New blogger! Since this is my first post on this blog, let
me take a few sentences to introduce myself. My name is Sanna Strand, and I’m
an International Studies major at HPU. I’m a junior or senior, depending on how
you see it. I’m technically two credits away from being a senior, but since I
will graduate next semester, let’s just say I’m a senior. I am also an
international student, originally from Sweden. But this semester, however, I am
neither in Hawaii nor in Sweden, I’m in South Africa. Right now I am in my
classroom in Rondebosch in Cape Town.
So, a little more about my study abroad experience. I am
abroad with an organization called SIT Study Abroad. The program I’m at is
called Multiculturalism and Human Rights, and it is based here in Cape Town,
but we have, and will, visit other places too. The reason I chose to go abroad
with SIT is that all their programs are field based, which means that I didn’t
just come to Cape Town to attend classes at a university just like I do in
Hawaii, I wanted an experience that was more different. This includes living in
four different homestays, learning to speak one of South Africa’s official
languages, isiXhosa, and going on excursions in the country.
I got to South Africa a little over two weeks ago. I won’t
go into detail of what we have done since then because this post would be way
too long if I did that. Anyway, I flew into Johannesburg where we were supposed
to spend the first few days. I managed to meet up two people from my group and
after a while we got picked up by some guy. We were taken to the hostel where
we were going to live while we were in Johannesburg. The rest of the day our
group was just getting to know each other, which was a fun experience because
there are not a lot of shy people in this group. After about two days together
it felt like we had known each other for months rather than days. There are 23
people in this group, 6 guys, which is apparently a record for this program. We
were in Johannesburg for four days, and each day was packed with activities. We
went to the Apartheid Museum, Pretoria, Constitution Hill, the Voortrekker
Monument, Soweto, Mandela’s house, and a bunch of other places, and we also did
a lot of “bonding”-activities.
After the first four days in Johannesburg we flew to Cape
Town where we will spend most of the semester. The first four days we lived in
a hostel. Our days were still filled with activities and classes, but on the
evenings we had some free-time to have dinner on our own, and we also went out
for a few beers and drinks most nights.
On Saturday last week, eight days after we got to South
Africa, the adventure really started. We moved in with our first homestay
family in Langa, which is a township here in Cape Town. Our group is divided
into two groups, each group in one mini-bus that takes us to and from school. On
the way to the homestays we were all starting to freak out. We were supposed to
just move in with a family that we had never met, and live there, like a
family-member, for three weeks. As I got off the bus I got really nervous, but
luckily Tabisa, our program assistant, was with me and walked me over to the
door. But when my Mama open the door, Tabisa left immediately, she had other
students to introduce to their new moms. So there I was, alone in a house with
my mom for the next few weeks. I knew that I would live with my mom, her daughter,
and her granddaughter, but at the moment she was the only one there. We sat
down in front of the TV and talked a little. She is not the most talkative and I
didn’t really know what to ask her or talk about after a while so it was kind
of nice that the TV was there.
So for the last nine days I’ve been living with this family
and gotten to know them better. The granddaughter, Liyema, my sister, was
really shy in the beginning but after a while she warmed up to me, and now she
won’t really leave me alone for more than a few minutes. But I don’t mind, she
is really cute and nice. My other sister is a few years older than me, and she
doesn’t really spend that much time at home, so I don’t really know her that
well yet. I do, however, spend more time with the neighbor kids, which are
Liyema’s closest friends. There’s Lindokuhle who is 10, Afika who is 8, and
then there’s Acwenga who is 3, and he is the cutest kid I’ve ever seen. He doesn’t
speak any English yet, only Xhosa, but he is so happy and just smiles all the
time.
Usually my days looks kind of like this: wake up at 6.30AM,
breakfast, bus to school at about 7.10, arrive at about 8, free time until
9.30, we usually go to the gym, or work on stuff we have to do, then we have
school until 5PM. Usually we get back to Langa at around 6PM, and then I just
hang out with mama, have dinner at 7PM, then we watch TV until we go to bed at
about 8.30-9.30PM. It’s been a long time since I slept this much, but it is
almost making me more tired. The weekends look a bit different. We spend a lot
more time with our families, and it’s during the weekends I play a lot with my
sister and our neighbors. I also take walks with my mama, or walk over to some
of my classmate’s houses, or they come over to my place, we’re pretty much free
to do what we want, and so far we’ve been lucky and not had any big homework
that needs to be done.
Don’t expect too much
from me this semester when it comes to updating this blog. I only have internet
when I’m in the classroom, and it is very limited, but I will do my best. Most posts
will probably look like this, a lot of information but not too many details. Pictures
will probably also be limited, but I’ll try to post some pictures later this
week. Feel free to comment if there is anything you would like me to write more
about.
So long,
Sanna
