O-Week

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.

Fountain in the middle of campus

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.

Groups starting to gather before the competition 

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. 

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). 

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. 

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. 

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.