I don't really have much to say...

My kids told me I had pink hair, pink skin, and pink elbows yesterday. haha.
We leave Friday for our mid-semester trip up the east coast of South Africa. we're going on a safari! and to Johannesburg.
um, well I'm not really in the mood to write right now, so I just posted some pictures instead!
but I'm sad because I can't get the video of my kids to update...

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/cluchetta/Adventures

Just wanted to say hi and I miss you all and love you, ya know the usual...
and have a Happy Easter!

two posts in one day...don't get used to it, ha, i guess i just had lots to say...

Oh yeah, annnnd ok real quick, for those of you who don’t know about the Amy Biehl Foundation. Amy Biehl is from Newport Beach and came to Cape Town in 1993 (note that the apartheid did not come to an end until 94) and worked at the UWC Community Law Centre working on South Africa’s new constitution and women’s rights and also helped with voter education for South Africa’s first free elections. She was stabbed and killed in a township outside of Cape Town by 4 angry young black men who were blamed white people for all their hardships and disadvantages resulting from apartheid. At the time they obviously did not know why Amy was in South Africa and that she was working to end apartheid. Anywayyy, the 4 men were convicted and sentenced to 18 years imprisonment. To help with a peaceful transition from apartheid to democracy the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was created (the belief that acknowledging the atrocities committed, asking for forgiveness, and forgiving will help both the perpetrators and victims heal so that South Africa can move forward) the men applied for amnesty and to honor Amy’s love of South Africa and her belief in the truth and reconciliation process her parent’s supported this request and the 4 men were released from prison. In 97 Amy’s parents created the Amy Biehl Foundation to “weave the barrier against violence.” The Foundation provides a variety of afterschool programs for children in the townships where they are still experiencing great inadequacies and shortcomings. They provide classes in music, sport, art, reading, greening and environment and HIV/AIDS peer education---things that they do not get in their normal school day. It also gives the kids constructive things to do, gets them off the streets, and gets them a meal.

Moral of the story is that 2 of the 4 men , Easy and Ntobeko, responsible for the death of Amy now work for the foundation! And I just met both of them last week! I put my hand out to shake Easy’s hand and he said “I don’t shake hands…” (I got a lil nervy) and then he said “I give hugs!!” and gave me a huge hug. Ummm yeah, it’s an incredible atmosphere to be in. The other day in the car Easy was singing and dancing and cracking jokes and one of the interns wasn’t really laughing and Easy says, “BE HAPPY, you don’t know, you can be dead tomorrow, so today, to do list: BE HAPPY.” Needless to say, it is an amazing organization and serves as proof of the power of forgiveness, and the ability to turn something awful into something so positive—an example for the rest of South Africa.

With all of that said, I think I’m going through a little bit of a mid-life crisis, yes, at 20, but I think my roommate would agree. I can’t believe I’ve been here for only a month, and my eyes have been opened this much. Obviously, I have never experienced anything like this before, but I just feel like I’m supposed to be here. Right now. because I can’t imagine being content in a life without experiencing all of this.

On Sunday, one of Molly’s co-workers invited us to go to her house for her family’s weekly Sunday lunch. She lives in a colored township called Ottery, this township does have formal housing. It is interesting because the inside of the house will not be done, like the flooring or the kitchen cabinets but they will have nice TVs, stereos, cell phones and one of daughters had a BMW. One of her daughters lives across the street and the other just down the street. The sense of community in these townships is amazing, everyone knows everyone. Even in New Crossroads, the township (mostly Xhosa people) that I work in in the afternoon, there is an unbelievable sense of community. After the kids get their meal at around 5 pm they all walk home even the little 1^st graders. I asked another teacher if that was safe for then to walk home by themselves and she said there is a Xhosa saying “It takes a village to raise a child” and that everyone treat eachother’s children as their own. Anywayss back to Sunday lunch. The hospitality was amazing and they practically cooked us a feast! The food was sooooo good! Molly’s co-workers best friend is Cape Malay (from Malaysia-people were brought to South Africa as slaves from Malaysia way back when) and cooked us some traditional Cape Malay food---aka my new favorite! It’s similar to Indian food. She made vegetable curry and rotti. Oh mann rotti is delish. It’s dough made out of water, flour, salt and lotsss of butter, then rolled out and lightly fried, kind of like a tortilla but a little thicker and flakier, sooo good!

We also experienced out first South African rugby game on Friday night! And ventured out to the wine country on Saturday, it was absolutely beautiful! We are going surfing in the morning before class and then on Friday we are off to Hermanus for a weekend retreat.

Ok I done now. I have to make up for not writing for a month I guess…

Loveee you all. Peace.

this place is amazing…

We’ve have still been going non-stop since we’ve gotten here…sleeping is not really an option when you can be running around Cape Town! I’m just going to go through a quick of review some things we’ve been doing:

-we went CANYONING—aka repelling down waterfalls! It was incredible. We got picked up at 7 am and drove up to the top of the mountain (about an hour north of Cape Town) and we hiked a little bit to the first waterfall. We abseiled down 2 waterfalls then had a picnic lunch in the canyon and cliff jumped (I was nervy and only jumped off the baby cliff). We hiked a little bit more to 3 more waterfalls. If you ever get the chance, dooo it! Mel- add this one to your list.

-we hiked/climbed Table Mountain—our landlord, aka mountain man David, took us up. We heard it was not an easy climb but that was definitely an understatement. While David was practically running up the mountain, we were wheezing as we slowly followed. If you see any picture of Cape Town, Table Mountain will definitely be visible. It’s really flat on top, hence why it is called Table Mountain. It’s really beautiful, the mountain looks as if it has a different mood everyday depending on the clouds. The clouds look like steam and cover the top of mountain some days, people like to call it the tablecloth—cute huh. Ha. Needless to say, we were pretty proud of ourselves when we reached the top.

-we had brunch at Judy Mayotte’s (the most amazing person I’ve ever met) apartment—she started the Marquette/Cape Town program 4 years ago. I can’t even begin to describe her life, you can Wikipedia her! Ha, she has a Wikipedia page, I think that tells a lot right there, haha. She comes up as “Judith Ann Mayotte PhD is an American humanitarian, author, theologian, Emmy-winning producer, former nun, ethicist, and university professor.” Enough said. She’s my hero. Along with many other accomplishments, she devoted a large portion her life to working with refugees all over the world. While in the war zone in Sudan, a food drop fell on her and resulted in the loss of her leg. There is talk that it wasn’t accidental--the government didn’t want her there. At 71, she now works for the Desmond Tutu Peace Centre and is one of our professors at UWC.

We have been so privileged to have met the people we have. People who have had great involvement in creating the new South Africa and it’s transformation from apartheid to democracy. It’s incredible to think we are living through history right now as we are a part of an experimental phase of the South African democracy. 14 years of democracy is extremely young. I’ll be honest, I didn’t know much before coming here but now being here I would not want to be anywhere else. South Africa is such an inspiring country. It is a miracle that this country had a peaceful transition from apartheid to democracy, and I can’t believe that I have gotten the opportunity to experience this country.

Classes are really interesting. I can’t believe I’m actually saying that I actually like them. We are taking master level courses at the Institute for Social Development at UWC and so a portion of our classes are Marquette students and the other half are adults (in their 20s and 30s and some older) who have a career and are taking these classes to take an active role and actually implement the things they learn to promote development.

Work has been difficult for me lately. The 6^th and 7^th graders don’t listen to me very well. It was one of my student’s birthday last Monday so I brought them Oreos and all they did was fight over them! And then they just talked the whole time and didn’t pay attention, I was so frustrated. I went back to the Amy Biehl office downtown and my co-worker, Lucinda, told me I needed to let them know I’m boss. Well it’s juuuust that I’m not very good at being the boss, I don’t like being in charge soooo I’m working on this one. Yesterday went better though. I’m bribed/threatened them to pay attention by giving m&m’s to the kids who were listening and answered questions correctly, haha, and I think it’s working. Kids will do anything for candy.

I usually assist Lucinda in the afternoon with the 1^st-3^rd graders, but the last couple times she’s had other work and handed me a folder and said that I could handle it…..uhh what!? So I took the lil folder and taught about 40 little kids the Itsy Bitsy spider and we practiced the alphabet. Remeberrr they don’t speak English! It’s hard because I’ll say “repeat after me…” or “say….” And they won’t understand, or I’ll tell them to sit down and they don’t know what I’m saying. There is translator but she doesn’t understand my English so well so it’s a little hard but these kids are just too adorable to ever get upset at them. Yesterday, I taught them “Little Miss Muffet” and made dolls at of toilet paper rolls. This was an ambitious craft—Miss Muffet had arms coming out of her head and all sorts of deformities, haha it was funny.

Nan you would be very impressed, all the kids are required to wear uniforms. It’s a really good idea because everyone looks the same at school. No matter what their conditions are at home they all look equally nice at school.

I’m posting some I took at the school and around the township so you all can see that part of Cape Town! I also have a video I took of my class but it won’t let me upload it right now so I’ll post that later.

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/cluchetta/ItTakesAVillageToRaiseAChild

Miss you! Annnd Happy Birthday Nan and Dad!

i'm here. i'm alive!

Well I’m here…haha I’m sure you all know that already! Sorry I haven’t written yet. I don’t think I’m going to be so good at this journaling thing…just warning you now. The power and internet goes out frequently so that definitely doesn’t help the situation. I'm apologizing in advance for the scattered brain mess that follows...haha.

It is absolutely beautiful here! Mountains, clear blue ocean, city, vineyards, and warm weather. It’s pretty perfect. But only a few minutes in the other direction you can be in the middle of the poorest of the poor—a poverty like I’ve never seen before. Millions of Africans still live in these “informal settlements.” It literally looks like four sheets or metal for the walls and one as the roof. Quite shocking at first. It doesn’t seem right, only a few kilometers difference and you can be in a completely different and separate world. During apartheid, all of the black and coloured people were pushed out of the center of the city (the beautiful part) and forced to move to the Cape Flats which are essentially flat, sandy areas.

We are living in “trendy, bohemian” suburb of Cape Town called Observatory or Obs as the locals call it. Our house is pretty amazing. There are 13 of us from Marquette and then we have 4 other roommates, all from the US. 2 are students and 2 just graduated and are traveling the world---pretty much living the life. Each bedroom is a double so I have one roommate named Molly—yet another Molly in my life! Ha.

We were at UWC last week registering for classes and orientation. We were in the union eating lunch and walking around—and what song was blaring—none other than “All or Nothing” by O-Town…dance version. I laughed out loud for quite a while about that one. American music is everywhere, and they sure like those dance versions. I have also heard KC and JoJo’s “All My Life” dance mix…haha that used to be my favorite song.

Annnnyway (sorry Anth but you’re going to have to get used to me adding multiple letters---it’s just what I do) we went to Robben Island last Saturday. It was quite the experience. For those of you who don’t now, that was the prison that Nelson Mandela was kept for 18 years along with many other political leaders during apartheid. I have been reading Nelson Mandela’s autobiography and it was really amazing to see all these places that I had read about.

Then we made our way over to beach in Muizenberg! I truly felt like I was in Africa at this beach. Boys were playing soccer on the beach right in front of us, there were colorful lil huts lining the beach, and the water was just beautiful (I swan in the Indian Ocean!) We befriended a couple barefoot lil boys in the town playing with slingshots. adorable.

We went to a holistic fair aka hippie fair last Sunday in Obs. I was pretty much obsessed with it. Last Sunday we went to a concert and packed a picnic at Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens—absolutely breathtaking.

School started last week. I’m really excited for my classes actually. I’m taking an anthropology course, social problems, peace studies, theology of forgiveness, and leaders in grassroots organization. Service learning also started this week! I’m working at the Amy Biehl Foundation. It’s a really great story and organization, look it up! (http://www.amybiehl.co.za/). I’m really excited about it. I started working at St. Mary’s Catholic Primary School this morning. I’m working with 6^th and 7^th graders in the Young Readers Role Model Program. It was my first day and they threw me in a room with 12 6^th and 7^th graders for 45 minutes with no direction whatsoever. Their regular teacher said I could create any curriculum I wanted—I was pretty much on my own. The kids decided they wanted to read Harry Potter, the 2nd one, because they read the 1^st one last semester. So now I’m on a search around Cape Town to find a Harry Potter book. I have to create worksheets for them with vocabulary, characters, summaries, and I even have the power to assign them homework! I’m a real life teacher—finally, this is what I was practicing for all the years when I played teacher and made my mom be the student. I’m pretty excited about it, but it’s definitely a little bit intimidating…

In the afternoon I go to another primary school called Nomlinganiselo and work with the 1^st-3^rd graders in the after school program. They already learned my name today and as soon as they did they didn’t stop yelling “Christa Christa come” (close enough right). They were adorable, I loved it! They mostly speak Xhosa (the language with the clicking sounds!), I’m trying to pick up a few sayings—we’ll see how that goes.

It’s really hard to be in these schools though especially thinking about what I had in the schools I grew up in. These kids just run around bare foot. I don’t know what kind of pencils these were but I was trying to sharpen them for the kids to practice writing the alphabet and they have to come back after every letter to get them re-sharpened—they hardly worked. I happened to arrive early at St. Mary’s and saw the kids during morning snack. I don’t even know how to describe it. They were eating some kind of mush off of a piece of newspaper. Both of the school are in townships and surrounded by a mix of informal and formal settlements in the Cape Flats. Despite everything, most of these kids are always running around with smiles on their faces…the are quite amazing lil kids. It makes you never want to complain again.

Well sorry this was so choppy. I felt like I had a lot to say and it kind of came out as a mess, but I figure it’s better than nothing.

And I just uploaded some pictures finally!

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/cluchetta/FirstWeeksInCapeTown

(copy and paste link in the search bar, i don't know how to turn it into a link.)

I love and miss you all a lot!!!!!