A Note on Security

When I told people that I was going to South Africa, the first reaction of most was, “Be careful. No seriously, be careful.” With some of the highest rape and homicide rates in the world, this advice is certainly warranted and I expected to see cities that were run-down and forgotten much like places in the States that have high crime rates. I was expecting to see signs of insecurity. What I wasn’t expecting was a totally different conception of security.

Immediately upon entering a South African city, you notice fences and walls that we only see to keep inmates in prisons. Each house, business, and office that has enough money has a 10 foot wall or gate topped off with barbed wire or jagged spikes in addition to bars on the ground floor windows. Most of these gates have a pass code and, if the owners are affluent enough, a security guard and/or security camera. A large parking lot without a security guard probably means that you don’t want to leave your car, let alone frequent the business.

What is striking (besides the amazing ability of South Africans to make barbed wire and barred windows aesthetically appealing) is the simple fact that security here means keeping others out while in the States, security is intended to keep your assets in. We build fences to make sure our dogs don’t run away and occasionally to tell a neighbor what land is ours. So as you picture me frolicking in Durban, feel comforted (?) by the knowledge that security here is not a passive statement of ‘this is mine’ but the aggressive stance that ‘this isn’t yours’.

Greetings from Africa!

Well at long last I am settled down in Johannesburg and just enough of an insomniac (I've been awake since a phone went off at 4:30) to be able to monopolize the hostel computer for long enough to blog. The plane trip went off without a hitch and I managed to make friends with my Senegalese seat mate Gaba who showed me the joys of the little TV screens before MaryBeth hooked me up with some Dramamine for the second leg of the journey. All in all, my day of travel was 29 hours long (9 of these were spent waiting at JFK and one waiting on the runway in Dakar) and needless to say we all were excited for bed that night.

This week is orientation/tourist fun so yesterday we went to Soweto, the Joburg township whose claim to fame is the early homes of Mandela, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and a host of other apartheid resisters. We are in Johannesburg today as well and then will move to Durban, meeting our Cato Manor host families on Tuesday night (?). I'm excited to meet Mz. Lucy whose last name is escaping me and whose 11 year old grandaughter is also in the house.

So far, I have been bouncing between amazement at the beautiful scenery and weather and sadness at the degredation done to the land by apartheid. All 21 other girls and our program staff are fantastic so far. I give the drama another 3 weeks.

There are cities in Africa?

Quick parable: Once upon a time, a woman was completing her ethnography in Indonesia and found that the people she was living with were unusually anxious about her moving back to the United States. Upon further investigation, she realized that they were convinced that she would be either killed by John Wayne in a shootout or would be poisoned by a relative a-la Dynasty.

Moral of the story? Don’t believe everything you see on TV. Just like every American doesn’t duel for their honor or have the privilege of calling a horribly dysfunctional family theirs, not every African lives like the !Kung.

For better or worse, natural population growth shaped by the forces of colonialism, imperialism, and (now) globalization, has made South Africa into a country that in many ways looks quite European. The country is a little bigger than Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico combined and is home to about 47.9 million people.

I will be flying into Johannesburg, South Africa’s largest city, and staying there for the first week of my trip. There we will have an orientation and take the (long) van ride to Durban where the majority of the program is housed.

Durban has about the same population as New York City, but is quite spread out (a little less than twice as big as NYC). It’s a popular vacation destination for South Africans, while Cape Town is usually the go-to vacation spot for non-South African tourists.

As the program is home stay centered, we will not have beachfront property, but will be staying in Cato Manor and taking vans to our lectures housed at the University of KwaZulu Natal (KZN being the province). More fun facts to come!

Home Base

If this isn't painfully self-explanatory, what you are reading is the tales of my journeys abroad. On January 22nd, I will be rocking out to Durban, South Africa for fifteen weeks to study Community Health. Although I have no clue what my packing list will include, I can assure you I will bring a pink camera and a trusty pair of Keds. And, as I'm not convinced that I will have internet every second of every day, I'll try to update as often as possible. Enjoy!