Assignment #1

Over the course of my time here I have to write two blogs on specific assingments from Willamette. So I thought I might as well get one out of the way. Here is the prompt:

2. How is the education system you are experiencing different from what you are accustomed to in the U.S.? From your perspective as a student in the U.S. how is it beneficial and disadvantageous?

Consider the perspective of your host-country’s students, how is it beneficial to them? Is it unfavorable to them in any way?

The education system here is vastly different from anything I have encountered in the United States. Firstly, the academic year starts in February, with the first semester running February to May and the second from July-December. Also, the year is further divided into terms, with each semester containing 2 terms. As I think I've mentioned before, there is a huge lack of communication between departments. Also, every department is allowed to run each course the way it chooses. For example, my history class is running the same course for the entire semester. However, my anthropology course is divided into separate topics, one for each term, complete with different professors and final exams for each course topic. Class times are also different. Instead of happening mon/wed/fri or tues/thurs, classes meet between 4 and 8 times per week, but there is no schedule of days, and each class is at a different time, and possibly a different venue everyday.

I think this system is unfavorable in that it can be chaotic, especially for foreign students trying to come in and figure out how the system works. It is confusing to begin with, and the lack of communication only increases the confusion because you will invariably have to talk to a number of different people in different departments before you are able to figure one thing out. The changing of class times and venues can be good in that it helps offset the monotony of one's weekly schedule. Similarly, having multiple professors teaching one course exposes students to a wide variety of teaching styles and perspectives. On the negative front, it means the student is constantly having to learn new standards of expectations from each new professor.

Aside from the general structure or courses, most classes do not require you to buy textbooks. Instead you go to the library and check books out on short loan and either read the chapters in the library or copy the readings and then returning the book. This means that the library is used far more than at Willamette. The problem is that there is not adequate study space for this amount of traffic. Also, while the idea of copying readings instead of buying textbooks is cheaper and thus beneficial for many of the poorer students, there are not adequate copying facilities and the books are only loaned out for 1 hour at a time. Needless to say, this makes obtaining the class materials quite time consuming. There is currently construction going on to expand the library. I think this will be highly beneficial for Rhodes students because it will give them more space to study and hopefully, more copy machines will be added to cut down on congestion.

On Strike!

When I chose Grahamstown, South Africa as my location for study abroad I was hoping to get an experience of how the "other half" of the world lives. I was interested to become immersed in a culture that was vastly different from my own, who was struggling to overcome a history of racial segregation and slavery. Over the past week, I have become enmeshed in a situation that is more first hand experience than I could ever ask for.

Currently there is a strike going on within the University of grade 1-5 workers. In South Africa job positions (at least within the University) are rated on a grade scale of 1-15, with 15 being the Vice Chancellor (or president of the university) and 1 being the lowest manual labor position. So basically, the people who are striking are basic maintenance, cafeteria workers, and housekeepers. The reason of the strike is because the University is currently undergoing a program of "remuneration adjusment". This means they're trying to move all of their pay grades to the 50th percentile, between the highest and lowest paying universities, to ensure their positions remain competitive.

5million rand (roughly $645,000) was set aside for this purpose. The majority of the money was set aside for grades above 8 (administrative and managerial staff mostly) because they are the furthest from the 50th percentile. Grades 1-5 received the smallest chunk of the money because they are paid within the 50th percentile for the most part. Now, in principle, this all sounds reasonably fair and equitable, right? Now consider the fact that people in grades 8 and above take home between 10,000 and 20,000 rand per month and that grades 1-5 take home around 2,000rand. Keep in mind that 2,000 rand is only about $260 and that the majority of these people have a family of 4 or more people and that they provide the only income. Still seem fair and equitable? I didn't think so.

I'm enrolled in an anthropology class entitled "Power and wealth" and have an amazing professor who is Coloured and who grew up during the apartheid reign. For the past two days she has stepped out of her "professor" title and opened up the class as a place for honest discussion. The class is mix of black, white, coloured, rich, poor, foreign, and native South Africans and the views I have encountered during these discussions and the realizations I have come to about how the University is choosing to handle the situation may be some of the most important experiences I will have during my time here.

When I first arrived here, I was surprised to see how segregated the social bubble of the university remains. You rarely see skin colors mixing in friend groups, and everyone claims that it is simply cultural differences rooted in musical tastes. Aka the blacks like hiphop and rap and the whites like pop so they don't hang out together. Excuse me? The viewpoints raised in my anthro class speak far different words.

There have been two students in particular who completely baffled me. Both are white, one male and one female, both well dressed and obviously from good families. The female expressed an opinion that she " came here to work hard and to end up at the top of the career ladder and make lots of money and that once she's there she doesn't want other people making the same amount as her and that the people on strike have opportunities to move up and should just work harder."

I nearly exploded. These people just need to work harder? They are at work from 5am to 7pm or later, up to 7 days a week. The most promotion they can hope for is to move from cleaning the basement of a house to cleaning the top floor. Not to mention the fact that its because of white people like her that during the apartheid they weren't allowed to get decent education (there was legislation passed called the Bantu Education Act that made it legal for schools to give bad educations to black and coloured people). Now cleaning toilets is the top of the ladder for them and they don't even make enough to survive on and she wants them to work harder.

The male white student made a similar sentiment. He was defending the Universities actions and stated that the dire financial situation of the strikers was "not his problem". The university has completely blown the situation out of proportion and is twisting words and occurrences to try and save their own asses and keep people on their side. In an informational letter that came out yesterday they claimed that the strikers had been marching in and disrupting lectures, threatening students and staff, vandalizing property, and other assorted things. And furthermore that any and all damage to campus property would come out of the strikers paychecks. They also stated that due to this they are filing for a restraining order and keeping police on campus to protect "our safety". And just to end things off on a good note, they let everyone know that students were planning a march this afternoon to protest "the industrial action" and the inconvenience it's causing them. When in reality, the student march is to protest the universities unwillingness to renegotiate and stop the strike, only the university told the student government that they were not allowed to "take sides" and is now spinning the protest in their favor.

One of the black students in our class had actually marched with the strikers and we found out that their "disruptions and intimidations" were no more than singing and marching between buildings. Yet I was locked into every one of my academic buildings yesterday for my "safety". And should I choose to participate in the student protest that is going on this afternoon, I run the risk of being thrown in jail if things get out of hand, just because I am "close to the strikers" and the police will not bother to differentiate.

When I came here I expected to find the " New South Africa". A country that is striving to put behind them the grievances of apartheid rule and create freedom and equality for every South African no matter the color of their skin. Instead I found that the reign of power and wealth are the same in every country. That you cannot trust "news" because it is written by people in power for their own devices. That the truth is buried beneath extravagant lies and people can claim that its "not their problem" because they are not suffering from it. Because these people do not share their status, their privilege, their skin color, their blood. They have so degraded these people that it does not matter that they are someone's mother, that they sleep on cold floors, that they can't feed their children. That they are HUMAN. And that they're basic rights as human beings are being thrown out and trampled on, under the guise of "external equity".

I am a stranger here and do not have a shared history with these people, so why is it that I can clearly see their pain, hunger, and desperation, while their own countrymen have them begging at their feet but merely cross

over to the other side, and keep on walking?

An Adventure in Addo Elephant National Park

For Saturday we had planned to go to a game reserve called Addo Elephant National Park, where we were promised that we could see all sorts of wild beasts, as well as ride and feed elephants at a nearby elephant sanctuary.

My day began way too early at 6:45am, I met up with five other girls at the Old Gaol (pronounced jail) at 8 and met our driver for the day who's name was Sean. Our first stop was the elephant sanctuary (who's commercial name I can't remember at the moment). Here we watched four female elephants do some cool choreography and kick soccer balls. Then we got to feed them and ride them. It was so awesome! The work they are doing at the sanctuary is incredible. It's run by a group of men from Zimbabwe and they rescued the elephants from an area that was doing population control by killing elephants off. Over the last 18 months these men have built relationships with and trained these once wild animals, and now they are completely docile. It's sad that they couldn't be put back into the wild again, however compared to the alternative they have it pretty good.

Fun Facts about elephants: 1. They can live 60-65 years in the wild and 80-100 years in captivity 2.They can eat up to 484lbs of food and drink up to 33gallons of water everyday 3. They eat for 18 hours a day and eat so much they only digest about 40% of it.

Next we moved on to Addo Elephant National Park. Not even five minutes into the drive we spotted this huge male elephant grazing on some bushes. We turned off our van and coasted down the hill to watch him eat. After munching for about 10 minutes he calmly started walking directly towards our car. Approximately 1m away he turned and crossed in front of us and continued munching on the opposite side of the road. I cannot accurately explain how massive he was. It felt like I'd stepped into Jurassic park and was watching a T-rex walk by. Amazing.

Throughout the day we saw all manner of exotic animals, including ostrich, kudu (an antelope type animal), many more elephants, dung beetles, warthogs, zebras, buffalo, and huge ant hills. Around 1:30 we stopped for a delicious lunch of Kudu steak, salad with chutney, braai bread (bread that you cook on the BBQ), chips, and soda. Due to poorly engineered grills and lacking some essential items, lunch took about 2.5 hours.

So around 4pm we packed up and decided to meander our way out of the park. Shortly, we ran across and elephant family drinking at a man made watering hole. There was a baby with its mother who was absolutely adorable and captivated us all for a good ten minutes. We watched the baby drink from its mother for awhile, and another elephant who was spraying water out of its mouth. As you may be able to tell from the picture, the mother elephant looks quite emaciated. We think its because elephants have to eat so much already and can only digest 40% of it, the rest is automatically wasted. So can you imagine trying to eat enough to sustain yourself and a growing elephant baby?!

Well, here is where the real adventure begins. As we were driving up this giant hill our van started overheating. We pulled over and Sean poured all the water we had into it (side note: the car is engineered in such a way that the part of the engine that was overheating was under Sean's seat so he had to lift it up to access the engine and there was smoke billowing everywhere). After about 5 minutes or so things seemed to be alright and we continued on our way. One huge hill later we had overheated again. This time when Sean lifted up the seat a huge geyser of brown oily water sprayed everywhere. Sean got it full in the face, all over the windshield, ceiling, and the 2 girls who were riding up front. Just then a truck that had passed earlier showed up with more water and a rope to tow us to the park gate. We turned off the van, let it cool, then got in and they started to tow. About 1/3 of the way up the hill, the truck driver realizes he can't pull all the weight. So all of us girls jumped out and climbed into the back of a third truck owned by the park. A few things should be noted at this point: 1. It is STRONGLY advised that you not leave your car on account of you could be eaten. 2. Just the day before 3 lions had been spotted in the area where our car broke down. So here we are, six 20yr old American girls sitting in the back of a random pickup truck in the middle of a South African game reserve. Good times.

Eventually we made it up the hill, figured out we just needed oil and more water. After some lengthy negotiations, we convinced someone to bring it to us and then just waited an hour and a half for them to arrive. By 6:45 we were good to go and on our way home. What an adventure!

Updates, July 27th-31st

Well, the first week of school is over and I made it through. I moved into my dorm on Sunday and I really like it so far. I have met a few girls and everyone seems really nice.

The process of registering for classes has been incredibly complicated. There is a huge lacking of communication between departments on this campus and I've spent quite a lot of time running from place to place and talking to many different people trying to get things sorted out. When I finally got it all sorted I registered for Anthropology, History, Linguistics, and Ethnomusicology.

The classes are all interesting so far, although in linguistics we're discussing English grammar, which isn't exactly riveting but not too bad. Ethnomusicology is going to be very cool. This week we learned how to play a Nigerian Shantu (a kind of tube shaped instrument that is played as a type of percussion. We also had a woman come to class who is Xhosa and plays two box instruments, the Uhadi and Rhube. Its really interesting to be learning about the indigenous music of this region.

On Wednesday I was introduced to Rhodes Interleague Rugby (which is like our intramural sports). The teams have games every Wednesday and the whole school comes out to watch. Many of them also get uproariously drunk, which makes for an interesting night.

This weekend we are planning to go to Addo Elephant National Park and so I'm hoping to see some great exotic animals!