Talk to You Just Now

Ah! What an incredible first week in Cape Town! In what has seemed like a mere second, I have survived an epic 22 hours in an airplane, gotten settled in my new house, become close with my roommates, learned how to navigate around Observatory (the neighborhood where I live), begun my internship complete with a few visits to the townships, mastered the train system, made a few (if not unwanted) local friends, gotten reacquainted with the features on an old Nokia cell phone (just when you thought the days of wasting time playing Snake were over?!), and have even started to pick up a hint of a South African accent. Something that I haven't mastered, however, is the sense of African Time. More than once I've heard someone say, "Be back now." And also, "Be back just now." And even, "Be back now now." Okay. So. Wait. One of these will leave you waiting for this individual for upwards of hours, but which?! If someone hands you something heavy like perhaps, say, their child, and says "See you just now," that may mean you get the pleasure of playing with the cute little bugger for a minute or two and will then give him back. It may also mean that you've just accidently adopted an African child. I do love me some babies, that's for sure, but no thank you South Africa, I don't think I'm ready. Ask me now now and I might have another answer.

I have barely begun my volunteer internship, but I can already tell it's going to be fantastic. iKapa Dance Theater is a dance company in Cape Town that focuses on African and Contemporary dance styles. They have an outreach program where they go into the townships and hold dance classes for kids in the community centers there. Their hope is that by encouraging art education in these places, it will give the kids a sense of empowerment and voice while also keeping them out of trouble. Yesterday, I drove with the program director into the townships to observe the dance classes that have already been in progress. In a culture so immensely different from what I know, it's amazing what similarities exist. Get a group of 12 year old girls together in a dance class, for example, and no matter what, these kids will giggle, chatter and cast their eyes side to side, self-consciously. This is true whether they're speaking in English or Xhosa, which contains as many clicks and pops as distinguishable phonetic sounds. I suppose a kid is a kid is a kid.


Here are some disjointed thoughts and memories from my first week:

-Nearly every time I go to get in a car or taxi, I approach it from the wrong side forgetting that they drive on the left-hand side of the road. Once, as I accidently approached the wrong door, the driver asked me, "Oh, are you keen to drive?" Those who know how faaaantastic I am at driving already, should be glad to know that I declined.

-South Africa seems to be very big on a few strange things: Butternut squash, brandy, Will and Grace reruns, bad American 90s pop jams (Hey, not saying I don't love "No Scrubs" but..... come on), Northface jackets, mints after meals, avocado, braais (BBQs), packing as many people as possible into a minibus, chutney, wooden figurines

-Last weekend I attended what has been voted the "Best Tea in the World." It was an event at the famous Nelson Mandela hotel (with gorgeous views of table mountain), where you can sample any of their 100 teas, lounge on a proper sofa, and enjoy a deluxe buffet of things that are smaller than they should be: finger sandwiches, mini cupcakes, etc. The whole experience was rather delightful.


-While being a white Hip-Hop dance teacher in the states nearly disqualifies me from being any good, I've found that being a white Hip-Hop teacher in Africa guarantees that I will know what I'm doing because it indicates that I am an American teaching an American dance form.

-Here, traffic lights are called Robots.

I hope you all are well, thank you for your emails and facebooks and calls and skypes. Please keep them coming! Here's my South African mobile number should anyone need it for any reason (plus, incoming calls are free for me, so please, CALL!)

072 679 0722

<3 Leah