ZA

The beauty of this place is not something that I can overstate. It's something that strikes you when you first look around and then slowly accumulates in your heart. It's not just in the incredible scenery, but in the people and personalities of the neighborhoods and streets. I haven't written much lately, but that's because I've spent most of my time just admiring my surroundings. It's so wonderful. I'll have more to say when we come back from Knysna next Saturday, but for now here's some amazing scenery.

We took an adventure with the intentions of returning to Llaudadno beach to let Buddha get some exercise. Little did we know it would be swarming with other dogs and people, and as Buddha can get a little edgy with new dogs we decided against staying. Muda suggested we go up Chapman's Peak, as he had been mentioning it on nearly every drive we'd taken. "We must go now," he says, "before the sun sets or it rains." It sounds much more exciting if you read it with an accent. We drove all the way around the cape and to Boulder beach.

It just blows my mind that this is my reality.

These guys were so cute and inquisitive, not at all frightened of strangers or large dogs.

I've noticed some interesting changes within myself since I've been here. I find myself more aware of race as it was something I would hardly ever take into consideration at home, but here it plays an important underlying role in how people interact with one another in social paradigms. It's important for me to be fully engaged in the knowledge that I am white, American, and have certain unspoken privileges and certain accompanying pigeonholed preconceptions. Many of the Afrikaaners I've interacted with, especially those in their 30's and older have a very engrained pattern of behavior when interacting with 'other' people. I see it as very normal here (normal being a relative word). It would be very very easy for me to fall into that pattern of subtle indignities and rudeness as it is so easy for many of them to continue perpetuating social segregation. Not enough time as past since Apartheid for these outdated and muted forms of oppression to be phased out by fresh new minds. It's been an interesting lesson here, to not do as the Afrikaaners do. I must be very aware of my whiteness indeed, as to not slip into a pattern that is already laid out for other white people in this country. I'm not saying all Afrikaaners are racist and horrible, not at all. It's just an observation of general attitudes and nuances I see out and about.

Another strange thing is that I'm actually picking up the accent. No one, and I mean no one, can understand my Wisconsin accent. Most people speak English here, no one speaks Wisconsin. The inflections of speech are placed in completely different parts of the sentence structure here. That, and the word choices they use and order of words is interestingly different. If someone says they were pissed, it doesn't mean they were mad, it means they were wasted. "Thrice I called!" said Muda the other day telling us he tried to call three times. If I didn't start mimicking the speech pattern, I wouldn't be able to say shit to anyone. I'm even feeling more comfortable rolling my R's. What I am not comfortable doing though, is hacking up a loogie every time I try to pronounce a street sign with a G. It sounds like someone clearing their throat from serious seasonal allergies, and I have yet to master it. There is a street down the block called Buitengracht. We simply call it Buiten-*insert Dutch guttural noise here*. Hopefully some day, I'll have that figured out. 

Mandy