Again, it has been so long since the last time I wrote...this month has been full of amazing activities and I haven't had that much time to sit down and write on my blog. South Africa has been amazingly crazy so far and I'm experiencing a lot. Here are some of the activities that have kept me busy in the last couple of weeks. I joined UCT's branch of TAC - Treatment Action Campaign (www.tac.org.za) - which is an organization that lobbies for equal access to treatment for HIV positive people. It started in 1998 and now it has expanded to the whole country. One of the founders, who is my idol, Zackie Achmat, was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. I think I wrote a bit about them previously but you can always find out more about TAC and Achmat online. Anyways, the point is that I'm so excited about being part of this because the group of people that I'm working is really good and after all, HIV/AIDS is something that I have always been interested and that I have always been passionate about. Last week we had our first event of the year: a stigma campaign. We based our campaing on a report that was done a couple of years ago at UCT that showed that many students, in spite of their good education and their knowledge about HIV/AIDS, continued to practice unprotected sex. So the campaign was aimed at making students realize that they are vulnerable to the virus as well and that it is not only a virus that affects, for example, "poor, black, rural women".In other words, we wanted to show that HIV/AIDS does not discriminate. Here is a cool picture of the campaign on campus: Last week I decided to go to the Rhodes Memorial which is in the eastern slopes of Table Mountain - i can see it from my house. It is deducated to Cecil Rhodes who was one of the most powerful men that Southern Africa has known. He was prime minister of the Cape at some point and he also founded the Rhodesias (now Zimbabwe and Zambia). It has an amazing view of the so called Cape Flats... This last weekend we spent our time in Langa which is the first established black township in Cape Town. It was established in 1927 and it was crucial to the resistance to apartheid. We stayed there the whole weekend in a homestay and it was an amazing experience. I stayed with Noroyi, a fifty-year-old Xhosa speaking woman that was born in Langa and has lived there her whole life. We had many good conversations and I learned from her. She also fed me like there was no tomorrow. Yoj, I couldn't say no to her delicious food. On Saturday, the 21st, it was Human Rights Day and it coincides with the commemoration of the Sharpeville massacre in 1960 when 69 protesters were killed by the South African police (most of them shot in the back). They were marching, as part of a broader campaing organized by the Pan Africanist Congrees PAC, agains the unfair pass books when they were attacked by the police. Now, every year the PAC commemorates this event in Langa so we went to that celebration. Since national elections are coming soon (April 22) this was also an oportunity for the PAC to campaign. However, it was also an opportunity for the ANC to campaign. So, guess what, Jacob Zuma, who is most likely to be South Africa's next president, showed up in Langa. We were fortunate (..) to be there and we got to see him from pretty close (some of the girls from the group were so close to him...they even made it to the newspapers!). So it was an amazing experience to see all these political activity first hand! I didn't bring my camara but I'll get some pics soon. Here are instead, some pictures of Langa (just chilling) and "partying" Langa style!:

Yesterday was TB World Day and there was a march to parliament that was organized by the TB/HIV Care Organization and TAC. Instead of going to class (oops) I decided to go to the march and support their efforts. South Africa has one of the highest TB rates in the world and the disease is the leading cause of death in the country. HIV and TB work together. When HIV weakens your immune system, your body can’t fight the TB bacteria so you become very vulnerable to it. Now there are also strains of TB going around that are resistant to the medicines which complicates the issue even further. There is a need to treat everyone with TB (and to make sure they finish their treatment), to protect everyone through infection control, and to make sure that TB does not spread more. It is, after all, a curable infection. The march culminated with the handing over of a memorandum to a representative of the Health Ministry petitioning for better equal pay for health care workers and for better access to treatment, among other things. Here are some of the pictures – very inspiring.

This is cRaZy!

I think it is a good sign that I haven't been writing so often: I am just too busy. But a very good kind of busy. I'm enjoying this life so much. Where do I begin?
Last weekend was amazing and very rich culturally. On Saturday we went to the Gay Parade Festival in the city. As odd as this seems, South Africa was the first country in the world to enshrine lesbian and gay rights in its 1996 constitution which is believed to be one the most progressive ones in the world. It was very interesting to see the diverse people, it was definitely a great people-watching experience. Here is a picture of the event:

That same night we went to the Artscape Theater - a very nice place in downtown CT - to see a concert by Marimba Extravaganza an African music band. If you know me a little bit, you would know how much I love African music. It was spectacular. I really don't even know how to describe it...it was a group of about 20 amazing musicians and singers so they put up an amazing show. We had a lot of fun and are definitely looking forward to seeing more live African music. Here is a picture of the band ( I took this picture from the internet because I didn't bring my camara...but the woman in the picture is my new idol)


On Sunday we went to the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden that is only 15 minutes away from UCT. Wow. Crazy crazy beautiful: The place is huge (apparently it covers 528 hectares) and has a diverse fynbos flora and natural forest. The cultivated garden (36 hectares) displays collections of South African plants which are soo weird and cool. The weather was amazing - very hot!- so it was the nicest day to go out and chill there, walk around, and do rolling down the hill competitions (!). They also had a concert which was nice as well. Definitely going back there someday with more time.



During the week I was incredibly busy. I have now officially started at Equal Education and it's going really well. I'm getting along with the staff and I'm motivated by the task that I am being given. Last week we were particularly focused on the potential academic support classes that we want to begin. Many of the schools in Khayelitsha don't have a science teacher or math teacher and this is a huge problem because by the end of the semester students have to pass their exams to get into college. So, although we know that the most effective long-term goal is to make sure that qualified teacher are available, we can't wait until that happens. Therefore, in the meantime, we are trying to set a Saturday tutoring program with qualified teacher and students who are willing to assist the high school students with their classes. Let's see how this goes but I'm really excited. The people in the office are all really nice and many of them are Xhosa which means that I also get to practice some of my Xhosa while I'm in there (usually, all I say is "kushushu" which means "it is hot" - last week we reached 38 Celsius...).

This weekend was also out of control. We climbed up to Table Mountain! We were a bit scared because we heard that it would be 43 Celsius but in the end I don't think it was more than 30. We left in the morning and walked up to the top in about 3 hours or so. It was sooo hot though, we were sweating so much because it was a very steep path. Once we got to the top, we notice that the effort was not in vain: an amazing, ashtonishing view of the city and it's surroundings (with the Indian Ocean on one side and the Atlantic one on the other). Here are a couple of pictures which although nice, don't make merit to the spectacular view...(sorry hehe)