Dire Bacon Situation...

So I just asked Taylor what to title my blog and she decided upon that. We spent an hour searching on google Saturday night as we sat home for a much needed relaxing girls night (Erin, Taylor and I) searching for places to have an American breakfast. We finally found a place with pancakes, maple syrup and bacon! Taylor has been getting very frustrated because there is often Macon on menus here because there is a large Muslim population in Cape Town so many places are Kosher and Halaal meat, when all she wants is real bacon! The bacon was still a bit odd at the restaurant since it was in a circular manner and I had to send it back so it would actually be crispy. If you didn't look at it while you were eating it it was pretty close to the real thing!

Saturday Erin, Todd, Chris, Taylor, Noelle, and our SA friend Mark all went to the Western Province Rugby game against the UK Lions. It was quite rowdy but a ton of fun. We had gone on Wednesday night to the Dubliner to watch the game prior to that one and decided it would be really fun to actually go to the game. The people we went with on Wednesday were helpful in trying to teach me the rules of rugby but there are so many! I had to look it up before we went to the game on Saturday so I would be better prepared with the vocabulary etc. Its a big thing here right now because the Lions only tour every 12 years to South Africa and they play a series of games leading up to the big game against the South African Springboks (which is this Saturday). All of the games leading to that one are insignificant for whether they win or lose but will help determine who gets to play in the big game! Don't I sound so knowledgeable after just 2 incidences with the sport! :) The hardest part on Wednesday before I read up on the game was my friend kept referring to the field as a pitch and that just sent my mind to a whole different place since I take that as a verb, but that is just the rugby term for the field.

Today was really quite wonderful. Erin and I were able to spend the day at an event held in a nearby town called Newlands. Nomzamo got an invitation for a few people to attend and Ethel asked me if I would like to go and bring another volunteer. Erin has not been super thrilled with her internship placement here so I figured her interests revolve around youth as well so she would probably enjoy the day also! It was a mixture of speakers and performances from youth and adults. The adults were from sponsors like ABSA bank and then the Minister of Education for SA was there, 2 people spoke from the Department of Social Development, and a woman from the Department of Education spoke. It was pretty impressive the caliber of people in attendance but the really moving and inspirational aspects were when the youth performed or spoke. Many of them did poems, one sang, and they performed a skit and had an informal dance off at the very end! One of the young girls spoke about sexual abuse from a family member and the backlash she experienced from her father who then spread around the entire town that she was a 'slut' and even had her pastor talking to the congregation about her transgressions. She was unbelievable though at such a young age to be able to talk about it and then to continue on by saying she was strong and powerful though and couldn't let those things bring her down because she knew she was going to be somebody. I was a bit choked up by her courage. Another boy read his poem, which was quite cynical but also very moving in his belief in himself, but he spoke about not choosing his family but choosing his friends and that those are the people he loves and those are the people that love him.

There was also a young man who came in who was in the Beijing Paralymics in 2008. He was a swimmer for South Africa and had missed the world record for one of his events by .5 seconds. He joked that he wished he had just grown his finger nails a little bit longer! He told us the story of how he lost his leg and it was unbelievable! He was working with a training company for divers and water rescue persons and was out on a routine trip. He was in the water with his brother and a friend waiting for the boat to come and snatch them up fooling around humming the jaws theme song with the other two and saw a shadow near where his brother was floating. He noticed that it was indeed a shark and that it was heading right for his brother. He began to frantically drum the water hoping to get the attention of the shark away from his brother and he watched the fin turn and come straight for him. He was actually quite funny while telling the story but it was very suspenseful for the audience! The shark came at him with his jaws open and he tried to jump around the shark (as he said in a 'juke' manner) and he had decided that the best place to be would be riding on top of the shark! He didn't quite get his second leg over the shark since the shark had it in his jaws. The shark tried to drag him down but he fought back and kicked and punched until his knuckles bled. He obviously made it out alive but just barely! What a story! The day after he woke up in the hospital he decided he was going to train for the paralympics with the encouragement of his brother. That was in 2006 and he made it to the Olympics nearly breaking records by 2008!

So yeah that was today and this past week. Tomorrow we have the day off from placement because it is Youth Day which is a National Holiday to commemorate the death of a number of youth in 1976 who were non-violently protesting the implementation of exams and instruction in entirely Afrikaans which is one of the languages of South Africa but those who speak Xhosa don't normally speak Afrikaans and vice versa. Language is an interesting subject here because you often don't know how someone would have been classified in the Apartheid era until you hear them speak. Those labeled 'Black' would speak Xhosa, and the next higher up classification would be those labeled 'Colored' (anyone who is of mixed race or Malay) would speak Afrikaans. So it was a way to further oppress the most oppressed group at the time. No one knows how it turned into shooting and riots but the children were singing and all of a sudden turning and running in the opposite direction. The children who died were shot in the back. There is now a memorial for one of the famed students Hector Pieterson who died on that day to remember all that was lost but also the attention gained from the actions taken on that day. We were able to see it one of the first days we were in Cape Town. Now June 16th is a National Holiday to support the positive actions youth are taking within South Africa. That was the reason we were able to go to the Youth Day event today because most things are closed tomorrow!

Okay that was a lot of information for one post but I hope some of it was interesting and/or new! I'll update again soon.

Peace & Love,
Alyssa