Research, baboons, ubuntu, and other Cape Town randomness, Oct 2

On Friday I woke up and went running. I am very proud of the fact that I have been waking up before 8 am every day for over two weeks. My favorite part is running through the small park on the way home. There are always lots of squirrels and awkward pheasants running around, and the way the sun shines through the green leaves makes me happy :) I normally just run around the track in the morning, because I am lazy. If I am feeling adventurous I will either run to Rondebosch commons, which is a huge open field with trails and flowers, or I will run along the highway. I have yet to run on any trails, but since my routes are starting to seem a bit stale, I expect that I will soon be branching out.

After I went running I quickly got ready and rushed off to class. I practically had to run up the hill, because I wasn’t as quick as I thought I was. I entered class a few minutes late, sweaty due to the summer weather that we have been having. As much as I enjoy the heat, it is making this walk up the hill a lot harder. In class I watched a documentary screening about women subjected to violence during the Apartheid era, or at least that’s what I figured it was about... I was late, parts of the film were in Afrikaans, and it was filmed in the 1980’s on a low budget. All of these components made if very hard for me to actually decipher what the film as about.

After class I decided to get started on my research for my first paper due this month. For this I had to go to the National Library of South Africa. It is in downtown Cape Town. Unfortunately, I have to write a 3500 word paper on the South African National Tuberculosis Association, so I had to go all the way to the national library to do some intense research. I took the Jammie down to the Hiddingh campus. From there I walked along the government avenue to the National Library. The Government Avenue was gorgeous and was lined with huge green trees. I walked past the Company Gardens and art galleries. I will have to come back here after my research is over and have a summer picnic with tea.

Unfortunately, the National Library was very disappointing. It barely had any of the journals/news articles that I needed. The librarians were not very nice either. I will have to go back on Monday to finish looking through the material there, so hopefully the Friday librarians don’t work on Mondays...

But now it is the weekend, and because the libraries are closed, I don’t have to worry about research! On Friday night we celebrated Jen’s 24^th birthday. Jen is from Norway, and is one of the girls that I connected with on my Botswana trip. Liz, Jen, Ann, two other friends, and I went to a dinner restaurant venue called “Stardust.” I use the word venue because it was a two for one dinner and performance deal. We were served Mediterranean food by waiters that were also performing arts students. In between taking orders and bringing our food they would sing and performs for us. They performed music ranging from the musical Chicago to Buffalo Springfield. It was a lot of fun, and lasted until 1 am. Unfortunately I had to wake up at 5:30 am the next morning…I didn’t know that Stardust would be such a long dinner experience, but nonetheless I am very glad that I went.

On Saturday morning I woke up at 5:30 am. I was invited by my friend Kate to help out with a volunteer project with the Mountain and Ski Club (a club which I am singed up for, but had yet to get involved with). We got up at this ridiculous hour on Saturday to set up a treasure hunt for a group of high school students from neighboring townships. We drove to a forest near Constantia and set up a course for the treasure hunt, using a map of the forest that the students would later follow to gather the clues. While we were setting up the clues we came across a massive troop of baboons. There were at least 30 of them. Baboons travel in large familial groups called “troops.” Baboons are really very strange looking, but I must admit that the baby baboons were pretty cute as they rode along on their parent’s backs. Although the massive amount of monkeys was a bit intimidating, especially since they have been known to attack people for food, we were not too scared because the “baboon watchers” were nearby. The “baboon watchers” are a group of local guys that are paid by the national park to follow the baboons around everyday and make sure that they don’t cause too much trouble or damage. The baboons were fighting which was fun to watch. One baboon also climbed to the top of a huge rock wall and proceeded to climb down the artificial rock wall using the handholds. It was really funny to watch. The same baboon then tried to steal my friend’s jacket, which he had carelessly left on the ground next to the wall. The “baboon watchers” had to intervene at this point, as the baboon started to run off carrying his jacket. Baboon do not senselessly conduct their muggings. They will take anything. After the baboon experience we headed back to our basecamp where we met the high school students.

After a brief introduction we sent the high school students off on the treasure hunt. While they were busy hunting, we walked to the nearby farmer’s market. It was the most magical farmer’s market I have ever been to. The food was AMAZING, as always, and there were so many samples…Imagine Costco, but with gourmet home-cooked foods. I bought a homemade quiche and a brownie…very healthy. I loved it! I will definitely miss the amazing farmer’s markets of South Africa. After the students finished the hunt we had a brai, where we cooked some boerwors and bread on a stick. (you cook the bread just like you would a hotdog over the fire….but instead it is bread dough. delicious.) The baboons returned at this point and tried to steal our boerwors. We threw rocks at them, and they retreated. After eating we lounged around the picnic area in the woods. I was extremely tired at this point, since I only had slept for 4 hours on Friday night. The large amount of food consumed also didn’t help my tired state. We left the forest at 4 pm and travelled through the scenic route of Constantia back to Rondebosch.

Once back home I immediately fell asleep for 2 hours. I woke up to what I thought was Liz knocking on my door. I opened the door only to find a huge dog wanting to come and hang out with me. His name was “Griffin” and he was Hanli’s friends dog. He was huge, and was literally jumping up on my door to try and open it. Because my door is glass, I thought that this probably wasn’t the best idea. Griffin wouldn’t listen to me.

After partially waking up from my two hour nap I went up to the Student Y for the Potjie Indaba, where they were discussing the concept of “ubuntu.” The Potjie Indaba was a traditional style dinner where they made Potjie stew. They were talking about the notion of ubuntu, an African humanistic philosophy about recognizing and celebrating the importance of community and the humanity of those around us. It was an inspiring talk, prompting us to find our identity in Christ, and urging us to share his love with those around us through service and care of our fellow humanity.

And now it is Saturday night and I am planning on going to sleep soon. Tomorrow I will go to Church on Main again. At 4 pm I will be meeting up with Liz, Ann and Jen to have a Jane Austen marathon/dinner cooking party (and no, we are not having Jane Austen themed food). I have been place in charge of making the dessert…brownies? I think yes.