This morning was the first morning in which I got to sleep in! I woke up at 9:45 and it was wonderful! And even better was the fact that I was finally able to take a hot shower! It was a great morning! At noon we were picked up by a driver and we went on a Calabash tour of the city of Port Elizabeth. Our first fun fact that we learned was that there are 1.4 million people living in PE. We started in Central and we went up to Fort Fredrick, the oldest building in PE which was built to protect the port from the French, however not a single shot was ever fired from the fort. Nelson, our driver took us through the city and pointed out where the mall was, so now we know where Green Acres is and how to get there (via taxi or bus!) We then were taken into the Townships to see where 500,000 of the people in PE live. I had an image in my mind of the Townships, and I knew the conditions that people were living in, but I didn’t realize how many there were and how close the different Townships were to each other. It blew my mind standing on this overlook with the valley filled with tiny shacks and tin houses. It was interesting having the tour from a Xhosa man’s point of view who lived in the Townships. Nelson told us that many people prefer to live in the Townships because that is where their people are and they feel connected with their community. He said that it is not uncommon to find a BMW pulling up to a house in the townships. Not all of the townships are the ruined shanties, the government has gone in to rebuild areas and rebuilt nicer homes in some of the areas that we visited. What I found the most amazing was that Nelson was telling us that in the areas that they were rebuilding people were chosen to inhabit the new homes, while others were left behind until more places could be built, and rather than being bitter and jealous of those who were selected for the newer houses, the people left behind named the new Townships “Our Hope” It made be stop and think about how if that happened back at home, I don’t think that people would have the same reaction if they were passed over and they weren’t getting the bigger and better things in life. The Xhosa’s reaction truly embodied the sense of community that they cherish so much here. Another amazing thing about the community is how everyone comes together for funerals, and we drove past many funeral processions. Nelson told us that they have to specify days in which funerals can be held, because otherwise the streets would always be crammed and traffic would be so slow from the continuous processions. The only way to describe how large the cemeteries are is to compare it to driving down County Road 2 when we would see rows upon rows of corn, they see rows of headstones. They are large, vast, free of trees, and dotted with tombstone after tombstone. The cemeteries are not nearly as nice as ours are with nicely kept green grass and where we have flat even ground, they have mounds and overgrown weeds. And seeing the amounts of people attending the burials was as large as a crowd at a hometown football game. It is so difficult to wrap your mind around the idea that your weekend activities consist of attending funeral after funeral. We actually got out of the van in one of the Townships and we went to a small craft sale and looked around. As soon as we started walking down the paths with our cameras out, the kids all appeared and followed us, tugging on our arms and shirts to have their picture taken! They would pose, and everywhere you turned little ones were pulling each other into groups to have their pictures taken and they immediately grab your hands to show them the picture! Everyone here gives the thumbs up sign, the kids, people on the streets, and others we pass all do it to us as we go by. Also, on our tour we were stopped and Nelson was talking to us about containers (or cell phone booths that can be used and paid for per minute) two younger guys were standing outside of the van and they opened the door and asked us to take their picture. They shook people’s hands and said that they were so happy to have us in their country and they had never met or shook the hand of a person from the United States. They just wanted to talk and finally the driver told them that we had to continue on! During the tour we stopped at a bar/place to eat and we were treated with roasted bread and jam, which is a staple food that is generally made by the Xhosa mothers. After a little over three hours, the tour was over and we were back at Langerry. A group of us swapped cameras and memory cards and started putting them on the computers. Then some of us walked to the Boardwalk and Pick ‘n Pay. On the walk we saw a bunch of windsurfers dotting the beach and combing the shoreline. That would definitely be something that I would want to try! It looks like fun! Alex and I went to the Boardwalk to search for a watch for me to wear for clinicals, but the only ones I found were at Billabong for R500 ($71.00) and I was not willing to pay that much for a watch! I want a cheapie for like R70-100! We bought fifteen minutes at the internet café (seeing that the internet is still down here, and I continue to just type my blogs in Word until it is up and running). We walked back and it was so windy! Now it’s just a little down time and we are going out for Chinese food tonight as a group. Denise says that it is the best Chinese food that she has had down here, so hopefully it will be good! And I think that we are going to go out and see the local bars and hangouts tonight! There is a live band playing nearby so we might go and check that out!
Thursday, August 30, 2007
August 25, 2007: Calabash Tour
This morning was the first morning in which I got to sleep in! I woke up at 9:45 and it was wonderful! And even better was the fact that I was finally able to take a hot shower! It was a great morning! At noon we were picked up by a driver and we went on a Calabash tour of the city of Port Elizabeth. Our first fun fact that we learned was that there are 1.4 million people living in PE. We started in Central and we went up to Fort Fredrick, the oldest building in PE which was built to protect the port from the French, however not a single shot was ever fired from the fort. Nelson, our driver took us through the city and pointed out where the mall was, so now we know where Green Acres is and how to get there (via taxi or bus!) We then were taken into the Townships to see where 500,000 of the people in PE live. I had an image in my mind of the Townships, and I knew the conditions that people were living in, but I didn’t realize how many there were and how close the different Townships were to each other. It blew my mind standing on this overlook with the valley filled with tiny shacks and tin houses. It was interesting having the tour from a Xhosa man’s point of view who lived in the Townships. Nelson told us that many people prefer to live in the Townships because that is where their people are and they feel connected with their community. He said that it is not uncommon to find a BMW pulling up to a house in the townships. Not all of the townships are the ruined shanties, the government has gone in to rebuild areas and rebuilt nicer homes in some of the areas that we visited. What I found the most amazing was that Nelson was telling us that in the areas that they were rebuilding people were chosen to inhabit the new homes, while others were left behind until more places could be built, and rather than being bitter and jealous of those who were selected for the newer houses, the people left behind named the new Townships “Our Hope” It made be stop and think about how if that happened back at home, I don’t think that people would have the same reaction if they were passed over and they weren’t getting the bigger and better things in life. The Xhosa’s reaction truly embodied the sense of community that they cherish so much here. Another amazing thing about the community is how everyone comes together for funerals, and we drove past many funeral processions. Nelson told us that they have to specify days in which funerals can be held, because otherwise the streets would always be crammed and traffic would be so slow from the continuous processions. The only way to describe how large the cemeteries are is to compare it to driving down County Road 2 when we would see rows upon rows of corn, they see rows of headstones. They are large, vast, free of trees, and dotted with tombstone after tombstone. The cemeteries are not nearly as nice as ours are with nicely kept green grass and where we have flat even ground, they have mounds and overgrown weeds. And seeing the amounts of people attending the burials was as large as a crowd at a hometown football game. It is so difficult to wrap your mind around the idea that your weekend activities consist of attending funeral after funeral. We actually got out of the van in one of the Townships and we went to a small craft sale and looked around. As soon as we started walking down the paths with our cameras out, the kids all appeared and followed us, tugging on our arms and shirts to have their picture taken! They would pose, and everywhere you turned little ones were pulling each other into groups to have their pictures taken and they immediately grab your hands to show them the picture! Everyone here gives the thumbs up sign, the kids, people on the streets, and others we pass all do it to us as we go by. Also, on our tour we were stopped and Nelson was talking to us about containers (or cell phone booths that can be used and paid for per minute) two younger guys were standing outside of the van and they opened the door and asked us to take their picture. They shook people’s hands and said that they were so happy to have us in their country and they had never met or shook the hand of a person from the United States. They just wanted to talk and finally the driver told them that we had to continue on! During the tour we stopped at a bar/place to eat and we were treated with roasted bread and jam, which is a staple food that is generally made by the Xhosa mothers. After a little over three hours, the tour was over and we were back at Langerry. A group of us swapped cameras and memory cards and started putting them on the computers. Then some of us walked to the Boardwalk and Pick ‘n Pay. On the walk we saw a bunch of windsurfers dotting the beach and combing the shoreline. That would definitely be something that I would want to try! It looks like fun! Alex and I went to the Boardwalk to search for a watch for me to wear for clinicals, but the only ones I found were at Billabong for R500 ($71.00) and I was not willing to pay that much for a watch! I want a cheapie for like R70-100! We bought fifteen minutes at the internet café (seeing that the internet is still down here, and I continue to just type my blogs in Word until it is up and running). We walked back and it was so windy! Now it’s just a little down time and we are going out for Chinese food tonight as a group. Denise says that it is the best Chinese food that she has had down here, so hopefully it will be good! And I think that we are going to go out and see the local bars and hangouts tonight! There is a live band playing nearby so we might go and check that out!
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