Greetings…

 

Yet another interesting day – but peaceful and food filled.

Headed with the full group to !Kwan Ttu and then to Langenbaan – about an hour drive.. maybe 90 minutes..

!Kwa Ttu is a center for the preservation of the Koi and San people of South Africa. They’ve created a replica village (a bit touristy, but for a good cause). So, despite the fact that there are 11 official languages in South Africa, many other African languages have been lost and/or are not recognized. There are only 300 people remaining who speak some of these languages and now there are efforts to try to preserve them so they do not get lost completely. I don’t think I mentioned that all of these languages use “clicks” in their pronunciation and there are many different clicks you have to learn. Some are dental clicks, some are palate clicks, etc. Our students have been trying hard to reproduce the correct sounds and a few have become pretty good at it.

Anyway, at the entry of the center is an amazing tree that is inhabited by about 100 very interesting nests that house the yellow cape birds. In typical South Africa fashion, we had a time specific schedule for our tour of the San .. but the group before us came an hour late and had twice as many people as they registered, so our tour got delayed and we wound up doing a much shorter tour than expected. All good. By the way, they have this great system for the chickens… they actually lay their eggs in these file cabinet drawers that are open on one end (by the chicken patch) and the workers just open the drawer from the other side and get the eggs!

From there we drove to Strandloper – an outdoor, on the beach, restaurant that serves a 10-course seafood lunch served open-air, at the water’s edge, with a great view of Langebaan Lagoon. There’s live guitar music while you eat.. and the meal takes about four hours.. starting with mussels and ending with lobster (crayfish)…and includes fish curry, angel fish and snoek, grilled haarders, smoked angel fish, snoek with sweet and steamed potato, and more. We brought our own wine and soft drinks… It was great and delicious… except that I decided to take my shoes off and walk on the beach… and somehow I stubbed my little toe and I think I may have broken it.. It’s black and blue and pretty sore, but I put a bandaid on it.. and I’m sure I’ll live.  Everyone was really exhausted with several students asleep on the van for the entire drive home.

But Chris and Samu and I let the food settle in and then went out to La Boheme in Sea Point for an array of tapas.. including amazing steak tartare, salad, abogados made from ostrich meat, and pumpkin gnocchi… Then we were all ready to turn in

Tomorrow is another day. The days here are really getting shorter. I’ll be back in the office end of the week.. hard to believe. I’ve got a lot on my plate when I return.. so I’m already obsessing about deadlines and how to get things done.. I suppose my 34 hours of travel and flight time will provide good quiet work time for me to set up shop!

Best — Fern…

Moleweni – Friday, September 15, 2017

Started the day (after morning chai at my favorite café), by heading to Tarna and Nickie’s offices with all of our students. We got a little tour of their offices which are located in a nice part of Cape Town inside a house that includes an addition. The front half of the house is the office and the back part is where Nickie’s mom still resides. Apparently her dad was an architect (just passed away one month ago) and also a professional guitar maker (actually all string instruments). It’s the house Nickie grew up in and when she started her practice her parents said – “Why not save money and set up the office here in these front rooms,” which she did. Over the years she took over more space and they renovated so that the office and the house are really two separate but connected spaces… and at some time Tarna moved into a part of the space with her firm. They frequently collaborate on the same projects so it seems to have worked out well.

From there we headed to Khayelitsha (where they had designed two libraries). Khayelitsha is the largest Black township in Cape Town, with a population of somewhere between 500,000 and one million (depending on what resource you use or who you speak to – statistics here is another problem and the census is not accurate at all. Around 70% of residents live in shacks and people walk 200 meters or more to access water. Unemployment rates are huge (60-70% and those that work are earning about $1,500 per year or less. This is similar to other townships, except that the population is larger. Khayelitsha was created during apartheid as a residential area for migratory workers that were needed in the city.

Khayelitsha is also interesting because it has both “informal” housing (shacks) and “formal” housing (more substantial housing that was built recently by the government. The formal housing is structurally more sound but often – while it has a shower – doesn’t have water connections. We’ve also seen government housing with photovoltaic panels (one per house, which I assume is for hot water) but they are not necessarily connected and many are not facing the right way to capture the solar power.  Khayelitsha is also a good place to understand how apartheid functioned from a physical standpoint. .It has a few main roads (I think just four) that enable access into the community and during apartheid those roads would get sealed and were guarded. In order to get out one needed a “pass.” The physical design enabled the closure of the whole community.

Tarna and Nicola took us to see the two libraries they had designed and explained a lot about the bureaucracy of working on government projects and the difficulty of getting innovative ideas implemented. They constantly mention that they believe that the work they are doing is “setting the bones for the beginning of a possibility!!” But they did a great job and the buildings are bright, energy-efficient (even if the maintenance people are having a hard time keeping things running), thoughtful about the users, and more. They also engaged local artists and artisans to do tile work and window screening which was great to see.

After we visited the libraries, Tarna and Nickie arranged for us to have lunch at Earn to Learn – a nonprofit that teaches job training skills to very low income people. We ate a great meal prepared by the woman who teaches restaurant skills… and then we got a tour of the whole operation. The teach graphic design (all male students), sewing (all female), baking (women), sewing production (women preparing for factory jobs) and woodworking (men). Still the organization is solid, has a good track record, and the products they produce and skills they learn are clearly top notch.  Once we left Khayelitsha, we headed back to the CBD and then had dinner at a great Ethiopian restaurant (Addis) with the grad students.  We were joined by Samu, an engineer who lives in Jo’burg and is a friend of Chris’. Samu lived in the US for two years as a Fulbright student doing graduate work at Washington State University.

Weather today was extremely windy, so much so that at times I needed to walk backwards

Molweni –

Thursday, September 14….

I had a somewhat leisurely morning since I didn’t go on the van to Philippi since I needed to get to University of Cape Town to meet faculty for lunch, before my talk. I strolled to the little café… I’m a regular now… for my chai and homemade muffin/scone..

I took a taxi to the University… which is huge.. about 30,000 students on an amazing campus that is divided into three parts – upper campus, mid-campus, and lower campus. The upper campus is nestled into the hillside and has spectacular views of the city. It is the original campus. It’s quite a trek from lower to upper campuses. Anyway, had lunch with faculty and chatted about my work and what they were doing.. My talk was in the architecture and planning departments. The talk went fine; a smaller than expected turnout though – it was midterm week and the architecture students were all in their studio classes. I think the vice chair of the department who was coordinating this hadn’t ever sponsored a speaker before and didn’t seem to know what time of day was best. Several students came up to me after and said the talk should have been at noon instead of 3:00, when students are in class. Anyway, at the end there were fairly good questions and conversation, and they said if I’m back next year, they would want me to speak at the African Center for Cities which hosts more public facing lectures and the turnouts there are good. Lesson learned. 

I did meet a few architecture faculty members who are working in townships, and I did learn an interesting fact: Because there is so much student upheaval, the likelihood of students shutting down the university in the 3^rd quarter is very high (remember “Fees Must Fall!”), so faculty now “pack” the first two quarters so that if the university closes down for a month or two students are already ahead. In architecture they have created vertical studios so that students are getting more advanced work earlier. I guess the fees must fall movement has already had an impact. Lots more on this topic, but too much to explain in this note.

After the talk, and a brief moment of relaxation, Chris and I headed to Sea Point for dinner at the home of a landscape architect (Tarna) whom we had met in Seattle when she gave a talk there with her architect colleague (Nicola). They were both at my talk. Dinner got complicated, as they also had two young women who had just arrived in Cape Town, and spouses of both architects, as well as children and boyfriend of daughter. Tarna is Jewish (and sort of Orthodox – or at least she keeps kosher, and her children go to or graduated from one of the three private Jewish K-12 schools here in Cape Town). She initially had invited us for Friday dinner, but things got complicated and we said we couldn’t do that.. so Thursday became the alternative. She served a great meal and she has a wonderful and very lived-in house in the Sea Point neighborhood which is traditionally the Jewish area in Cape Town. There are about 60,000 Jews in all of South Africa and about 18,000 of those are in Cape Town. The history of the Jews in South Africa is complicated and probably more so because Israel was the only Western nation that did not take part in sanctions imposed on South Africa during Apartheid. And yet many Jews were involved in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa.. It is said that the number of South African Jews involved in the struggle against apartheid was disproportionate to the number of Whites involved in anti-apartheid political activities. Fourteen of the 23 whites involved in the 1956 Treason Trial were Jewish and all five whites of the 17 members of the African National Congress who were arrested for anti-apartheid activities in 1963 were Jewish. Jews for Justice (in Cape Town) and Jews for Social Justice (in Johannesburg) tried to reform South African society and build bridges between the white and black communities in the 1980s.

In any case, we kept the conversation focused on planning issues and architecture as well as on inequities and disparities here, since that is the main focus of our program. We had a great home-cooked meal, with lots of wine… and returned home around 11pm. I think that’s it for the 14^th!

Best…

Fern

Greetings…

It’s really late and I’m supposed to be fine tuning my lecture for tomorrow at the University of Cape Town… so I’ll try to sum up quickly.

Started the day (after my now usual little chai and homemade scone at the little café down the street — tired and bored with the breakfast they leave for us at the B&B) by heading with the full group to Chrysalis Academy – a nonprofit located on spectacular grounds in the Newlands area of Cape Town. It’s about 15 years old and has established a comprehensive, 3-month residency program (followed by a variety of support mechanisms) to build physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual development for youth who have been subjected to violence, drugs, gangs, etc. We met staff and after they presented their program… our students explained what they were each doing. They were great! Then some open discussion about racism in South Africa and the US… and then they served a light lunch.

We then headed to Muizenberg and beyond. We stopped to see a factory that produced great silk-screened and hand-painted fabrics (sort of the Marimekko of Cape Town!). I had gone into a store in Cape Town the other day that sold this fabric and items made from the fabric. I asked about the production of the items.. and learned the factory was in Muizenberg where we would be headed, so I called to see if they would give us a quick tour. It was quite fascinating.. and then of course they had a make-shift store with lots of discounted items. This definitely showed the shoppers from the non-shoppers.. with me definitely in the former group. We all got great buys… and then we headed south to see the penguins! Students had a blast walking out on the rocks to the sea.. and watching and finding penguins everywhere ..

Following this, we headed to Kalk Bay to eat at Kalky’s – a sort of institution serving fish (many different kinds)and chips. It’s usually packed, but we lucked out and were able to get a big table for all 15 of us..  Calamari steak and fried calamari, peri peri prawns, yellowtail,  hake. Lots of fries, salads.. and everyone devoured it all. The fish is served on steel platters and tin plates. The place has bright colored wooden tables.. sort of like painted picnic tables… and a great outdoor section, but it was too cold and windy so we ate inside. You line up to order and then they bring the food to the table.. not necessarily in a logical flow. Staff turnover must be low since everyone I photographed here a year ago was still here.. and I showed them the photos (they were on my iPhone).. and I took new ones.

Funny story… A guy came up to our table and started talking with Chris and me..  He said his name was Kevin.. Chris chatted for a while and then he started talking to me…  Strange dude. Turns out he was with this young couple who turn out to be from Jamaica; they are Jehovah’s Witness missionaries working in West Africa and here on vacation. Needless to say the conversation was brief, especially when they explained a woman’s role and a man’s role… Outta there!

Sorry, just finishing this up and it’s a day late.. It’s midnight here and I am fading. Lots to talk about in terms of my day today… but that will have to wait.

Best

Fern

Molweni –

So, last night, after a really grueling day with students having health issues, personal problems, etc…. Some of the challenges are the students’ desire to try to fix things in South Africa and to handle some of the extremely strong emotions they are feeling as they hear about township people’s lives: witnessing murders, being carjacked, not having enough food, spending hours commuting on the cumbi buses to get to work, living in little shacks without water, etc. This part has been very stressful, and it’s hard to get them to focus on the positives, the resiliency of the people, and the people’s efforts to bring about changes on their own. They see the protests and sort of get it, but it all becomes pretty personal for the undergrads. Graduate students seem to have a better capacity to take it all in and do a bigger and broader analysis. They also realize that the answer is not “saving one life” – but rather understanding and trying to impact bigger systems and to work to empower people as they continue to build on the strengths of earlier movements and build new ones.

The current ANC government is extremely corrupt and people are angry. They want the ANC to succeed but feel helpless as a result of the current administration. Elections will be held in 2018 and the range of candidates and how they build coalitions will determine the outcome.

Chris and I decided the easiest dinner was to head back to Marcos (which is only a block away) and to eat in the bar which is quiet. We feasted on a carpaccio platter that included kudu, alligator tail, and impala… and then for the cooked main course opted for barbecued lamb chops.. Just what the doctor ordered, especially the homemade cheesecake for dessert. Once we had a glass of wine, the troubles of the day seemed to disappear – at least for a short time.

I then worked until pretty late on office projects and a little time on my Thursday presentation at the University of Cape Town…

This morning I started my day with my usual 5 block walk to the Batavia Café, for homemade scones and my chai latte. They know me now and the order is practically ready when I walk in the door. Then I headed to 91 Loop to meet the van and the students. As I mentioned earlier, I think, Chris starts out earlier (around 7 am to pick up and drive the three students who are working at the high school where classes begin at 8 am). He picks those students up at 3 and I am in Philippi until 4:30 or 5:00 when the other programs let out.

Today was complicated from a logistical standpoint.

I went with three students to hear what SAEP’s Impact Center is all about, so that left the remaining students on the van with Zain, the driver (who by now knows the students and is probably more focused on individual student safety than me!) So, the other students headed to their organizations with Zain, who later picked me up to meet up with students in Philippi. By now, students have figured out the best lunch places in town and Grace is definitely the favorite. She prides herself on sourcing organics and on creating interesting recipes. She operates out of one of the corrugated metal shipping containers (probably only half or one third size).. the space is about 9’ x 15’ and it’s all work area and a counter for ordering. She’s only got two top burners, a frig, a sink, a blender, a few pots and frying pans, and one helper – Linda. They are cooking and constantly cleaning utensils and work feverishly from early morning until late in the day. And Grace is always happy.. with a huge smile. Today she showed me pictures of the 7-year old birthday she cooked for (a friend’s child). She makes my day. Only problem is that the portions are huge and she’s totally insulted if you don’t eat every morsel. Today, I asked for a half order (and said I’d pay for the whole) but she doesn’t know how to do that, since she loves cooking the food and serving it. You eat outside on a plastic table that is too high for the supposedly matching plastic chairs. Today, because I was meeting with students, I paid for their meals.. so we had three orders of the mutton, each came with four chops, potato wedges, creamed spinach, and rice. We also ordered her fantastic smoothies.. two banana mango smoothies. The bill was about $15 (US).

Students were everywhere today so coordinating drop off and movement as well as pick up was a full time job. I sat in on a “coalition meeting” which pointed to the efforts at professionalism and the challenges therein… The meeting was held in one of the corrugated metal buildings in the township. They showed a PowerPoint that was barely visible because they needed to tilt up some sides of the “room” for air which then made the PowerPoint barely visible with so much sunlight streaming in; The PowerPoint was flashed onto a white paper that was blowing from wind; The PowerPoint had about 300 words to a slide!

From the meeting we all dashed out and headed to see the new play written by students at University of Cape Town (UCT) and directed by a young woman, recent graduate of UCT who was at the conference we attended on Friday. The play “The Fall” is about the Fees Must Fall and Rhodes Must Fall movement that has shuttered the campuses of all universities in Cape Town and beyond on and off for the past two years. Essentially, 7 students share their experiences of #Rhodesmustfall… It’s a very frank and earnest play, and the production quality was incredible. It’s a great piece about student-led movements, inequality in education and society, cultural representation, racism, and more. They delve into categorization about race and gender and also patriarchy and sexism, trying to unpack racism and discrimination at a multitude of levels. It’s based on compilations of the feelings of real students during this recent and current controversy. The Rhodes Must Fall movement is about taking down the statues of Cecil Rhodes on campus and beyond.. and the Feed Must Fall movement focuses on lowering or making tuition free at university campuses – in order to address the inequities that tuition brings.  The play is credited with forcing the administration to remove the Rhodes statue…. But as of now, tuition remains. The play was moving and insightful and students loved it.

The Baxter Theater on the UCT campus is quite lovely and we all had dinner prior to the show in the theater building where they have a great vegetarian Indian buffet – for about $6… three main dishes, appetizers, and side vegetables, chutneys, and samosas.

Report on September 13 to follow…

Fern

Greetings –

Wow – where to start.

Began the day by dropping students off (with the van) at three separate locations; Chris always leaves early in the car to get the three students who are placed at the high school (Sinethemba) there on time (by 8 am). The other groups need to be at their sites by 10 and I go with them. Usually we head right to Philippi and the sites are in close proximity. But today, some had to go to different locations for their organizations because of meetings and other factors. One of the organizations is going through some severe cutbacks and organizational changes, so the experiences are pretty real.

The day seemed to be good for most students with some exciting activities. One group dealt with fundraising challenges as well as learning from an after-school music and dance group how to do some pretty fancy steps in African dance and playing marimbas made of tin cans. The kids were awesome and our university students made a valiant effort to keep up! Another group set up shop in the library (where they could get Internet) to help one of the organizations develop some materials about their programs; and another group helped set lesson plans for some reading assignments.    

The school group taught math classes and a dance group. Chris was at the school for a few hours while I was shuttling the others to the various sites. He got to tour the school again – alone with the principal – and got some more scoop on what works and mostly what doesn’t work. So in the science lab (which is only used about once a semester because they don’t have supplies, and I think they lack a bonafide science teacher), people broke into the school through the roof and stole the overhead projector. The Department of Education eventually sent someone to the school to do repairs, but they put bars on the windows and seem to have ignored the roof access. They also didn’t replace the overhead projector so now there’s a holder on the ceiling for the projector but no projector. It’s like this everywhere. I noticed that in the early childhood center, there are holders in the ceilings for fluorescent lights but there aren’t any bulbs. The rooms are really dark. And it goes on and on and on.

But teachers, program folks, and the kids are unbelievably resilient. They persevere. The school administrators in this particular school are amazingly strong leaders, upbeat, powerful, and sensitive – amid all the issues they face daily. We learned today that every week there is at least one death of a student at each of the high schools in Philippi. Life is complicated, stressful, and unfair.

We are meeting one-on-one with students this week and that’s complicated in its own way. But we are getting a sense of what each student is or is not getting out of the program. Some of the conversations are challenging. To make things more complicated, several students have come down with some kind of bug – caught no doubt from being around kids all the time… and made worse by the fact that they are probably not sleeping as much as they should.

We ended late, and it’s an early morning tomorrow — back in the townships.. and tomorrow night to the play about the “Fees mush Fall” movement.

More tomorrow.

Fern

  

Happy Sunday –

Molweni

So today was the leisure day… needed it.

Went for a wonderful brunch at Harvey’s at the Winchester Mansion (an upscale boutique hotel) in Seapoint facing the water. A much needed bloody Mary to start it off on the patio facing the waterfront and then a brunch that included everything from sushi to roast lamb – and with everything else in between: pastries, salads, made to order omelets, champagne, etc. – with a small jazz band playing the entire time. Relaxing and perfect weather. I took one of the grad students who thoroughly enjoyed it.

Then picked up the birthday cake which weighed about 15 pounds – I kid you not.. Marzipan must be heavy. Cake to feed 15 people//and it was high.. about 9” tall…  Grad student and I carried it for the one mile walk back to the house; actually grad student did most of the carrying. The woman at the bakery was very excited to learn that we were Americans. She proclaimed immediately “I’m obsessed with everything American. I love Americans and I’m obsessed.” When asked why, she said “I love your accents and your English is so clear,” which she stated with a definite European/British sounding English. Perhaps we should send some folks to that bakery with deep Southern drawl.

Then I worked at the house until we met an American for dinner.. she’s here on a Fulbright dealing with assorted public health issues, including child labor. Went to a good Indian restaurant. Great food, but portions were too huge. We had samosas, lamb vindaloo, Paneer, and a chick pea dish.. raita, nan, and great curries.

We then headed to the hostel for the surprise birthday with the cake and some bubbly wine. Student was more than surprised and the group seemed to have a good time telling their stories of the adventures this weekend (they were really on their own for two days, which turned out to be great and very empowering).

Several climbed Table Mountain (one turned back; one took the cable car); some just hiked around town; some went to the waterfront; some shopped some shopped. Anyway they were all filled with stories and experiences and seem ready to tackle tomorrow when they return to the township.

By the way some people ask us about the hurricane. They know very little about hurricanes, saying that they don’t get any here. They also say they don’t get tornadoes, so they are curious about these phenomena.  Mmmm maybe moving here is the solution.

Tomorrow’s another day… another busy, intense, hectic day.

Hope all is going well

Fern

Molweni  and Molo to each of you (word for ‘hello’ changes if it is to an individual or a group..)

This will be fairly short as I am determined to get it out on the same day (well sort of — as it’s already early morning – Sunday here – and I’ll be discussing yesterday)

The students are on their own for the weekend, and we are pleased that they all seem to be doing OK – At least we haven’t heard much from them.. Seems like a few went on a hike, others strolled the city, some probably went shopping, some rested. Today, several will hike up Table Mountain. It’s about a 3.5 hour-hike to the top (although there is another path that is only about 2.5 hours.. lots of “steps”… View from top is spectacular, if there aren’t any clouds.. If clouds, you are above them and no view whatsoever. There is a cable car-like vehicle that goes up and down and most people hike up and take it down. A few students plan to take it both ways. I’m totally supportive. Not sure what the others will do today, but we will see them all tonight when we have a surprise birthday cake and champagne (!) for one of the student’s 21^st birthday.

As for me… yesterday was truly a leisure day… work day. I strolled down to Cape Quarter in the morning to get something for breakfast. The B&B brings over muffins and yogurt, but it gets pretty boring. Figured I could use something else. I remembered going to Origin (by the way they have this affinity toward naming commercial establishments with single word names: Origin, Knead, Peace, etc.) to see if they had chai lattes. Sitting in Origin you could close your eyes and you would be in downtown Seattle or in Oakland (yuppie part) or anywhere in an upscale neighborhood. It’s a great space with both large communal wood tables and small private ones. Also a small outdoor area. I settled in and ordered my chai latte and a BAGEL!! They actually make the bagels there. They’re a little different but pretty much a bagel complete with lox and cream cheese.

After my gourmet breakfast, I strolled Cape Quarter a bit. There are some good craft stores and I wanted to check them out before settling in to get much needed project work done for FTA and to try to polish my presentation for Thursday at the University of Cape Town. I had been to some of these craft stores last year and when I attempted a re-visit found that several were now closed. Apparently some developer is building 5 stories of expensive residential atop the shopping and all of the shopkeepers have to vacate. I did talk with two of them – an older white shopkeeper and his “coloured” partner (whose father it turned out grew up in Philippi – Cape Town is actually very small in some ways, despite its population size). They said that they will be relocating across the street, but are concerned about the viability. Then, because the day was so beautiful and I didn’t want to be cooped up ALL day working, I decided to take a long walk through downtown … down Long Street and up to Bree and way down Bree Street… This area has been totally transformed with cafes, galleries, outdoor restaurants, little boutiques.. It’s truly another Cape Town which was fascinating.

I stopped for a great salad at a bakery (where I ordered the cake for the surprise birthday party tonight for one of the students), went into a few craft shops where I picked up a few things.. and then meandered back to the house to settle in to work.. which I did!  Later that night, we met up with the same two friends we had seen last week – this time for a Portuguese tapas dinner – of course starting with pisco sours. Had some wonderful ceviche, little tacos, corn on the cob, chili edamame, etc.  And, it goes without saying, that the wines are spectacular and that dinners – even at the very best places – are, based on our exchange rate, extremely inexpensive. Dinner for two at a really nice restaurant – two cocktails, two appetizers, two main courses, nice bottle of wine, one dessert… is about $60…  (two people at $30 each, including tip).

Signing off,… more tomorrow.

Fern

Molweni –

OK… so to get you up to the current —

On Tuesday students went to their assigned sites at NGOs and the school. We started the day with everyone going to one of the local Philippi high schools (the one where three students are assigned and whose principal had conducted the tour of Philippi for the students the day before). Sinethemba HS is a large township school with 1,400 Black students. The two-story building (no ADA) is designed with a set of “courtyards” with each of the physical structures parallel to the other (frankly quite prison-like). The very long buildings have outside corridors for students to move between classes (and to hang out on when they don’t go to the assigned classes).  The “courtyards” are all paved. There is a garden alongside the building that some parents are using to grow foods for the school, but it’s not overly attended and unsure how much of a yield they get.   

The original idea was to get to Sinethemba at 8 am when school begins and for all of our students to see the all-school assembly which we are told has a lot of singing and dancing and foot stomping.. We got there in time, but then were escorted to a faculty meeting where we were told that the assembly wouldn’t take place because the school was now in mourning as one of the 8^th graders (high school is 8-12) was murdered the night before. She was brutally stabbed by her “boyfriend” who apparently broke into her family’s shack because he was angry (he wanted to go somewhere with her but she told him she wanted to study – or at least that’s the story we were told). It’s not very difficult to break into the shacks. Anyway, no assembly and teachers were busy preparing for a memorial and raising money to help her family. Not too upbeat for our starting point. There also had been an attempted suicide that weekend. Life is not pretty here.

We left the three students who are assigned to the high school, but not until we did a tour of the school and stopped in several classes (average class size – 50 students), including a math class where they asked one of the students to show how she’d solve the problem given to the students. Fortunately, she’s a math major and she whizzed right through it and walked students through it. Whew!!! Then we headed to the other programs with Chris taking one team to Nali’bali and me taking two different groups to their sites.

Nali’bali works with child development centers – assessing and supporting teachers to encourage reading and also runs several “reading circles” for a wide range of people. The woman we are working with, Thabisa, is a doll. She is devoted, grew up in Philippi with her grandmother, and still lives in Philippi (I’m assuming in one of the more permanent structures which are also part of the township – not everything is shacks.) In the mornings she goes to child development centers all over Philippi for about 2 hours and in the afternoons she does the reading clubs. Students go wherever she goes. There are about 35 four- and five-year-olds in one class with just one teacher. There aren’t any lights in the classrooms (they have the fixtures for fluorescent lights on the ceiling, but no bulbs – probably stolen or just no access).

The room where the 35 students sit is about 12’ x 12’ at most. The kids are the most well-behaved four year olds I’ve ever seen. When I visited this morning, the students stood in unison to say “Welcome Teacher”… They then sat perfectly still and silent as I talked with the real teacher. And then when I said I’d stay for a short time the kids started an unbelievable repertoire of songs… some in English and some in IsiXhosa. They went on, song after song.. The teacher never told them what to sing. I think the way it worked was that one child stood up and selected a song and they all sang it.. and as soon as that was done, another student stood up and shouted out a title and so on… It was riveting.. all in this little tiny room in a small building (2 rooms) without any landscaping, with outhouses in the rear and a “play area” that we would quickly deem as unsafe.  I left two of our students there (today was their second visit).

CESVI is directly across from the Philippi Village. It’s a multi service NGO that deals with domestic violence (which is prevalent), HIV (still a big problem), after-school teen programs (including having a sound studio – except that they don’t know how to use it – installed by French students who were able to make it work, but apparently didn’t leave any guidebooks or train anyone), and they team up with the clinic next door to do AIDs testing. They also have a place on the premises called “House of Smiles” which is an abused women’s shelter (with about 20 rooms, kitchen , bath, small outdoor yard and vegetable garden, bathrooms. And they manage a recycling center which the women in the shelter work at (to gain skills?)

SAEP is a fairly large, multi-service NGO founded by an American attorney who is now retired and lives in Cape Town. They have four or five programs, but all focus on education. Programs range from early childhood education through to college support. All of their programs are focused in Philippi.

So, it’s an interesting array complete with the usual range of challenges. Some appear more ready to absorb our students than others, but everyone is hanging in.

There’s so much to explain and so difficult to do that in this email… so I think I’ll just get you caught up on my activities through today, including food… and then I should be able to find time to do the more usual daily reports.

I think I forgot to mention that on Saturday night, Chris and I met up with friends of his from when he lived here and ones I had met last year. After visiting their new digs, we went to a restaurant called Stack (in the Gardens district) which was quite upscale – located in a totally renovated house/hotel (that had burned down some time ago and just recently re-opened after a big renovation of the renovation). It’s a brasserie with a private club upstairs. Sunday was the Greek restaurant (in Sea Point neighborhood), Monday an amazing 8-course Indian meal at Thali ( in the Kloof neighborhood)  – we sort of rolled out given the amount of food but each and every course was fantastic. Tuesday we took the one doctoral student to a Portuguese grill.

In case you’re wondering… we drop the students off at the hostel around 5:30 and they are on their own for dinner, except for about 6 all-group meals that we have pre-scheduled.

On Wednesday, we took the entire group to Robben Island to see where Mandela was imprisoned for 18 of his 25 years of incarceration. It’s a sobering experience to see how isolated the island was and how prisoners who were not allowed to communicate and not allowed to speak their own language managed to work together an lead a movement. The ferry ride was choppy as it was cold and windy. Some students had more trouble with this than with walking in townships! The ferry departs and arrives at the waterfront (Victoria and Albert – or V&A). There is an exhibit about Robben Island as you wind your way through the line onto the ferry. After returning to the waterfront from the Robben Island tour (which by the way is led by former prisoners at the Island), the students wandered through the very upscale and very touristy waterfront — to get their “mall-fix.” There is one part that has an ethnic food court, of sorts.. fantastic food and could have been ripped out of Rockridge (Oakland for those not in the Bay Area). There is also one building devoted to local crafts so the students had a good time considering presents and other purchases..

After the students returned to 91 Loop, we did a “touch base” to see how students felt they were doing. Some of it was heavy; students really want to make an impact and the issues here are very complex and also very large. They also talked a lot about feeling very privileged, about sensing that when they are at the high school South African students see them (the Americans) as movie stars! It was good to have a chance to discuss things with the full group. Wednesday night, Chris and I went to a great Turkish restaurant a few blocks from our place called Anatoly’s. Really good Turkish/Middle Eastern food; the owner opened the restaurant about a dozen years ago; he’s from Ankara. Planning to do a cookbook by end of the year.

On Thursday, Chris drove the students who are working at the high school (since they have to be at their location much earlier than the others). I went on the van with those headed to Nalibali and CESVI. We put the ones going to SAEP in a taxi to the SAEP offices and from there they would be driven by one of their staff. Complicated all around… and gets more complicated with each day. No one here gives much in the way of directions and many of the sites in the townships are difficult to find – streets not labeled, numbers obscured. So getting to the early childhood center (ECD) was hard. She said it was right near a particular high school, which we could find on GPS. (Our driver is not very familiar with the townships and frankly I think he doesn’t get why we are not just going to nice tourist locations.) So then we spotted what looked like a child care center (?) and I jumped out to investigate. It was a center, but not the right one. The woman gave instructions as it was just around the corner. We got the students there and I went in to check that Thabisa (the teacher who is running the reading program) was there. She was not in yet, so I waited with the students…

Thursday, yesterday, it rained all day. It’s been grey and miserable for several days. Cape Town is in the midst of a serious drought so people are fairly happy about rain. But then it really poured… and poured. We met two of the groups at the Philippi library at 4:00 and then waited as the Nalibali people (who had relocated to the library for Thabisa’s afternoon activities: having 5^th graders record their stories on tape, which the UW students assisted with. Once they were done (and the rain was now serious) we headed to meet the other group who had been driven to SAEP’s office (confused?).. We then set out for the hostel.. and then Chris and I walked in the pouring rain to our place before heading to dinner. We thought we could brave the rain (even though our jackets were soaked) to walk to dinner close by… but after getting even more soaked we decided to get the car and drive somewhere – we ended up at an Italian restaurant on the water… where we ate and dried off.

Today, Friday, the whole group went to a conference sponsored by an academic organization called something like the English Academy. The theme of the conference had to do with language and colonization. It had been going on for the past two days. This was the final set of sessions. Students split up… I went to the session about theater as a means to decolonize language. The young woman (University of Cape Town alum from about two years ago) who spoke was amazing as she talked about the play she had written which had to do with the “Fees Must Fall” movement going on across the country —- students demanding free tuition for universities. Turns out the play is opening on Tuesday night so we are getting tickets for everyone and headed there on Tuesday… yet another change to the schedule. After the conference most of us walked back to the waterfront (some gift shopping) and then walked to the hostel (about 2.5 miles).

Tonight we took all of the students to a Muslim restaurant at the very very top of the BoKaap hill. The views were spectacular and food was good…It’s a very low key place with a simple buffet. Students gorged on the meal and seemed quite content. .We drove them back and heard rumor they were then headed to some special milk shake place they had discovered. While the university sort of expects the program to keep the students together as a group at all times and to be eating with them, we think this level of independence has already proven to be a strong model. They are on their own at their sites, and except for the group meals we’ve organized and the field trips they are on their own (actually in little mini groups) for the remainder of the time each day. It’s best here because moving about in a group of 12 or 14 would be totally embarrassing and difficult.

OK… that’s it for me I’m sort of caught up (at least chronologically).. and now I can start anew tomorrow with my escapades each day. This is a “free” weekend for students and they are all doing different things. Two flew to Johannesburg; some will climb Table Mountain; some will do more shopping; some are planning a hike; some are going to museums – etc. etc. I will be holed up trying to get my presentation together for my lecture at University of Cape Town… I’m really not prepared — yet. It’s on Thursday.. so I have a few days, but they are so packed. I also have to catch up on projects at FTA, so I will be pretty busy. Chris is going to see a friend who is a Congolese minister and he will attend church services. I would have liked to go, but I can’t keep pushing off all the other work.

More tomorrow.. without doing this report daily, I’m already forgetting so many details.

All my best –

Fern

Molweni – Ninjani..

Hopefully this note will get things caught up…

Following the trip to Franshhoek, we took the grad students out to dinner to a simple Greek restaurant (you can get any type of food you want in Cape Town). I think it was called Acropolis. Thought it would be good to touch base with the grad students to be sure they didn’t feel marginalized by all the attention the undergrads needed. Seems like it is all good. They are a great bunch – smart, mature, independent, and eager.

The program officially started on Monday (your Labor Day). We took the entire group (we have a van and driver and also a car). I’m not eager to drive in Cape Town although I did it many years ago. Traffic is horrendous, makes NYC look calm and collected. But that doesn’t really bother me – it’s dealing with all of that while driving on the “wrong” side of the road) to an NGO called Amandla Development – in Philippi — who had agreed to give the students an introduction to townships and Philippi specifically. Chris and I had met the founder and director previously. He’s an American of Jamaican descent – a Yalie – who has been in South Africa for about 12 years. Following his introduction (more on content in a minute), we got a tour of the township led by the principal of the high school that some of the students will be working at.

I’m now sitting in a café called Knead, in Muizenberg. Students are all at their sites and settled for about three hours, which gives me time – finally – to catch up on this blog and also to work on my presentation for the University next week.

So – a little about Philippi, a little about townships in general, a bit about the sites the students are at, a bit about the weather (miserable), and naturally a bit about food.

We are all staying in the downtown area of Cape Town – students in a hostel called 91 Loop, probably upscale by hostel standards. Chris and I are a few blocks away in a little house in the BoKaap – which used to be called the Malay District when I was here about 14 years ago. It’s an area that is being gentrified rapidly (with many houses being turned into B&Bs) while retaining the historic bright colors that embellish every house. The area has many restaurants, cafes, and bars – of every type and price range. It’s possible to walk to the waterfront and to other parts of town, although we’ve cautioned students to be in pairs and to be ever-so-cautious, especially when it’s dark. So far so good.

 For those less familiar with townships: they are residential developments that during Apartheid confined all non-whites (Blacks and “Coloureds” and Indians) living near white-only communities. “Near” could mean 20 miles away. Beyond this, there are legal implications related to official ownership, etc. While apartheid has officially now been over for 22 years, the townships continue – no longer with police restricting access in and out, but in reality – as tens of thousands of shacks made of corrugated metal, wood, or other found materials. Shacks are about 80 sq. ft. I’d say… and a family of four generally lives in one. No running water, electricity – if you are connected – is purchased as you need it. No toilets; there are out-house type facilities that are shared by about 10 or 20 families for each.

The shacks butt up one against the other along a street and often back to back with little room to maneuver. On many streets there is commerce – indeed on practically every street someone has a little shack that sells something (staples, tires, etc.) or performs services (barbering, beauty salon, copying, etc.), but some streets are clearly all commercial. There are townships as large as a million people and others with a few hundred thousand. The scale of the townships and the number of them is staggering. Since my first trip here, it seems that they have grown not shrunk. But that’s not to say that there isn’t any move toward building more permanent structures, although the movement is both minuscule and caught up in corruption and it’s unclear what, if any, actual plan exists to be able to make such a massive shift. For those of you interested there is something called the Mellon Initiative that has built some number of decent houses in some townships (mostly in or near Langa). From what I’ve heard this initiative was started and funded by an Irish zillionaire. Not certain what his connection to South Africa is… but apparently he not only funded, but brought workers for a month to build these houses according to the plans. They are small, brightly painted, and certainly stand out from the shacks – but not certain at all as to how selection is handled as to who gets these rather special structures. There are a few other programs like a semi-self-help.. but all of these efforts barely touch the tip of the iceberg

Philippi: about 200,000 residents – many many kids…  Philippi is also home to a new development (I’m told about $12 million from a wealthy foreigner (American?) called Philippi Village (which–based on who you talk to—is either the collection of shipping containers that have been turned into tiny shops and restaurants or the very defunct cement factory that has been re-purposed, in part, into a library and a collection of spaces for NGOs. And some say it is all of that. For those who have seen the use of shipping containers in NYC, London, LA…. Not sure who copied who..!! It’s also very unclear who is really benefiting from this development

Weather: it’s been unseasonably cold … we had one beautiful day that was actually warm, several overcast days, and today rain. Fortunately we also had a nice day yesterday when we took the boat to Robben Island to visit the prison and see Mandela’s cell.

OK… next section (Part Four) will cover the programs and food.. and miscellaneous tidbits of sitings and observation.

All my best –

Fern