The first night in a new bed went by well. The home we’re staying in is very moist-when I woke up I felt the same as I do when I’m camping in a tent. Our home is a cozy two-story place with four bathrooms and six rooms. I wasn’t freaked out about the security until orientation today when we spoke about how unsafe it is to walk around at night and how we should lock all of our doors behind us (including our bedroom doors). Although our home is secure with an alarm system, barbed wire and a locked gate. I think this came as a little scare only because we don’t take as severe safety measures at home. It also hasn’t fully sunk into me that we’re in Africa. So far it has felt like I’m on vacation somewhere tropical. It seems like this is because we haven’t seen or talked about many of the areas that are suffering. After orientation we went to the Waterfront, which reminded me of Miami, FL. There were palm trees, a big mall center (consisting of high end stores like Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Burberry, etc.), restaurants, the World Cup stadium, and more that were all stripped along the ocean. The view is amazing; although there’s lots of fog so it’s sometimes hard to see the mountains. Walking around this area made me feel like I wasn’t in a third world country. I’m sure this feeling will drastically change after visiting the townships and staying in Guguletu.
One of the weirdest feelings so far about being here is getting looked at like an American tourist. Even though I know we stand out because of our loud voices and picture taking, it’s still a little weird. At the airport in Amsterdam there were so many people that stared us down. This definitely had to do with the fact that all of us were laughing loud, while everybody else was talking softly. I never realized how loud Americans are until I traveled abroad.
Time orientation is also very different here. I am a person who constantly looks at the clock and follows schedules down to the seconds. The atmosphere here is extremely laid back. They were telling us at orientation how people will say “We’ll be there just now,” which could mean 10 minutes, a couple hours, a couple days, or even never. This will be another struggle for me to get used to.
So far a lot of my expectations of the Cape Town have been a lot different than reality. Stay tuned for more reflections!
I like your observations about how the waterfront didn't feel like a third world country at all. I keep thinking of a comment NJ made: remember you're in a third world country that has some first world features.
ReplyDeleteNow that you are home do you think all Americans are loud or was it just because we were out of context?