Emily's unforgettable experiences

I don’t want to write this blog. I really don’t. Writing this blog means its over. It means we are all going home. It means 10 Loch Road is no longer my home and I no longer live with all the wonderful people I’ve spent the last 3 and a half months of my life with. It means we no longer walk to 7/11 for candy runs or take a minibus blasting techno to a beautiful beach or get lost climbing a beautiful mountain and run out of water. I don’t want to write this blog because it means my time in South Africa is over and our time as a group abroad is over. My favorite part of this trip is how close I have become with this wonderful group of people and the fact that we have done this, together.

We aren’t going back to school right away so I probably won’t see some of these people until next semester and that makes me sad. Really sad. I don’t know what it will feel like to wake up to a quiet house in Vermont instead of a bustling one in Cape Town. Will I be able to fall asleep at night without the background noise of shouting, clanking dishes, bickering, slamming doors and above all laughing? I have grown so close to my fellow UConn students on this trip, closer than I ever could have imagined. They are my family and my friends. Of course I miss home but I don’t quite know how I will adjust to losing this family. Although we may return to South Africa at some point in our lives we will never be in this space again, all of us together at Loch road debating who’s better, Kemba or Maya or arguing over whether or not an Eminem song is oppressive or empowering and endlessly, endlessly trying to figure out how we can make the world a better place.

 I know I am going to cherish this last week and a half. I don’t know where the past three months have gone but they have been wonderful ones. I’m going to sound like a cornball now but frankly I don’t care, I have grown as a person on this trip and changed. I have learned so much from my internship, our classes, my professors, this community and my peers. And best of all I have watched others grow, learn and change around me. I know that I will never forget this experience here in this amazing country with these awesome people. The other day when I climbed Lions Head again and for the final time, I sat at the top and looked out across the water and I thought about the first time we had climbed this mountain so long ago. It is amazing how quickly time can pass you by when you are enjoying life to the fullest.

When I jumped off a bridge the other day (oh yes!) I had such a moment of clarity. It was so silent as I fell through the air at 70mph with nothing but a cord to catch me and when I bounced back up I let out a shriek of excitement and felt so proud of myself. Jumping (or in my case, being pushed) off of the bridge amid cheers from my housemates was an amazing feeling. I could feel the support of everyone and knew they were genuinely happy for me. Being only the second jumper to go I was absolutely terrified for what lay ahead, but my housemates gave me the courage to just do it. When I came on this trip I said I would never bungee jump and certainly not shark cage dive. And I have done one and will soon do the other next week. I am proud of myself for facing my fears and pushing to experience life, it was definitely worth it. I was so proud of everyone that day for jumping; it was almost as exciting to watch everyone else jump, as it was to jump myself. When Katherine jumped, as the first jumper, our group let out a roar as if we had won the National Championship again and I almost cried with happiness at the love our group shares for one another.

I am proud of our entire group for all that we have done and accomplished on our study abroad adventure and I am so incredibly sad to see it coming to a close. But to end on a positive, I’m sure groups always say this and don’t follow through, but I know ours will. I can’t wait to see everyone this summer and reunite next semester. I know that I have made some lifelong friends on this trip, doing the things we have done and seeing the things that we have seen there is no way to ignore the unbreakable bond that has formed between us all. Whether it was jumping off of a bridge, squashing into a minibus with techno blasting, singing along to Vanessa Carlton in the kitchen, dancing from one club to the next in a conga line, leaping into the pool the first day, learning about Xenophobia and Black Consciousness, attending a church service in the township or watching the men win the National Championship at 530 in the morning, the things I have done with these people will never be forgotten. 

Emily on beauty & danger on the mountain . . . and in life

This past weekend I endured what was the hardest hike of my life, an 11-hour trek across the 12 Apostles. I knew this was going to be a long, hard hike but I did not realize just how difficult it was going to be. Not only was the climb extremely difficult, I found myself reaching up and grabbing for the next rock but we also unfortunately missed the path we were supposed to take for our descent and so we got lost and had to wander for a while, a 3 hours while, and then we ran out of water.. luckily we finally found the path, or some semblance of a path and we made our way through the prickers. Nicole and I had to tie our shirts around our legs because they were getting so scratched up from the rough brush! Hiking down the waterfall was incredibly difficult as we were all dead tired but we finally made it to the bottom and even met a wonderful retired park ranger, Jim who helped to show us the way and got us on the right side of the trail. When Ben arrived baring peanuts and Gatorade-like drinks I nearly cried with joy. I was definitely worried for a bit that we were going to have to be airlifted of off the mountain or spend the night, not that I would’ve minded the helicopter ride through Cape Town but the money and embarrassment would’ve sucked! The pain I thought I had felt the day before when getting my cartilage pierced (sorry mom & dad!) was nothing compared to the pain my legs felt the next few days as I stumbled around the house. 

This experience reminded me that we are in AFRICA and we were not climbing Sugarbusch in Vermont but rather the 12 Apostles, which contains many dangerous peaks. Although the mountain is beautiful and is surrounded by the beautiful sea and city, it is still dangerous. It could easily claim your life in a multitude of ways whether its falling from it, running out of water or become trapped on it. It’s easy to relate this to the idea that although Cape Town is a beautiful place, it is still surrounded by poverty, violence, racism, sexism and corruption. It will take a lot of work for Cape Town and South Africa to become as beautiful on the inside as it appears on the outside. 

As the end of this trip draws closer and closer I find myself to be struggling with the same scenario I’m sure many others on this trip are struggling with and have struggled with in the past, the dual happiness and sadness of going home. While I absolutely cannot wait to see my parents, brother, dog, car, beloved Vermont Green Mountains and the rest of my family and friends, I also could easily burst into tears at the thought of leaving this beautiful country that has changed me as a person. The experiences I’ve had here and especially those I’ve had with all my wonderful housemates (Malleson included) will never be forgotten and can never be matched by anyone else. 

Emily reflecting on her many & varied experiences here

We have done a lot of fun, amazing things while here in Cape Town but there have definitely been some more sobering and serious moments that I’d really like to share with my family, friends and my housemates families and friends. While at my internship one day this past week I struck up a conversation with the copy man (the man who fixes our irksome copy machine, which loves to break every 2 seconds) and was surprised at what he asked me. Upon learning that I was American, he told me that he was Muslim and that he really wanted to visit the United States but that he was afraid to because of the attacks on Muslims he had been hearing about and the general attitudes of the American people towards Muslims and those who looked like Muslims. This hit me very hard as we had recently watched a film in class entitled “Divided We Fall,” which I HIGHLY recommend all about the attacks on Sikh Indians in the U.S. He asked me what I thought he should do, was it safe for him to visit or no? I didn’t know what to say and it upset me. I wanted him to visit my country, especially because he really wanted to but at the same time I didn’t want to lie to him and say he wouldn’t encounter any threats or stereotypes of Muslims while he was there. I hated that I came from a country that had such negative attitudes about a group of people who meant us no harm. At that moment I did not want to be American.

Another moment that hit me very hard was during our first few weeks here in Cape Town. We had gone to church and were coming home and driving through the township of Khayelitsha on our big touristy bus. I saw three little kids playing on the side of the road in a pile of garbage. One of the boys picked up a broken crate to play with and I watched as a little girl whacked him over the head with a piece of garbage because she wanted to play with the crate. These kids were literally fighting over garbage because that was all that they had to play with. I nearly burst into tears. I could remember fighting over toys with my brother when I was younger and they were certainly new, clean and innumerable.

 

Another similar moment to that occurred just a week or so ago while in Johannesburg. We played with some children we encountered in a market and it was their greatest moment of joy when we let them use our cameras to take pictures of us and themselves. The little boy among the group had been rolling a dirty old tire along with a stick as a toy. A man came along with inflatable toys and some members of our group immediately wanted to buy a toy for them so we did. Seeing the kids faces light up at small inflatable Winnie the Pooh or Spiderman for 5 rand nearly broke my heart in all the right ways. It was incredibly hard to stay at the Balalaika Hotel and see the Gold Reef Casino knowing the extreme poverty that people suffer in the townships right next to these places of luxury. Doing all of the amazing activities here, especially the ones that were paid for for our group, is such a privilege. Many of the locals I have spoken to have never even climbed Table Mountain because they can’t afford the transportation to get to the base or to get into the park and they live below it their whole lives. I am only here for four months and I have already gone climbing three times.

 

And a final moment of sadness was when we went to the Hector Pieterson memorial and walked through the cemetery remembering those who had been killed at Sharpeville, the youngest of whom was only a 9-year-old girl. Seeing a tipped over gravestone emerged in water and realizing that even in death these freedom fighters were not awarded the respect and dignity that they deserved really got to me. You cannot see what I have seen in this country and not be changed as a person. I can see my housemates changing around me and I can see the change within myself as well. Seeing the hardships and poverty that we have all seen has brought us closer together as a group and bonded us. Yes the days are full of fun such as surfing, climbing mountains and eating tasty goodies but the days and especially nights are full of meaningful thoughts and at least on my part, journal entries questioning who I am and why and what I did to have all that I do have. You cannot visit this country and leave without wanting to help people somewhere, it is impossible. Cape Town and South Africa have made a great and lasting impact on me that I will never forget or regret. 

Emily so happy to come home to Cape Town

Spending time in Johannesburg certainly made me appreciate Cape Town and consider it home even more so than I did before! I was immediately homesick for 10 Loch Road as soon as we left. Johannesburg however, was great! It was a much faster pace than slow, crawly Cape Town can often be and felt like Africa’s version of New York City. The Balalaika Hotel was fantastically extravagant and it was nice to eat out and not eat spaghetti every night for a week! Seeing all of the fantastic museums, monuments and memorials was great. One of my favorite stops along the way was definitely the Hector Pieterson Memorial and Museum. The memorial was beautiful and the sound of the trickling water was incredibly calming and disheartening at the same time, as I was told that the water spilling over the ledge represented the blood of the children that was spilt during the Soweto riots. Imagining innocent school children being shot dead by police officers is a horrible thing to have on ones mind, but it was a reality here in South Africa. At the apartheid museum they split us into whites and non-whites, a great touch that really added to the experience and made you understand how life was here in South Africa. The museum was huge and I could’ve spent days pouring through it’s contents. My favorite item I discovered in the apartheid museum were some old posters advertising all sorts of events and political groups such as the ANC, they were very cool! Seeing the Constitutional Court was also surreal and understanding the great detail put into its design made it seem like such a special place. The court is designed to look like a tree! Having read much about Soweto, Sharpeville, the prisons and apartheid, it was great to finally visit all of the places we have learned so much about. It made everything seem more real and come together as the story of South Africa. Having just completed reading a biography of Winnie Mandela it was very surreal to be standing in her kitchen at House #8115 and remember all she had gone through while there.

One of the greatest parts of the city was when we stopped briefly to see the Freedom Charter Memorial and several of us encountered some adorable children. A little girl came running out of nowhere and hugged Julian and Joe and then some of her friends or siblings showed up. We played with them and told them our names and they played with our cameras taking pictures of us and themselves. A man came over with some inflatable toys and a few of us bought the four of them a toy each. Seeing their faces light up at this small, cheap toy is certainly in my top five moments here in South Africa. They had arrived playing with sticks and an old tire and left with way cool Winnie the Pooh, Hello Kitty and Spider Man toys! When we left I was sad to say goodbye to them but it was nice to know that we had brightened their day.

The end of the week was certainly lighter with a trip to a great craft market and finally to Kruger where we saw tons of animals! Kruger was even greater than I could have ever expected it to be. The first animal our group saw was a beautiful giraffe at the watering hole and I was incredibly excited! Giraffes are my moms and I’s favorites! I took a good 20 pictures of this one giraffe while we sat there and watched him lick his lips. He was too cute! I was literally within feet of a lion and could see the flecks of gold in his eyes and was nearly charged by not one, but two rhinos on our walking safari, which was well worth the money! The huts we stayed in were very cool and it was nice to get back to that scorching African heat we were greeted with when we arrived here in January, which has now given way to cooler weather here in Cape Town. I got to hold the light when we went out on our evening safari and I loved the responsibility! I seemed to be pretty good at it too and may perhaps be considering a career in spotlighting. 

Nicole and Emily holding guns toted by guides during their from walking safari

Perhaps the best part of our trip though was arriving home and flying in over the mountains of Cape Town. Hearing how happy everyone else was to be home gave me a nice feeling of community even if we did return to an electricity-less house! Returning to my internship yesterday to hugs and warm welcomes made me truly feel as though this place were home and I have no idea how anyone expects me to leave in 30 days!  

Emily--so much to do, so little time

Emily climbing Lion's Head

This weekend was by a long shot, one of my favorites so far. We managed to have as busy of a weekend as we had during orientation and we planned it all out on our own, with some helpful suggestions from Ben, Jess and Marita! On Friday we all went to the beach and a group of us did the St. James walk along the coast into St. James. We browsed through the shops and a few of us had an amazing lunch at this New York style café where Tom and Taylor consumed two of the largest burgers I’ve ever seen! On Saturday we went to The Old Biscuit Mill, a really neat marketplace with tons of local and fresh products and some of the most delicious food I’ve ever had! After that we went into the city and took part in the annual Gay Pride Parade. This was an amazing event. It was the first march of its kind that I had attended and so I was quite surprised at its size and its color! Everywhere you looked there was a new bright color or a bedazzled social justice comrade. My favorite part of the parade was seeing the few people protesting it being covered in bubbles by the LGBTQ community of having twenty whistles blown right in their face. Needless to say, their protesting went unheard for the most part. It was by far one of my favorite events that we have been to while in Africa. After the parade a few of us went to hangout with Logan’s French co-workers and it was nice to sit down and talk to students from another country. Sunday we went to the famous Mzoli’s, an outdoor Braii/BBQ where you bring your own meat and alcohol and they cook for you. We went with some of the South African friends we had made over our human rights training weekend and it was nice to see them again in a more relaxed setting. Buying alcohol out of someone’s home and being asked at least 14X to buy a pair of sunglasses were some of the unique experiences we shared there. There was mist being spewed from the ceiling to keep us cool and many people were dancing in the street so that it had to be closed down. After Mzoli’s our group went to the Gold Fish concert in the ever-beautiful Kirstenbosch Gardens. It was a great show and even if the music had been terrible sitting in that garden staring at the mountain is reward enough. It was an exhausting weekend but well worth the lack of sleep. It is amazing to see the mixing of cultures here in South Africa. I’ve never met so many different people from so many different places. I am proud to say that I now have friends from South Africa, Zimbabwe, Somalia, France and Ireland, whom I most likely never would have met had I stayed home in Connecticut. I’m glad our group has begun to feel the sense of urgency to do everything and see everything while we are here because I know we all realize our time in this amazing place is dwindling. I loved being immersed in the culture this weekend whether it be at Mzoli’s or the Gay Pride Parade. I feel that I learned a lot and the most rewarding part of it all was that I felt welcome in each community I took part in.

Emily looking ahead

Sitting at the top of Lion’s Head watching the sun sink into the ocean on one side and the full moon rise on the other, with the view of Table Mountain to our left and the city of Cape Town to our right, was a very surreal moment for me and I’m sure for the amazing people I’m on this trip with. I often wonder how so much beauty can exist in one place and how so few people can know about such a place. Although the hike was short, just an hour or so, there were some difficult parts to it that required teamwork. Making sure Terri could reach the ladder rungs hammered into the rocks and reach the chain above her was my main concern on the way up! Coming down was a whole other experience as we helped each other through the dark with only the light of the moon and our cell phones. I found it very sweet how the small group I was with made sure each person made it safely down the ladders before proceeding down the trail. It is easy to see just how much our affection for each other has grown over this short period of time. The amazing quiet of the mountain struck me as we walked down with just the crunch of gravel beneath our sneakers occasionally breaking the silence. 

It I amazing to think that we still have two long months in this amazing country but then again that is such a SHORT time! There are so many things I want to do, like hiking around Cape Point, going camping, white water rafting, cage diving, sky diving, the list goes on. I know these days are going to fly by and so I try to appreciate every second I am in this beautiful country because pretty soon I will be back Storrs in the beautiful leaves, wrapped in a sweatshirt and scarf and wondering how I am possibly already back from Africa, possibly never to return. 

I am very excited to start my activist project at Thandukulu. Julian, Marie, Taylor and myself are going to be teaching kids, most likely ninth graders and maybe some teachers too, how to use computers. Our hope is that these skills will help them to achieve the same things in college that come easier to their more affluent classmates, and hopefully we can have some fun along the way. I am very excited to spend the weekend on an Olive Farm and really hope we can finally have a campfire and make some smores! Being from Vermont, I really miss this! But I am also excited to meet some local South Africans who are our age, outside of the party scene and really connect. I think it will be very interesting to see all of the different perspectives on human rights. Coming from a country where I have basic necessities such as clean water and access to good education will definitely set me apart from the South Africans and the international students we will also be meeting, it should be a great experience, not to mention bring our group even closer together! 

Emily encouraging everyone to study abroad with this program!

Emily, Terri, Siobhan, Nicole and Anna at the summit of Table Mountain

While sitting in the ocean today on my newly acquired surfboard, gazing at the beautiful mountains surrounding Muizenberg Beach, wondering if there were any great whites lurking around and laughing at the antics of my fellow surfers, I was struck by just how amazing of a place South Africa and Cape Town are and what an amazing opportunity this entire experience is. I know I will never forget a single moment that I spend in this country with these people and that this trip is absolutely unbeatable. When we climbed Table Mountain last weekend I was not only awestruck by the amazing views at the top or the effort we all had to put in to get there, but rather the community that we have already formed in just four short weeks. For the most part, none of us knew each other before we came on this trip aside from our brief meetings at UConn and now these people have become some of my best friends and I am sharing an experience with them that I will share with no one else. So, although I miss my parents, brother, friends, and boyfriend especially it IS comforting to have this community of support with me everyday. Each experience we have together, whether it’s a fun one like surfing or a heart-wrenching one like driving through the streets of Khayletisha or talking about how discrimination has affected the lives of our nonwhite friends, brings us closer together. Hearing about the amazing work we are all doing at our internships is so rewarding, Whether its Tom distributing condoms to dozens of homes, Terri learning how to do surgery and getting to assist surgeons or Julian, Taylor and Marie creating their own curriculum and educating youth. I am so happy at my internship placement, all of the women I work with are amazing and do amazing things. It’s been so great to hear all of their stories about living through apartheid and we are learning so much from each other already. I’m helping to draft legislation that will eventually go through parliament at the end of March on victim empowerment. I can’t believe I actually get to be a part of something so amazing. If I could tell every UConn student back home or even every student in the United States just one thing, it would be to study abroad and to do this program because Cape Town, South Africa is an amazing place where you can not only enjoy yourself more than you ever thought possible but grow into the amazing young adult you are destined to be and really, REALLY change the world we live in. 

Emily grapples with the dichotomies

Its amazing how bipolar this country can be. There are so many amazing things to do here, like climb Table Mountain, see the penguins at Boulder Beach or see the amazing views and baboons from Cape Point. But then on the other side of things I've witnessed the extreme poverty that lingers and flourishes in this country due to the aftermath of apartheid. Watching two children viciously fight over a broken plastic crate, taken from a pile of garbage to play with nearly broke my heart. Seeing the shacks in the townships that people are forced to call their homes made from bits and pieces of tin makes me feel pretty guilty as we ride around on our big tour bus with our air conditioning and huge house with  pool waiting at home for us. Doing all the fun touristy activities here is a blast but seeing the poverty is also good for us. It inspires me to do more for my organization that I'm interning at and to think of an activist project that will help those that really need the help. Seeing how poor most of the population is here really encourages me to appreciate everything I have and everything I get to do here as well as to appreciate my education that is so hard to come by here. I can already tell this country is changing me as a person, whether it's talking to the women at my internship, sitting in Vincent's class listening to the history of South Africa and Apartheid which he lived through as a black man, talking to the youth out at the bars and how their lives have changed over the years with the abolishment of Apartheid or seeing all the amazing culture, sights and experiences South Africa has to offer. 

Emily "Cape Town even more amazing than imagined"

Emily at Signal Hill

It is too ironic to be writing my first blog entry poolside, in the blazing African sun when I just left a 3 foot snowstorm back home only a few days ago. Not only am I experiencing a bit of culture shock but also a lot of weather shock. Going from 0 to 85 was an amazing feeling I think I could get used to. Knowing I won't see snow for nearly a year is one of the best feelings possible. When we were flying over Cape Town looking down on the mountains I knew I was going to love this place, it looked amazing. The access to cheap, fresh foods is unimaginable and the wine is the most authentic tasting I've ever had. The city is a bustle of noise whether its a minibus taxi driver shouting to give us a ride or a car honking at some poor pedestrian who mistakenly thought the traffic would stop for him. In Cape Town the rules are all different and its cars before people here. Although the city is big and crazy its relaxing too, with the beautiful mountains always looming in the background and the blue ocean water crashing on the shore, its impossible to be stressed out about where you need to be. The Capetonians call it being on Cape Town Time. 

We have such a great group of people here which is possibly one of the biggest pluses for this trip. Everyone gets along with each other and we all LOVE to talk, thats for sure. Going to Robben Island and Signal Hill have been my most favorite activities of the week. Being able to see Nelson Mandela's jail cell is one of the coolest thing I can now say that I've done. The view from Signal Hill just really shoves it in your face that you are in a beautiful country on a beautiful continent and remembering that your here not just for a two week vacation, but a four month stay, is amazing. I can't wait to begin my internship and my classes at our gorgeous campus, find favorite local places to grab lunch, go to the beach and become familiar with all the locals. Cape Town is even more amazing than I imagined it would be and I know I will be getting SO much out of this trip. 

Emily proclaims: "SOUTH AFRICA! HERE I COME!!!"

I think I'm still in shock that I am actually going to Africa, and not just for a quick visit but rather I will be living there with 23 other people I don't know. I'm incredibly excited, WOOOOOHOOOOO!!!


I'm ready to get off this campus and do something different, make a difference in my community and have a meaningful academic experience. I can't wait to meet he people, taste the food, see the mountains, CLIMB THEM and cry because I am so happy to be there. I can' wait to bond with my roommate, housemates and fellow UConn classmates and share an experience with them like no other. I know this will be one of the best experiences of my life and I cannot wait for it to begin!!!


Meeting the group today was great, it seems like a lot of great people coming from a lot of different perspectives. I'm so excited this is the biggest risk I've taken in my life to date and I can only imagine the benefits I will reap from it! 
YAY SOUTH AFRICA! HERE I COME!!!