other for like 30 minutes. I’m thinking about going there a few Sundays a month just so I can keep my Lingala up and maybe learn more about South Africa from our talks. 

Some some quick observations. I have a lot of them put thought I'll put them up as they come to mind.

• They drive on the left side of the road, so you would think its the same for walking. But its never consistent so I always feel like I’m swerving down walkway. 
• The cabbies can be loud, smelly, and we’re usually squeezed in there like sardines. So why do I like riding them? I always make it a point to talk to the locals or whoever is on there. I always get some interesting stories, and sometimes I’ve gotten tips on PE life from the riders. Plus they’re way cheaper than the taxi.
• Most of the girls on campus are always dressed up with heels and boots. I don’t know how they walk around campus like that. I will not be participating. That would be just what I need--to fall or slip going up and down the many stairs on campus. Plus its all brick and stone. I think I’ll pass and stick to my sneakers and regular boots. 
• The guys especially on the cabbies address girls by “sister” or “mama” if they’re older. I like that a lot. 
• Guys everywhere use the same pick up lines. 
• I can pass for being a black south african--if I don’t talk.. Right when I say “hi” or “hello” they know I’m not from here. So much for blending in :]
• Most students on campus are always on their phones or listening to a mp3/ipod player. 
• Bartering is allowed! And I’ve gotten plenty of discounts since I’ve been here...yayy
• Shopping bags at the grocery store are not free...so its good to buy the reusable ones