we live in one big cosmic energy soup

I know of a city cradled by the seaside

where I watch the future crawling in

one day at a time.

The city that gives wings to my dreams

its heart throbs with violins and trumpets

and sounds of mooobrai-clearmont-keeptown.

Leisurely walks on the beach lulling smog clogged hearts.

The earth quietly sipping tears

of the homeless,

fighting for stray crumbs with seagulls.

I know of a city with five seasons

where virulent winds keep me awake at night

where magic rain appeases seductive summers.

this city keeps me smiling

this city keeps me writing

this city keeps me singing

this city keeps me hoping for love to come.

-Halejoetse Tsehlana

One of my favorite things about South Africa has been the unanimity of humanity.  They get it! Community is what we are created for. Walking down the street I am greeted with ‘molo sisi!’ (hello sister!) and countless smiles. It’s hard to understand that in the country with the largest Gini Coefficient (gap between rich and poor); the most people living with HIV (1 in 5), and a life expectancy of 50 and dropping, we can learn so much about the ideology of our inherent ‘sameness.’ I have found such a peaceful solidarity in Cape Town, something I will forever be grateful for and longing to come back to. As much as I am ready to make the long trek home, my journey here has caused me to leave a part of myself behind. One of the most difficult tasks I’ve had all semester has been creating a body map, literally a life-size outline of myself on a blank piece of paper.  Our incredibly influential theology professor Chris Ahrends asked us to explain without words our answers to seven questions- from where do I come? of what am I made? what forces shape me? what is my experience? what is my struggle? what is my work? what will I create? Certainly a daunting task but I thought hey, this entire south african experience is one big question so I’ll probably be able to work through it. My lack of creativity and artistic ability proved insignificant compared to my lack of knowledge regarding the ‘who are you’ question. Body, mind, and spirit, but which matters most? Is it possible to refrain from defining myself in relation to others? Sure, I’m a sister, daughter, and friend, but what really makes me who I am? It took five months and a lot of reflection to realize that its okay not to know. Some might say that it’s the easy way out but as long as I acknowledge that the question exists, I figure I can take time to discover the answer. Be present! Above all, Chris encouraged us to wake up and acknowledge ourselves as the creators of our own contexts. From getting close to Judy Mayotte ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judith_Ann_Mayotte ) to singing along to The Lion King to dancing until dawn at Baghdad Cafe to climbing Table Mountain to complaining about having to write 2 essays all semester to almost stepping on a Cape Cobra to being called ‘megs’ at my service site to Sunday night family dinners to wine tastings in Stellenbosch to watching shooting stars in Hermanus to walking down Clifton Beach with Matt to going days without electricity or internet to buying every pair of earrings I see to eating breakfast with Desmond Tutu to Friday afternoons on the roof after class to all-you-can-eat sushi to bed bugs to embarrassingly telling 70 sixth graders that ‘smiling is contagious’ to surfing to slumber parties in the living room to spider bites to energy exchanges with barefoot tree huggers to bungy jumping to Mzolis to having to use a million keys to embracing radical love on Lion’s Head, this experience has taught me to approach love and compassion with reckless abandon. Life is good! Thanks to my grandparents, parents, and friends, I was able to acknowledge and experience the difference between the pristine sand of Muizenberg beach and the glass-filled sand lining the narrow paths between the shacks in Gugulethu.  How amazing to be able to create my own footprints.   I cannot thank you enough for taking the time to read my blog and have an interest in my time here. One week of rafting in Namibia and then it’s back to Milwaukee. I can’t wait to hug all of you!

yeeeeebo!

With less than one month to go in Cape Town I am starting to realize how much I will miss waking up to this sight every morning!  The past month has been busy to say the least, but classes are now over and next week is my last at Ilitha Labantu.  I will keep this post as short and sweet as I can- I just wanted to post some photos and reassure my family I’m alive and well! Perhaps the most exciting news is that the director of Ilitha Labantu approved my proposal to start a support group in Gugulethu for pregnant teenage girls.  We named the project Masomelele which is Xhosa for ‘let’s be strong’ and have spent the last month discussing the best ways of fundraising as well as promotion and implementation.  Unfortunately the group will not start meeting until after I am back in the states, but I am really excited to have a say in the planning stages!  In the meantime I am still visiting local primary schools and continue to learn an incredible amount both from the kids and my coworkers.  I recently read this quote by Shane Claiborne and think it speaks volumes: ‘I truly believe that when the poor meet the rich, riches will have no meaning.  And when the rich meet the poor, we will see poverty come to an end.’  I promise to write a lengthier, more in-depth blog before I come home but in the meantime here are some photos from the past month and Matt’s visit!

matt making some kids in nyanga veryyy happy with jolly ranchers

beautiful false bay coast on the way to cape point

the most south-western point on the african continent!

“]

clifton beach

[paradise]

definitely two of the best weeks ive had here, im a lucky girl

from the top of lion’s head, my favorite place in cape town

yeeeebo!

butterfly drinking wine in stellenbosch

halloween in south africa! purple skittle and pirate

the wailers in cape town!

those who are awake can find their way home

“Poverty is not the real problem of the modern world. For we have the knowledge and the resources which would enable us to overcome poverty. The real problem- the thing which creates misery, wars and hatred among men- is the division of mankind into rich and poor. We can see this division at two levels. Within nation states there are a few individuals who have great wealth and whose wealth gives them great power; but the vast majority of the people suffer every degree of poverty and deprivation… And looking at the world as a collection of nation states, we see the same pattern repeated. There are a few wealthy nations which dominate the whole world economically, and therefore politically; and a mass of smaller and poor nations whose destiny, it appears, is to be dominated.” -Mwalimu Julius Nyerere (former president of Tanzania)

Xolani Primary

We have found over the past few months that one of the only ways South Africa can overcome this economic domination is by somehow improving its extremely poor education system.  The divide between township schools and white primary schools is vast and getting deeper each year.  Teachers fail to show up for class and are extremely under-qualified, leading to incredibly low test scores and subsequently low university acceptance rates.  A few weeks ago I showed up at Xolani Primary School ready to speak to the sixth graders about HIV but when we arrived the Principal asked us to ‘watch the first grade class’ instead.  At the time I was actually really excited to spend the day with six year olds, but I soon realized how sad it was that their teacher just didn’t show up.  The New York Times recently published an article about Cape Town’s education system:  http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/20/world/africa/20safrica.html?_r=1&hpw

luckily taking photos keeps first graders very happy

One of the major benefits of the Marquette program is our access to prominent speakers such as Linda Biehl (Amy Biehl’s mother), Frank van der Velde (mayor of Cape Town from 91-93), Mary Burton (TRC Commissioner) and most recently, Molly Blank.  Molly is an American who received a Fulbright Scholarship to come and film a documentary on South Africa’s education system in 2005. It is titled Testing Hope and follows four secondary school students from Nyanga through the process of studying for and completing the Matric exam (similar to the SAT).  The film is incredibly informative and an accurate depiction of daily township life..check it out! (It should be in the Marquette library) While on the subject of documentaries, I just went the Cape Town Film Festival and saw Skin which is the true story of Sandra Laing’s struggle during Apartheid.  She was born in the 1950s to white parents but classified as coloured due to her dark skin tone-  It is playing at the Milwaukee Film Festival on Friday October 2nd and I would definitely recommend seeing it. (bring tissues)

table mountain in the background

Ilitha Labantu recently sponsored a very successful Awareness Walk down NY1 which is the main road in Gugulethu.  We wanted to have a day dedicated to the prevention of domestic violence and involve the community in an active outcry for the end to child abuse and gender discrimination.  I had the opportunity to design flyers for the event as well as to write sponsor letters and press releases.  We invited learners from each school in Gugulethu to participate in the march and recruited community members to join us as well.  After a few kilometers of singing under the sun we ended up at the Sports Complex with music, face painting, and games for the students as well as speakers from Cape Town Child Welfare. Many kids here do not understand abuse and the right steps to take if neglected so Ilitha Labantu has been doing all in its power to promote community awareness and activism.

Needless to say we are still having an amazing time here in Cape Town!  With only eight weeks left I am soaking up every moment and doing as much as I possibly can.  Our Kimberly House family is absolutely wonderful and each day is a new adventure..tie-dye parties, endless kitchen dancing, and bar golf are just a few of the most recent bonding activities..

braai in hermanus

Ryan and James looking their finest

pat's a wonderful instructor, we almost won!

‘when you feel a smile begin, don’t leave it undetected..let’s start an epidemic quick and get the world infected!’

Over the course of 10 days we spent time in 6 out of the 9 provinces, jumped off a 709 foot bridge, made new best friends in a Zulu village, visited Nelson Mandela’s home, and [almost] got run over by elephants in Kruger National Park. We spent the first 6 days driving from Cape Town to Durban (a little over a thousand miles), stopping at various cities along the way. We left early Friday morning and drove about 8 hours east to Wild Spirit Backpacker in Nature’s Valley (truly the middle of nowhere, perhaps the most pristine, beautiful place I have ever been). A long-haired and shoeless twenty-something year old named Craig warmly welcomed us and we all piled into his old jeep and drove, ducking, through the forest to a gorge to watch the sunset. I realized later that night as we sat around a fire laughing and listening to a mixture of reggae and baboons that the next 10 days would be extraordinary.

doh! ran out of petrol on the way back from the gorge

Saturday, of course, was bungee jumping! Post-scariest-experience-of-my-life, we hiked to an absolutely beautiful waterfall in the Tsitsikamma National Park.

After an afternoon of sun we got on a bus headed for Port Elizabeth where we stayed Saturday night. Early Sunday morning we left for a tiny beach town about five hours east called Cinsta.  Our backpacker (Buccaneers) was located on a hill covered in monkey-ridden trees overlooking a lagoon, massive sand dunes, and the exquisitely beautiful Indian Ocean. The Indian Ocean! I still cannot grasp the magnitude of how lucky I am to have swum in 3 oceans at only 20 years old. (I have only my family to thank for this!)

We left Cinsta at noon on Monday after promising the workers we had gotten to know at Buccaneers that we would surely make it back before November (we’re trying to plan a long weekend surf adventure when the weather warms up). We drove for 10 hours through the Transkei to Durban and passed Nelson Mandela’s home village which was incredibly rural and remote.

Durban has the world’s largest Indian population outside of India so naturally we immediately went out for extremely delicious Indian food. Tuesday was one of my favorite days of the trip, we visited a Zulu village called Emphephetani and got to spend time with the most incredible kids. One of the women I met immediately said, ‘we both have black presidents! we’re just alike!’ I knew we would get along well.

it was really hard to leave them

sangoma (the traditional healer we visited)

The first of September marked the first day of Spring here and it was incredibly hot (in the 90s) so we spent the rest of the afternoon swimming and relaxing at the backpacker.

nomad’s

Wednesday morning we went to Victoria Market for some bargaining and then a few of us walked and had lunch on the beach. On the way back to Nomads we had quite the experience..our cab driver was pulled over for ‘bad tires’ but the police officer just wanted a bribe. Corruption is one of those things you know exists but it was honestly pretty disheartening to witness first-hand.

That night we flew to Jo’berg and finally got to stay in a hotel! I don’t think I have ever appreciated crisp white sheets and fluffy pillows as much as I did those two days. Although I hadn’t really realized I was missing the comforts of home that much, it was a definite reminder of the importance of not taking things for granted!  Thursday was extremely busy as we wanted to experience as much of Jo’berg as we possibly could. The morning started in Soweto which is South Africa’s largest township (over 5.5 million people!) and the site of most anti-apartheid movements and happenings. We got to see where the Sharpeville Massacre took place, where Nelson Mandela lived prior to going to jail, where Archbishop Tutu lives, where Winnie Mandela lives, and many other historical landmarks. Perhaps the most sobering sight, however, was visiting the Regina Mundi Church in the heart of Soweto. Churches were vital for ANC meetings during apartheid due to the law that blacks could not congregate in more than twos with the exception of religious worship. There are still numerous bullet holes in the ceiling, a broken alter from the butt of a police gun, and a portion missing from the railing around the alter from stampedes of students running from police. We headed to the Apartheid Museum (which is where the photo in the header of my blog is from) and then to Constitution Hill.  South Africa has the world’s newest and most liberal democratic Constitution and this court is set up to deal only with human rights issues. It is built next to the site of the political jail that Ghandi spent time in and emphasizes ‘justice under a tree’ as the tree is an extremely prevalent African symbol.

apartheid museum

Thursday night Melikaya’s wonderful girlfriend Bulelwa made us all dinner at her condo in Jo’berg and then they both took us out dancing !

girls with Bulelwa

Although the trip had already fully exceeded my expectations, Friday was really the day I had been waiting for. Ever since I can remember I have idolized my Grandpa Dunn for numerous reasons but one major one being that he has been on a safari. I grew up begging to look at slides over and over again from his trip to Kruger Park and now I was finally here for myself. (The Lion King also played a rather large role in my childhood) : ) Our guides Markus and Werner met us at the gates at around 3pm and we switched into open-air safari jeeps and headed to camp. Over the course of the 3 days we saw lions, elephants, giraffes, impalas, zebras, hippos, cape buffalo, numerous species of birds, kudu, hyenas, rhinos and probably a lot more that I can’t remember! On Sunday morning we took one last drive before flying back to Cape Town and saw crocodiles mating which apparently is extremely rare (weird.) and African hunting dogs which are the rarest predatory species in all of Africa. There are only about 250 left in Kruger Park and we saw two! So much better than Planet Earth.

hunting dog!

elephant crossing

outside of our camp

giraffe scaring off a lioness

kruger sunrise

on our way home to cape town!

[sorry for the ridiculous length of this post!]

5,4,3,2,1 BUNGEEEEE!

Despite numerous warnings and the strong disapproval of my family, I did it. Jumped off the highest commercial bungee jump in the world! Anyone will tell you that the night before I was quite adamant about 216 meters being far too high to willingly jump off of, but peer pressure got the best of me and I decided to do it. I went in wanting to go first and get it over with as soon as possible, but of course we didn’t have a say in the order and I was placed last. They had techno music blasting and I was more than content just dancing and cheering but when it was finally my turn I quickly told myself ‘life is good!’ and dove. The music immediately stopped and the serene sound of wind rushing my face was absolutely amazing.  I fell for about 5 seconds (which seemed like eternity!) and was very relieved when I felt myself recoil. The gorge was absolutely stunning, a small river directly below and the Ocean behind the bridge made the experience that much better. Yaaay adrenaline!

there are only so many tomorrows

First off I should apologize for the lack of blogging, it may seem careless but really I’ve just been spending more time exploring Cape Town and less time on my macbook!  At least once a day we turn to each other and agree that this is the most carefree, wonderful, positively addicting place on earth and I honestly couldn’t imagine my life without this experience. As the days fly by I realize how important it is to capture each one as accurately as I can and let myself grow and learn as much as possible. (I know that sounds overly cliche but it’s true!)  Ilitha Labantu is going wonderfully, I work with the most incredible group of people who have taught me much about Xhosa culture and township life. Two weeks ago I was asked to write a proposal for the Stand Up Campaign’s day of Poverty Awareness on October 17th. (Part of the UN’s Millennium Campaign to end poverty by 2015).  The task was certainly daunting as I wasn’t really given much information other than the theme of ‘coming to the table in the shadows of Table Mountain.’  The idea was to bring together NGOs and non-profits from all over the Western Cape to create a large masterpiece (tablecloth) to place on Table Mountain followed by lunch for 20,000 impoverished in downtown Cape Town. I have never written a proposal before but with the help of a few of my wonderful roommates I was able to figure something out!

absolutely incredible how much these kids share with each other

On a day-to-day basis I still accompany Menzo and Suthu to various schools in Nyanga to teach about domestic violence and HIV/AIDS prevention. Tomorrow I have my own class and will be discussing neglect with the 6th and 7th graders at St. Mary’s (above photos).  I have also been working with Nompumelelo which is a special needs school for 6-18 year olds in Gugulethu. Through talking with the teachers I have come to realize the incredible amount of preventable neurological diseases many children face simply because of their young mother’s poor prenatal care. Seeing their bright and beautiful smiles while realistically knowing their mental and physical limitations is extremely sobering. These kids have really inspired me and have led me to brainstorm ideas for various programs, workshops and support groups for pregnant teenagers in Gugulethu. Right now I’m in the process of meeting with my site director and social workers from Ilitha Labantu and will hopefully have something in place by mid-September.

wonderful Nompumelelo kids

Classes are going well at the University of the Western Cape, I can’t believe the semester is already halfway over! Spring Break starts Friday so I will be traveling all over South Africa with 11 others from our group for ten days or so- very exciting! Megan and Billy have been visiting since last Thursday which has been amazing, we climbed Lions Head again on Friday for the sunset and then went to see the penguins in Simon’s Town and surfing in Muizenburg on Saturday.

dsha in cape town!

high tide! (sam and I opted to watch the surfers and attempt to keep their bags dry-naturally turning into quite the adventure)

On Sunday a few of us ventured to Mzoli’s in Gugulethu which is the MOST amazing braii- maybe the first time I actually realized how happy I am not to be a vegetarian! We walked into a room literally full of every kind of meat you could imagine and picked out some of everything. We found a table outside in the sun surrounded by people of all ages and cultures who were showing up as quickly as they could after church in their Sunday best with huge coolers and ready to party.  A DJ started playing and before we knew it everyone was dancing and having an amazing time- it was the most at home and at peace I have felt in a while. (it’s safe to say im obsessed with south africa)

‘You do know that False Bay is the breeding ground for Great Whites right?…’

That’s what we’d heard, but no shark attacks at Muizenberg for 5 weeks so we felt safe enough to attempt a day of surfing at the beach. After hiking Lion’s Head for a sunset over the Atlantic on Friday night and then braving Newlands stadium for the only tri-nations game of the year in Cape Town on Saturday, we were definitely prepared for any intruding sharks.  Friday night was spectacular to say the least, the only snag in our plans being that the clouds blocked the full moon’s bright light we were counting on to guide our way down the mountain (a small setback). About fifteen of us began hiking around four and made it to the top in an hour or so just in time to enjoy a spectacularly pink (and purple!) sunset. Wine, music and wonderful new friends surely made for the best evening in Africa so far. Most of the group decided to make the trek down in the near-dark after waiting patiently for the moon to light the way, but a few of us were more determined that the full moon would suddenly burst through the cloudy African night sky.   After some time and some unsuccessful (but still enjoyable) moon-dances atop the mountain we carefully (and I’m sure hilariously) made our way back down without injury. We stopped often to sit with our iPod player blasting to gaze in awe at the pitch black sky lined with constellations I could never see or begin to understand until now.

jamie climbing up (imagine going down in the dark)

Saturday afternoon was the anticipated Springboks match against the Wallabies and it was phenomenal to see South Africa win. We had standing room tickets so needless to say it was crowded with the craziest fans decked out in green and the South African flag waving high. After watching matches the past few weekends I’ve somewhat begun to understand how rugby works but have also found screaming loud to be very acceptable no matter how confused I am.

Sunday was Women’s Day here in South Africa which is definitely why it needed to be the most exciting and adventurous of the long weekend. Women’s Day! This is seeming more and more like the perfect place for me. We took the thirty or so minute train ride to Muizenberg (a tiny surfing village in False Bay), checked into our backpacker (hostel), and were off to the pristine beach. We rented boards and wetsuits for about $12 for the afternoon and got a 5 minute briefing on the shark siren and how to paddle hard and fast to get in front of the waves and were off into the warm waters of the Indian Ocean. Surreal? Definitely.

never thought this day would come

the arch!

At 6:45am last Friday morning we excitedly walked down a still-dark Kimberly road in our heels and ties to attend mass at St. George’s Cathedral with the one and only Archbishop Desmond Tutu. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect but was comforted when we sat down in a small chapel area with about 20 others, mostly foreigners also excitingly awaiting to be in the presence of such a profound man. Mass was short and sweet, perhaps mostly because I was clinging to his every word. He stayed afterward to sign autographs and then we all headed to Café du Roché for breakfast.  I was fortunate enough to sit next to Frank van der Velde, a close friend of Tutu’s and the former mayor of Cape Town during apartheid from 1991-1993. He is an incredible man and I loved having the opportunity to listen to his stories along with two women, one in charge of the Desmund Tutu TB Clinic and the other the first doctor Nelson Mandela saw when released from prison. And then of course a few chairs down illuminating the room with his laugh was Desmond Tutu.  At one point the waiter brought out the day’s Cape Times to show Tutu the article ‘Obama to award Tutu highest civilian honour’ (see above photo). How incredible to see my two heroes in the same headline !

‘to the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world’

I cant believe I’m almost a month into my South African journey, Cape Town is feeling more and more like home everyday and the exploring is never-ending. Last Thursday was day one of my service learning at Ilitha Labantu (http://www.ilithalabantu.org.za/) and the day could not have gone better.  Everyone at the center was incredibly welcoming and expressed their gratitude over and over again for my presence, surely not something I was expecting. Xhosa is their first language yet they graciously made a conscious effort to speak only English in order for me to feel included. Hopefully by the end of the trip I’ll be able to hold basic conversations in Xhosa, they are teaching me a few words a day and attempting to show me the different clicks- vastly different from English! I went to St. Mary’s Primary School with Mansa and Suthu from Ilitha in the township of Nyanga and spoke to 5th, 6th and 7th graders about the risks of teenage pregnancy and the importance of prevention methods. The kids immediately put a huge smile on my face as they clapped and screamed the second I walked in the door and literally tackled me afterwards to touch my hair.. they kept asking if it was real! I wasn’t able to go today due to strikes and riots around the city but tomorrow I will be back in the schools with Suthu. Last Friday we had our first Theology of Forgiveness, Reconciliation and Justice class with Chris Ahrends, a good friend of Desmond Tutu and prominent activist in the Cape Town community.  He began by saying that we would succeed in the class as long as we put effort into both discussions and our ‘body maps,’ life-size drawings of ourselves depicting our transformation over the months to come.  He gave us insight into Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela’s well-emphasized Ubuntu Theology (the notion that a person is a person only in relation to other persons) and explained that most of the class will consist of guest speakers including Linda Biehl (Amy Biehl’s mother) and a weekend-long retreat with John de Gruchy.  We also found out that this Friday we will go a service said by Desmond Tutu and attend a breakfast with him afterwards, something I have long been awaiting.  Saturday morning Jamie, Patrick and I decided to spend the day hiking Lion’s Head and on Sunday a group of fourteen of us went white water rafting on the Palmiet River. David (the man who owns Kimberly house) and his wife offered to drive us about an hour and a half outside of Cape Town on the other side of False Bay to the Kogelberg Nature Reserve. This area was absolutely spectacular, surely the most pristine and untouched place I have ever been. We geared up in full wetsuits and helmets and hiked (carrying our two-person boats) with three guides to a ‘pool’ in the river in order to learn the basics of falling out and dealing with rapids and strong currents and then we were off for a three hour adrenaline rush. David offered to take a few of us to spend five or so days rafting down the Orange River on the border of South Africa and Namibia in early November, so hopefully this was just a taste of what’s to come! Today was cold and cloudy so unfortunately we had to forgo our surfing trip but decided to try a different hike up Table Mountain through the Kirstenbosch Gardens. This weekend we’re planning on making it out to the Stellenbosch Wine Festival and hopefully doing some bike tours of other vineyards in the area. Wish me luck, everyone who knows me knows that I haven’t been on a bike in a looong time : )

hey grandpa, I climbed Table Mountain!

This past Saturday the entirety of South Africa and others around the world celebrated Nelson Mandela’s 91st birthday by promising to spend 67 minutes making a difference in honor of Mandela’s 67 years of commitment to justice and equality.  ‘Mandela Day celebrates the idea that each individual has the power to transform the world, the ability to make an imprint.’ Well the overemphasized phrase ‘the world is much bigger than you’ became a reality on Saturday when we hiked up Table Mountain. Pure adrenaline and awe certainly helped my out-of-shape legs get to the top, and I now realize why it is being voted on as one of the new seven world wonders.  To be completely honest indescribable is the only way to explain seeing downtown Cape Town, the vast Atlantic ocean (in the direction of home!), the newly built World Cup stadiums, and Cape Point (the very tip of the African continent) from above.  Needless to say a few of us plan on making the trek to the top a weekly adventure.  Classes have also been very eye-opening (in a more negative way) as I have experienced a very intense anti-American sentiment in my economics module.  Before coming I was taught over and over again in my African history class so much about denying typical African stereotypes and the importance of realizing that Africa is not just a mass of useless, technologically-deficit land with lions and elephants.  Whenever I have travelled internationally with any sort of organized group we have always been told numerous times to realize the bigger picture, that we are indeed diplomats for our families and America as a whole and must act in accordance and I finally understand why.  I got shivers when one man raised his hand and expressed his deep concern that South African youth that had not lived through apartheid are following the behaviors of young Americans which will eventually lead to the downfall of South Africa and the regression of the progress made by Nelson Mandela and Desmund Tutu.  My professor, a Marxist (which he was sure to mention to the two other MU students and myself at the end of class), made the point that ‘It is unjust to live in affluence when there is so much suffering and expressed his extreme disapproval of America’s over-involvement in developing countries’ affairs.  He denied the successes of the World Bank and IMF because of their Western ideals and needless to say gave us a very different perspective of developed countries’ ‘altruism’ having grown up in third-world circumstances.  Being the minority has been difficult to say the least, but is exactly why I am here.  On a lighter note, I thoroughly enjoyed my Conflict and Diversity Studies class last night as it focused on the importance of peaceful inter-personal relationships and everyday positive thinking.  My professor is great, she studied here in the early nineties as a German exchange student and like many other foreigners I have met, hasn’t left Cape Town since (don’t worry I’ll be home November 27th I promise!)  She brought up the point that human beings naturally focus on the negative aspects of others rather than the positive, and challenged us to concentrate on encouraging love for all. (do it!) I’ll be working with the director of Ilitha Labantu all day tomorrow in court learning about women’s legal rights and then next week doing abuse education and prevention promotion in various township primary schools so more updates to come soon.  Keep in touch!