First day of school :)

That's right! Today was our first day of classes at UCT. We started the morning off with a hearty breakfast. Nate, TJ, and Dave woke up early to go to get groceries, and Nate cooked us all breakfast. I told you that we have really great guys on our trip! It was a good thing that Nate cooked for us too. We needed all of the energy that we could get because we made our first trek to class. Our houses are on Lower campus and our classroom is on the complete other side of Upper campus. We started our morning off by walking up the hill. Of course we got a little lost, but 40 minutes later with a little help from Sephimo we arrived at our classroom to begin our day!

We had a guest lecturer from UCT in the Political Science department. He came in to talk about the history of South Africa- specifically apartheid. His lecture really helped fill in all of the gaps that I had. I have read a lot about apartheid from the American and from the South African perspective. I still had a lot of questions which I got answered for me today. It really helped me to understand all of the politics of the apartheid movement.

Most movements are people driven revolutions. This means that, for the most part, movements are usually started by a group of "common" people seeking power. Apartheid was not a movement of the common people. It was a movement started by the elite in South Africa. This got me to thinking, what does it really mean to be "elite"? The word elite, to me, implies that someone is superior and someone is inferior. What is the basis then for the superiority? To my knowledge, elitism is based on one of two things- skin color or money. I am really big on education. My current passion is increasing access to quality education. So I got to wondering what the world would look like if the elite class was just that based solely on education? Essentially, the elite are more educated than others because they have more money which allows them to have access to better education. It was just a thought that struck me...it is something to ponder for the next couple of weeks. I will let you know what I come up with!

Another interesting thing to note was that our lecturer himself spoke English as a second language. At one time, he apologized for his poor English. In reality he spoke better English than I do! He was also very educated in U.S. politics as well. It was a humbling experience to have a lecturer who didn't even speak our native language the knew more about our political issues than a lot of people that I know.

Today I did a lot of reflecting and I noticed that two themes keep coming up in my thoughts: balance and interconnectivity.

Balance applies more to everyday life that to just my time here in South Africa, but it is definitely on my mind. We have been talking a lot about our role in this trip and how to balance everything. I have been thinking a lot about the balance between helping and serving. Helping implies that I am superior and other need my assistance. It implies that I view myself as elite. Well I don't. So how do I balance my desire to learn and serve with my place in the issue of HIV/AIDS? How do I balance challenging myself and knowing when to step back? Just a lot of questions, that I'm still working on formulating in my head. Expect more to come about balance- its such an important part of life.

Interconnectivity has come up a lot for me especially today. I realized that we haven't even really talked about HIV/AIDS at all on our trip yet. There are so many other systems in place and layers that we need to understand before we can fully dive into the issues of HIV/AIDS. Everything from economics, politics, government, violence, unrest, social movements, healthcare, finances, education, culture, stigma, etc plays into the forces surrounding the issues. When we start to peel those layers away we can truly learn about what's at the heart of the issue and understand how people are working toward progress.

This is actually the second time that I have written this blog. I tried to post it earlier and it didn't work...my entire entry was actually deleted. So I hope that this all makes sense. I'm trying my best to give you all a little insight into the things that I am thinking and feeling while I am here. I don't know if it is making any sense and all. I don't even know if it makes sense in my own head. If I have learned anything so far, its that what I'm thinking and feeling is just one of those things where you have to be here to understand it. I would tell any of you who want to know more to do just that- come here! So far it has been such an amazing experience and its only like our third day. I'm excited for the growth and challenges to come.

Another common thing you will hear me say is that I'm still processing everything. I don't think that I will fully understand my studies in South Africa until much later. I don't know that I will every fully understand it all. My head is spinning with all of the thoughts and feelings (you will definitely be hearing that A LOT from me). As always, if you have any questions just ask :)

And now for today's shout outs:

• TJ and Jesse: they bought all of the girls flowers today when we were at the market. I told you we had awesome guys here!
• Stella: thanks to our interstudy friend Nikki we learned how to bargain in markets. We are going to be trying our skills out on Sunday afternoon. I will let you all know how it goes!
• Pig and Swizzle...enough said.
• Nandos: thanks to Laurie we ate at this chicken place which is supposed to be a healthier version of KFC. It is a campus favorite and was delicious.
• Our drivers: they get us from place to place in our vans in one piece. Cape Town is scary to drive in and has narrow streets. Today they managed to get all 17 of us in our vans and out of the streets of downtown when we were surrounded by ambulances and police cars. We aren't sure why all of the craziness broke out, but it did. No need to worry! We are all alive and safe :)
• District Six Museum: we visited there today. Look online if you want to know more information about it. I have lots of stories to share with you all in person about the museum and displacement in general.
  

That's all for now! Tomorrow we are off to see penguins and seals! I'M SO EXCITED :) For now...ciao