This is the fertility vase of the Ndebele tribe. Does that mean anything to you?!?

I'm actually writing a paper on the Ndebele tribe right now. Oh, the irony...

I'm gonna apologize upfront for the length of this post.

The past week has been pretty eventful..

1) I wrote and handed in my first paper, which normally isn't that noteworthy except it totally kicked my ass seeing as i forgot how to write over the summer, plus i had to figure out how to use the UCT library and complete an obstacle course to hand it in on time, but hey...work always gets done, unless of course it doesn't...

2) On saturday I went kyacking. Which was AWESOME. It was supposed to be whale watching slash kyacking, but sadly we saw no whales. However, I made the mistake of eating a huge amount of food shortly before departure and got totally sick mid-kyack. Yeah....that part wasn't really fun..but it's a good story I guess. It was still so fun though, and the view was amazing. I brought my camera but was too scared to take it out and use it because I didn't wanna drop in the water...oh well.

3) Yesterday was awesome. It was Sunday so I spent it at Heaven's Nest, which is always a good time. One of the women who works there, Joan, asked me if I wanted to see some of her pictures, so I said yeah. I figured they would be of her dog or something, but then she busted out all these pictures of her hanging out with NELSON MANDELA. I almost dropped the child I was holding. She and him were like activist buddies, and her father in law was in prison with him and apparently they used to surf together. I'm not making this up. So yeah, Joan is pretty much my new hero, she's started education programs all over cape town and I want to be her when I grow up.

and I got some pictures of the kiddies....


haha this makes me laugh when I look at it...The boy on the left's name is Ctaum but it sounds like Storm with their accent, and they call him stormy, which is badass. And the girl's name is Candice and her lips are purple because they were chapped and thats what color the medicine was..everyone asks me that...



Julian..this kid's a fireball.. I have really entertaining video of him dancing but I can't figure out how to post it...notice all the fuzz stuck in his hair hehehe...

I could post like 8 million of these but I'll spare you all...

It's weird, I've been in Cape Town for about a month and week and It feels like no time at all and an eternity all at once. Now that we're all getting into a routine, and the work is really starting to kick in, It's finally feeling like I'm really here and this isn't some surreal summer camp or vacation.

I've been a little bit homesick lately, which I think is because I just realized I'm not coming home for 4 more months. It's a little bit hard to think about everyone moving back to BC, which is why I'm swearing off facebook till spring break because I think that's the root of the problem hahaha. Damn newsfeed...

Don't get me wrong though, life is outta control here in a totally good way. Everything makes me think....lately I've been thinking alot about how I'm perceiving people. Abroad students are pretty much bombarded with safety talks all the time by everyone- don't go out by yourself, watch your stuff, don't give the kids money, don't ride the taxis alone, blah blah blah. And the safety issue is definitely a reality that I can't really escape. But when I find myself crossing the street to avoid homeless people at night, or ignoring people that talk to me on the street, or not trusting minibus guards, I feel guilty, because I'm essentially judging people by how they live or what they look like..ehh..I am confused. Some food for thought I guess...

OK i really need to write this paper. Thanks for reading this whole thing, if anyone did. More to come soon...

lovelovelove
ellen