Thursday, June 18, 2009

Travel

The trip to South Africa was a long one, probably the longest journey I have ever made overseas. I started in San Francisco, then to Atlanta, Dakar, and then Cape Town. The first day of travel I gave up my seat on my original flight that was supposed to connect in Atlanta in exchange for a free night in the Hyatt, free breakfast, 2 airport meal vouchers, and free ticket on Delta!!!!! However, I didn’t use my free night in Hyatt and stayed the night with about 15 other US soldiers and military families on the floor and the couches of the USO. This reminded me why I love the military and all the support I have been given throughout my life. They fed us, provided pillows and blankets, and even gave me a personal tap on shoulder for a wake up call at 4:30AM for my 6AM flight the next morning. It was overall a very easy 20 hour trip. However, I did experience some temporary but excruciating side-effects from the shots I was given. Other than this slight uncomfortable situation and the less than edible food on the aircraft everything was great. I sat next to a college student named, Colin, from the University of Oregon. He is in the graduate school for sustainable business. He is spending 2 months in Madagascar in a tent in a region currently undergoing mass civil unrest due to recent elections. For both me and Colin, this would be the first time that we would step foot on the continent of Africa. A couple of things I noticed on the flight to Cape Town, was first, the different accents and languages being used but secondly and the most interesting was when we stopped in Dakar. All the Africans on the plane got off in Dakar. The only black person left on the plane was me. I thought this suggested a lot of the current racial dynamics of Cape Town as well as the implications of a lingering colonial identity.

Arrival

My first two days in Cape Town, South Africa have been full of surprise and excitement. My first site of South Africa was of beautiful grasslands and mountains for miles. I was welcomed on a Thursday evening to my new home for the next two months with pumpkin soup that my landlord made for me. Her name is Janine and she is a white female from Zimbabwe. I emphasize her ethnicity because it plays an important role in understanding her comments and beliefs on South Africa. She has never been to the US. She says Zimbabwe’s economic system has totally collapsed and turmoil plagues the country. I told her I did not understand why people still wanted to live and visit places in such a state of instability. She responded by explaining that her mother refuses to be moved by these circumstances because Zimbabwe is her way of life and the only thing she knows. I guess I will never be able to understand this rationale as my family only knows of how to make a home by adjusting to new people, atmospheres, and cultures. Janine and I sat for over three hours discussing everything from politics to entertainments over our bowl of pumpkin soup. It was a really great conversation and confirmation of the knowledge I have acquired on South Africa over the past six months of studies.

Some of the most interesting things she shared with me are the following: She asked me if I thought there was corruption in the American government to the same extent of the South African government. I thought the question was kind of funny because we definately have corruption. I thought to myself, did she miss the last 8 years of the Bush administration. Then she proceeded to share some facts that I was somewhat familiar with but still was caught with some surprise. The recently elected president, Jacob Zuma, she shared that she truly disdains as a leader. He is the man that claimed to the people of South Africa, that after he knowingly exposed himself, unprotected to a colleague with HIV that he took a shower afterwards that shed the virus from him. Janine believes that if leaders, like Zuma, who have such a large following would stand up and say to the people that unprotected sex is causing this HIV/AIDS endemic to encourage the use of contraceptives, he could truly impede the spread of the virus. She explains that , Zuma is part of the Zulu tribe, which is traditionally known as the most aggressive and “manly,” and therefore Zuma in that regard does not believe real men use condoms. Currently, he continues to claim to the public that he has tested negative for the virus. Janine continued to explain the truly broken leadership that is running the country of South Africa. The last President Thabo Mbeki had a health minister that told the people that vegetables would prevent the contraction of HIV. Janine said that there are men affected with HIV/AIDS that truly believe that if they rape young virgins they can also rid themselves of the virus. I asked her why people like herself who didn’t agree with these statements and government stances on HIV/AIDS didn’t stand up against it. She responded with simple answer, people were just too embarrassed to deal with it.

Janine also later shared that she had a maid that was affected both by AIDS and Tuberculosis. She offered to help her with medical expenses but she refused. Her maid did not want to tell her family because the discussion of HIV/AIDS continues to be taboo subject and is rarely openly spoken about. Her maid eventually died because the TB accelerated the affects of the AIDS virus. It is ironic that with the widespread degree of the virus in Africa that the people are still silent. Is it that they do not care? Do they not understand the outcome of the disease? How long will the people take to understand that silence is not the solution?