Goodbye South Africa

Well it's over. I am sitting here in London, on free internet, with the doors unlocked and the fences unbarbed. The academic decathalon is over, i took my last final over a week ago, how did i do??? how could anyone know, I wrote essays, long ones they seemed full of information that pertained to the course but that could mean nothing at uct, perhaps they grade entirely on grammer or expect full citations, or perhaps half of it is your handwriting, I have no idea.
One of the final things of any significance i did here was go to the district 6 museum, which like Sophiatown in Johannesburg was a Black district full of culture and life that was then forcefully closed by the apartheid government and moved to the townships at what was considered a much safer distance from the "good white folk" of South Africa. It wasn't that I was unfamiliar with the story, but the one thing that really shocked me was the shear stupidity of moving everyone out of an area, essentially downtown, and destroying every building in sight, they were never even able to rebuild it it still stands fairly desolate, mostly just empty lots. I guess racism won out over city planning.
anyway, the recap of the things i will miss about south Africa:
actually I just thought before I wrote this i would look back at the 10 things i wrote about st. petersburg, and i know it sounds rather strange but they are so similar that i think i will run them together in a comparison, and it will help you new guys to the email club, russia will be in bold:
well here is a final little round up of the things I
will miss:
10. Open potholes and the likes, I've been walking by
the same open pothole for 4 months, it's on the main
causeway to the metro stop, all they've ever had over
it is one 2 by 4. They still haven't cleaned up the
piles of trash they collected for spring cleaning, in
fact the piles have really just kind of spread out
again, they collected leaves a few weeks ago and
needless to say those aren't in piles any longer
10. What can I say, I walk by a goddamn open pothole on my way to the school shuttle stop every day here in africa too, in fact one of my roomates, never to be named of course, took a digger right into it, getting quite the bashed knee and sore hip. the only precaution i've seen them take is too put an egg crate over it, oh and actually I think they have been slowly depositing it with trash hoping that instead of having to cover it, it will become an underground trashcan, which seems to be what they have done with another one quite near by although it is smaller, it is now on level with the pavement, filled with beer bottles and biltong wrappers.


9. Trashcan fires: Never had seen one in my life, let
alone on a main thoroughfare, but often Nevsky will be
alight with 2 or 3 trashcans where people are too lazy
to put out their cigarettes and huge fires
erupt(apparently no one feels the need to put out the
blaze, indeed I saw a dumpster on fire the other day
and smoke billowing out, burning your eyes, eventually
it just burnt out, I guess that's the policy here
because I have never seen a fire truck, but plenty of
fires)
9. okay I can't say i've seen a trashcan fire here in south africa, they seem to have that under control. I can't put something comparable here either but i will put something more substantial. I will miss visits to the townships, where people living under the most cramped and uncomfortable conditions have the most amazing spirit of life, many of them love and enjoy life more than americans with the world at their feet driving porches and such. Certainly they have gripes with where life has put them but there is still hope, and they can still appreciate what little they have.

8. Water: well really this is something I can't wait
for, just to be able to drink from the tap like a
normal human being, and not have to plan ahead "okay
am I gonna be thirsty tomorrow morning?? Probably,
well I'd better go to the store now and get some
because if not, no joy

8.That one makes me laugh, remembering how awful it was to wake up with just a drop of water in the morning, and having to lug 2 5 gallon jugs up 3 flights every few days. well except for that time that cape town forgot to process it's water and everyone got ecoli, there haven't been any problems. But there is something that is just as annoying here electricity, it wasn't the paying as you go aspect of it that is so bad, but the lack of it when it counts, roaming black outs, unannounced extended power outages, our house in particular had it's own electricity problems. what do you do?? well call the electrician. "oh no I can't deal with that you have to call eskom (the power company)." eskom: "oh this isn't our department, you have to call the city planning board" city planning board: "what you need is an electrician" electrician: "yeah you should be fine now" twenty minutes later the power has some new affliction, eventually we just gave up an conceded that you had to turn on the hot water heater manually, wait for 3 hours for it to heat up and hope no one jumped in the shower, did the dishes, washed their hands or did a load of laundry before you got your shower.

7. doing things the hard way: boy do you guys have it
easy, you go to the store with a 20 dollar bill and
buy a candy bar no problem, I go and spend 300 out of
a 500 and they say "we can't change this do you have a
smaller bill?" then they have to go into the safe yell
at me some more and then the rest of the line starts
getting angry, I've never been shot down trying to
spend money in America, it's happened about a dozen
times here, they'd rather reject your business than
give you change.
7. I'm really begining to get used to harboring small bills, and breaking big bills every chance i get. But here I think doing things the hard way is more appropriate to UCT, where efficiency comes to die. My favorite is the printing on campus, it's positively genius, okay guys, most places in the world have all there computers on just a few networks, how about this for efficiency: we'll put the printers all on one network, that way if even the slightest thing goes wrong ALL the printers in EVERY building will be completely off. but don't worry the internet probably won't be working anyway.

6.The food, Bliny Borsch Solyanka (a form o Russian
hot dog stew) all of them even the fear of a
contaminated meal or the fairly standard bad meal (I
think the contemporary version of Russian roulette is
just going out to eat at a restaurant and seeing how
sick you get.
6. Ah the food. yep it will be missed, the random peices of dried meat on a string (presumably for small children to tie around their wrists so they don't drop them) coming in all varieties, beef, kudu, ostritch, whatever it is they will dry it and sell it. the boerwors, sausages grilled to perfection and served with onions just a hop skip and a jump from your favorite bar (one of my roomates (again not to be named) perhaps gives the greatest testament to the boerswors, dropping one on the ground on the way back to the bar, looking both directions, picking it up and eating it) the samosas or samoosas depending, particularly Buddy's at the Corner Bar, chicken are the best in my opinion, but many claim the cheesy ones rule supreme, the fish in mozambique. and of course the many many braais(bbqs). yeah i guess the food wasn't particularly healthy now was it. I personally heard little of food poisoning here in SA, certainly nothing like russia.

5. The dangerous streets of St. Petersburg: Jarrods
got broken legs, Richard had his knee broken by a
security guard, Antoine got the worse black eye I've
ever seen, Megan and Matt got robbed of their cell
phones and camera in a Russian dacha 3 hours out of
the city, Becky and Kendra had to run away from fake
police, Matt, Jarrod and Pavel got in a fight for
being American. This city is out of hand, that is just
among my friends, since I've been here (I'm sure
you've heard) one IMOP student was murdered, and there
has been a real rash of hate crime in St. Pete's (the
mafia influence in Moscow keeps that city more in line
and keeps the skinheads out)
5. Well there was probably a time when i thought st. petersburg was the most dangerous place a person could go, I think i've changed my perspective now. I live in a house guarded like a prison my neighbors have electric fences, about half of my friends have horror stories and the daily news is on the verge of terrifying, I laugh at the robbed cell phones of st. petes, who hasn't lost a cell phone here. When it comes to police it is tough to say who is worse? the st petes cops who are notoriously currupt and always hasseling you (80 percent of russians wouldn't go to the police in any circumstance) or the SA police who when called may take up to 2 hours to arrive?? which would you prefer.

4. The city itself: Just amazing that's all I can say
everywhere you turn is history, and everywhere you
look an amazing building, be it Stalinist architecture
or a tsarist palace
4. OBZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I could have wound up anywhere, but boy am I happy I wound up in Observatory, it had a great vibe a great look, tremendous people. By the end of the semester you couldn't walk down the street without meeting someone you knew and having a convo. OBZ is the best I couldn't have asked for a better place.

3. The Babushkas: oh sure they're jaded, angry, pushy,
fearless but these crazy, short, old lady's are
somewhat endearing, they occasionally laugh at you in
a nice way, every once in a while they say excuse me
before sitting on you in the subway, once I even saw
one turn and smile at me when she cut me in the
grocery line. They are characters that's to be sure,
unlike any you might find in the states
3. This might be the greatest difference between Russia and SA those Babushkas so quick to cut you, heckle you, demand from you. here they are so ready (indeed everyone is) help you, let you go first, sing for you, make you take part in something (even if it is that awful beer). I don't think i've seen to many older ladies even get angry except maybe for one time at the wedding when i wasn't singing enough and she felt she was dissapointing me.

2. The war hero's: yesterday was victory day, (while
the rest of the world celebrates the end of WWII on
may 8th Russia decided to be different and celebrate
it as the 9th) there was something quite awe inspiring
watching the Blockade survivors walk down Nevsky in
their annual parade (a parade that gets shorter and
shorter each year mind you) and then in a show of
patriotism everyone follows behind so that most of St.
Petersburg is actually marching behind them (after a
wall of militsia)
2. Okay so this one I'm changing completely, because i can't talk about africa without mentioning all the amazing hiking biking and walking trips i've done and how spectacular each one was, or how for days afterward i thought to myself as I lay in a bath of ice how horribly mountainous South Africa really is. Caving with sean and nick (although caving is not really what it was, it was more of a race up the mountain, a quick stroll through the caves and then a jell-o legged race to the bottom, you guys don't have a slow speed do you? Or those long coastal bike rides i took, who would have thought that coast meant ungodly ride never going on flat road either crawling up or flying down.
1. The Alcohol: come on I mean really it's Russia,
what else could be number one, I'm in the country
where they invented alcoholism. There are babushkas
here who could out drink the most capable frat boys,
we might be buying beer for a party at the
supermarket, but all of a sudden a little old lady
cuts you with 3 liters of vodka in her basket, then
you turn around and there is a 12 year old with a pint
and a beer, you look across at the successful
businessman or woman and they couldn't actually wait
for the line and are drinking their beer in line. You
walk outside and on a sunny day there is no one
without a drink, you see the cop hanging out smoking a
cigarette and drinking a 9 percent beer, the guy at
the kiosk is drinking a beer you get on the metro and
everyone has a "travel drink" beer, canned gin and
tonic, "alco-energy" drink, this country is way beyond
anything you could imagine, trust me. Oh and did I
mention that all this is before 10 am??? So that's it,
that's all I got, I hope everyone enjoyed the emails,
I'll be home soon From Russia with love ellski
10. Yes i suppose that South Africa's drinking culture will be sorely missed. Passing the paint can full of chewy nasty beer, or walking around the townships beer in hand (it seems to be the only place such a thing is really done, the "travel beer" has no place in Obsevatory or cape town.) it makes a funny contrast here, sure you can't drink if you are walking down the street, but everytime you get in a car (the hitchhiking comes to mind) you are offered a beer, it seems to be a tradition, even if the driver isn't always drinking (although often is) you can't take a car ride beerless, it is taboo. Which country wins out on the ridiculousness of drinking? well it's tough to say I think South Africa is more ridiculous in its drinking because it is conscious drinking people notice that people are drunk, people notice that beer is being drank awfully early, whereas russia it can hardly be described so, only foreigners seem that it's ridiculous that children are drinking and the cab driver has a 2 liter beer in the front seat, they are so used to it they don't even notice.
While waiting in line at the jo'burg airport i met a guy, we started talking, wound up talking for quite a while and when i told him i'd studied in russia and south africa he said "it's funny you've done that, i was talking with some one the other day and they were telling me that of all the places that offer study abroad programs there are always the same two countries on the bottom of the list as the least attended South Africa and Russia. Now I know for a fact that I am sending this email to about 100 people that can confirm that this means 90 percent of the study abroad students are making a huge mistake.
Years it has taken to finish college: 7
In those 7 years:
Number of Schools attended: 5
Semesters Abroad: 3
Certificates from God: 2
Countries visited: 22
Continents: 4
Approximate hours on buses: 23 days or 552 hours
Friends for life made: countless
One Perfect College Experience

And just to warn you, this is not the last email. I am in London waiting for my mother to arrive and we head off to Russia for two weeks of more craziness, perhaps a second look will give a new perspective, and yes I am gonna drag my mom to the banya. e