To keep up with the expectations raised by the name of our blog, I’ll write about three real ‘South African experiences’ from the last couple of weeks, all giving very different impressions of life here. Firstly ‘dancing’ in a room full of traditional healers, then learning Afrikaanse songs by young, smart girls in Manenberg and last but not least… enjoying summer on the beach.October 10, 2006
School, beach and sangoma’s
Posted by Janine
To keep up with the expectations raised by the name of our blog, I’ll write about three real ‘South African experiences’ from the last couple of weeks, all giving very different impressions of life here. Firstly ‘dancing’ in a room full of traditional healers, then learning Afrikaanse songs by young, smart girls in Manenberg and last but not least… enjoying summer on the beach.
To keep up with the expectations raised by the name of our blog, I’ll write about three real ‘South African experiences’ from the last couple of weeks, all giving very different impressions of life here. Firstly ‘dancing’ in a room full of traditional healers, then learning Afrikaanse songs by young, smart girls in Manenberg and last but not least… enjoying summer on the beach.Kids in the township
future gangster
Siswe, a guy I know through TAC. He teaches dancing to the kids and is pretty good at it himself.
Kids in Kayalitsha, the biggest township in Cape Town (1 million people)
Comfortable view
These kids (and a lost drunk mother) are dancing "pantsula", one of the hottest dances in the townships. We were invited to this streetparty by Siswe.
October 4, 2006
Making sense of…sharks & vehicles
Posted by Janine
As last week’s post pointed out, life in South Africa can be quite complicated. The result is that I am constantly trying to make sense out of this place. Surely I came across many things which ‘require sense-making’. Let’s start with a simple one on myself.
1. One of the things that made me really excited about coming to Cape Town was the idea that I may be able to get up in the morning, see what the weather’s like, get to the beach with a surfboard and hop in the water. Reality shows that after eight weeks, I didn’t get much further than a chat with the dude from the surf shop. This lack of action may have something to do with the current sea temperature, but there’s an obvious other reason: a guy got his foot bitten of by a shark a few weeks ago.
2. I am spending more time in a car than ever before. I hate cars and miss my bike but I have no other option than reconciliation with the vehicle. Bikes are not done, walking is not fun and public transport hardly exists (although I do take the train to my work sometimes. The price difference between 1st and 2nd class is 30 cents, you are sure to have a seat in first class, while you’re standing up and being squeezed in second. Still I figure that 2nd is much better; if I were a thief, I would definitely go for 1st class. So there I am, squeezed in the 2nd coupe between two big-big-mommas and being stared at by many male eyes as the only white young woman).
But besides the occasional train ride to work and the safe university-shuttle to my classes, I am pretty much dependent on the car. I even own a third part of our car. Owning a car isn’t all that enjoyable though, when you’re not able to drive. I had the brilliant idea of taking driving lessons here -these are ten times cheaper than back home- and then get my ‘learners license’ here. I thought might as well try and get that, so I can freak the hell out of Mikkel who’ll be sitting next to me in great fear, once we’d be traversing South Africa by car. But then it turned out that the drivers licenses have a waiting list till APRIL. So much for my plan…(although I may consider the plan B: bribing the department of traffic)
Now you’re probably wondering what number 2: my driving has to do with number 1: great white sharks. Well, the connection is that they both represent a danger. And particularly in South Africa, these dangers are quite substantial! Before coming here, a girl told me never to get into traffic on the last Friday of the month. People apparently get nuts and spend their wages in bars, where after they drive home. Possibly worse than these “drunk-nuts” are the minibuses transporting people from and to the townships. Taxi drivers are just as bad. So basically whatever your involvement in driving is, you are surely in danger.
There are around 500,000 traffic accidents annually in South Africa at a cost of nearly 10,000 lives, and thousands of injuries. On average one person is killed a year by Great White Sharks, with 3-4 attacks as the annual norm. I do not dare to go surfing but I do want to get driving. What sense does this make!
As last week’s post pointed out, life in South Africa can be quite complicated. The result is that I am constantly trying to make sense out of this place. Surely I came across many things which ‘require sense-making’. Let’s start with a simple one on myself.
1. One of the things that made me really excited about coming to Cape Town was the idea that I may be able to get up in the morning, see what the weather’s like, get to the beach with a surfboard and hop in the water. Reality shows that after eight weeks, I didn’t get much further than a chat with the dude from the surf shop. This lack of action may have something to do with the current sea temperature, but there’s an obvious other reason: a guy got his foot bitten of by a shark a few weeks ago.
2. I am spending more time in a car than ever before. I hate cars and miss my bike but I have no other option than reconciliation with the vehicle. Bikes are not done, walking is not fun and public transport hardly exists (although I do take the train to my work sometimes. The price difference between 1st and 2nd class is 30 cents, you are sure to have a seat in first class, while you’re standing up and being squeezed in second. Still I figure that 2nd is much better; if I were a thief, I would definitely go for 1st class. So there I am, squeezed in the 2nd coupe between two big-big-mommas and being stared at by many male eyes as the only white young woman).
But besides the occasional train ride to work and the safe university-shuttle to my classes, I am pretty much dependent on the car. I even own a third part of our car. Owning a car isn’t all that enjoyable though, when you’re not able to drive. I had the brilliant idea of taking driving lessons here -these are ten times cheaper than back home- and then get my ‘learners license’ here. I thought might as well try and get that, so I can freak the hell out of Mikkel who’ll be sitting next to me in great fear, once we’d be traversing South Africa by car. But then it turned out that the drivers licenses have a waiting list till APRIL. So much for my plan…(although I may consider the plan B: bribing the department of traffic)
Now you’re probably wondering what number 2: my driving has to do with number 1: great white sharks. Well, the connection is that they both represent a danger. And particularly in South Africa, these dangers are quite substantial! Before coming here, a girl told me never to get into traffic on the last Friday of the month. People apparently get nuts and spend their wages in bars, where after they drive home. Possibly worse than these “drunk-nuts” are the minibuses transporting people from and to the townships. Taxi drivers are just as bad. So basically whatever your involvement in driving is, you are surely in danger.
There are around 500,000 traffic accidents annually in South Africa at a cost of nearly 10,000 lives, and thousands of injuries. On average one person is killed a year by Great White Sharks, with 3-4 attacks as the annual norm. I do not dare to go surfing but I do want to get driving. What sense does this make!
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