July 18, 2009

My development plan is becoming more difficult with every passing week. It is also sometimes discouraging when I cannot observe much progress. I am getting a lot of feedback from my coworkers. One really great piece of advice was that the goal shouldn’t be to change myself but to change the way I am perceived by other people. Another great piece of advice was that I should pick and choose my battles more carefully. I never thought it would be this difficult to change my personal habits. They have been so ingrained into my behavior and the person I have become, it seems impossible to shake. I also realized that I left an important element out of my plan. I knew that Sarah and Liese would play an important role in my progress but I totally forgot to explain to them my goals. Bus my coworkers suggested that it is good that I didn’t tell them in the outset because now they have had time to observe my tendencies and now they can better observe whether I have made progress. I also had an advisor at work that was supposed to be helping me with my development plan but she left this week for 3 weeks. This is not helpful but I will work it out. I now have temporary advisor but I don’t think it will be productive to explain my development plan to my temporary advisor as she will not be working in the office very often and will be helping at a distance(email, phone, etc).I have been working on my email etiquette. I sometimes feel dumb when I am writing to one of my friends or my family using “Hello Mom” and “Best, Brittni.” I figured I would use it for everyone so I would get in the habit.

Work this week was really busy. I have been continuing my interviews. The most tedious part about interviewing is recording the information into an organized document afterwards. I have not been doing a good job of this. My advisor also decided that I should add more crèches onto my research. This may affect whether I can finish the project. I have faith I will get it done though. Wednesday was the dirtiest I got with the kids. I felt like a walking germ. Kids coughing in my face, the neighborhood dog jumping all over me, helping to build a roof on a house. It was truly a long day and then I went to see Harry Potter after my long day of work, not haven taken a shower…. One little kid was licking my co-worker, Adanna on her neck as she held him in her arms. Adanna and I both went to Sackinghomso that day. It was a somewhat frustrating day because the principal was putting off the meeting she had arranged with her. I felt so gross but I am still alive so I guess it wasn’t so bad.

Sarah and I went sightseeing downtown today. We visited the Castle of Good Hope which is the oldest building in Cape Town and currently acts as military post. We went into the dungeons of the military post and got to go into the artillery and torture rooms. It was pretty cool. We also visited District Six Museum. This museum was made in commemoration of the families that were forcibly moved out of their homes in the 1960’s because the government decided to declare their neighborhood, District Six, a white’s only neighborhood. Over 60,000 families were removed and all of their homes were bulldozed. This displacement greatly contributed to the development of the Townships/Cape Flats. When President Mbeki was in office he was able to reverse the discriminatory laws that displaced thousands of people and today homes are continually being returned to their rightful owners. The people that do not want to return are given about 17000 rand (a little over $1700) as compensation. This obviously does not make up for their loss and some families are still struggling to get their homes back because of the broken judicial system. After this museum we went to the Slave Lodge, which was my favorite. The Slave Lodge explained the complete history of how the VOC or the Dutch East India Trading Company developed the system of slavery. Interestingly, the African people in the areas of Cape Town were not the original people enslaved by the VOC, they actually imported slaved from Madagascar and Mozambique first. The African people in Cape Town were originally the colonialist’s business partners but eventually they were enslaved too. Slaves were often given names from the Bible which was often also done to pets as well. There was also a section of the museum that focused on Steve Biko that emphasized the parallels between American leaders and movements. Most notable was the Malcolm X as having overlapping strategies for empowering their followers.

After our museum quest I went to a braai for one of my coworker’s birthday and then late met my roommates on Long Street where I learned how to belly dance. I was really awful. It ended up being and early night because Sarah was feeling sick and my feet were hurting from trying to dress too cute.