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