Woodstock

For awhile now the majority of the Gordon group has felt unsafe and frustrated in the neighborhood we live. We live in Woodstock, which is a rough area of Cape Town. Once the sun goes down we dare not walk past our building. If we arrive home late at night, we rush to get inside. This situation has put a big limit on our mobility in the evenings. So much so we find ourselves at home most nights.

Last week we finally had enough and decided some things needed to change. We started talking to Gordon in hopes of providing more security for us at night. The conversation reached a climax Tuesday night when Gordon told us we were relocating for the rest of the semester. The 9 of us (students) protested loudly! Simply by leaving Woodstock we were not going to escape the problem at hand. If we moved several neighborhoods over, it does not change the fact that South Africa is still a dangerous place.

The security issue has drained our emotions to say the least. We hope to soon have a solution for our next 10 weeks in South Africa.

(The building with the two peaks is ours)

My running shoes

The other night two Gordon girls, Katya and Mary Jane, and I went to a dinner party. We were invited by another international student to the home of a young, white South African named Jacques. The people at the party were kind and welcoming, but the conversation that weighs on me was with Eric. Eric is a black Zulu man who works for Jacques full time.

At one point in the night I made my way back to Eric as he was doing the dishes. Our conversation was the first time I’ve heard a black man tell me the oppression of his skin, in so many words. He spoke of his desire to be white, but knowing he was born black. He told me of his hope to marry a white woman. For if he married a white woman, his children would have a better future being colored. Then he told me about his running. When Eric runs, he concentrates on his future. He runs for his tomorrow. I believe Eric was saying he has to look forward otherwise he would have nothing.

Eric’s words give me an entirely new perspective on my own running. I never knew of the privilege of being able to run for the present. When I run I enjoy contemplating all of life that lies right around me. But that is because my today is full of opportunity. I have the freedom to run in the present, where Eric showed me he does not.

My dad in Cape Town!

Last week my dad came to visit me for a few days. He was in Zambia and Rwanda for work, and then he made the extra journey to come and see me! It was a quick visit but very good. We spend our time together climbing Table Mountain and walking Kirstenbosch Gardens (the picture is of us in the Gardens).

He came just in time to give me the encouragement that I needed. After Easter Holiday I was very ready to come home and not looking forward to 3 more months in South Africa. It was such a blessing to be loved in person and to be reminded to embrace the 3 months that lay ahead.

Easter Holiday: South African Cousins

While my Grandma Knibbe immigrated to the States from the Netherlands, her brother immigrated to South Africa around 1950. Fast forward to today, I was able to have dinner with my cousins in Johannesburg last week.

I met with three cousins and their families. They were incredibly welcoming and curious about their American relatives. They asked me about why I came to South Africa and how my experience has been here. In return, I was able to ask them about their story as South Africans. They were able to tell me about their blind trust for the Dutch Reformed Church and for the state during the apartheid years. Where today their own children ask them how they could have been so ignorant. It was easy to listen to their story, because it was not defensive but simply told accounting to what they experienced to be true.

I’m incredible thankful I was able to spend an evening with them. Not only for the time with family, but also to see South Africa in the homes of South Africans.

Easter Holiday: Pretoria

Pretoria is the capitol city of South Africa and only 45 minutes north of Johannesburg. During our day in Pretoria, we started at the Voortrekker Monument and ended at Freedom Park. The two sites sit on separate hills in view of each other.

The Voortrekker Monument was built in remembrance of the Afrikaners (the Dutch settlers) who trekked across South Africa and fought the Zulu people. In our program director’s words, “The Voortrekker Monument would be the equivalent of Klu Klux Klan headquarters for black and colored South Africans.” To understand the statement, one needs to understand apartheid was built by the Afrikaner people. As well as the monument was built just before the structured era of apartheid.
This sharp structure scared me more in the context of my own, personal history, than in South African context. The Afrikaners are Dutch and Reformed, two aspects of my own identify. As I listened to our tour guide explain the story of the Afrikaners, I could easily understand their ideologies.
The particular image that caught me off guard is the yearly reenactment of their trek across South Africa. Every December, Afrikaners dress up in the period clothes of the trekkers with horse and buggy. Initially I chuckled at these images, until I recalled Holland, Michigan in May. Every May, Hollanders dress up in traditional Dutch costume to wash the streets, parade down main road, and dance in city center. I fight this parallel frightening. The image as well as the ideologies of the Afrikaners makes me question my own identity. I wonder if my own pride in my Dutch Reformed heritage is more oppressive than nourishing.

Freedom Park stands in juxtaposition to the Voortrekker monument. It is built to not only remember the past, but also to think about the present and future of South Africa. It is a beautiful place with great thought put into every detail in order to be inclusive of all the people of South Africa.

(Look closely at the second picture and you’ll see Voortrekker Monument in the distance)

Easter Holiday: Johannesburg

Johannesburg was a time of being presented with heavy issues, the main one being the system of apartheid.

The Apartheid Museum communicates the story extremely well. I found this especially true because the aesthetics of the museum are excellent. The details that stay with me are the images by the photographer Ernest Cole and the writings by Stephen Bantu Biko. Cole’s photos greatly tell the cruelty of the system. While Biko’s words, “The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed," show me how deep-rooted oppression was and still is in our world.

Easter Holiday: Safari

After Durban we drove north to Hluhluwe Game Reserve to go on safari. The drive up to the game reserve alone was beautiful, but the reserve itself was stunning. I think we all had to pinch ourselves just to make sure we were living in reality!

During our two day stay at Hluhluwe we saw warthogs, white rhinos, giraffes, zebras, impalas, elephants, and a lion. Finding a lion was the most rewarding animal to find. After two game drives, we took our own vehicle for another 7 hours just to find it. My roommate, Hailey, spotted our lioness sleeping low under a tree (Hailey is now officially the champion of iSpy). Also we got up, close and personal with zebras and giraffes multiple times. At the end of the day, safari is amazing!