So today I took a half a day off from the many exploratory adventures that I have had over the past ten days. I had not stopped to think for an extended period of time since getting off the plane, maybe even getting on the plane, and I made the conscious decision that this was something I must do…oh but then I went to the beach to watch a pretty sunset.

Tuesday and Wednesday however were action packed days. I and 11 other people on my program decided to visit the wine country of South Africa: Stellenbosch. The calmness, beauty and purity of the town reminded me of Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard. But I have learned that in a country with such a volatile and complex history, you can’t accept anything at face value. Everything in Stellenbosch was white, the people, the cars, the beautiful buildings, everything. The official language remains Afrikaans (a Dutch language adopted by South Africa under oppressive, racist, Dutch rule) though the dominance of the language was supposed to fade out of the country when Apartheid ended. While playing Frisbee in open fields, walking around the campus of a breathtaking university, hiking up the most beautiful hills to catch a panoramic view of several stunning vineyards, it was easy to forget that relaxation was equivalent to lack of progress, and more literally to racism and social hierarchy. It is not possible to appreciate all that this town has to offer without recognizing the glaring problems. The juxtaposition of experiences is starting to make me realize how much I want to understand the context of everything around me. I want to understand how Stellenbosch can be what it is and be a ten minute drive from Khayelitsha, a black township that spans a few square miles and has an estimated 500,00 to 1 million residents.

From afar the houses look to be made out of a variety of materials including tin, cardboard, cloth etc and are extremely close together. There is a lot of trash everywhere and constant human traffic.. and I only saw this from the highway. There is such clear inequality that it seems is so often ignored. I have only been in this country for a little over a week and I am fully aware that I have no right to make moral judgments on a culture, a country, a government that I have no knowledge of, but I do think that the bizarre apathy that I encountered in Stellenbosh seems to be a present sentiment keeping Apartheid alive even though it ended 15 years ago. I am starting to see why it takes a much larger amount of time to destroy ideology and subsequently resource distribution and ingrained prejudices than it does to simply say that an oppressive political system no longer governs a society.

Some history taken from wikipedia about townships in general and Khayelitsha (sorry if that insults the academic process I am supposed to embrace after being in college but deal with it):

During the Apartheid Era blacks were evicted from properties that were in areas designated as "white only" and forced to move into townships. Legislation that enabled the Apartheid government to do this included the Group Areas Act. Forced removal from city centers to townships has continued in post-apartheid South Africa. The difference is that under apartheid all black people faced forced removals to townships while now it is only the poor living in shack settlements that face eviction to townships on the peripheries of cities. In Cape Town and Durban this has given rise to mass resistance.

The Group Areas Act, passed in the 1950s, prohibited Blacks from living in the cities. The discrimination and black population control by the apartheid regime did not prevent blacks from settling in the outskirts of Cape Town. After the scrapping of pass laws in 1987 many blacks, mainly Xhosas, moved into areas around Cape Town in search of work. By this time many blacks were already illegally settled in townships (black neighborhood) like Nyanga and Crossroads. As the black population grew, the apartheid regime sought to solve the problem by establishing new black neighborhoods.

So I guess this is where I don’t have the right to have an opinion because I am clearly infusing American and I suppose Jewish ideals into a situation that is built upon separate norms. But I think on some level I am approaching this from a very universal human perspective. Regardless of the circumstances that bring about the racism that is becoming more and more apparent here, I have trouble understanding why it is so hard for people accept this. Every person deserves to be treated with dignity, as an equal. And there are so many different levels upon which that dignity needs to materialize.

SIDEBAR: I am currently reading Jonathan Sacks’ book “The Dignity of Difference” which is definitely influencing a lot of feelings I have been having about using my own societal and religious norms to analyze the norms of different cultures and societies. The book is definitely offering another important perspective to consider within all of these experiences (great recommendation Chippy).

It baffles me how Stellenbosch and Kahyelitshe can be neighboring areas. I know that in other countries there are economically diverse areas, but not to this extent. Not only is the economic gap huge in these areas, but there seems to be such a lack of recognition of these differences. Society here seems so hierarchal, but worse people seem content with vertical relationships. I feel as though I have encountered this apathy before, but I have never witnessed its ramifications so closely…and that was only from the safe distance of the highway. I need to know more. I need to make sure that I in no way contribute to that sense of apathy and ignorance.

As amazing as South Africa is, I must say, much of my wonderful, beautiful experiences are constantly juxtaposed with moments of understanding and of anger toward the divisions that are negatively impacting so many people. I embrace this challenge, this discomfort.

In Jonathan Sacks book he discusses how Western societies polarize the concept of charity and justice. In our world, if we have money and give some to a worthy cause we deem it charity; we deem ourselves helpers, as though we have taken it upon ourselves to do a good deed. The word justice infers responsibility to a worthy cause, yet we normally do not place this responsibility on our shoulders. We see helping those less fortunate, those below us as recipients of our good well. Sacks says that this cannot be the norm, for charity and justice are one in the same. They create the idea of tzedakah which suggests that every human is responsible for another, which suggests that giving money, time or some other form of assistance to those with fewer resources than ourselves must be seen as an obligation in order for us to make the world work in the cyclical way that it should, in a way that encourages compensating for weakness by having access to others’ strength. We all have something to gain from each other, the giver just as much as the recipient. Most of you have probably heard me say this quote before but I feel as though it is quite relevant here.

“If you have come to help me, you are wasting your time, but if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.”

That in my mind sums up the necessary difference between charity and justice. It is not about helping but rather working together and learning and gaining from each others own experiences. If we acknowledge each persons experience we acknowledge their right to all the resources necessary to survive, and can therefore start to think about how t equitably distribute them.

Ok well I am off tomorrow to climb a huge mountain.

South African Ulpan Word of the Day:

Jersey – noun – pronounced jer-ZEY – wool sweater

Example Sentence:

Travis brought three jerseys with him to Antarctica because it was very cold there.

Yea, I am totally improving.

Shabbat Shalom!

Some REAL Adventures!

Hello all,

I would like to let you all know first and foremost that it is currently the month of January and two days ago I spent the day on a beach and currently have a nice tan. But its ok because there are certainly good things to focus on in other cold parts of the world like umm… you know, health, family and friends. Sorry for rubbing it in like that sunscreen I’ve had to put on everyday. Oh sorry am I doing it again?

Well anyway the past few days have been action-packed, idea-packed, just packed in general. This past weekend I spent Shabbat with a family who opens their house every week to anyone who wants to come and spend a spirited, wonderful Shabbat together. They have a shul on their property, the tastiest food I have had since being here (which I guess is not hard when living off rice crispies and salad) and people, mostly teenagers, from a variety of communities within Cape Town. I gathered that the objective of this family is to sustain a dying community that is scattered all around the city making it hard to develop a strong camaraderie among the Jewish youth.

I admit the experience was overwhelming; everyone knew each other and was South African, so naturally I felt a little out of the loop. But once Shabbat started, I truly felt rooted (reference to previous post). Regardless of the circumstances, once Kabbalat Shabbat started, something felt so right, so comfortable. After a week of unknown and acclimation, I felt connected: to people, to my surroundings, to God. While I know these feelings are developing within all facets of this experience, these positive forces were effortlessly present throughout Shabbat; the day took on a whole new meaning. Besides for acting as a break from craziness, I felt a holiness, an elevation that I recognized as vacant from the rest of the week, not in a negative way, but in a way that made me so conscious of how necessary this time is.

After getting a taste of actual South Africans (not literally, unless you count the chicken) who I will hopefully continue to build relationships with, and initiating what could potentially be a significant part of my experience, I returned to Rosebank (that’s where I live, yea it’s a suburb… in Cape Town, South Africa). A few new friends had a get together at there apartment and we all spent the night talking about so many interesting topics. It was amazing to have such great conversation sparked by so many opinions and to be around people who wanted to be a part of them. I sincerely felt the holiness of Shabbat spill over into the rest of the week.

Sunday was amazing. I went to a beach called Camps Bay and was completely stunned by its beauty. I don’t think I could ever go to Atlantic City after this and enjoy it. The water was clean and rich, mountains filled in the space between the chique shops and the pale blue sky, the entire view was complex and vivid…the polar opposite of New Jersey, no offense. It was so strange to be in Africa sitting by the Atlantic Ocean. On the other side of the world I was again warmed by the surprising consistency (though I must say, Africa wins).

We then walked through a beautiful neighborhood to get to the famous botanical gardens that hosts free concerts on Sunday nights during the summer. We sat down with a few thousand natives listening to soothing sounds of an 80’s cover band. Once again the world felt smaller as we Americans listened to bad versions of Billy Joel and Cat Stevens songs. But this time there were mountains and flowers all around us. You may discover a theme in these stories and pictures; mountains. There everywhere, and its amazing.

So keeping with that theme, yesterday, we walked to an area called Bo-Kaap, a Muslim community famous for its vibrant, multi-colored houses. On a whim, we decided to climb the steep hill that the area was a part of. Hiking in jeans and sandals, we made our way up a huge mountain. The ever-changing view was the most incredible, panoramic fusion of houses, sky, skyscrapers, water, more mountains (obviously) with clouds sitting atop them and sailboats. It combined so many aspects of the world, but standing above it, the image simply works. I felt as though even for just this view, the world needs all these different things to work together, to cooperate, to be something more than individual. The world is seen through so many different hierarchies. But if each thing, building, person, is given a greater purpose, then relationships become horizontal, not vertical, not unequal.. I hope this can somehow make sense by looking at the pictures and truly understanding what I interpreted to be the mix of heaven and earth (Intro to Women’s and Gender Studies shout out).

Wow, so I know I am rambling about ridiculous, theoretical ideas that might not make sense, but I felt that this view brought together so many emotions that I have been feeling about people, religion, the history of South Africa and so many other things and I really want to share them with you.

I intended to write a poem called “Chasing the Sun” on my blog tonight because when we were running up the mountain, we tried to watch the sunset by walking quickly around the mountain to find it and failed and I thought this would be an amazing concept for a poem; while we constantly chase the pinnacle of light, enlightenment and so many other cliché metaphors, the journey that gets us there exposes us to so many more valuable ideas and images. Yup, once again, it is about the process. But I think I may have packed this enough. So maybe I will include it in my next post since I definitely still want to write it. But the general point is that I have been having so many amazing experiences, so many amazing conversations and I am thirsty for so much more.

(Oh and by the way I don’t start school until mid February which you nay be wondering since that aspect has not been mentioned.)

Mazel Tov! You earned another South African term of the day:

How are you going? – question - pronounced: how are you going – definition: a common greeting used by the native folk of South Africa similar to “what is up?” or “How are you?”

Example sentence:

When Jane saw Timmy for the first time in a week she inquired “how are you going?”

Yea, still need to work on those.

Miss you all.. I promise!

Finally!!

Wow, so I arrived in Cape Town on Tuesday night after a stressful and long journey. The emotional whirlwind that has followed since then has been intense. I went from enchantment to homesickness to panic to really happy to less happy to content with being sort of happy and being patient and waiting for all of the potential of this trip to materialize.

I live in a suburb of Cape Town called Rosebank in an apartment with two other girls and thankfully we all get along really well. I have been conversing, exploring and hanging out with a bunch of different people on the program and have encountered an abundance of coolness here..and a few Jews too. Just kidding, Jews are cool.

Its weird to feel so rootless, foundationless here. Though I have been getting to know people, I cannot recall ever feeling so unstable; but I think its a good kind of instability. I am here to be challenged, to meet different kinds of people and understand a completely new culture and though it seems lonely or hard right now, I know that it needs to be this way in the beginning. It is not possible to just walk into a new situation and have everything be the way you want it to. As Sunnie says its about the process. I am head-deep in that process right now and I am ok with being there.

So enough pretentious preaching, onto the fun stuff. Cape Town is the most gorgeous place I have ever been. It seemed a little underwhelming at first but then you look past the stores and streets and realize there are the most beautiful mountains from almost every angle. The campus of the University of Cape Town is breathtaking, I cannot even describe it. I will definitely soon add pictures but I want to build up your expectations (or I forgot to bring my camera). The buildings are historic and grandiose and the landscapes add so much color and freshness. I am so excited to sit on a field and read a book and become a part of the picture.

I do not start classes for another 3 weeks, but that is ok because I have time to acclimate to Cape Town and really get to know where I am. I'm in Africa, AFRICA!! I want to know what that means.

Last night definitely started m education. I went to a few club...in my shobbos clothes. The first one was a little too posh and pretentious, but in an unconvincing way since everything here is so cheap, which is great. Then as we wondered along Long Street which is the place to be in Cape Town, we found this other place that seemed very local and cool. Everyone was wearing weird costumes. People had bloody knives coming out of there heads and shirts and crazy make-up and I, along with the people I was with, were a little skeptical of the sanity of Cape Townians, but then we found out it was a themed "kill your neighbor" party and were comforted well kinda. The streets were filled with so many types of people and eclectic shops and I realized how interesting it is too completely immerse yourself in a new culture. I want to become a part of it, I want to understand it and its history. Apparently Americans here are easy to spot because we carry around water bottles and ask lots of questions, so it may be difficult to fully succeed in this task but I have some hope.

As much as I am ready to jump into all this newness, I have started to realize how necessary a Jewish presence is in my life. I love this new experience and the fact that it is one of the first times I am not going to be in a predominantly Jewish environment, but at the same time, I know that it is my center and I cannot be without it and I am so thankful for that. So I have started davening again in the mornings..or trying to. Also this Shabbat I am going to stay with a family in the Cape town Jewish community and am so excited to also learn about Judaism from such a different perspective. I am really happy to have the opportunity to balance out such unchartered territory with something that brings me so much comfort.

Sorry for rambling on, but it took me until now to get internet access and I have had so much bubbling inside that I wanted to pour out. Thank you for reading this and I am so excited to continue to tell you about my adventures....gosh I realize that I have to have some really great stories to live up to the presumptuous name of this blog. Well I hope I succeed.. and I am sure the pictures that will be coming soon will help.

Here is your South African Ulpan term of the day:

Braai - noun - pronounced bry- a barbeque where everyone brings there own food. People tend to have lots of braais to celebrate a variety of special occasions or simply to just spend relaxing time together.

example sentence: Sally and Harriet went to their friend Angela's braai.

ooo, I have to work on those example sentences.

E-A-G-L-E-S!

Rachie