Term Two, Leggo

Woah, it’s been a while since I’ve updated. Time to fill you all in on what’s been going on since term started…

After a really relaxing week in Swaziland, I hit the ground running and started my term off… with tonsillitis. The day before school started I was feeling really horrible – chills, fever, headache, cough, sore throat – nothing too much to be worried about, as fevers come and go occasionally.

I had a little scare, though, when I realized that all of the symptoms I was presenting were characteristic of malaria. And while I thought that I could shake off whatever I had on my own, my friends and teachers all insisted on scaring the living crap out of me by telling me stories about people who got fevers from malaria that cooked their brains. Or about malaria brain parasites that would turn me into a vegetable within 72 hours. At one point the head of hostel even came by my room, just to remind me that malaria is still the leading cause of death in Southern Africa, even over AIDS. Swell. 

So I decided to go to the clinic to get whatever I had checked out.

An interesting experience – my doctor didn’t seem at all interested in my malaria symptoms, despite the fact that I had just been in a malaria area in Mozambique a few weeks earlier and had only taken the cheapest type of medication. Instead he asked me about my sore throat… a lot. So my friends were kind of surprised when I came back from the clinic, malaria blood tests negative, with a diagnosis of tonsillitis.

Anyways… It was a pretty rude re-introduction into school.

So what can I say about this term? I guess the first thing that comes to mind is that it’s absurdly cold right now. While you guys are all tanning in wonderfully warm weather, I’m sitting in my room freezing my ass off. And it’s not even the coldest time of the year yet.

So what’s interesting about the cold in Swaziland (or I guess, at Waterford) is that it’s not the typical type of cold that you expect – you know, you can see your breath and your spit freezes before it hits the ground. No, I’ve decided that this cold is much worse. Because the thing about Waterford is, there isn’t really a heating system. Anywhere. So there’s no escaping the cold of the outdoors, because it just comes into your room and makes itself cozy there as well. The bedrooms, hallways, classrooms… there’s no place to be warm except my own bed (which makes it remarkably hard to leave in the morning).

The other thing is, it’s been really windy these past few days. So brave Mr. Arizona, thinking, “It can’t possibly be that cold in Swaziland,” is now having all of his hoodies pierced quite easily by the frigid wind.

Smart. I should have listened to the testimonials, because even the Norwegians think this place is cold.

But enough about that. This term seems to be flying by, probably because I’m pretty packed with things to do. On top of my ever-increasing pile of prep (homework), I’ve been dedicating time to extracurriculars (Argentinean Tango, rock climbing/outdoor pursuits, gym, choir, Amnesty International community service, physical theatre production, etc). And with all this in mind, it’s no surprise that my weekends since term started have been booked. In a good way, though…

BECAUSE on one of the first weekends back, we took a trip back to South Africa to climb at Waterval Boven. I think I may have mentioned before, but as a refresher, Boven is one of the premier sport climbing locations in the world… and it’s only a two-hour drive from my school. Ka-pow. We have a handful of trips planned for Boven this term (I’ve already been on one day trip and one camping trip), and I’m really stoked on the whole thing. And yes, mom, I’m wearing a helmet.

But what may even be more exciting is that after midterm break, I’ll be going on a week-long backpacking trip in the Drakensberg Mountains with a few others from the ‘Outdoor Pursuits’ dept. at Waterford. Along with several Waterfordians, I’ll also be backpacking with a few dozen others from all over the world, as part of a South African Global Youth Summit. The group I’ll be hiking with will also include the first black African to summit Mount Everest (whaaaaat). I couldn’t be more excited, and am also thinking that I should really get a winter coat (after all, I think it’s cold in Swaziland, and there’s snow on the Drakensbergs). I’ll keep folks updated as I hear more about it in the coming weeks. 

So yes, please feel free to be super jealous.

In terms of packed weekends, the beginning of the term has also brought the (in)famous Bushfire festival to Swaziland. Bushfire is a huge arts festival they have every year in SD, and it brings in folks from all over Southern Africa. It also draws nearly everyone from Waterford, students and teachers alike. There isn’t much to put here about Bushfire, except that we had a really awesome time and that you should check out the band Goldfish if your name is Nick Medvescek (we’ll be swapping when I get home, eh?)

Coming up in the next few weeks is the equally infamous 24-hour run. For those of you who remember the 12-Hour Relay for Haiti at home, it’s essentially the same as that… but it’s for twenty-four hours (duh). For those of you who don’t know anything about my previous statement… basically, every two years at Waterford there’s a fundraising event called the ’24 Hour Run’. Students organize themselves into teams and run laps around the field for twenty-four hours to raise money for charity. They do this by obtaining sponsorships from friends and loved ones per lap they run (or just a fixed amount, if the sponsor prefers).

SO, an appeal to my friends and loved ones – if you would like to sponsor me for the 24 Hour Run, or would like more information, please email me (e.medvescek@gmail.com), FB me, call me (+268 76890943… feel free to call if you DON’T want to sponsor, too), send me a message in a bottle, attempt to create a smoke signal… whatever your fancy. It would be really cool to get some sponsorships, because it’s kind of weird to go around school:

Eli: “Hey, do you want to sponsor me for the 24 Hour Run?”

Miscellaneous Person A: “Yeah! But only if you sponsor me!”

Eli: “Ha ha! Okay, I’ll give you five emalangeni.”

MPA: “Yeah brahle, I’LL give YOU five emalangeni!”

20 people later… I’ve bankrupted myself. Yay, progress!

A few last notes – I heard from the parentals that a bunch of CDO kids said hi in a video during graduation. My dad has uploaded the video to FB, but when I tried to load it with this internet, I got about 30 seconds in an hour. So the plan is, one of these days I’ll leave my computer in the common room overnight and load the whole thing. I saw the pictures on facebook, though, and I want to give a tremendous thank you to everyone involved. It meant a lot to me when I heard you all did that, and a was walking around with a big ol’ goofy smile on my face all day.

Also, a very happy birthday goes out to a very special lady in my life – Sarah Medvescek, congratulations on turning 28 (almost 29)! I’m so very proud to tell all my friends at school  about my sister at home (I shared the kalimba videos too, bearzo, and my friends loved them), and I’m now on track to be excited with you for Halloween.

I think this is where I’ll cut it short because I should really catch some shut-eye, but hope everything is well in T-Town! Congrats to all the folks making their way up to NAU or ASU (even though UofA is still the best), I’ll be seeing you all shortly.

Love, sala khale

Eli

Tofo and Swaziland

 Hey guys –

I’m currently hanging out in the common room at Waterford Kamhlaba, after three weeks of intense travel and amazing fun. I arrived at school a tad early, but the administration has been super kind to us because we had some visa problems.

But before I talk about being back at school, lemme tell you a bit about Mozambique. We took two busses from Cape Town to Maputo, for a total travel time of 32.5 hours (we covered over a thousand miles… look at it on a map, it’s crazy). It was surprising to discover how incredibly exhausting it is to sit on a bus and do nothing for so long… needless to say, we were totaled when we got to Maputo, and went directly to the backpackers for some shuteye. We spent a few days in Maputo and met up with Betti and Martha (friends from school) – Betti, or IB3 from Ethiopia, ended up coming to Tofo with us.

So Tofo. The backpackers in Maputo offered transportation to their partner branch in Tofo, so at four in the morning we woke up and snagged the bus… another twelve hours on a bus. Ugh.

But man, it was so worth it. You all know the stereotypical image of paradise? Warm beaches, palm trees, hammocks where you can sleep or read as a calm breeze drifts off the ocean… all that good stuff? Yeah, that’s Tofo. In fact, Praia do Tofo actually doesn’t have much to it other than eating and chilling by the beach. SO our chief concern while in Tofo was just that – chilling out max and relaxing all cool. I spent most of my time reading, swimming in the ocean, listening to music, and of course, sleeping. I know it’s super lazy, but we figured we’d regret it during Term 2 if we didn’t relax during break as much as possible.

During one of our nights in the backpackers in Tofo, a guy came up to us and asked us if he could sit and eat with us – he didn’t know anybody around, so he just approached us. Turned out this guy (Balthazar, from Holland) had been doing a tour of Southern Africa for the last several months… on his bicycle. He’d been through Namibia, Botswana, South Africa, Swaziland, and he was now sitting with us in Mozambique, telling us about his travels. He said that touring Southern Africa by bike was really cool because when you’re on a bike, you have to stop for water, food, and pit stops at nearly every town… so you see a lot of really cool stuff, see a lot of the people and customs that you don’t get in a big city like Cape Town or Maputo.

In any case, we chatted with him for hours about everything under the sun – politics, music, travel, food... by the end of the night, we had made a friend that we would hang out with for the rest of our stay in Tofo. He wasn’t staying in our backpackers (as a bike traveler, he’d invented an ingenious hammock-tent that would allow him to string himself up in a tree and sleep almost anywhere, including the side of the road, for free), but we had meals with him nearly every day, and he was a really cool guy to chat with. Just goes to show, you meet really interesting people when you stay in backpackers. I think everyone in our travel group would agree that it was a pleasure to meet Balthazar, and we wish him the best on his travels.

So yeah, there’ not too much else to say about Tofo, other than the fact that it was gorgeous and totally chill. Other than a day where we all rented surfboards (WOW I was bad), out time was spent playing card games, reading by the beach, talking, watching movies…. Typical chill stuff.

Unfortunately, we were forced to leave Mozambique a week early because of visa issues. Jenny applied for a thirty day visa, but the document stamped in her passport only allowed for ten days. We talked to a ton of people about extending the visa – people at school, people on both sides of the border, even a representative at Jenny’s embassy in Maputo. Nobody was able to help us out… bureaucrats. So basically, we had to choose where to go that wasn’t Mozambique – considering this, it made the most sense for us to go back to school and ask if they would let us back into our dorms. It was a close call, but Mr. King was ever so gracious, and let us back to school. So, after another ten billion hours on a bus, we got back to school in Swaziland.

And it’s actually been really nice being back. There are a few other students in hostel (some students have exams this week), but for the most part, it’s been quiet. Zayd and Tahmeed (Bangladeshi travel companions from earlier in the trip) encountered similar problems to ours, so they’ve been back at hostel as well – it’s cool, cause it means that I have some climbing buddies that I can hang out with at school.

This also means that I had my birthday back in Swaziland, at school. Let me tell you guys… I have the best friends. At around 9 in the morning on my birthday, Jenny and Sebastian paraded into my room with a poster, gifts, cake, banana pancakes, and chocolates. I was serenaded both in English and in Norwegian :)

Anyways, the whole day was awesome. We relaxed for a while in the afternoon, but eventually we all hopped into a car and went to the movie theater (can’t remember the last time I did that) to see Gnomeo and Juliet (they didn’t offer a lot at the theater, but it was actually kind of cute). Then we went out for dinner in town to celebrate not only my birthday, but the IB2s finishing half of their exams. Yay! It really was a fantastic way to transition into “adulthood” (inverted commas cause I still feel like a kid :)

And, that being said, I think that some thank yous are in order for this past month –

• To Sebastian and Jenny, for being the best travel companions I could ask for. Seriously fantastic friends.
• To Mr. King, for so kindly letting us come back to hostel early.
• To Roger and Marlene, who sent a letter and a package full of goodies.
• To Nora Campbell, one of my best friends from home, for the letter. You have no idea how big I smiled when I saw it.
• To Grandma and Papa for the birthday card and gift
• To all of the IBs who have been in hostel with me in the past week, and have helped to make the last week of term break a success
• To all the folks who wrote on my wall for my birthday, you have no idea how much I’m itching to see you guys… it will be here before we know it.

School starts in two days… now, it’s my turn to be jealous of everyone at home, as summer vacation is just around the corner. Two very important groups of people are graduating in the next couple weeks – first and foremost, all the folks at CDO. I’m so proud of everyone, and wish to death I could be there with you all. Have an awesome graduation and grad night (win some cool prizes, kay?)

The other group I mention would be the IB2s at all the other UWCs. While this may seem obscure, it’s strange to think that I COULD be one of those people - the people who were in my interview group for UWC are now a few days from graduation and an International Baccalaureate degree… it’s a weird thing to think, but I can’t help but thinking this, right now, is what’s right (how incredibly corny is that). The events of the last year and a half have been a struggle at times, but I wouldn’t trade them for anything (also corny).

I feel so mushy after writing all that. What I’m trying to say is… congrats, guys :)

Love you all to death, see you soon.

Eli

Cape Town!

So whoever happens to be reading this, wherever you may be, I STRONGLY encourage you to go to Cape Town. Seriously, guys. It’s awesome.

Let me tell you about some of the highlights of my week…

I’d have to say my favorite place to be in Cape Town, despite all the amazing and unique tourist spots, would have to be the beach. As was the case with Maputo, I pretty much freaked out when we got to the beach in Cape Town – and this was even better, because the water was clean enough to swim. We went to Camps Bay, a really gorgeous beach with views of all the mountains in Cape Town, palm trees, ice cream vendors, and oceanside restaurants (clearly, the essential ingredients for a nice beach…?) Really, it could have had none of these things, and I still would have been happy. Just being at the beach turns me into a little kid – there we striking resemblances to the toddlers stomping through the water at the shoreline, and me… stomping through the water at the shoreline.

When we first got to the beach we saw some guys surfing on the shoreline. Being the pushy guy that I am, I went up to them and asked them if I could try (despite the fact that I didn’t have a suit and was wearing jeans). I figured it couldn’t have been much different from skateboarding, which I was semi-decent at long ago. They let me have a go, and Sebastian got some good video of me… falling off the surfboard and faceplanting.

Hard.

Five times in a row.

So much for being like a skateboard.

In any case, it was funny and made for some good memories (and a few hip bruises).

Watching the sunset at the beach was also really awesome – I encourage all those who haven’t to watch the sunset at the beach at least once. Put it on your bucket list.

Among our other touristy activities, we also visited Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope (the southernmost tip of Africa). We made the bookings with a tour company called the Green Cab, an eco-friendly tour company that provided transport to the Capes with a knowledgeable and friendly driver who told us about Cape Town, Simon’s Town, Cape Point, and the Cape of Good Hope. We spent about an hour at Cape Point, pretty much just enjoying the view and the awesome weather that the day offered. It was beyond gorgeous at Cape Point, watching the waves crash against the cliffs and feeling a slight breeze. The pictures don’t really do it justice, but here are some shots of Cape Point:

The Cape of Good Hope was also really nice –

So yeah. I spent most of my time at Cape Point and Cape of Good Hope imagining a world map, and thinking about where I was. Crazy.

A few days later we took the ferry out of Robben Island – while once an island for societal exiles, the island has spent the last few centuries as a prison for the highest grade of criminals that society has to offer. This includes political prisoners, and Robben Island is most famous for being Nelson Mandela’s place of imprisonment for nearly two decades. We had a fantastic tour of Robben Island – half was spent in a bus touring around the main facilities of the once-operational prison, and half was spent inside one of the compounds, where we learned more about the life of the prisoners. Both of our tour guides were phenomenal – for the former, we had a very insightful guide who added many of his own personal comments and offered his own perceptions about the nature of apartheid. He spoke about apartheid being so effective because it didn’t set up physical boundaries, but rather, worked by manipulating people’s perceptions of one another. It’s like we always say in Arizona – if we build a bigger wall at the border, those coming over will just get bigger ladders. Physical boundaries will always be conquered by the innovation of those who want to get across. But apartheid utilized people’s weaknesses in character, their hastiness in forming prejudices about other people – this is why it was such an effective (and diabolical) system. Along with this, he added the warning that, while the political system of apartheid may be over, we still possess the same weaknesses in character – it’s what makes us human. We therefore need to check ourselves and make sure that we don’t repeat the same mistakes that led us down that horrible path.

In any case, I thought he was a brilliant guide and a generally insightful person.

Our second guide was a prisoner at Robben Island for seven years, and thus was able to provide some more intimate details about prison life, food, sleeping, work, and prison social classes. As he was also a political prisoner, he told us that political prisoners were considered the most dangerous class of criminals to come into Robben Island – more dangerous than murderers, child rapists, or anyone else. This is because political prisoners are considered the most influential of all the prisoners in Robben Island, and have not physical power, but power over the mind. He took us to see Mandela’s old cell – there was a huge crowd around trying to get pictures, so my snapshot isn’t that good, but take a look –

 

I’m not usually big on guided tours and stuff like that, but the Robben Island tour was excellent.

For you folks that are familiar with Cape Town, you’ll know that our last big tourist stop was Table Mountain. We saved it for Sunday morning because we heard that Long Street Backpackers (the backpackers we’re staying at) offered a free guided hike up the mountain. We woke up on Sunday, psyched to have a guided tour up the impressive mountain, and walked outside to see…

Overcast skies. The tour offered by the backpackers had been cancelled, and a hotline providing Table Mountain weather described visibility as “poor”, temperatures as “very cold”, and wind as “strong”. Yikes. We really didn’t want to miss out on the hike, so we decided to hop in a cab up to the mountain so we could see for ourselves how bad it really was. We got to the cablecar station, near to the trailhead, and we greeted by excessive fog, heavy wind, and on-and-off rain. Tempted to turn around and go curl up at our backpackers with a cup of hot chocolate, we pushed onward, and told ourselves that if the weather was still horrible by the time we reached the trailhead, we would turn around. And by some amazing stroke of luck, the weather improved. I’m not saying birds started chirping and the clouds all disappeared to reveal a hidden rainbow… but it got somewhat better. It was still cold but the rain stopped, clouds parted in some areas, and the fog receded to the very top of the mountain. Woo! So we got to do our hike in what I considered to be pretty great hiking weather, got some pictures, and got to check Table Mountain off the list of Cape Town activities. Unfortunately, fog towards the top forced us to turn around… but that leaves the completion of the hike for next year. The lack of sun made the pictures kind of meh, but here are some –
 

It was so great to hike again – the trail reminded me a lot of hiking in Tucson, although the weather was a stark contrast to what we’re used to at home.

Among all this, we’ve spent a lot of time in Cape Town just.. chilling. Watching movies, eating good food, catching up on sleep lost in term (one night I went to bed at seven… I’m such a party animal). It’s been really amazing, because that’s what I really wanted to get out of this break. Of course, I wanted to see parts of South Africa that I hadn’t seen before, but I also had the goal of chilling out max and relaxing all cool. And in this regard, my travel companions and I succeeded. It’s been a major highlight of the trip for me so far.

A final anecdote in my Cape Town adventures – one of the first nights we were here, we were out chilling on the balcony of our backpackers, and down about fifty yards from where we were, we saw orange cones, people with cameras and headsets, and people directing traffic and pedestrians. It looked like a movie was being shot (as the same group of extras kept walking by the same place), so we asked one of the camera guys what was going on. He shouts up to us, “It’s a movie being made. It’s starring Ryan Reynolds and Denzel Washington”. He says this and points to the place where they’re shooting the scene, where we see Ryan Reynolds chatting with a group of cameramen. So a few of us come down from the balcony and go across the street to watch the scene. Sure enough, they were shooting a scene (over and over) where Reynolds talks on the phone and walks along the street for a few yards. We saw nothing of Denzel (dang), but we were pretty certain that the guy was Ryan Reynolds. So if a movie comes out in the next two years with Ryan Reynolds and Denzel Washington where they’re in Cape Town… yeah, I was there. I wanted to slip in with the extras but didn’t muster the stones (the lady directing them was scary) – maybe next time.

Tomorrow we set out for Mozambique – first to Maputo, and then to Tofo. I’ll be in touch when I can be – while I have no idea about internet access, I’m sure it’s not too hard to find.

Miss everyone lots, hope CDO kids had a wonderfully bawdy time at prom and are now having fun studying for AP exams – folks can laugh at me when I’m back in school and you all are on summer break. Stoked for graduation (almost) as much as you!

Stay well, wherever you may be. Live every moment to the fullest (and all that junk :)

Lots of love

Eli

The First in a Long Series of Ends

Hey guys –

So it’s my last day at Waterford for the term… tomorrow I embark on a month-long journey throughout South Africa and Mozambique with besties Jenny (Norway) and Sebastian (Germany). We’re going to be in Cape Town for ~two weeks and Tofo (Mozambique) for another two weeks. I’m totally stoked to see southern Africa, get a break from school, and chill for a little while. I’m still not sure if I’m bringing my computer, but I’ll try to come in with a few blog posts during the trip if I can.

These past few weeks have mostly been about wrapping up term, turning in final assignments, etc. We got our cycle grades (report cards, essentially) for the term – the marking here is very different than I’m used to, and IB allows students to get top marks with scores down to 85%; however, because of this, work is graded much less leniently. One of the aspects of WK that’s been difficult to get used to is consistently getting 72% on my essays… and having this considered a great score. Overall I’m very happy with my cycle grades, and hope I’m able to keep it up as I move through IB. Check it –

            HL Maths: 7+

            HL Biology: 6

            HL English A1: 6+

            SL Anthropology: 6

            SL SiSwati: 7

            SL Music: 6+

Last Saturday we had our first climbing commserve of the term – the climbing team at the school is affiliated with a group in Swaziland called “Climb Swaziland,” a group of WK alum who are trying to make climbing a more prominent sport in Swaziland. As part of this, the climbing team at Waterford uses climbing as an activity for community service in Swaziland. So on Saturday we had a group of teens from the Moya Centre in Swaziland come up the hill for a day of climbing. Lina, the woman who runs the organization, told us a few days before the commserve that the children are all classified as “vulnerable” due to past traumatic experiences in their lives – basically, this means that the children need the support of the center to avoid falling into poverty. Many of the teens were the principle breadwinners of their households, and some had to care for younger siblings as well. So the simple ability to come up to Waterford and have a day of climbing and activities was something really special for these kids. I had a great time (although I got a vicious sunburn on my forehead), and teaching the kids about climbing help me to see my own person growth in climbing ability since I arrived at Waterford.

And… these have mostly been the biggest things for me in the past week. The end of term has brought a lot of planning for future terms – already on the itinerary for next term is Bushfire (huge Swazi music festival), Grahamstown (huge South African music festival), and a possible backpacking trip in the Drackensburg Mountains with people from Climb Swaziland (gotta review these items with the ‘rents, though.) For now though, all sights are set on the twenty-four hour journey by bus to Cape Town that starts tomorrow morning at 6am. I’ve got to remember to charge my iPod…

Hope all is well at home, I’ll be counting down the days ‘till graduation with everyone else as I journey through SA and Moz. I’ve been slightly more homesick these past days, as most of my friends talk about going home, seeing old friends, eating good food… so yeah, just know that I miss you folks like crazy.

Love you lots, I’ll try to stay in touch in the coming weeks –

Eli

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