Total Eclipse of the Heart

Wednesday, May 26 2010
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So I'm just getting around to this post because of the LONG and packed day I had yesterday. Let me fill you in.

So Wednesday was my big 'work on the website' day at Philisa Abafazi. I was getting tired of having to email the IT person we were going through to add content to the website, so I emailed him and he gave me access to editing its full content. I spent most of the day figuring out how to use the CMS (content management system) they were using, called Joomla (it means 'united' in Swahili); it was apparently a system that was supposed to make editing websites easier, but it basically just ate up a chunk of my time. Nonetheless, I figured it out, and revamped the homepage. I'm currently in the process of adding new sections and working on tweaking current pages.

At 2 PM, I had a class with the children - only 2 of them showed up though, out of a normal 4 or so that were supposed to be there. Still, I was able to be fairly productive with them. However, the most challenging part of the teaching is because the attendance is irregular; with some children coming to every class and getting to the 'advanced parts' of my curriculum and others coming for the first time and having to do keyboard skills, I can't teach one thing to the entire class and save time. Instead, I have to go around individually and assign things - this is fine, but I think I could cover more if people would just show up.

After I got off work, I came home and Philly, my host mom, made me Samosas! They were quite good. I then had to go to the weekly ProjectsAbroad volunteer social at Cubana's, a Cuban restaurant, unsurprisingly. However, getting there would prove to be more of a challenge than I anticipated.

After being dropped off at the train station by Philly, I went and bought a ticket for R8 (very cheap, basically $1) and checked the map for where I'd be getting off. I had to count how many times the train stopped in order to figure out when to get off because no one announced where the train was each time people got off. I had only taken a train one time before, and that was in Long Island; "How different could it be?" I thought. At the 10th stop (the correct one), I tried to get off of the train by politely moving past people and saying "excuse me"; the people were not very kind and were like boulders - they wouldn't move! By the time I realized that politeness was not the way to go here, the train had already started moving again. Great. Just Great.

I got off at the 11th stop and was determined to take the train back to the 10th stop (they run fairly regularly). So I got back on, and when the train reached the correct destination once more, I made my way to the front of the door and waited for it to open (like they do in New York, right?). Apparently the doors in Cape Town trains are not automatic - you have to open them yourself quite forcefully. Unfortunately, I didn't figure this out until the train started moving AGAIN. UGH!

So, I'm back at the 9th stop and frustrated out of my mind with this transportation system and my inability to use common sense to make my way around Africa. After slowly calming myself down, I eventually took the train for a final time, yanked the doors open, and got to my final destination: Cubana's.

Dinner was quite nice and I got to talk to and get to know a few volunteers that I hadn't talked to very much. It was good to see I had a good community of people around me, although the majority of them were aged 23-27. The two I was with were my age though. One thing that I've noticed here is that practically all of the locals here smoke. It's so unattractive (and UNHEALTHY). About a third of the volunteers smoked as well.

Anywho, after dinner, we went to the Melting Pot, a local hangout and musician venue. We called a driver (ProjectsAbroad has several private taxis they recommend) to take us there, and he proved to be basically the best taxi driver ever. He had an amazing playlist on his stereo, where we sang everything from "Total Eclipse of the Heart" to staples such as Ke$ha's "Tik Tok" - and no, we did NOT sing Justin Bieber (thank goodness this blog post doesn't involve him, for once). I'll be using him again in the future. And it was cheap. Like really cheap. For a fifteen minute drive, he charged us 30 Rand - that's 3 DOLLARS. YAY SOUTH AFRICA!
We relaxed on the comfortable couches, met some other volunteers, and heard some interesting flavors of music (ranging from reggae to smooth jazz). All in all, a successful night.

I know, pictures pictures pictures. I'm WORKING ON IT! I'm taking them, but I can't upload too much without destroying my internet. Eventually I'll have some more up.

Talk to you all soon!

PS: I apologize for the quasi-lame title of this blog post. I couldn't think of anything else.