Today was a busy day. I finally got my card back from the
bank, but not without some more adventure. I went to the student center where
my card was supposed to be held only to find out I had to find my way downtown
to the bank there to retrieve it. So, naturally, I took it as a chance to go
exploring.
I made my way downtown with my map which from frequent use
is becoming a bit ragged along the edges. On the way there, I asked a couple
women for directions. I learned from them that they have both been born and
raised Stellenbosch and work here in town. I began to feel like most people
living and working in the community are originally from here as well. Moving on
to the local market, I met men and women from places like Kenya and Zambia who
have moved to Stellenbosch to have a better chance of selling their handcrafted
souvenirs to the tourists who frequent the town. One woman, Taby, was caught in
thought listening to music playing from her phone when I asked her the price of
a ring I liked. Being the inquisitive little bug I am, I not only found out the
price of the ring (R20, about $2.75), but also inquired about the music she was
listening to. She told me it was a song from her homeland, Kenya, and how she listens to it to remind her of home. She hasn’t seen her family in over four years because she doesn't have enough money to fly back. I
plan on going back to talk her another day since she seemed very nice.
Downtown I also found a real “fair trade” kind of store. A couple from Germany runs the store filled with colorful woven tapestries and bags and rugs. Their employees are women from the local townships which they train and employ at the shop so that they can have a steady income. As you can imagine, the work they do is very time consuming and requires a lot of skill and focus - so nothing was cheap. It was enough for me just to look at their creations.
Downtown I also found a real “fair trade” kind of store. A couple from Germany runs the store filled with colorful woven tapestries and bags and rugs. Their employees are women from the local townships which they train and employ at the shop so that they can have a steady income. As you can imagine, the work they do is very time consuming and requires a lot of skill and focus - so nothing was cheap. It was enough for me just to look at their creations.
Later that night, it was time to go out and watch the
productions the first-years have been rehearsing for the past few weeks since
they arrived here. My friends and I got together to walk the streets of campus at dusk.
 |
| This is part of my group from AIFS! |
The first years have
had to wake up early every day to learn their dance parts and lines for short
skits. There must have been at least a dozen of these presentations, each
lasting maybe 10 minutes. Each residence hall "res" - they don’t call them “dorms”
here - had it’s own skit to put on. The skits featured popular music by Rihanna
and Avicii – reasons why I’ve heard Calvin Harris’s beats coming through my
windows at 7 am every day! I knew which group was from the residence I live in
because I recognized the music! I didn’t understand everything going on in the
skits since they were half in Afrikaans, but I got the gist and took some short
videos. Each skit had a message around it, like “balance work and play” and
“respect your neighbor” – cute cliché things first years should
abide by in
order to succeed in school.
 |
| Cute little booths that sold snacks & soft drinks to raise money for the res |
