Good Morning Readers Mostly in Other Countries!

How are you? I hope really well. I am doing great! The sun is shining and it isn’t very windy here in Masi and that’s bound to make a beautiful start of any day, as well as getting about 12hours of sleep last night J

This weekend, Kelli got three free tickets to a music festival Synergy Live and graciously took Zoe and me along (THANK YOU!) It was my second such festival in South Africa and just like the first one, Rocking the Daisies, I had a great time. I’ve always liked music festivals. I think I went to my first Wheatland at age 11 and have been going off and on ever since. This year was my first time going to Hiawatha and I also enjoyed the vibes there.

What makes a music festival fun?:

•     .  The music. Music. Music. Music. Music. It can carry you away and when there is so much music being pumped into one place continuously, there has to be some shift in the atmosphere of the place.  The molecules of the air must start changing and shifting and dancing and maybe even multiplying so that the air is thick, but inviting all at once. You can’t create that much music and expect the laws of physics and chemistry to remain the same. They change.
• 
  
•      The people. The people pump energy into an already altered atmosphere and if there is anything that I’ve learned in my life, is that people are powerful.  If you have a person with one idea who really believes in that idea, it’s a very powerful thing. Now, if you have a massive amount of people (say, 15,000) with the same idea that they all believe in – well that’s just mind blowing

    And finally, the idea behind the music festival: let’s listen to and create music and have a great time doing it.

Yes. I think that’s it. That’s why I’ve always enjoyed going to music festivals. Of course, they aren’t all fun and games, people overdrink/smoke/alter themselves/grope each other/ trash the festival grounds/ etc… but there is no denying that most of the people that attend these things just want everyone to have a great time with them, so they don’t cause any real harm to themselves or others. It really is just about escaping, with music, for a weekend.

I still remember the feeling of being 11 years old and running barefoot around Wheatland, my facepaint smeared with chocolate my hair twisted into some form of a braid, my cheeks flushed from riding the “huge slide” on Kids Hill far too many times, and my small feet a little bruised from too much Cajun dancing the night before. Yes. That was the life (thanks Mom for introducing me to that). And it still is.

This weekend at Synergy I also had that amazing feeling.  Zoe, Kelli, and I were swept into a crowd of people listening to F.O.O.L a DJ who plays what I would (probably incorrectly) describe as house and dub step. Anyways, this man is a magician. He is amazing. The music he was creating was just injecting this electrifying and unifying energy into the crowd and the crowd was just pulsing.pulsing.pulsing to one beat and one rhythm. The feeling of losing myself in a mass of bodies moving to this music was amazing.

Thank you music festivals.

Now, back to work! I am planning a “Full Fitness Thursday!” for Ladies Club this Thursday. We are going to learn a Zumba dance to Waka Waka and then move onto some Yoga and then maybe, some anaerobic exercise with Jillian Micheals. But maybe not Jillian, because she’s crazy and I don’t want to alienate people from fitness.  Zoe and I are thinking of trying to run a half a marathon with some learners from Masi as a way to raise money for IkamavaYouth – I think this would be logistically challenging but really rewarding. I’ll let you know how that comes along.

Toodles!

x

Also, I understand that my blog is really boring since I don't have photos I will actively begin working to change this soon! 

xox

Wow. 


It's actually been almost a month since my last update. Sorry about that! It's just a few things:
1. I am rather lazy when it comes to this most things. 
2. Since I am lazy, I put off updating. The more I put off updating, the more there is to update and the longer the post will have to be. See the snowball effect? 
3. Yeah, again, I think the laziness takes the cake. But so does the fact that I am not used to articulating myself in writing any more so blogging has become a bit difficult, but let's see what I can do. 


Today I actually started picking up cooking books and planning all these lovely, decadent meals I was going to make for myself and my guests. This was very time consuming until I realized that I cannot cook.  I did however, buy a waffle maker! YES :) 


I cannot believe I have not updated about this: I bought a used waffle maker for R40 (approximately $5) and it has actually brought J.O.Y into my life! Last weekend Kelly, Francois, and I hosted a breakfast. It was such a great time and they were both awesome about the fact that I decided to invite about 30 people to this breakfast simply because I had recently acquired a waffle maker. The breakfast was great! We had scrambled eggs, some bacon, a HUGE fruit salad, waffles, pancakes, fried tomatoes and mushrooms, and mimosas (champagne + orange juice). It was beautiful and about 20 people showed up and kept us company for an afternoon! :) I think one of my favoraite parts of the whole breakfast thing though was finding out that Kelly and I share a love for hosting. YES.YES.YES.  


Hmm, what else do you guys want to know about my life? 
1. I tasted some ketchup a few days ago and I was hit with a pang of homesickness! YOO! I cannot believe that it was actually ketchup that did it.  But at the same time, it makes sense. I've decided that outside of the people you left in a different place, it's the small things that you miss the most. So for example: being able to order bacon and not have it come back undercooked, eating ketchup on FRIES, the sounds of streets in B. Heights.  It's the small stuff that sticks with you when you've dealt with all the big things that you miss. 
2. In my ladies club I had the whole STI chat and I showed them photos of infected genitals. FUN! 
3. I also spoke of teenage pregnancy.  The more I speak to these young women the more I am excited about where they are heading. So many of them are genuinely into expressing themselves and forming articulate voices for themselves! It's very, very exciting. 
4. Went swimming in the ocean at 1 am. Ahh, so.lovely.  [Yes, I know, the sharks...] 
5. I am not sure how i will handle not having a thanksgiving this year. Some tells me I'll be okay. 
6. I want to say that I miss the Fall ---- but I don't, not yet.


My eyes are way too tired to cope anymore. 


Love to you all! 


x


Isa 

Because I didn't know that this draft was saved I'll publish it too!

Look Everyone, 


This is me, Blogging. Goodness I knew I'd be bad at this! The fact that I am so terrible at this actually surprises a small part of me because when I was younger all I did was Journal. I mean, honestly, I felt unsettled if I could not journal. Sometimes I'd even Journal multiple times a day with detailed entries which included the date, the time, the location that I was in, etc... and that was just in the "Header" of the Journal entry. Yes, I have changed. 


Which brings me to this: all my life I thought I was intellectually involved. You know, one of those naturally curious individuals who can delve into new ideas and knowledge and genuinely be interested.  Yes, I honestly thought I was this type of person until I realized that I am rather lazy when it comes to my intellect. Sure, I went to college and learned loads,I even enjoyed it and what's more: I was good at it! I'll even let you tell me, "Oo, come on Isabel, but you're going to medical school." And yes, yes I am. And I am pretty sure that I will enjoy medical school and that maybe, just maybe, I'll be good at it (after I adjust to having to wake up on time every morning and read a lot of textbooks, and learn a lot of information again instead of waking up and either making tea, going for a jog on the beach or an attempted surf). But whatever, I guess what I am getting at is this: outside of a structured environment, I do not challenge myself intellectually! I don't even do cross word puzzles! I am actually quite content to sit on the computer and keep clicking through random people's FB photos for 35minutes or to just sit and stare at the wall for 25minutes or do things like rock back in forth on the balls of my feet for like 47minutes without even thinking: "hmm, shouldn't I be doing something else? Ya know, anything else?" 


I mean, I should be speaking French by now with all this free time I have. I should be like an avid swimmer or surfer or a champion for public health, but I am none of those things. 


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Urgh. I can't muster the energy to care about these things even now. LOL.I shouldn't blog while tired after stuffing my (sedentary) self with (half-off) sushi! 


Anyways, what's been happening in my life:


1. Kelly, Francois, and I hosted a brunch this weekend! YUM! It was seriously something I came up with because I got a waffle maker (YES! A waffle maker people! LIKE an ACTUAL waffle maker for R40 which is like $6) and wanted to spread the love that I have to waffles to South Africa, think missionary mission trip only replace religion with waffles. Ahh, it was so much funn! Kelli and I got so carried away with cooking obnoxious amounts of food and with arranging dishes and such while Francois patiently stood by and assisted us in our madness. You see, I decided that it would be wise to invited about 30 people over "for waffles!" So I literally had to prepare the waffle batter in a roast pan that people use to roast entire pigs in. Yes. That was what we did! It was awesome. 


2. Ahh. TOO TIRED! 

Hello Everyone,

Happy Halloween! It’s strange, not that many people celebrate Halloween here. Well, I guess it’s not strange, Halloween is a very USA thing and since this isn’t the good ‘ol USA, why would people randomly dress up and wander the streets in the pursuit of sweets? (Seriously though, why WOULDN’T they?)  In honor of Halloween, I am wearing my Halloween earrings that Al bought me – Thanks love! Regardless though, me and few friends did a go a Halloween party this Saturday at the Cape Town City Hall. Amazing! A national monument was turned into a party venue for dressed up drunk people. It was complete with two different dance halls and amazing DJs and music. It was a good, great time. I dressed up a dancer from MJ’s Thriller. Yes!

I would say pictures are coming, but I never use my camera…

Oh, and I am really getting hit hard by allergies here. Just today I woke up at 5am because my throat was super scratchy and my nose was oh so congested! LOL. I’m sure you’re glad I shared that.

Okay, so on to more fulfilling life things.  Last week’s Ladies Club meeting was awesome! For those of you that don’t know, I started a Ladies Club in Masi. Basically, I want it to be a safe place for young women to come and discuss issues that they deal with every day.  The topics cover just about anything and I hold a near and dear spot in heart for issues dealing with self-identity, self-respect, empowerment, critical thinking, and you guessed it – sex and sexuality.

Last week’s topic was Women in the Media. We started off by showing the trailer for Miss Representation, a film that looks awesome! I will place the link at the end of this blog post if I remember. Basically though, this film examines how the media portrays women and what messages it sends to women. It looks at the fact that even the most powerful women in the country are still looked at in terms of their appearances and not so much their abilities. Next, we watched Destiny’s Child “Independent Women” which has the Destiny’s Child members looking sexy while singing about being empowered and independent.  The conversation that arose from these videos and themes was awesome. We examined the differences between being powerful and being independent, whether it was a good or bad thing to be sexy, and even what the term “sexy” means. The conversation went deeper to examine why advertisements for women still featured sexualized women products to women. We also (briefly) discussed gender roles in the Xhosa community and how women were expected to be sexy yet innocent.

Overall, it was awesome to see so many of the young women participating and voicing their opinions. For this week, I am not sure what I am going to do.  I think I am going to start talking about sex and that’ll be an awesome jump off point for things like teenage pregnancy, abortion, rape, STIs, etc… Next we can move into peer pressure and drugs.

Other than that, I am still looking for a position doing research here. If anyone has any ideas or connections, please send them my way. My nerdy, technical side wants to get really involved in being technical about a certain disease or topic or spread of disease. 

LoveYouALL.

Isa 


http://missrepresentation.org/the-film/

Hello Again, 


I am actually impressed that I am doing this again so soon, but maybe I underestimated my desire to articulate my thoughts in writing. Maybe. 


So today I went grocery shopping. I got one bag of lettuce, some baby corn and snowpeas, broccoli, and instant noodles, along with a box of bran flakes. The idea was to make a stirfry  and to wake up to a bowl of whole grain goodness for the next week. This event was totally unexceptional nor out of the ordinary. But here's what happened next: I walked by a group of boys who are "street children" or children who live on the streets or who's parents send them out to the streets to beg for food and money. They asked me to buy them bread and like always I refused. As I continued to walk home I realized that I was walking quickly with the thought "hurry up, I don't want anyone to see my grocery bags!" running though my head. Hmm, now why exactly is that? It's not because I thought I was going to get jumped for my food. Nope, far from it. I think I was a bit embarrassed by my food! 


It was as if by holding a bag of groceries I was shouting to the rest of the world, "Look here! I am able to buy things! FOOD THINGS! THINGS YOU NEED BUT CAN'T HAVE!! HAHAHAH."


I guess this is just an example of how many worlds collide here in Muizenberg and else where in Cape Town, in South Africa, in the world. And man are they different worlds.


People like me, go to cafes, eat at restaurants, buy whole grain and not whole grain food things, know how to type on a computer and have contact solution in their bathroom cupboards. And I am probably on the poor end of people like me.


But people like Sweetness (the lady that does the dishes at a cafe I go to), and the street children I ran into today, and Maria, a lady who also lives on the streets that collects the rubbish bins on Wednesdays don't frequent cafes, they work in the back of the restaurants washing dishes, they probably have never played that car racing game on Mavis Becaon. And as far as whole grain foods and contacts -- you're joking right?


We're worlds apart. Complete and total worlds apart. But we ride the same trains, we walk on the same pavements, we want the same things, but we've been set up so differently in life.  And yes, I know, I've worked hard for what I now have, but to be fair, it's probably my parents who should get a lot of credit for hustling in the States when I was young and naive to the fact that having the wrong passport or accent often means that you'll end up in the back of the restaurant instead of at the front. 


And yes, I know I am rambling. I do it often, but I guess I just wanted to say, that I am absolutely blown away by the separateness and the interconnectedness of the world. And I am not sure how to reconcile it. I am not sure what I can do about it. I know I can't do things like give to beggers or buy food for people -- if I start, I am not sure where I'll stop and I am pretty sure I will just give too much and run myself dry. But it isn't right just to ignore them -- we already do that, each and every day, if we didn't there wouldn't be homeless people and street children. 


But what can I do? 
What should I do?


Shame, man. Shame. 




thanks for reading! 

Hello Everyone, 

Welcome to the Blog that I am not really that into creating. On the surface it seems like a great idea: create a common space that everyone can refer to read about your life since I am on the other side of the world. Who knows? I could probably use it later on in life when I am in medical school in Chicago crying my eyes out over how many nerves there are in the neck and the fact that it's snowing non-stop (or something like that). But I know myself and I am not sure I am going to turn into an ace blogger (that award goes to you mechi). But here we go! 

Welcome! I am going to tell you about my life. Well, mostly, my new found obsession with South Africa, my projects here, and other things like the ocean, mountain honey, and live music venues. My new roommate cat, Coco, who is actually a bit insane but definitely and completely lovable and refreshing. You see, Coco thinks she's a dog and she's actually a cat. It makes for good times --- except when she brings dead animals into my room :-/ 

For those of you that need a bit of catching up - I moved to South Africa. I'll be here until June when I have to go back home to start my medical school education.  I came to South Africa in April and fell in love with the area. Not only is absolutely beautiful, there was also an opportunity for me to come and do some public health work/tutoring in Masiphumelele, a township.  Here's some photos for you:

this is what I see every day :) Yep, it's like a 4minute walk from my apartment in Muizenberg, which is 20minutes outside of a Cape Town. 

This is the main road right outside of my house:

This is Masiphumelele: 

 

here's another one of Masi:

Talk about living in two different worlds at once, huh?

Anyways, there's the little intro! LOL. I am not super great at this, but I will try very hard to update. 

I hope you are all well! 

Thanks for reading! 

xox, 

Isa