Hello! I made it! These first few days have been absolutely
crazy. Hopefully I can remember everything that has happened. Our group from BC
consists of five girls: Lauren, Kara, Alex, Rebekah, and myself. I think the
easiest way to do this is to break it up into categories instead of just going
day by day.
TRAVEL:
On Saturday I flew from New York to Johannesburg (Jo-Burg)
and then from Joburg to Port Elizabeth (PE). The first leg of the flight was
extremely long, however not as terrible as I had imagined it to be. As we were
flying over Senegal we had some rough turbulence but luckily that was it for
the rest of the flight. When we landed in Joburg, Laurens luggage wasn’t there.
After filing a claim, we had to sprint across the airport and just made our flight
(like they literally were about to close the doors). On the flight, we found
quite a few other students who were also going to Rhodes from abroad!
Once landing in PE, I came to the unfortunate realization
that not all my luggage came with me. One of my suitcases (the one with all my
clothes) was left in Joburg. Luckily there are about five flights daily from
Joburg to PE so I had it the next evening. We were picked up at the airport by a charter bus waiting to
take all the international students to Rhodes. There were quite a few
Americans, students from Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Lithuania. It was
about an hour from PE to Grahamstown. Apparently during the five minutes I
nodded off some of the students saw Zebras & Giraffes, however I still don’t
know if they were kidding me or not. One thing that stuck me on the ride was
the vast disparity. I have been told that South Africa is the land of great
contrast, but seeing it was a completely different story. You would drive by
beautiful homes with pools or on the water, and then a few minutes later see
homeless men and women standing on the side of the road. I will be interested
to learn more about the economic gap in South Africa and what the locals have
to say about it.
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| Fountain in the middle of campus |
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| Over looking the town |
RES LIFE:
Once at Rhodes, I was taken to my dorm, Beit (pronounced
Bite). Fortunately for me, a BC student stayed in this res (dorm) last semester
so everyone was told that I was coming. My room is much larger than ones I have
had at BC. I have a private room with a closet, two dressers, desk and sink.
The thing that I have loved the most is being able to leave my windows open and
hear the birds at all hours. Also on my floor is one other international
student, Elina, who is from Italy. It is nice having someone else here who is unfamiliar
with what is going on. Res’ at Rhodes remind me a lot of what I imagine greek
life is like in the states. Res’ do so much together and you are identified by
where you live. There are inter-res competitions, sporting events, socials, and
each res does a lot of community engagement (community service).
Leadership staff includes a house warden (resident
director), sub wardens (RA’s) and various other leadership staff that are in
charge of community engagement, sporting events, evening programs, IT, and
other things. One of the hardest things to adjust to is the dining system.
There is one dining hall per every three res’. You eat every meal with your res
and the dining hall is only open at certain times. Breakfast is from 8-8:30,
lunch 12-14:00, and dinner from 17-18:00. I am so use to either having a
kitchen after living off campus or being able to go to the dining hall whenever
I please.
SERENADES:
This week at Rhodes is O-Week (orientation) for all the
first years. It is much different than orientation at BC. One of the most
interesting things is serenades. At 6:45 on Monday morning I heard a group of
about 20 men chanting and singing. I had absolutely no idea what was going on.
At the time I was just thinking that Rhodes students were extremely weird and
liked to be up at the crack of dawn. Around 7:30 I decided to go downstairs and
see what was going on. One of the sub wardens told me to come outside. I guess
what happens is that each res creates a routine (both singing and dancing) and
then performs it throughout the week. Every morning, a guys res comes outside
our res and starts chanting. We go outside into the middle of the street and
have a thrown down with them. They perform their routine and then we perform
ours. The guys then come into our common room and have a mixer for a little bit
and we get to know each other. Now this is great and all but please remember
its around 7 in the morning. Also, I feel a bit like a cougar since I am 20 and
all the first years are 17/18. These serenades go on all week. What I found
hilarious the first time I saw a battle is that all the songs are the wicked
popular American ones. I have heard Beyonce, Justin Beiber, Maroon Five, and
other popular artists. There is nothing more hilarious than hearing songs sung
with a South African accent. On Tuesday and Wednesday night there is RUJammin,
which is the huge competition. For those at BC, it is similar to ALC Showdown
but with res’. Each res gets to perform and it is such a cool thing! I wish
that BC had something similar freshman year.
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| Groups starting to gather before the competition |
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| RU Jammin |
GEOFF:
Geoff is our BC onsite advisor. He is an absolutely
wonderful man who is one of the head professors in the Economics department.
Since we have arrived he has been taken care of all five of us girls. On Monday
he took all of us out to the store to buy water, cell phones, taught us how to
use ATMs, and gave us a tour of the town. Tuesday, Geoff met with us to teach
us about course registration and how academics at Rhodes work. Basically, each
subject is split up by class year. So if I was interested in Psychology, I
could take psych 1, 2, or 3. Each number corresponds to the academic year of
the student. While it was helpful, I still have absolutely no idea what classes
I am taking. Wednesday, Geoff sat in on our academic advising session and then
took us girls on a tour of Grahamstown. We all piled into his truck, with
Lauren and Alex in the trunk and took off on a three-hour tour.
Geoff first took us to the monument, which is on the top of
a hill. From there you could see all of Grahamstown. The best analogy for
Grahamstown is a bowl, where Grahamstown sits at the bottom of the bowl and is
surrounded by hills.
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| Grahamstown from the top of the monument |
Geoff went into the history of Grahamstown and told us
that a few of the buildings at Rhodes used to be military buildings. He also
told us the fun fact that Grahamstown once was home to the South African
parliament (many, many, many years ago).
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| Clearly we are well protected |
The way Geoff set up the tour was that
he took us around the more affluent part of Grahamstown, which was full of
private schools and mansions. Less than a mile around the road, we reached the
townships. It was remarkable the stark contrast in this city. The schools were much
smaller, had so many more students and not nearly as many resources. However even the schools varied in the township.
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| One of the first state schools we saw. This school was a fee paying school meaning that parents are asked to pay R125 ($14.00) for the year. School are not zoned in Grahamstown meaning that families can choose which school to send their children to. School were usually divided by language abilities and mother tongue. |
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| This is a school we saw later in the township. It used to be a Catholic primary school, but has gone by the wayside due to lack of enrollment. As you can see the windows are broken and it appears to be abandoned. However, Geoff told us that the school is still operating although not at maximum capacity. |
Here are a few pictures from our tour of the township. Something to keep in mind is that this township is apart of Grahamstown and is less than ten minutes from our university. One thing that has been a trend throughout the past few days is that South Africans are the friendliest people I have ever met. As we were driving through the townships everyone was waving at us, smiling, and saying hello! I saw this same thing in the Dominican Republic last spring. It amazes me that those with so little, who would have every right to be bitter towards the world are the most generous and genuinely nice people.
To say that this week has been enlightening is an understatement. One of the first mornings at breakfast, a first year student sat next to me and asked "is there poverty in America". When I explained that there was, she continued to question "but American poverty is not the same as African poverty". I agreed with her. While poverty is an extremely important issue in America, first world poverty is not the same as second or third world poverty. Driving through the townships seeing rows and rows of shacks stretching on for miles and miles speaks volumes to the vast inequality that exists. As the semester goes on, I hope to find more about what the locals think about the townships, what the government is doing, and if they think there is any hope for change in the future.
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