Btw.

Oh yea...I'm going to Hawaii!

It's Been Awhile...

I know I haven't been the best at posting on here. But since this blog is not only about my trip to South Africa (ZA, yes im abbreviating cause im lazy) but about me traveling all over, I realized that I need to update! Since I've been home from ZA, my perception on things has been very different. I look at a lot of the things that I have very differently. I am blessed and fortunate to have SO much. Everything that I need is made available to me. This is something that I've always known but I hadn't realized the depth of it.
There have been many times where I've complained about not being able to afford such trivial things, like "the flyest pair of shoes of ever seen", and not taken time to realize....I've never wanted for ANYTHING. There has not been one moment in my life where I have been without what I needed; food, clothes and a roof over my head. I thank God for that! He has blessed me since the day I was born and continues to bless me. I have to be honest and say that sometimes it does feel like I have a heavy load to carry with some of the responsibilities I have but I know that He will take care of me. Always as and always will...

Love ZA Love

As my time in South Africa (ZA) comes to a close and I reflect on my experiences here, I must say that I am sad that my time has come to an end. In these past three weeks, I have seen poverty like never before yet lived (and shopped) like a person of great wealth and privilege. I have heard the most heart breaking stories of seperatism and discrimination yet witnessed the greatest sense of unity and love for ones country. I have never been more of an outsider yet I have never felt more a part of something that was bigger than me. The list goes on and on and on.
There were a lot of firsts for me here as well; first time on a plane, first time overseas, first time eating lamb (it was either that or go hungry), first time climbing a mountain and,well, I could go on forever. I was fortunate enough to be surrounded by some really special people who have all given me a little of themselves to take with me. So, as I prepare to leave, I do so knowing that I will one day return to this great place...Mama Africa.

I climbed a mountain!

I hiked table mountain today. It was hard. Though I fell in some pricker bushes, fell down some rocks and tripped countless times I made it to the top! I am so proud of myself right now that I just felt like telling everybody lol. Once I got to the top (finally) it was the most beautiful thing that I've ever seen. I was truly amazed to see God's creation. The I took some A-MAZING pictures and will post them later.
God bless!

Pictures of my placement: Valkenburg Hospital

The hospital is huge, its not one building but a campus with different buildings. It also has a maximum security ward that I'm trying to make my way to. This is the administrative building with all the offices.




A view of one of the wards.


The dragon man...lol


View of the mountain from my placement



Apparently they don't have firefighters in S.A. cause you have to fight fires yourself


An extremely random poster outside my placement.

Camera update

I bought I new camera for a ridiculously marked up price (arg!) so I will post more pics as soon as the internet stops being so slow. Goodnight!

Placement

I have been at my placement for over a week now and so far it has been pretty interesting. I've been at Vandeburg Psychiatric Hospital working with an organization called "The Friends of Vandeburg". The organizations acts as sort of a support system for the hospitals patients and staff. They run various activities weekly for the patients just as; a store, hair salon, and cooking classes. They also hold events throughout the year to celebrate holidays and show some appreciation for the staff.

The hospital is actually pretty scary looking. It looks like one of those old hospitals from the 1960's (which it is). There's about 13 wards that house patients with varying ailments ranging from voluntary admissions to the forensic wards for the criminally insane. So far I have worked in the salon, the store, the clothing depot and the beauty class ( doing nails and makeup). It has been a pretty interesting experience and I'm enjoying spending time with the patients.

The patients say that I "talk funny" and ask me a lot of questions about "the states". Some of them make up stories about having been here before. This one guy told me that he was in the U.S. Navy and I could register in my head if I wanted to be apart of it lol. I've made a lot of interesting new friends ( like Navy guy) who I'm starting to enjoy working with and actually look forward to seeing every day.

One friend is the Dragon Man. I met Andy the first day of my placement. I was in the van driving towards my placement when we saw a man in a red cape walking down the street. Another person joked that he must have been walking to where I was going. Five minutes after I get to my placement, who walks in but the Dragon Man. Every since then, I have seen the Dragon man almost every day. He's very polite, always speaks when he sees me. Asks me for things like green socks and sometimes just randomly screams. I think this could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship....

Pictures of Robben Island

McDonalds ( I'm hatin it!)

I went to McDonalds the other day.It was horrible.
I was excited for some good fries. There was no salt on them. They were greasy.
I had a BigMac. It tasted like cardboard, special sauce, lettuce, cheese on a sesame seed bun.
I was angry.
I had a caramel sundae. Thou it had a strange oily taste. That was good.
I became less angry.
That is all.

Robben Island

On Saturday I visited Robben Island. An island that had served as a prison for many years until it was shut down in the 90's. Robbben Island is most famous because it is the place where Nelson Mandela was held captive for 18 years of his life.
To be honest, the tour itself was pretty boring, I fell asleep on the ferry and the tour bus twice (I'm blaming that on jet lag lol). And lets not even talk about the sea sickness...ahhhh. After we got off the tour bus and went into the actual prison grounds it was pretty amazing to see the type of conditions that the prisoners were subjected to. They were held in a large room made for 50 but would hold up to 100 prisoners at a time. Since there were so many they would sleep on pads on the floor. There was a communal bathroom in each room that contained only 3 toilets.
Mr. Mandela and the other political leaders were not afforded such luxuries. They were held in solitary confinement where they were locked up in a small cell at 3pm not to be let out until 5am the next morning. During the day they were allowed a small window of time to play tennis. They would communicate with the rest of the prisoners by hiding notes in tennis balls and hitting them over the walls. I will post some pictures (pilfered from my peers) later on.
The best part of the tour was the tour guide for the prison. He was an actual former prisoner who had been held at Robben island in his youth for political activism. It was interesting to hear his personal story about his time there. Unfortunately, the interesting part was only about 40 minutes of a 3 hour tour AND we didn't have time to look around on our own OR buy souvenirs...hmph! Overall, though it is one experience that I'm thankful to have the chance to have had, I will never do it again.
God Bless!
Sae

Camera, where art thou?

Unfortunately, my camera has going missing so I will be unable to post pictures from this point on. =(

Townships

Yesterday we had the opportunity to go into the townships that surround the city of Capetown. Nothing could have prepared me for what I saw. One of the first images that comes to mind when I think of the experience is one of a pink cement house about the size of a room with half of a tin roof and the other half covered with a tarp that was being held down by strategically placed rocks. This is followed by blocks and blocks of similar-looking houses with people milling about everywhere. As we're passing through the neighborhood the tour guide is explains to us that entire families, sometimes up to three generations share such tight conditions. She also explains that the older children will sometimes build shacks behind the house to sleep in when space becomes to tight.
After a few stop in front of a few tall buildings that house multiple families know has hostels. We go inside and are in a small room, the tour guide explains to us that this room is common room shared by different families living in the same apartment. There are two cement picnic tables and a leaking sink in the corner. Off of the common area or 4 bedrooms rooms and a small kitchen that I originally though was a pantry. Each bedroom has at 3, and up to 4, beds packed into it. We are told that one bed often houses one family so there can sometimes be 3 families sharing one ROOM. That means there can be twelve families in one of these small, unmaintained apartments.The most shocking thing about the whole situation was that these hostels are government subsidized housing where the tenants pay rent charged per BED.
I go outside to get some fresh hair and there are children playing in the courtyard which is an area of dirt with abandoned cars, shopping carts and other debris that have been dumped there. The children are using and old shopping cart and a cardboard box to play a game. When I told them I was from the States they started singing Justin Bieber and asked me if I knew him. I told them "no" and they allowed me to take some pictures with them and a video of them singing an Africa song.
After this experience, I must say that I have truly been humbled and I definitely have a greater appreciation for my life. It also has made me realize just how lucky we are to live in a place where there is system in place to assist people who are unable to provide for themselves in a way that does not further victimize and take advantage of them. Definitely counting my blessings!
Stay Blessed!

Some pics =)

Some pics of South Africa from the plane and the house

We made it !

So my first impressions of Capetown so far is that its a beautiful city. There is a huge mountain called Devil's Peak that kind of overlooks the city. On the way here we past by some of the black townships and I can tell already that this is going to be a humbling experience for me. We are going to do a tour of the townships tomorrow so I can give a detailed description with pictures of course =)
Just arrived at the house in Capetown. Its beautiful =) and HUGE. I'm sharing a room with 4 other people but it's not so bad considering that the rooms are a pretty decent size. The house is FULLY staffed, there's cooks, housekeeping, security. I could get used to this...=D

My thoughts on the plane...

These are my thoughts as I was on the longest plane ride ever. South Africa is 6 hours head of USA! So I pretty much lost 6 hours on the ride over here.
7/30/10 On the plane
I have been on the plane for 6 hours yet I feel as if I have been on the plane for 2 days! My first flight experience thus far has been a fairly smooth one. I got a little naseaous during the takeoff but once we got in the air I felt pretty good. I've been sleeping and watching movies, Thank God for the individual T.V's cause I was getting restless after the 1st hour lol. Gonna take a nap now...

No sweat...

So it's July first and I have 29 days until I take my first flight (of 20 hours ahhh) to the other side of the world. Things are starting to heat up and I realize that there's a lot still left to do. Seeing as how I generally tend to be a last minute person I should be able to get these last few things taken care of without breaking a sweat. Hmmm, on second thought, maybe I need to get my Degree ready...

Something you won't find in the travel brochure

Previously I posted some quick facts about South Africa but, just like an any other country around the world, there's a lot going on that you won't find in the travel brochure when you're booking your luxurious South African get away.

One thing that you will not find on any fact sheet about South Africa is that approximately 20% of the population is infected with HIV/AIDS. The HIV/AIDS outbreak has reached epic proportions in South Africa. Research done by S.C. Kalichman shows there are up to 1600 new HIV infections per day. In 2008 the UNAIDS/WHO organizations published a report witch estimates how the HIV/AIDS epidemic has affected the South African population:

In 2007:

Among 15-24 year olds approximately 4% of males and 12.7% of females were found to have the HIV virus.

350,000 deaths were attributed to AIDS

1.4 million children (under 17) were believed to be orphaned due to their parents dying from the AIDS virus. In 2001 there were 400,000. This number more than TRIPLED over a six year time span.

This epidemic has had a profound effect on South African society. There are many theories as to why the disease has (and continues to) spread rapidly throughout the country. Some researches have attributed this to a strong culture of traditionalism that still governs much of South Africa’s citizens. Many South Africans who uphold the beliefs of their ancestors believe that the AIDS virus is caused by witchcraft. Researchers show that 11% of the population believes this and, as a result, will go to a witch doctor for treatment rather than a medical doctor.

I find this very interesting considering there are ways to protect yourself from contracting the HIV virus. There seems to be such a lack of education on sexual health and safe practices as well as a lack of effort to provide this type of education. This is a topic that has so devastatingly affected the country. As I prepare myself for my trip, I try to remember to also prepare myself mentally. This disease has become so much apart of the daily life and society of South Africans that I know I will encounter many people who have or are dealing with the affects of this terrible disease.

If you’re interested, I consulted two articles for this post:

HIV and AIDS estimates. Source: UNAIDS/WHO 2007 AND

Traditional Beliefs about the cause of AIDS and AIDS related stigma in South Africa. Source: EBSCO host library by S.C. Kalichman et al.

Some more quick facts

Capital city: Admin Capital Pretoria. Legislative Capital Cape Town
Area: 1220088 square km
National day: 27 April (Freedom day, anniversary of the first non-racial elections, 1994)
Independence: 31 May 1910, union of four British colonies which evolved to full independence. Became the Republic of South Africa in 1961 and withdrew from the Commonwealth. Population: Approx 49 million
Leader: Jacob Zuma
Deputy President - Kgalema Motlanthe
Language: Afrikaans, English, Ndebele, North Sotho, Sesotho, Swazi, Tsonga, Tswana, Venda, Xhosa, Zulu. (eleven official)
Currency: Rand ZAR (R)
Ethnic groups: 79.3% Black; 9.1% White; 9.0% Coloured; 2.6% Asian

ELEVEN languages....WOW.
That is all...=)

Some info about South Africa...

I came across a website (www.exploresouthafrica.net) that had some interesting facts about South Africa that I found interesting....

The Republic of South Africa takes up an area of 1,221,037 square kilometres - equal to the combined land mass of Germany, Italy and France. The coast line stretches for some 2954 kilometres, with many beautiful beaches and wonderful sea views.

The population of South Africa is approximately 49 million.

South Africa has eleven official languages. English is the most commonly spoken, followed by Afrikaans, Zulu and Xhosa. The others are Pedi, Tswana, Sotho, Tsonga, Swati, Venda and Ndebele. The majority of South Africans speak English as well as a traditional language!

South Africa is made up of nine provinces; Western Cape, Eastern Cape, Northern Cape, Free State, North West, Gauteng, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu Natal, there are three capital cities in South Africa they are Cape Town, the parliamentary capital in the Western Cape, Pretoria in Gauteng, the administrative capital and Bloemfontein the judicial capital. Johannesburg in Gauteng is the largest city. The current Head of State is President Thabo Mbeki.

Of the population of South Africa 77% of the population are black, 10% are white, 8% are mixed race, 2.5% are of Indian or Asian descent
Christianity is the most widely recognized religion in South Africa, with 75% of the population following the faith, 21% has no religious affiliation and among the rest of the South Africa's religions are Muslim, Hindu, and Jewish.
20% of the world's gold is mined in South Africa

The only street in the world to house two Nobel Peace Prize winners is in Soweto . Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu both have houses in Vilakazi Street , Orlando West.

Several million of the population of South Africa have illegal immigrant status - they're mostly from other African countries such as Zimbabwe, Malawi and the DRC.
Four of the five fastest land animals live in Africa - the cheetah (70 miles per hour), wildebeest, lion, and Thomson's gazelle (all about 50 mph).