Full Weekends

[Standard delivery of apology for taking so long to update the blog]

Sorry, folks. Schoolwork combined with a horribly sluggish internet makes updating the blog one of the bigger chores of my stay here.

In the past few weeks we’ve been having some awesome weather. Pretty much every other day, we get a torrential thunderstorm. We had our first really legit Swazi thunderstorm last Tuesday. All day there was thunder, but at around 6:45 the rain started to come in. Soon after came the famous Swazi lightning – the sky was streaking with gorgeous bolts for hours (Seriously dad, if you ever want some good pictures of lightning, come back to Swaziland). The power cut out (of course), and people became but the lights of their cell phones that they had in front of their faces, trying to navigate through the pitch-black corridors. Most people gave up on their homework and simply took some time to watch the spectacle before going to bed. My friend Daniel counted thirty lightning flashes in one minute… it was magnificent. I popped in my iPod and sat at the window for a while – sure, I probably should have been doing homework, but these are the types of things you gotta watch.

These past two weekends have been extremely packed – it all begins two Fridays ago, when we had our first Anthropology field trip. We went out to Ngwenya Mines, a fairly popular tourist stop in Mbabane. However, we went with a guy named Bob Forrester (the old Anthropology teacher at WK), who was able to show us a totally new side to the tourist spot. We arrived and met up with Bob, who told us about the significance of the mines and the vast amount of iron deposits that still exist in the area. The huge quantity of iron in the area is significant because some of the first tribes in the area, thousands and thousands of years ago, used iron dust in the form of ochre to become spiritually connected to another realm. It is believed by anthropologists that this was done largely through the use of cave paintings. And while we weren’t able to see any cave paintings (at this location), Bob took us a little off the beaten track to show us a mine that anthropologists believe is the first in the world.

Lemme repeat that: The oldest mine in the world. Bob told us that only about 30 people have seen it in the past 40 years.

It was really spectacular – we went to the mine and just sat in silence for a while, and then talked about methods of digging and spiritual processes that are believed to have taken place in the mine. I’m not much of a Romantic… but I dunno, I found the mine really amazing. When I was sitting there, I felt like I was sitting at the center of the Earth… I also thought about the fact that, thousands and thousands of years ago, some of the first beings that we would recognize as people were sitting in the exact same spot.

So anyways… it was a really fantastic educational (and even spiritual) experience.

As a huge contrast, we got back from the mine at around six, I went to my cubie to change, and turned back around to perform in the Form 5 V-Show (“Vanity Show” – Basically, a talent show… on steroids). Every year, the lower forms organize a talent show where people can show off talents in whatever area they see fit. There was dancing, singing, and even a display of nunchuck skills. Practically the whole school was there, and people were going NUTS. I decided on a whim that I wanted to perform in the show with my friend Basti, just a few days earlier.

So with Basti as my drummer, I got up on stage and performed “A Thousand Miles” on the piano, accompanied by the voices of pretty much everyone in the audience. We had a tremendous amount of fun. I got video footage… It’s really funny. You can’t even hear me over the singing of the audience. If anybody from choir is reading this, it made me miss you all bunches, and reminded me of when we used to sing this before class.

March 26^th (Two Saturdays ago) was the date for Earth Hour. A couple awesome kids at WK, along with a club on campus called “Green Revolutionaries”, got most of the lights in the school turned out and organized a miniature acoustic performance in the amphitheatre. It was very UWC – green, sustainable, organic, etc. People played guitar, read poetry, and gave inspirational quotes. One of my co-years from the states (I’m sure I’ve mentioned Anne Caroline before) wrote a poem that is nothing short of phenomenal. Seriously, sitting a candlelit amphitheatre and hearing this poem just… blew me away. I’m going to put it here so it can live out immortally in the Internet:

Bubble 

I was looking at a bubble when I noticed

that rainbows appeared on its skin. 

The bubble rose up in the air 

I saw the world seen by those who walk on their heads 

A world where leaves sink deep into the sky-

growing trees with blossoming roots

Water flows up making canals,

Laugh lines in the sky 

Books read from Right to Left and

jump ropes make slapping noises as they brush the skies 

Mountains are stalactites that hang from the Heavens  

Tears fall up and everyone seems to be smiling 

This was a world where all women wear miniskirts and no one accuses them of “asking for attention”

Where the word “rape” is rearranged to spell “pear” and eaten with cottage cheese and raisins 

“Racism” almost makes “charisma” if you add a few letters 

A world where W.A.R is an acronym for We Are Reunited

there is no need for Peace marches so instead, knitting circles are held 

Katrina is only a name- and the Lower 9^th Ward is, of course, Upper 6^th Avenue 

In this world the only drugs are Endorphins and

people shoot up on Confidence 

There is no disrespect, disregard, or disinfectant.

Diseases are treated with plants and bark and meditation 

Humans have transparent skin and Obama STILL won the election 

I saw the Haitian buildings crumble up in defiance

Dusty-faced children scrambling from rubble into comfortable homes 

Afghani women wear what they want: Burka, Prada, or Nada 

Corporations are a silly name for relationships and

All the CO2 and Methane in the air turns to snowflakes which taste like tick tacks

Animals are not served for dinner but at dinner

The Oceans are as clear as the sky below and the rainbow fish is seen everyday 

Storks still fly belly up to deliver babies

So sex is purely for pleasure and abortion is unheard of 

The people live for sound of silence, right after laughter 

Cancer can be massaged out and

The only types of AIDS are lemonade and limeade 

Corn is eaten in tortillas and cornbread, and is not used for everything from soda, to building materials to vegetable sheen! 

Rivers flow upstream and Salmon are confused 

Every person is born with 2 eyes, a nose, 2 ears, and Health Care 

Adults and children alike hang by their knees on monkey bars to catch stardust on their tongues 

I wondered if this could be a dream or just the world which lives behind our closed Eyelids

I tried to swallow as much as I could but before my thirst was quenched 

The bubble flipped me right side up again… or was it wrong side down?

Much respect, AC.

Moving along, this past weekend was also extremely packed. This starts with Friday, directly after school, when I finally got the guts to shave my head. As something I’ve wanted to do for a long time, I was motivated by my friend Ane (IB2) (who did the honors). It looks good… although a LOT of people have told me that I look like I’m going to the military. Which I suppose is actually true. Think of how Simon Pegg looks in Hot Fuzz (for those awesome people who have seen Hot Fuzz), and you have a rough idea of how it looks on me. Ish. I’m still brushing my hand though my hair a lot and junk. But hey – if I ever find I don’t like it, I can take solace in the fact that hair grows… and I can just revert back to wearing a beanie all the time.

Directly after, I went camping with a few friends this weekend out in the middle of nowhere in Swaziland. Seriously, this place was crazy isolated. It’s owned by the parents of one of the girls who went, though, so its not like we were doing anything dangerous or outrageous (mom). I didn’t even stay up that late, because the next day…

I had St. Joseph’s Commserve! For anybody who recalls me writing about Mpaka, St. Joseph’s is kind of like a Mpaka equivalent, but with kids that are more disabled. Many were in wheelchairs, some had facial deformities, and all were extremely pleasant and fun to be with. We went out to Mlilwane Game Reserve so we had a pool we could take them in, and I spent most of my time swimming and playing volleyball with the kids. Out of all the commserve I’ve done here so far, Mpaka and St. Joseph’s have definitely been some of my favorites. Y’all know I adore playing with kids, and these projects are all about that – showing a group of underprivileged kids a good time. Plus, I got to practice my SiSwati a little more with the kids (Uyatsandza yini kubhukusha?), an added plus. Many said I was pretty good at it! They must have been trying to flatter me because I was holding a box full of potato salad…

After getting back from St. Joseph’s, I hopped straight into rehearsal for the school wide music concert, which happened that very night. I sang a few songs with the choir and played jazz drums with a small jazz combo I’m now a part of, “The Showcase”. We had fun (despite it not being our best performance), and many people came up to me afterwards to tell me that they didn’t recognize at first the young army sergeant that walked up on stage to play drums (me). 

As if this all would not comprise a full enough weekend, on Sunday I got up before seven and hopped in a combi with my Anthro class to check out some cave paintings in northern Swaziland. We met up with Forrester (again), who described the significance of cave paintings in connecting with another realm, and how Bushmen would frequently go into trance to solve problems by communicating with higher beings. We looked at a lot of paintings in depth and learned a lot about modern day Swaziland from the things Bob told us about the paintings. The paintings were really cool, although having my carsick and exhausted body travel another three hours in a car over the weekend may not have been the best thing for my health. Eish.

I promised you all a UWC day photo last time I posted – Here’s a nifty shot of me, Sofia (Germany), and Anne Caroline:

This coming week, it’s cycle grades (report cards), climbing community service, and planning for my South Africa trip (I leave really soon?). I wanted to apologize to all my frans and family who are reading this about my lack of correspondence – I promised I wouldn’t lose touch, but I fear that I’m doing just that. It’s difficult… I’m on the internet once every couple of days and its insanely slow (I recorded the other day, fifteen minutes to log in to FB). I plan on sending out postcards soon, if not from SD then from South Africa or Mozambique during term break. I’m also super stoked for CDO Class of 2011 – I can’t believe how close you all are! Didn’t we just start freshman year a few weeks ago? Sending my best for an awesome last month and a half… its going to amazing!

I’ll try to update more regularly from now on… but if I can’t, know that I love you guys and am still thinking of you everyday.

Sala khale,

Eli

Lack of Posting

Hey hey –

A thousand apologies for abandoning you all for one week… Procrastination, the first pillar of IB, took hold this past week. Or rather, I procrastinated on my blog to make room for schoolwork, CAS, etc (so there’s no need to freak out, mom :)

There have been two main highlights of these past two weeks: getting a care package in the mail, and UWC day. So let me start with the former…

Man, I wish you guys could have seen my face as I tore into that package. I was beaming. Everything was perfect, all the way down to the newspaper articles and cartoons. And yes Grandma, you did get the right kind of jellybeans :) And Girl Scout cookies! When I saw the box my train of thought went something like this:

I’m only going to get a package every once in a blue moon. I should savor these cookies. I’ll only eat one a day.

15 minutes later…

Man, I miss those Girl Scout cookies.

(I shared… reluctantly)

Thank you to everyone involved in constructing the package – everything was absolutely perfect, down to the bandana with the American flag.

And speaking of this…

The timing for the package could not have been better, because the day after I received the aforementioned patriotic bandana was UWC day. Basically, UWC day is a chance for everyone in the school to express their home culture by making food, dressing up, dancing, singing, reading poetry, etc. And it’s really fun, because we have about fifty countries represented at Waterford – that’s a lot of great food and awesome outfits. We started the day off with an assembly where people from each nation came out in front of the school, paraded their outfits, and told everyone their home country. Anne Caroline and I were reppin’ the US as cowboys (ye haw?). My outfit was over-the-top patriotic… most people got the joke, but for some I just looked like an asshole. Oops.

After assembly everyone went to set up their country stalls – basically, all around the school people set up booths where they sold food characteristic of their home country. The Norwegians made some killer waffles, the Germans had meatballs and pretzels, I’m pretty sure I saw the Swazi’s grilling up some intestines... the U.S. had chocolate chip cookies and lemonade (although we had a lot of requests for corn dogs… perhaps next year). I spent a good portion of the day running the stall for Young Heroes, a fundraising community service I’m a member of, although I still got the chance to stuff my face with some delish food.

Anyways, UWC day was really awesome. I know it sounds really cheesy, but it was great to see everyone expressing and embracing their own culture. Folks were really super proud to be… themselves. Which is always a pleasant sight.

What else. There was recently a strike in Swaziland – teachers, shop workers, nurses, and pretty much everyone else refused to work last Friday (although we still had school, rats). I wasn’t really that inconvenienced, sheltered here on the hill.

HOWEVER, the strike did have one huge impact on me – the nurses at Ward 8 decided to take off on the day that we had community service there. So I arrive at the hospital with my group on Wednesday and there’s nobody there with the children. One is on the floor and the other is in his stroller. Neither has been changed. It was… really stunning. The fact that Ward 8 is supposed to be a facility that cares for abandoned children, but instead it was like they had been re-abandoned. I asked my supervisor – surely somebody must be staying with them at night? She said they were probably staying alone. That hit me really hard. More than anything, it made me realize the importance of our commserve. Even if we’re just taking the kids outside and around the town, at least they’re getting some fresh air and, moreover, some attention. Being touched, talked to, cared for… these are all extremely important things that we take for granted. So we talk to the kids and rub their backs, sometimes I sing to them (perhaps a little goopy, but imagine a life where your parents never sang to you). It may not be much, but I’m beginning to think more and more of it.

Today at Waterford we celebrated Human Rights Day with an early day out, followed by an assembly and various workshops around campus. A representative from UNICEF and the High Commissioner of South Africa came to our school and spoke about human rights in relation to the history of South Africa – in particular, the High Commissioner said something that I found very interesting. It was something like this:

Many of you are from different nations around the world where violations of human rights are not at the forefront of your problems. But human rights violations have been very significant in the development of conflict in South Africa over the last half-century.

Maybe I’m quoting it wrong because I look back and it doesn’t look like it does her justice, but the gist was that I’m now in a place where human rights violations are of much more pivotal importance. I mean, they’re important everywhere… but it seems to be a very omnipresent issue here. But perhaps I’m just not paying enough attention in the states, eh?

I sang in assembly with the choir and ran a workshop for Amnesty International, another commserve I’m doing. Basically we brought students into a room that was very dimly lit (it was supposed to be really dark but that didn’t really pan out) with a few candles in the middle and asked them about their perceptions of human rights. Then we read out loud a story about the violation of human rights somewhere in the world; the death penalty by stoning in Iran, the abuse of migrant workers in Malaysia, acts of sexual violence against Nicaraguan girls. Then we asked them more questions about human rights – how have their perceptions changed (if at all), what can we do to protect human rights, do we see any examples of these violations in our own nations? The whole thing was done with a lot of silence, reminiscent of Quaker meeting almost. However, because the students we had were a little younger (about freshman age), we had to coax them a bit into discussion… but on the whole the workshop went really well. Students in all three workshops said the best way to work towards protecting human rights is to talk about it and make people’s stories heard… and that’s exactly what we did. So I’m guessing the world will be cured within the next few days ;)

Like I mentioned before, I’ve been getting increasing amounts of schoolwork lately. I’m not really that stressed (yet; you’re not allowed to be stressed in IB1), but I think this coming week will be kind of… inconvenient. I just turned in today a poetry anthology for English, containing commentaries on five poems and one song (I analyze schemes and tropes, including anaphora, climax, triple construction, repetition, and hyperbole, in Fergie’s “Fergalicious”) – the anthology came out to about nineteen pages. Tomorrow I have a maths test, plus a biology lab, biology test, English commentary, and SiSwati test on Friday. Woo!

As a treat for taking so long to update the blog, I wanna throw some photos of UWC day up on the blog. I’ll get them as soon as possible and show you all my excessive cowboyness (if the internet gods here see it fit).

Until then, stay well friends. Hope all is well, wherever you may be. Know that things are awesome here in S-Deezy.

Lots of love,

Eli

Waterval Boven

Hey folks –

Wow, it feels like I was just updating this. Time sure flies here – I’m pretty sure the Swazi days are at least a couple hours shorter. Every day seems to finish before it’s supposed to. Perhaps it’s a good sign – shows that I’m doing a lot of stuff… right?

The highlight of this past week has definitely been my weekend trip with the climbing team to Waterval Boven, South Africa. Boven is the second largest sport-climbing venue in the world, and it regularly attracts prominent climbers from all over. There’s something like 600 bolted routes throughout the area... so yeah, it’s like the Disneyland of climbing. And it’s only two hours from school. Win.

We woke up early Saturday morning and packed up a combi (big bus-van thing) and hit the road pretty quickly, since we only had one weekend to climb. We arrived at around ten, set up camp (man, I forgot how much I love camping), and set out to climb.

Oi, the place was gorgeous. It reminded me a lot of the Grand Canyon, in many ways – it’s pretty much flat all around, but when you get closer to the climbing area you just see a huge lush canyon that looks like it’s been scooped out of the ground with an ice cream scooper. Twas just super beautiful. The canyon is hours from Joburg or any other big city, so it’s really isolated and quiet. It was all just so very… natural.

Sorry, I’m not doing it justice with my writing. It was great.

We wasted no time, and hiked down into the canyon at around eleven to start climbing. We all started with a lead climb on an easy route to get warmed up, and even though it was easy it was still kind of frightening to lead climb – it’s really something that takes some getting used to. How I used to bring myself to free climb on hikes, I’ll never know.

We all then broke up into smaller groups and tackled different climbs. There’s so many good climbs at Boven that, of course, we couldn’t even scratch the surface of the vast number we wanted to approach. But we all essentially climbed until our arms felt like they were going to fall off, and then climbed more. We met a group of climbers from Canada who where familiar with the UWC in British Columbia and who had spent time in Tucson before (small world). Awesome. We made our way back to camp, cooked burgers over the fire, laughed about the Danish accent (sorry, Lykkfry :) , and went to bed, super content.

The next day was essentially the same, plus one added encounter with a snake that almost ended REALLY badly, an incident with a stolen bathtub, and my co-year from Bangladesh getting stopped at the border because his name rhymed with a suspected terrorist’s name. All in a day’s work!

Monday I was hit with a bollock’s load of schoolwork, plus some outside application essays and junk. I get the feeling this week will be busy... but this is something I’m going to have to get used to fairly rapidly, I suppose. I’m standing here on the internet right now taking a break from my schoolwork, as a cat (hopefully non-rabid) rubs against my legs and purrs contentedly.

Shoutout to Nick (and Amory) for the letters and CD – thank you so very much :) I’m working on responses right now, amidst errthang else. Considering the speed of post, expect them sometime in June… 2012.

Missing folks tremendously, hope all is well in tuc-town (or wherever you may be). I’d expand on how much I miss you all, but I’ve got to go snag the cat, who just jumped on my desk and is now knocking over my speakers and putting its mouth on my toothbrush. Yum.

Cheers,

Eli

Mozambique

Heyy peeps -

Sincerest apologies for updating this late, I get back from Moz on Sunday night and was pooped beyond belief. I've pretty much been procrastinating on the update till now... but y'all can deal.

Let me tell you all about my weekend...

The trip to Mozambique was a trip filled with up’s and down’s. We got to Moz in the evening Thursday thinking that we were going to stay at a hotel a friend had booked for us. However, the booking kind of fell through, so we had to find a place to crash for the night so we could move into the hotel the next day. So we crashed at a place downtown that was kind of expensive. We figured, though, that it would only be one pricey night, and then we would move into the other hotels, which were supposed to be cheap and fairly nice. We went out for dinner (it was great to have proper food again), and what I found most immediately striking was that I had to be afraid of the dark again. I mean, perhaps ‘afraid’ isn’t the best word, but when we were walking outside in the dark there was a certain tenseness and heightened alertness. There were stories from other groups (later in the week) of getting stopped by policemen with AK-47s, having to bribe themselves out of situations, being very close to getting arrested. It wasn’t hyperbole, either. The police will arrest anybody walking around at night without a passport, and are much more likely to ambush people who look like tourists. For the whole trip, I have to say that I was pretty lucky to not have any police encounters.

But I digress.

We got to bed at a reasonable time the first night, and I was looking forward to getting a good night’s sleep. However, at about five in the morning the next day, Leo (Germany) woke me up and told me he was having chest pain and needed to go to the hospital. So we went out on the street in search of the hospital – luckily, it was within walking distance of where we were staying. Walking through Mozambique reminded me a lot of Mexico – in addition to the signs everywhere in Portuguese (official language), the infrastructure and environment just gave off much of a Mexico vibe. Actually sort of nice, because it made me feel closer to home... ish. We were able to walk to the hospital, but then encountered our next problem – the language barrier. Fortunately, Leo’s knowledge of Spanish and my (very limited) knowledge of SiSwati (our nurse was Swazi) helped us get through the hospital with considerable speed. Leo got an x-ray and some blood drawn, and eventually the doctor concluded that he had a virus and gave him antibiotics. I saw this all as very fitting with the "Moz experience" - crazy stuff happens, and you never really know. Woo!

We spent the day touring around the city, driving along the ocean and such. I had quite a shock, actually, when someone looked out the window and said “Look, the Indian Ocean!” I dunno why it didn’t register before, but I had never really thought about how Moz is on the side of the Indian Ocean. My mind then started WTFing for about ten minutes as I realized how far away from home I was.  When I used to play with the globe as a kid, I would look at the Indian Ocean and practically think it was on another planet, it was so far away. And yet there I was, on a bus driving along it. After I get over this shock, though, I began to really appreciate the ocean and the beach. The Norwegians all laughed at me because I was having a mindgasm about being at the ocean, and everyone was shocked when I told them it had been YEARS since I’d been on the beach. I love it on the beach though – I feel like I’m on the edge of the world, and I can almost feel myself being on the border of a continent. Which may sound weird but… whatever. 

Eventually we got to our accommodation -  a timeshare-esque place across the street from the beach. All of us were sooo excited to staying in this amazing village place for super cheap.. yeah, until we were told that it was going to be more expensive than we were originally told. And then we found out we weren’t actually staying in the timeshare area, but in a house in the super sketch area BEHIND the nice place. Should have known it was too good to be true, we said. The house was pretty nice but we were really pissed for a while about the price that we would have to pay. Eventually we got over it and realized that, considering the location and the nature of the accommodation, we were actually getting a pretty good deal. Nevertheless, it added to the emotional fluctuation that had been so omnipresent throughout the day.  

We got up the next morning for continental breakfast (one of the pluses of a more expensive place), and then went swimming at the pool. I wanted to swim in the ocean, but conventional Mozambican wisdom dictates that it’s a bad idea, and the water is fairly… brown. Boooo pollution. The pool was nice though, and afterwords we went to the beach to walk around and just hang out. Being on the beach was THE BEST. We got ice cream at a place with an ocean view (this was what I pictured when I thought of Moz) and had a generally relaxing and fun day. 

That night we went out and stayed out until the sunrise (watched from the beach - AWESOME), and then crashed super hard for the bus ride home. As folks can imagine, I was totally trashed (relax, I mean exhausted) by the time I got back to Swaziland, so these past few days have been focused on catching up on sleep. Yay!

Monday morning at breakfast I saw a sign in the cafeteria that said something like -
All climbers, be sure to be at the gym today to discuss a trip this weekend to climb in South Africa. 

So this is my next adventure? You all are probably wondering if I even go to school. (I do, just to clarify)

I saw today that I got a package, and I'm going to pick it up tomorrow. I'm super stoked (I danced around for about five minutes when I saw) and many thanks to the sender(s). 

Missing you all tons (of course), I'll be posting pictures soon enough. 

Sala kahle,

Eli

[Title of Post]

 Folkss -

I’m trying my best to keep with the habit of posting every week, although sometimes I miss updating Sunday nights.

This past week has been pretty standard, although I’ve been hit with my first wave of homesickness. I find myself occasionally zoning out in class, thinking about home and missing you guys tremendously. Perhaps its partially because I’ve posted pictures of friends and family all over my room… It’s weird, though, cause I’ll also find myself missing little minute details about home – driving down Oracle, the supermarket, etc. I’m not freaking out (yet), although I could def. go for some eegee’s. It helps to go into town every week and get off campus a little, get some food at a restaurant, interact with a different environment… ya know.

On the flip side, though, I also find myself continually astounded with my surroundings and my peers. I think I say this every time I post, but I really can’t stress it enough. The other night I went out with some friends and we had a great discussion about culture and Western influence in Africa. It’s really amazing to hear how others (particularly Africans) perceive European influence in Southern Africa and across the continent. The partition of Africa was not that long ago, bear in mind. We talked about issues of imperialism and the imposition of Western culture on many nations, and the differences between our own personal views on humanitarian aid in Africa.

We also talked a lot about UWC and our own personal (and differing) expectations of UWC. WK is different from most of the other UWCs because a) they have lower forms (grades) in addition to the IB and b) only a third or so of the students are sent on scholarship. Whatever way people get in, they have to go through a rigorous selection process, so all the folks here are super bright and talented (as I’ve mentioned many times before), but it also means that the aims of many of the students are different. Many of the “NCs” (scholarship students like myself) are looking for something called the “UWC experience” – everybody’s idea of the UWC experience is different, but it usually places less emphasis on academics and more on culture immersion contact with people from all over the world. At least, that’s my interpretation. But since this is also a private school to which external students can apply, there’s also a lot of students here who are primarily driven to get the highest possible score in IB. Which is perfectly fine, it just means that everyone has slightly different expectations of Waterford. I’m still trying to find out if that’s a good or bad thing, but right now I’m thinking it’s just a… thing.

Deep stuff. I think I need to start keeping a journal and writing this stuff down right after we talk about it, I feel like I’m not doing our discussions justice right now.

What else? We’ve had a couple thunderstorms that remind me a lot of monsoon season at home (without that wonderful smell of mesquite, of course). Every time we have a storm, the power cuts. Actually, the power goes out here at least once a week… usually more, in fact. I know it doesn’t sound like a big thing, but imagine if the power went out multiple times a week in the states – everyone would totally freak out, no? I guess I never thought about how much I rely on my electricity. I suppose it’s fitting, though, as I’m also learning how much I relied on my hot showers at home. Lawl.

We only have half a week of school this week, and then it’s midterm break! Hopefully (if I can get my transit visa done in time) I’ll being going to Mozambique with a group of other students to spend some time on the beach and tour Maputo a bit. It should be a good time – I’ll post about experiences (and perhaps some pictures) next week.

And as I usually try to end these posts on a light note, I should mention that I watched American Pie with a few friends from Germany and the Bahamas the other night. They were pretty shocked to learn that American Pie is not really a big thing in the states (there are SEVEN. Am I the only one who didn’t know that?), and the evening was pretty funny as I continually had to field questions along the lines of “Is this what it’s really like in America?” I think I’ve spotted the source of many of the prejudices against the US.

Missing everyone lots, I still think about you guys daily. :)

Cheers

Eli

Week Two: Commserve + Physical Theatre

Heyy folks –

Sorry I didn’t write yesterday, I was kind of busy last night so I wasn’t able to update the blog. I threw some pictures on Facebook, though, as a consolation – hope that was enough to quell your desires for at least twenty-four hours.

This past week has been really awesome and busyish. Since I’m an IB1, I don’t have an incredible amount of homework or anything, but I’m still trying to keep up a heavy extracurricular schedule. Plus, I’m socializing a bit more because I realize my workload isn’t monstrous yet. Which then entails that I start my homework a little later. But it’s all good.

The highlights of this week were definitely my commserve outings. I got my first preference for community service – it’s a program called “Ward 8” where I go with a few other students to the abandoned children’s hospital in town and take some of the kids out to the park so they can get some sun and basically escape from their rooms. It was really fun and rewarding in a lot of aspects, but at the same time there was a certain blanket of gravitas over the whole outing. The children are pretty severely mentally and physically disabled, and the hospital isn’t the most comfortable place (of course). We walked into the ward and the place was packed, the nurses were all very busy, and they still weren’t able to get to everything. I remember thinking when we took them back to the hospital, “Home sweet home… god, that’s shit.” I tried to imagine being in that same room, day after day, for my entire life. But at the same time, I feel awesome when I’m able to take the kids out of the hospital, even if it is just one day a week, to get some fresh air.

I also felt a little guilty that I got picked for Ward 8, considering that there were only four spots and most everybody requested it. I know I shouldn’t feel guilty, but... I dunno. I got my first choice for commserve but many others didn’t even get their third choice. I think something about the system was a little janky.
But I’m very grateful to have this commserve and know that I’ll make the best of it.

Also this week was Mpaka commserve. Mpaka is a refugee camp in Swaziland with kids of all ages, and twice a term they all get in a bus and come down to Waterford for a day of activities, sports, and fun. I was so stoked to see the bus pull in and see all the kids run off into the school… it reminded me a lot of babysitting for Meeting, but with about ten times as many kids. Considering that I just adore playing with kids, this was the perfect commserve. We spent the better part of 4 hours outside, and a common game seemed to evolve – get on Eli’s shoulder’s and have him run around. Pretty standard, no? I had a lot of fun but was beyond exhausted by the end.

So I really hope that I’m able to continue with multiple commserve opportunities beyond my weekly-allocated slot, because that was one of my primary motivating factors in coming here. Fingers crossed!

We had our first rehearsal for our physical theatre production this week (did I mention before that I got in?). Basically, the show is being written collaboratively by the actors and the director (a student), centered around the idea of rhythm and the theme of lies. So about half of the rehearsal was about body rhythm, making rhythmic use of everyday objects, etc.. very STOMP, very fun. The second half, then, was a near-existential conversation about lies, the nature of lies, the meaning of lies, and how lies have played out in our lives. We all sat in the drama room and discussed for nearly two hours how to define a lie, if lying is always morally wrong, and such. The discussion was intriguing and compelling, and I really hope we’re able to have more like it in the future. I got the sense that it was very UWC.

I just want to mention once more that I’m having a great time – more than the academic aspect, I’m really enjoying the extracurriculars and the service, staying up in hostel and talking to people till one in the morning (another factor in my lack of sleep, perhaps), and the like.

Oh, and I guess the academics are pretty cool too :)

Final note – I didn’t get bid on for the boy auction.. but if it’s any consolation, only four of the ten or so boys were bid on, and the highest bid was for twenty emalangeni (~three dollars). Lawl. Anyways, SRC has decided to make things even more awkward for the bachelors, and if offering all the people who haven’t been bid on for live auction tomorrow. Woo?

Hope all is well at home, wherever your home may be. I hear Gabby wants toast? Me too, Gabby. Me too.

Sala kahle, love y’all

Eli

Week One (I need more creative titles)

Hey all –

I’m proud to say, I’ve completed one week of real school. Hooray!

Since classes were fairly easy (since it’s the beginning and all), I spent most of my time this week experimenting with my CAS activities. As part of my International Baccalaureate degree, I have to do fifty hours of creative work, fifty hours of action/sports, and about one hundred and fifty hours of community service (commserve). So I spent this week checking out all the available CAS activities offered by teachers and students. Here’s a taste of what I did this week:

Yoga, gym, kayaking lessons, volleyball, climbing, ballroom dancing, Argentinean tango, fitness swimming, samba, and an audition.

(This list seemed longer in my head?)

While I’m not sure if I’m going to stick with everything, I think it was valuable to dip my feet into the water to determine what I like and what I don’t. I was also trying to branch out a little and try new things. Even if it meant I was the only guy at Samba.

Another big week for climbing – On Wednesday I led my first route. For those who don’t know, it means that I was setting the rope for the climb. As opposed to the traditional “top rope” type of climbing, where you are suspended from a rope hanging from the top of the route, a lead climb entails hooking in at various intervals. It’s not as dangerous as free climbing (experience tells me that not much is more dangerous than free climbing), but if you fall there’s potential to drop about five or ten feet… one to three meters.

But in any case, it was very… exhilarating.

I went to an audition this week as well, for a piece of physical theatre. It’s not a scripted piece; rather, the production is going to be a product of the creativity of the cast. The theme of the show is “lies”, so we have to create our own physical pieces to represent lies. The director is determined to have the show be very physical; in fact, when I first asked her about it, she asked me, “Have you heard of STOMP?” So I’m anticipating a lot of body rhythm and physically strenuous activities. I’m really stoked and think it’s going to be an awesome, creative production.

We put in our commserve requests this week – an important time for me, since I was so incredibly intrigued about the community service at Waterford when I first learned about it, and since commserve was a big motivational factor in my decision to attend. My first request was for a place called “Ward 8”, a hospital in Mbabane for abandoned children. Waterford students go to Ward 8 and take the kids (many disfigured or disabled) out for fin activities, like picnics or swimming. I love working with kids and it seems like my type of commserve; however, there are only four spots open, so I’m not sure if I’ll get it.

I put as a second choice AIDS education at primary schools in Mbabane. It’s incredible how influential AIDS education can be in preventing the spread of the disease; in fact, in some African nations (Botswana… I think), the educational programs by the government have been as effective as a vaccine. Crazy amazing. I put many other commserve requests in  - SOS Children’s Village (teaching English and Maths to kids), Amnesty International (writing letters advocating for diplomacy in turbulent nations), Outdoor Pursuits (similar to Ward 8 – taking children out for activities such as climbing and kayaking), and Young Heroes (fundraising to send children to school and conduct repairs at local schools). Hopefully I can participate in two, or even three, of these. Fingers crossed.

What else? As part of my SiSwati class, I’ve been going to town and trying to speak as much SiSwati with the locals as possible. Usually it’s just simple stuff – “Hello” (Sawubona), “How are you?” (Unjani), but on occasion I get the chance to do a fun one, like “Ngiphuma eMelika” (I am from America) or even "kubhukusha” (to swim). My Siswati class is moving redonkulously fast, but I feel like I’m (kind of) picking up on it.

Final note – For Valentine’s Day, the Student Representative Council (SRC) is doing an auction of boys, very similar to the one’s we did at CDO. The highest bidder on a boy is that boy’s date for the Valentines social in a few weeks. I got picked to be an auction item, which means that tomorrow people will (hopefully) start bidding on my bod. Ya dig?

If it’s not apparent from errthang above, I’m having a great time. Along with the activities and school, the mere mixing of people with various cultures is so interesting and exciting. I’ve been acquiring music, sharing cinema (folks did not particularly enjoy Hot Fuzz, whaaa?), and having great discussions.

I’m buying postcards next time I’m in town, which will likely exhaust my bank account. Which means I need addresses! FB message me or comment on the blog and I’ll try to get one to you :)

Missing you all, as usual. Every time I log on to Facebook my heart breaks a little. I hear it was super cold in Tucson? Bummed I missed it. It cool, though, that I can keep up somewhat from across this ocean (although I don’t really know who’s dating who anymore).

Sending all my love

Sala kahle (stay well)

Eli