Blown Away by Grading...

You may think that my life in South Africa is all about travel, laughter, and wine...don't I wish! Welcome to the joys of grading 100 students enrolled in a 5 week course that is worth 6 credit hours. I am in an amazing country with so much to explore, but yet I am sequestered to the apartment with the "big blue books" (also known as BBB) piled high in front of me. The BBB is much like the bible or the gura gita of this study abroad program as it includes all of the curriculum, articles, and journaling pages. Let's hope nobody loses their BBB! We (the TAs) have the F-U-N task of grading the journal pages where the students reflect on their experiences. Every Friday the students turn in their BBBs and we have until Monday to grade them (all 100 of them). It is a daunting task, as most of our weekend is blown away by grading.

What a Birthday: Epic Vistas, Nature & Margaritas!!

Another birthday celebration in South Africa...awesome! Today was definitely a memorable birthday as we spent most of the day at Cape Point: one of the southern most points of Africa--situated where two large water masses meet, the Atlantic and the Indian Oceans. (Actually these two large water masses merge at Cape Agulhas National Park which you can see in the distance.) Since I am a nature lover, it was a great way to spend the day...hanging with the African penguins (yes, there are penguins in Africa) at Boulders Beach, watching the baboons groom one another on the road, spotting ostrich on the side of the road. Best of all I loved spending time on the rugged Cape Point and Good Hope and the vistas were more than delicious. What an incredible place on this earth. Luckily, the students behaved...although I did have to tell one of them that he was being an "Ugly American" as he screamed at the top of his lungs, "Dude, this place is so beautiful!" But, I knew exactly how he was feeling...as I was also taken away by the beauty (but not enough to scream)! This is my third time here and it never loses its novelty. At one point I found a nice rock to perch up against and peered out over the ocean as I opened the birthday card that Charlie had sent with Mallory (he is so thoughtful!)


After arriving back in Cape Town, we gathered the Global LEAD staff (all 8 of us), jumped in a white van taxi, and made our way to Pancho's (supposedly the best Mexican restaurant in Cape Town). While the mango-lemon frozen margarita was loaded with sugar it hit the spot. We went through two pitchers and about 100 action pictures (I know, shocker!) I was rather loopy in no time because I really have not drank all that much since the parasite episode. Woohoo, needless to say...it was a fun evening, despite spilling a margarita all over Chase. I even got to wear a sombrero as they sang happy birthday. My motto still stands...

With every passing year, life gets sweeter!

Vomit after the Vineyards

The big white Mercedes bus drove the windy roads of the South African Franschhoek wine valley as the mountains danced along the horizon and fall colored grape vines painted the valley. We were on our way to a "cultural" vineyard tour with 50 undergrads in tow. I love a good wine tasting, but this one had the makings of a shit-storm. We arrived at the Haut Espoir organic wine farm and the owner, Rob, educated us on the flora and fauna on the approach to the wine cellar. We, then, entered the warehouse where the wine was carefully blended and stored. Here, the students broke into groups of eight wherein they were given six bottles each to freely taste and their task was to develop a blend that would be worthy of the judges palette (I was one of the judges...lucky me!) The problem is that they were mixing whites with reds and by the end of the two-hour tasting who knows what else they were adding to their "master" blends. We tasted them all and I had to spit a few...terrible! During all of this, the students continued to "taste" (or shall we say gulp and chug). One student, who by the way had never drank before, decided to partake in the wine tasting which ended in a bus disaster. That beautiful posh Mercedes bus was soon to be laden with red wine vomit as many of us staff members held his head and wiped him down.

The Torture Chamber in & out of the Castle Grounds...

The Castle of Good Hope is proclaimed as the oldest building in South Africa, built by the Dutch East India Company as a replenishment station during the spice trade in the latter 17th century. During a much needed break from grading, we decided to check it out. The Castle is located in the city center and now houses the military. We experienced more of an adventure than expected, as a man came up to one of us during our 3 block walk to the Castle entrance and demanded money and then proceeded to threaten my friend's life with a knife. I had no idea what was going on because they were walking about 5 steps ahead of me, but when I saw my friend give the man money...I knew something was wrong. I picked up my pace and they began to slow down. Finally I caught up to them and forced my way between them, as the man peeled off in the other direction. Needless to say, as we walked into the Castle grounds this overwhelming sense of safety came over us, we took a break to reflect on everything while eating butternut soup at the cafe. It was all very disturbing, which made the torture chamber in the Castle all the more real and scary.

Amy Biehl Foundation

Let me paint a picture for you. Imagine a very large white Mercedes tour bus barreling through the poverty-stricken "Cape Flats" townships as many white college kid faces peer through the windows looking down at the daily activity in the community. Then, the tour bus gets stuck going around a hairpin turn in the heart of the township. By this time, the kids are running behind the bus and the community is emerging from their tin shack homes to see what is going on. I am absolutely horrified by this whole experience. Through all of my travels, I have become more critical of the power structures of tourism, especially poverty tourism. In this particular situation all I could think about was how the white power structure was overpowering the black community, much like apartheid...as the black community was looked at like animals in a zoo. But, the crazy part of this narrative is that we were the ones in the cage...a big Mercedes cage. I am still grappling with that experience and trying to make sense of it all.

After the disturbing drive through poverty, we stopped at two primary schools where the Amy Biehl Foundation coordinates after-school programs for the children in the township which was definitely the silver lining of the tour. Amy Biehl was an American Fulbright scholar working in the townships in 1992 (during apartheid) and attending the University of Western Cape as she advocated for voter rights and women participation in the process. During her time in Cape Town, she often visited the townships and on August 25, 1993 as she was dropping off a friend in the Guguletu township, an angry political mob pulled her from the car and killed her. The incredible side of this story is how her parents dealt with her death. Instead of being taken away by their anger with the fact that the people Amy was trying to help actually killed her, they found forgiveness as they participated in the truth and reconciliation process with the four murderers who killed their daughter. The four murderers were granted amnesty and released from prison in 1998 and one of Amy's killers is now an employee for the very foundation that Amy's parents founded. The foundation in Amy's name was founded in 1997 and serves many townships with after school programs. We visited two of the programs and were entertained by singing, dancing, and music. The story itself was enough to send shivers down my back.

"The mission of the Amy Biehl Foundation is to develop and empower youth in the impoverished townships in and around Cape Town through educational and cultural activities, whilst at the same time preventing youth violence, crime, drug abuse and HIV/AIDS through a holistic approach to community development in socio-economically disadvantaged communities."

South Africa Livin'!

I am living with two other teaching assistants who are also pursuing PhDs at UGA, Mallory (a PhD student in Recreation and Leisure Sports) and Chase (a Doctor--he just graduated--in History). Before coming to South Africa I had met Mallory a few times, but I had never met Chase before. So, here we are in an equivalent situation to MTV's "Real World": three roommates living in a two bedroom-two bathroom apartment on the beach (yes, see the photo from our balcony) in Cape Town. Sorry, no drama or scandalous moments to speak of...it has simply been fun getting to know each other and the conversation is never dull. We often find ourselves in deep discussions about capitalism, PhD hardships, socialism, oh, and grading (after all, we are here to...teach and grade.)

Cape Town

After 20 hours in the friendly skies, we finally made it to Cape Town. You may be asking why are you in South Africa again? Well, I am serving as a teaching assistant (again) for the Global LEAD 5-week study abroad program. We have 101 students from Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Wake Forest, and Auburn universities. So, everything we do includes large tour buses, attendance lists, and reservations. This is not my preferred mode of travel, as I think it perpetuates stereotypes about Americans, but I do believe the students learn a great deal during their time in South Africa. The first few days were crazy as we all dealt with jet-lag and very busy days. The top two photos are from the cultural dinner at Moyo where we were fed "modern sophisticated African" food and entertainment...complete with every student (and staff) receiving a face painting. We also took a city tour with highlighting the beautiful areas of Cape Town (see photo below...of Camps Bay). This is my second year here and I am struck (once again) by the beauty of this city where the ocean meets the mountains. Some of my favorite places in the world (Vancouver, Cliffs of Moher in Ireland, Bergen and Bodo in Norway, Doubtful Sound in New Zealand) are where the ocean/sea meets the mountains. I suppose it is the meeting of these two incredibly powerful forces of mother nature that gets my heart beating with love and admiration for the beauty. And, it beats again...alive with the spirit of AYOBA (African slang for joy and amazement).

A Crazy Month

Between being sick, having five of my favorite people visit Athens, helping Charlie move out of his four-bedroom house, and then turning around to pack, move, and clean my apartment we finally managed to move our stuff into the summer apartment (and the storage unit). I am simply drained. Tomorrow I leave for South Africa and I have no idea what I have packed for my 2-month adventure...should be interesting as I unpack. When I was packing up my apartment I had five piles of stuff: 1.) South Africa, 2.) Athens in July, 3.) stuff to drive back to Colorado, 4.) Finland, and 5.) recycle or pitch. Everything in my apartment went through the question process: do I need this in South Africa? Athens? Should this be temporarily stored in Colorado? Or do I not need this until Finland (primarily my winter clothes). I literally had four piles. The entire moving process consisted of so many logistics...I felt like I was losing my mind.

Pictures: the summer apartment, located in downtown Athens, where Charlie will live this summer and I will join him for the month of July. It is a big transition, as Charlie moved from his 4-bedroom house to a two-room apartment but, a good transition because apartments in Finland are much smaller than the American way of grandiose living. The apartment is fully furnished...which made moving in so much easier.

Heart breaking Blessing: death comes to Athens.

Such a sad day, today one of my beloved professors, Doug Toma, passed away after a long hard battle with melanoma. Yesterday when I went to drop something off at the Tomas apartment, I was surprised as the front door was left wide open. I walked in and saw three ladies sitting in the living room. My eyes searched the apartment for Linda...and saw that she was sitting on the porch with a friend. I introduced myself to Doug's mother, the hospice worker, and a family friend. They asked if I wanted to talk with Linda, I said no...she was expecting my visit and this bag of mail. Then, I glanced over to my left and saw a hospital bed and Doug resting peacefully on the bed (the visual was simply white and almost heavenly...I guess that is why I first missed it when I walked in). I was taken back by how ill Doug looked (ghostly white, sunken cheekbones, and tubes in his nose) and said to the ladies...It it really hard to see him like this. The hospice worker got up and walked over to Doug's bed and touched his hand and called his name...Doug, Doug, Leasa is here. His eyes were somewhat open, but his eyeballs rolled forward and I grabbed his hand. He mumbled something twice that I did not understand, the hospice worker said...I think he is asking how you are. I did not know what to say as tears quietly streamed down my face and simply said...I am very well. His eyeballs rolled to the back of his head as he fell deeper into an unconscious state. I could not get out of there quick enough...

In hindsight, I should have said:
Doug you are one of the reasons I have survived this hellish PhD experience because you always showed me unconditional support and offered me so many amazing and uplifting opportunities (TA position on Costa Rica spring break program, TA position for South Africa study abroad program, and the Graduate Fellowship with the Franklin Residential College). If it was not for you I would never have had the plethora of international experiences during my time at UGA. You opened up doors I never thought would be possible. You encouraged me to pursue my dream of conducting international dissertation research and even went so far as to devise a crazy scheme to send me to Australia (he loved conjuring up harebrained ideas and sometimes he even pursued them). You made me part of your extended family as I traveled with you, Linda, and Jack to Costa Rica, South Africa, and Norway. You trusted me with your son and shared with me your unwavering love for your family. You pushed boundaries and people that needed to be pushed. You were there for me in the darkest moments (even when you really never knew it) as you simply believed in me, my skills, and my abilities. I will forever be in debt to you and Linda for all of the love and kindness that you showed me the past three years. I feel so much gratitude for your presence in my life.

I end this entry with the wise (and jovial) words of Doug,

"I do not have a bucket-list. I live my bucket-list everyday!"