The Africa I know and love

For an assignment for a class that I’m taking while here, I needed to take pictures of several things that I thought were either obvious or curious about South African society and to make a note on why. I thought it would be interesting to post the pictures here for everyone at home to see.

The first picture I chose was of a hippo crossing sign that my mom and I came across while driving along the Garden Route. The sign was obvious in that it is a safety precaution to warn drivers of animals that are likely to cross the road, but it is curious in that it was for a HIPPO. We have those for deer at home. Imagine having to look out for that tricky hippo who always crosses when you’re late for work…

This picture has already been posted on this blog, but I thought it was worth bringing up again. It’s an outhouse on Kilimanjaro with some bathrooms marked for porters and some marked for tourists. It’s crazy how there is still blatant segregation like that in a place that is  frequented by so many people from the outside world. There’s no hiding the hierarchy on Kilimanjaro, its plain for everyone to see. It was weird for me to see such clear differences in terms of status.

This picture is of a bird that I saw while walking through Arusha, Tanzania. This picture is curious for SO many reasons. First of all, that is not a nice looking bird. Have you ever seen something so weird looking? Poor guy.  BUT I didn’t feel too bad for him because he was the size of me. I’m not kidding. He was my height. Walking around the city like he owned the place. And everyone else thought it was normal that a bird their size was strutting around the music festival we were passing though. I had a serious WHERE AM I moment then.

This is the food court at school, decorated with hundreds of paper cups. There was a sign right next to it, explaining how much we waste as a campus just by drinking coffee out of paper cups. It was cool to see how proactive the university is. Villanova doesn't do things like this. And all the South African students thought it was normal. Barely noticed that there was a chain of paper cups dominating the entire food court. 

This was really weird for me, going to Catholic high school and college, where sex, condoms, and AIDS simply weren't mentioned. There are free condom dispensers in every single bathroom, in every dorm, and in random places scattered around campus. My university isn't even allowed to keep any form of birth control on campus, even in the health center. Here, the health conditions necessitate the ubiquitous distribution. 

If I had placed this picture in front of you and asked you to tell me where in the world it was taken, chances are that the last place you would say is Africa, right? The market culture here was surprising at first, but now its expected. I've become such a market snob. There's nothing like them at home, and I'm going to be heartbroken to leave them behind. Gourmet food, that the people who prepare it are passionate about, in such a happy atmosphere, decorated in the funkiest and most aesthetically pleasing way. Oh, and adorable clothes, jewelry and crafts. What more could you ask for?

Another thing I love about Cape Town that was surprising: the cafe culture. Globalization hasn't hit here to hard, and, I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'd take a cozy independent coffee shop over my Starbucks skinny vanilla latte to go any day. It's crazy seeing what America must have looked like before Starbucks and Dunkies hit. I want to do a blog post about all the cute little cafes that I've been to, but I never have my camera when I go. They're all gorgeously decorated, delicious, and very conducive to doing work. Above is Cafe Mozart in the center of Cape Town. So cute.