South Africa: Grow up and Get tested

Okay so this week....It was the start of the March Campaign. The March Campaign is the HIV awareness thing that I am involved in. So far it is going fine. I will get to that later but first I will go chronologically. So last Sunday night I went to a concert at the Heldeberg Nature Reserve. First of all I would like to say again how beautiful South Africa is. I am constantly amazed. So the nature reserve surrounds a mountain and while we were driving there there were just some gorgeous views. I went with Bronwyn, Louis (both peer educators) Chelsea and Jenaveve (one of Bronwyn's friends). We went to see Goldfish, which is a South African group. It was really neat. They like mix music like a DJ but they also played saxophones, flutes and a cello. They are actually releasing their second album today (there are 2 of them) and at the concert they played some of their new stuff but they had this singer who was amazing. He had this blues ish voice it was so neat so I would like to get the new cd if possible. It was an outside concert and we had a picnic and I liked the music because it was something that isn’t normal. I ended up buying their cd and got it signed by them. So I got to go to a concert, get a cd and DVD for R125 which I thought was a good deal because that is less than $20. On the way home the sun was setting and you could see the ocean and the other side of the peninsula with these clouds and the colors made it look like it was out of sci fi movie. Here are some pictures from the evening:

there is me next to a tortise. Louis made fun of me because i asked him to take the picture saying that i was the definition of a tourist but hey how often do you see tortises

the concert location

Louis and Chels

Bronwyn and Jenaeve

Goldfish

there was some sort of bok in the picnic area

So that was a great night and a good way to gear up for the March campaign. Monday I worked at the info stall, which is located in the Neelsie (the student center). We have to pass out flyers and try and get people interested in doing the testing and participating in the march. If they came to the info stall we give them an A-bracelet. This stands for asking a question or abstinence. Then you can get a B bracelet for making a booking and also means be faithful. Then you get a C for counseling after the test which stands for condomize and a d for a donation. But that is added information.

The info stall is neat you can some weird reactions. On the table there are free condoms, one is vanilla flavored (interesting I cant figure out why it is flavored but hey what ever works). People have some really interesting questions to ask. Sometimes I feel like the people here should be more aware of HIV since it is so prevalent (6 million people in the country have it) and it makes me concerned that people aren’t aware of it and that I know more about it. I wish it was the other way around but I am glad that I have the opportunity to educate people. So I really enjoy it for the most part and being able to see the peer educators that I don’t normally see around. But it is a hectic time of year since midterms are coming up so I have to try and balance it all. Nothing else too significant to report for Monday. I just had classes info stall and homework.

Tuesday was normal. We had a final meeting before the march to get everything sorted out. I had to run to the grocery store and I had class. Again nothing to special.

Wednesday was the day of the March in March for HIV awareness. It also happened to be the day that a heat wave decided to start...it was in the upper 90's and hasn’t cooled down that much yet which is unseasonably warm for here. So I went to my classes in the morning and then right after I got out of my last morning class me and Lungi had to move tables across campus to the place where the march started. I was very sweaty, very very sweaty. Then we got everything set up and ready in time for the march. Everything for the march ran smoothly. The attendance wasn’t as high as I would have liked but that is okay Stellenbosch is very conservative and apathetic so I am pleased with who came and hopefully it raised some awareness. We had a brass marching band, which was good because it attracted attention so hopefully we made an impression. Here are some pictures:

I kind of cut myself out but my chin, Louis and Matt

Gashaw and me. He came to support me it was very sweet.

Elaine, Jacqui and Bonnie

After that we had to pick up everything and get ready. Then Brownwyn and I talked to one of our prof and got him to allow us to move our test until Friday, which I was very thankful for. After that we ate lunch (about 3pm) and got an ice cream and then helped out with the counseling sight. After that I had class which was so hard to stay awake in but I made it. IT was sociology and we were talking about religion in South Africa, which I was excited to learn about, but it wasn’t interesting and I was exhausted. So I left my room at 8:30 and didn’t get home until 7:00 at night. It was a long day so I ate dinner took a nap and then I had promised some friends that I would hang out with them so that is what I did.

Thursday was good. I had class and prac after that since it was about 5 million degrees outside I went to one of my friends house to swim in the pool which was great since it was so hot. After that I got a call and found out that the peer eds had been invited to attend a drumming cafe by the SRC (the student government organization on campus) which would have normally cost money but wouldn’t if we wore our peer ed T-shirts. We were also VIP's which meant that we got free finger food and wine before the drumming thing, which was awesome and also had reserved seats in the front. I felt very important. It was really cool I like drumming. Here are some pictures from that.

Big D, nothy, Abagail, Jean Maire, Jean Marie's mom

Me Bronwyn, Louis, Sandile

Friday I had to take the test that we postponed and then classes and I worked at the info stall and got tested for HIV...I am negative so that is good. So I got home around 4:30 and then made dinner and Katy and I took a long walk around stellenbosch and got some ice cream. It was nice. We hung out in the room because we had an excursion on Saturday where we had to be on the bus at 7:20 in the morning.

On Saturday we went to Robben Island but when we got there and got our tickets we had time to roam and when it was time to board the boat that got us there we found out that there was a mechanical issue but come back in an hour so we did and then we found out that there was water leaking into the engine so out boat was broken however the people who were on the next boat ride got to go. They split it up by boats so you cant just push everyone back an hour and change the boats that people take (not exactly sure why) so ours was canceled which messed up the whole excursion that AIFS planned but anyway we had some time to kill before we were scheduled to have lunch at a restaurant so Chels, Katy and I walked to Long St. and looked around. After that we went to lunch and it was delicious but not as good as last time because they didn’t have the rotti which they did last semester and the lamb curry stuff. It was a cape Malay food restaurant. It was still good and I still ate too much. Then we went to the district museum, which was interesting, but I was very tired. After that we came home and Chles, Katy, Chris, Courtney, Emily and I all went to watch the Maties rugby game which we won and was nice. I like going to sporting events because I miss that stuff back home. That night I hung out with some friends.