The Big Irony

My roommate just got a bunch of money stolen from her room. I think it was my host mom who stole it. The same host mom who tells me how all “African” blacks are liars, cheats and theives and how the coloureds are so much more proper (the term coloureds refer to mulattoes, allowed to get an education and more upwardly mobile under the apartheid regime).

How ironic.

Anyway, sucks for Anna but she is taking it as just a lesson for herself. I guess it just shows me once again the light and dark shades of Africa. Its about halfway through my trip and the time really has passed very quickly. Hopefully I will be able to relax the rest of the way through and distance myself from the students in the group a bit (too much drama).

Feelin a bit blue . . .

Feel strange today. Had a meeting where I got lectured about students skipping rotations and how I was condoning it by hanging out with them on Wednesday etc etc. So I guess I cannot hang out with the students, but can I just hang out with these old guys with families. Not either. I did not sign up to spend my last summer of freedom around strangers and feeling isolated and out of place. Argh!

I tell myself that this is not really not that bad. I am still having a good time, the weather is nice today and there are always interesting things to learn and see here. The key is to relax, I say. Yet, how am I to relax when everything around me is foreign and kinda strange and I’m not allowed to hang out with the people I came here with? Maybe I’m just homesick. . .

The Perfect Day!

Yesterday was a PERFECT day in every sense of the word! Wine tasting in Constantia, visiting a farm in Nordehoek, swimming in the Atlantic and watching the sunset. Here are some highlights.

A view of the vineyards at Groot Constantia with Table Mt. in the background

A farm house at Nordehoek, we might go horseback riding around there!

The beach at Camps Bay, beautiful and serene . . . maybe I will retire here

The houses at Llandudno beach (beautiful little cove) against little Lion’s Head. I am going to have one of those houses someday.

Sunset at Llandudno beach . . . one of the most beautiful I have ever seen.

Climbing Lion’s Head!

Sometimes you just need to challenge yourself. In my case, I decided to trek 3 hours OFFROAD through brush, trees, rocky trails to find a new way to get up Lion’s Head. It was great after a few days of feeling stuck with the group to get away, go off on my own, challenge myself and get to the top. Here are some pics from that trek.

A view of me after climbing for 2 hours and finding a new route up to the entrance to Lion’s Head (notice the sweat)

A view from the top of lion’s head at dusk, it was dark by the time I got up but the moon came out and I got a great view of the full moon!

Cape of Good Hope!

Went down the Cape Peninsula on our day off this past Thursday June 16 (Youth Day commemorating a day in 1976 during the apartheid government when some young students and children were killed by the police in Soweto)

These pictures are from the Cape of Good Hope, at the intersection of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans

From the top of Cape Point overlooking the Cape of Good Hope.

Another artsy picture of clouds and the ocean seen from the top of Cape Point. This is such a beautiful country.

The Directory in front of the lighthouse on top of Cape Point. I wonder how far I am from San Francisco??

Lookin Studly on the Cape . . .

Look! They’ve got penguins here!

NICE DAY!

Its sunny, warm, not a cloud in the sky today. If only it could be like this every day, it would bring out the best in people. Found out that I am on the bottom part of the wait list at Davis . . . kinda bummed.

But its too nice a day, I’m going to the beach . . .

Government sponsored dependency

First, Deputy President of South Africa Jakob Zuma has been fired by President Thabo Mbeki for his role in a corruption scandal. This is great news for the country I believe. It shows that the government is serious about fixing the corruption problem here and the “get rich quick” mentality that plagues this nation from top to bottom. It remains to be seen what will happen to Zuma and Mbeki though. Hopefully this does not backfire on Mbeki politically or cause a schism in the ANC.

Second, the G8 has recently decided to forgive the debt of 14 goverments in Africa. However, this to me sends the wrong message to corrupt governments and from the top-down continues the cycle of dependency.

I think the fundamental problem with government and the services it offers is that they create dependency. For example, in the HIV clinic here in the Cape Flats, pregnant unemployed HIV positive mothers often come in for testing and treatment because they receive free drugs counseling and also get free food parcels for 3 months. When the food parcels run out, they leave often discontinuing treatment. Both parties lose: The government pays out this subsidy without the desired effect and the mother’s poverty and disease are not alleviated.

What is needed instead is something like microfinance which allows THE POOR THEMSELVES to take responsibility for generating their own income, build their credit, save and invest and stabilize their own lives. Unfortunately, this kind of grass roots effort has only been able to have a positive effect in the absence of these “FREE” government services. When a loan is put alongside a grant, the loan does not work.

This seems very related to the short term (corruption) mentality I have observed here where people think it better to scheme others to get money instead of making money legitimately.

I read an article the other day describing the Disability Grant policy which allows late stage AIDS patients to receive a subsidy of 620 Rand (about $100 USD) from the government. The diagnosis of what defines late stage HIV/AIDS is in the hands of doctors. However, often people will try to abuse the system, coming to the doctor only for the money but not for real treatment. This kind of attitude is short term, unsustainable and ultimately very damaging to the patient and his/her community. It also is incompatible with Microfinance.

Emergency Medicine in SA

Been a pretty chill week so far. Did have one day of riding around in an ambulance on a 12 hour Emergency Medicine shift. As with every other gov service here, too few ambulances for too many people. The ambulance station (about 20 vehicles) in Mitchell’s Plain serves Kayelitsha and MP (total about 2 million people). In addition, they are plagued with inefficiency. Ambulance techs are underpaid and overworked, take much longer than usual to respond because 1) they cannot tell what is an urgent call and what isn’t – as a result they take a lot of bogus call by people who just want a ride to the hospital for routine stuff 2) Often they cannot even find the locations they are going to because roads and signs are crappy.

What this all results in is a painfully slow and quite inadequate public service. It further results in motivating people that can make a little money to buy private insurance, take private ambulances, to private hospitals and furthering the inequality gap.

Tuesday and Wednesday so far have been just as chill. Lots of hanging out with the host family, sleeping and just chilling out. I will go to the Langa clinic (in a formerly black township where HIV prevalances is 80 percent).

More Pics from SA!

Went on the Garden Route tour this weekend, here are some fresh pics

Me getting ON an ostrich at the Ostrich farm in Kango

Me getting ON the ostrich (all limbs intact) at the Ostrich farm in Kango . . . crazy ride man . . .

Rip-cording through the forest on a canopy tree tour . . . This must be what an Ewok feels like

The June CFHI students and me at the Kynsner Heads (at the cross section of the Indian and Atlantic Oceans).

My humble attempt at artsy photography . . . the pink sunset in the Kynsner bay

The Lion pride at the Botlierskaap Nature Reserve (we got up a little too close for comfort!)

\

A GATSBY! Arguably, the biggest sandwich I have ever seen (feeds 4 normal people)! Steak, eggs, spicy french fries, salad, anything you could want! Gonna try to take down a whole one by the end of the trip . . . muhwahwahwa

SA PICTURES!!!

By popular request here are some pictures from the first week of Capetown!

Here’s the room I am staying in – notice I have already made it homey (ie messy).

My homestay family – from the right Mrs Arnold, Waleed and his wife Zainab, Mr. Arnold and Nafeesah

Our program coordinator Marion (read: Meeeeerrrrion) and I on lookout point overlooking the city

Table Mountain from the Waterfront

The sunset from Table Bay

Shack housing typical of that found in Langa one of the formerly black African townships