I'm on top of the world

On top of Table Mountain 

 

7 weeks have gone by and I only have 4 left with my program and one extra week. I can’t believe how fast these weeks have gone by. I am seriously in shock. This has been the best experience ever. Words can not describe how I feel about this country and the culture. My placements mean so much to me. Working at Eros school has made my passion for working with children with disabilities so much more strong. It makes me want to help people even more. I am so in love with my kids. I don’t even want to think about leaving them. I put so much work into my kids, by feeding Kudzai everyday, or taking Natasha to physio, helping them learn the letters A and O. I put my heart and soul into school everyday. In the afternoons I go and work at a shelter for women and children who are victims of domestic violence. I go in and bring different art ideas and we do art for two hours twice a week. After all of these women have been through they still have a smile on their faces and willing to spend the afternoons with me.

While taking this long trek here to Africa I have done some pretty cool things I must say. I know it is not all fun and games here. I am here for my placement but on the weekends and a couple of weekdays I can do what I want in the afternoons. When you come to Cape Town you see a beautiful ocean on one side and a huge ass mountain on the other. One of the to-do’s here in Cape Town in hike Table Mountain. It was recently just voted into the 7 wonders of the world. Everyday going to placement or for the matter of fact everywhere I go I see Table Mountain. It is staring right at me saying climb me climb me. We ventured off to the hike that looked impossible and never ending. It was the most amazing thing ever! I made it up the mountain in a hour and 45 mins. It was so hard but so amazing! I could not believe I made it to the top of a mountain. The view was breath taking. I would climb that mountain a hundred times if I could. It is so beautiful.

I tried out a new beach. It is called Kalk Bay. It is beautiful. It is more of a town/fishing beach. There a seal mulled a woman. The ocean is so clear and there are tons of cute little shops. I love the little town. I have decided I want to open a B&B here and have an ice cream shop attached. I love it here. I do not want to leave.

On Saturday morning we all went to a home for children where these kids stay either because they have rough family situations or other reasons. There we painted a mural for children’s home. The children were running around and helping us paint the mural that was for them. It was absolutely beautiful the mural and was so much fun to help paint. It was amazing to see what 4 hours of hard work can do. It was so much fun.

When coming to south Africa you think of the world cup in 2010. I experienced what it was like to be inside the world cup stadium. Going to a soccer game, there was an amazing experience. It was sort of like going to Spartan basketball games, but not as crowded. The stadium wasn’t even close to being filled but the noise level for the game was amazing. They have these noise makers called fooozalhs that everyone has, they also have drums and horns that they are playing the entire game. The atmosphere was amazing and so much fun. It was a great experience.

That’s all of now.

Peace out

The Holocaust Museum

Everywhere I travel to I go to the Holocaust museum. The holocaust museum in cape town is one of the first in Africa. It is my calling as a Jew and someone who is extremely interested in WWII to read about it everywhere I go. It was interesting how the holocaust took part in South Africa and how it influenced apartheid here. In this blog I am going to quote a lot of things that I saw in the museum that I was interested about, shocked, and thought whoever reads my blog should know. I am going to write mostly about how WWII was affected in South Africa. It is a new perspective to the war that many people do not know.

“Racial discrimination, religious intolerance and ideological conflict have resulted in untold suffering, persecution and mass death. Only recently south Africa emerged from the injustices of apartheid with its abuse of human rights. There have been hundred of conflicts in the name of race, religion and ideology. While discrimination does not always lead to genocide, it invariably preceded it and in the 20^th century alone, genocides have claimed millions of lives.”

Just like the holocaust is a huge part of my life still, south Africans have such a more recent history to look at that just ended in 1992. Apartheid and the holocaust were not the same, but they were reflecting each other in a way. Both has discriminations of people and forcing to leave where they lived and discriminated against because of who they were.

“The greyshirts- in October 1933 Louis T Weichardt founded the south African Christian national socialist movement, later known as the gryshirts. Although centered in Cape Town, the greyshirts organization had cells throughout the country. Weichardt, an Afrikaner anti-Semite, was a fascist and raciest. “

“the 1930s and early 40s witnessed a popular surge of anti-Semitism in south africa, ensuring a prominent position for the ‘Jewish Question’ on the public agenda. Anti-Semitism formed an important influential component of the radical Afrikaner nationalist world view. It was particular evident in the rhetoric and actions of movements such as the pro- Nazi Greyshirts, the Ossewabrandwag and the New Order.”

“among those Afrikaners wishing to curtail the influx and rights of Jews in the 1930s and early 1940s were intellectuals who formulated the apartheid system as a way of safeguarding Afrikaners identity and the racial purity. Many of them had studied in Germany where they were influenced by fascist ideas, including an exclusivist of ‘ pure’ form of nationalism.

“ Apartheid – meaning literally ‘apartness’ – was formalized by the national party after it came to power in 1948. Building on earlier policies of segregation designed by English administrators, race discrimination was now vigorously applied to all areas of life it was built on a set of fundamental race- based laws and structured around an elaborate system of Homelands or Bantustans.”

During WWII the Jews had all of these laws for example: no mixed marriages. They did not have a lot of rights. During apartheid a lot of these same issues came up.

:apartheid was a form of racial domination that rendered black south Africans second – class citizens in the country of their birth. Gross human rights abuses and untold suffering accompanied its policies. However, apartheid was not genocidal in intent or in effect. Nazism, on the other hand, aimed at the annihilation of all Jews in countries under Nazi control.”

Many Jews during the war went to south America or the united states. A huge amount of Lithuanian Jews came to south Africa.

The swastika, an ancient Indo –European symbol, became the emblem of the Nazi party.

“I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator; by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord… a racially pure people wiihc is conscious of its blood can never be enslaved by the Jew.” – Adolf Hitler

“Where one burns books, one will in the end, burn people”

“ in 1933 the subject ‘Rassenkunde’ (racial science) became part of the German school curriculum. German children were taught how to identify a Jew and they learn that Germans were the ‘master race’ and the Jews were ‘inferiors’”

“There are higher races…there are inferior races,, there Germans are a branch of the higher Aryan race and the Jews place is in the lowest rank of the inferior Semitic race… preservation of racial purity is the prime and holy obligation of the chosen (Aryan) race. “ –Adolf Hitler

Immigration to south Africa

“ Between 1933 and 1936, about 3600 German- Jewish refugees entered south Africa. Their arrival aroused bitter opposition, which was inflamed by the Greyshirts, the most prominent of the anti-Semitic pro Nazi groups which sprang up during the 1930s. they created an atmosphere of incitement against Jews in general and Jewish immigrants in particular. The public debate reached a peak in 1936 when the Stuttgrart arrived in cape town with 570 German Jewish refugees on board. The outcry, coupled with ountain anti-Semitism, resulted in the aliens act of 1937 which virtually closed South Africa’s doors to further Jewish immigration.”

“In may 1939, Jews left Germany for Cuba. When they reached Cuba the government refused to honour their visas, the ship then sailed to Florida, by president Roosevelt’s concern about massive unemployment and mounting anti-Semitism resulted in them not being allowed din. These passengers had to go back to Europe and many of them died in the death camps.”

South Africa and Britain declared war on Germany.

“ the implementation of the ‘final solution’ required Jews from all over Nazi occupied Europe to the be brought by rail to the death camps in Poland. These deportations, euphemistically called ‘transports’, began in earnest in 1942 and involved a great deal of deception. Jews were told that they would resettled to the east. In reality they were taken to death camps and murdered”

“we learn about the holocaust so that we can become more human, more gentle, more caring, more compassionate, valuing every person as being of infinite worth so precious that we know such atrocities will never happen again and the world will be a more humane place.” – archbishop emeritus

the whole world from a tin can

Top of Lions Head

 skydiving nbd

  I survived!

I am sorry I have not had a lot to blog about, but now I do. This blog will be really long.

As a girl you always know how to scout a cheap shopping trips. We were determined to find out where our staff gets their beautiful scarfs. We went to the shook. The shook is like the shook in Israel but its mostly Muslim clothes so they have beautiful scarfs and dresses. Of course knowing me and how much I like scarfs, I decided to buy out the whole shook. I also found a pair of “African” pants that I have been wanting to get here, I was super pumped about it. I of course bought 2 pairs and am repping them all the time.

            Later that night we went out to a pool bar. There we hung out with the locals and talked and did club stuff but there was also pool. Lets just say for never playing pool before I am pretty danm good. It was tons of fun. The only thing about the bars and clubs here is that you are allowed to smoke inside. Its kind of annoying since I get sick from the smoke. O well I have to deal with it since I am here for 2 more months.

Random story. To get to the beach the cheap way you take the train. You are supposed to leave before 5 because 5 is rush hour. Our train was delayed a half hour so we got stuck with rush hour. I was sitting with my friend Jeana and I was all calm reading my book and she’s freaking out that we wont get off at our stop. The key to getting off the train in time is to pretend like you are a 300 pound football player and mull through the 60 that are in your way. It is literally jam packed. Jeana was freaking out and I was like were fine its no big deal. It is the stop before ours and Jeana refuses to push so I am behind her screaming to go and am pushing her through the crowd of madness. We get off the train and our friend Mara is stuck on it. She couldn’t get through and had to get off at the next stop. Lesson learned…never take the train during rush hour

LADIES AND GENTALMEN DRUM ROLL PLEASE!!!!

This is what you have all been waiting for….THE SKYDIVING STORY!

Yes when I came to Cape Town the one thing my mom forbid me to do is skydive. O well I am a rebel (but not really). It was the one thing that I really wanted to do and it was the perfect time to do it. it wasn’t to expensive and I had to opportunity so I just had to do it. we signed up for it and paid online, no turning back now. The night before I was freaking out and kind of nervous but I love adrenaline junky stuff. The next day we got a call and was offered to go early because a group cancelled. I jump up and down and am all cattery and so excited. My friends are freaking out it was so funny. We get there and have to wait a while and they are pacing and freaking out. I am pumped I am about to jump out of an airplane this is awesome! We signed our lives away basically and then suited up. We are wearing a harness. They tell us no instruction. One of the guys we were jumping with told us to follow him and we were like umm what are we doing. We see the plane. They told us that we were going to sit in the instructors laps and then they would strap us in. the airplane was a tin can literally. I am sitting on the door that opens so if it by accident opens then I fly out. That was the scariest part for me. My friends were freaking out partially because the guy I was jumping with was making jokes about people he jumped with that didn’t survive. I was joking a lot it was so funny. I am the first one to jump out of the plane. I turn around and sit in my guys lap and he straps me in. I put on my goggles and he says when the door opens you hold on to your harness, put your head back and swing your legs over. All of a sudden I was out of the airplane. I had no clue I had fallen and all of a sudden I was flying. We were free falling for about 40 seconds. IT WAS AWESOME!!!! I was having so much fun. I could see all of cape town, table mountain, the ocean, Robben island, and the entire country side. It was absolutely beautiful. Then I got to steer the parachute and it was awesome. It was the best experience ever. I called my mom after and gave her a heart attack and decided where ever I go in the future I am going to sky dive.

Lesson learned…. Go skydiving…you wont ever regret it.

            Mamma Africa… real African food place. I couldn’t really eat anything there, but my friends did and they ate springbok, crocodile, ostrich, and kalou. They all really liked it. there was also live African music playing. It was so great. I loved it and the experience.

I have more posts to do. I will write them out today and probably post them tomorrow. I went to the Holocaust museum. It was amazing. More stories to come….

Peace out America

hello friends

So I am very behind on my blogs and my journal. So sorry I will catch everyone up on things for last week and the weekend now and try to post again this weekend. Also I am doing about a week and a half in one blog this time so I can be caught up hopefully. So sorry if its really long this week!

We had a little staff get to know you kind of thing. Most of the long term people went which was good. One of my goals here was to get to know the staff. They are all super nice but sometimes it is hard to connect with them because they are always busy or we are busy. This program was for the volunteers to get to know the staff and talk to them and ask about their stories and views on south Africa. It was a great way to start to know them.

            We went to the district 6 museum. There we talked to a guide who had lived there. He was friends with one of our drivers when they lived there and wrote a book. District 6 is a community just like every other community where mostly blacks lived. When apartheid stared the government kicked out all of the people and bulldozed their houses. Everything was destroyed besides places of warship. They were forced out of their own communities. Not just blacks but every religion, race, ethnicity. It was super interesting. I bought a book from a guy who lived there and it was his story told. After the museum we went to Charlie’s Bakery. IT WAS ABSOLUTLY THE BEST DESERT EVER (sorry mom and grandma. Your stuff is still the best it is just bakery things not cakes like yours). I got a cupcake and a cake thingy here. They were sooo good!!

            We went to Gugs “Mzolis Tavern” which is a place where you buy meat and they cook it right there for you. It is one of the townships and it is packed. Everyone goes there. It’s the “hip” place. After lunch we went to Bongani’s youth singing and acting about the issues in south Africa or the history. By singing and dancing they tell the story of what their families went through or they have been through. It was really interesting and moving. They told us that singing runs in the blood of Africans because the way they deal with issues is singing it out. It was pretty awesome.

            So I wore a dress…I know very weird. It was a pressure thing. Everyone was so dressed up and wearing heals. So I wore a dress. We went to a very nice dinner at the waterfront. It was really pretty. I could for once not eat lentals (that’s all the vegetarian meals here…im sick of them). The dinner was delicious. Afterwards we went to the clubs and dance the ngiht way….the way it should be done in cape town.

            So now the house is basically empty. 7 people and then people are leaving and coming this weekend. This week has been bonding time. We played “family fun night” basically. We played card games and outdoor games. We don’t have any afternoon activities anymore so were on our own until our afternoon placement starts. Today we climbed lions head. It was really fun and hard at the same time. We wanted to watch the sunset. We climbed to the top and ate cheese, crackers, and fruit. The view was absolutely beautiful. You could see all of cape town. We were literally in the clouds. It was amazing. I would do it 100 times more (I might do that). It was worth it. we were over looking the ocean and city. We could even see and island. How cool is that! I loved it. We watched the sunset which was beautiful. I basically ran half the way down because I needed to get energy out of my system.

            Oh placement where do I even begin. It has been a hectic. Let me start with we walk into class one day and our teacher isn’t there. She left no lesson plan or anything for us. We start off with the usual morning routine. Let them play. I give a girl her medicine and put on her splints. We then have them all clean up and sit on the rug for circle time. We do a little bit of singing songs and going over numbers and then all craziness brakes loose. The kids are running around and are going crazy. Mara has to feed Kudazi and I had to deal with the other 11 running around kids. Finally I just let them outside because I had no clue what to do with them. After the teacher not being in class for two days it got more calm. Placement is fun and relaxing. We are on my body theme for the next two weeks and are teaching them all about body parts and shapes. We are trying to work on fine motor skills with the kids because a lot of them don’t have them. I love running around and helping the kids with their work. I have a new goal for the rest of my placement here. I want to work with two of the kids to have them focus more and listen. They are sever issues and can’t grasp things so I want to help them with that.

That is all for now folks

Peace out

p.s. for anyone who cares I am sorry I don’t proof read my blog before I post it. I don’t really have the time. So sorry for not looking over my blog before posting