November 5th

 I want run around Cape Town wearing a t-shirt with an American flag on it or big "USA" print. It's a different feeling being abroad and feeling proud to be an American. Due to seven hour time difference from the east coast, I had to stay up most of the night to watch the results. Every minute was worth it. I am so proud to be an American.  

I have fallen terribly behind in my updates and comments. I was in Durban for a week. I visited a game reserve/national park. I stayed with a Afrikaner family in Stellenbosch for week. And now I am staying in the final homestay in a muslim and coloured neighborhood of Cape Town. The Bo Kaap, as this area is calledis, like all the other communities we've visited, completely unique and vastly different from any of the others. 

There is so much to tell about all of the above-mentioned areas so I will start from the beginning. 

I did not like Durban. Maybe wench manager of the hostel had something to do with it or my already established Cape Town preference, I don't know. I found the city to be at the same time overwhelming and boring. It is so different form Cape Town specifically because the two major groups are not represented in CT at all. Zulus and Indians are the major ethnic classifications and we studied in particular Indian identity and how  notions of indianness and south africanness are transpiring. We visited a hindu temple, the largest mosque in the southern hemisphere, talked with university students about identity, traveled around Chatsworth, a big Indian township, went out in all white neighborhoods and repeatedly ate the spiciest food I've ever had. 

Then I went north to Umfolozi national park where we lounged around and went on a morning safari. We saw hippos, crocodiles, eagles, impalas, inyalas (kind of like an elk), wildebeests, water buffalo, rhinos, giraffes, zebras and some others. it was great. 

Onto Stellenbosch... I think this portion of the trip was one of the most interesting intellectually. Through lectures and less formal discussions with professors from Stellenbosch University and community members we talked about guilt, memory, history, responsibly, morality and language. It was fascinating and eye opening. my view on this community (Afrikaners as a whole), who are almost exclusively blamed for the horrors and evils of aparthied are far from formed but talking about these issues made the situation all the more complex. they are not some enormous homogeneous guilty party but many of them are not sorry and that makes it hard to see them differently.  Michael ( a fellow SIT student) and I stayed with an extraordinary family who graciously welcomed us into their home, their lives and every part of that experience was terrific. I could not have hoped for a more welcoming and generous and funny family. We partied in the town with university students, we hiked the surrounding mountains (which are enormous--I had no idea there would be mountains like that here), went to a very different church where I saw people being "saved" for the first time, tasted great wines, drank lots of terrible wine, and generally enjoyed our time with the family very much. 

Now that I am back in Cape Town, staying with the Booley family in the Bo Kaap, I feel at home in the city once again. I am beginning to navigate it more easily, getting to know where good restaurants and shops are, where neat neighborhoods are located and parts of the city that are not so cool as well. This is one of the coolest, most interesting urban areas I have ever seen. Largely the decedents of slaves from malaysia and indonesia and east africa, the resident here are mostly muslim and maybe fifteen mosques are around this compact neighborhood. the old cobble stone streets and distinctive brightly painted homes gives this place a unique feel. 

I am moving into a flat in a nice residential neighborhood on friday and excited for some independence and to begin/further my research project.