Whales, Sluts, and the Archbishop

Okay, I have a tiny bit of an excuse this time for not writing--for the last week I've been sick, spending several days in bed barely thinking about anything more than watching television. I'm fully on the mend now, with just a bit of congestion and a cough. Of course, my sickness doesn't excuse the two weeks prior that I have not updated, so let's back track a bit.

A couple of months ago, I met a new friend, Gabby, at a Learning Network training. She is an MPH student from the states doing a summer internship in Cape Town with Leslie London (of the LN). We got to chatting, hung out again, and somehow decided that we should go to Hermanus together before she left the country. Hermanus is one of the best places in the world for whale watching from land. I'd been wanting to go, so when she suggested it I was all for it. Plus it would nice to get out of Cape Town overnight--something I haven't done since moving here except for the 24 hour trip to Durban for Thomas' sister's birthday.

Unfortunately, our trip was fruitless--despite it being whale season, the waves were rather choppy the two days we were there and apparently the whales are not to fond of that. However, I personally enjoyed the trip immensely because it gave me a chance to get to know Gabby better. I have a bit of a friend crush on her--she is one of those woman that I truly admire, beautiful on the inside and out, and I learned as much as I could from her during those couple of days. Besides her giving me an actual lesson in driving stick (yup, the battle still sloooowly wages on...), I have also learned how to sell wine to customers (bullshit), travel the world on a budget (she's been to about 40 different countries), additional relationship communication skills (she has a husband back home), and the titles of a ton of new books, movies, and songs (we made each other lists on the ride home of recommendations for each other). I feel really lucky to have met such an amazing person and we plan on remaining long distance friends.

Unfortunately, the weekend before last was Gabby's last weekend in Cape Town. We gave her a pretty interesting send off by attending the Cape Town Slut Walk. If you haven't heard about Slut Walks yet, frankly I'd be surprised, but you can read more about the original here. We had gorgeous weather for the event and there were about 2000 people there dressed up, with signs, etc. It was a cool experience. The only thing I would've liked in addition would have been a rally or some time of speaker at the beginning or end of the walk to articulate the purpose of the event, particularly in South Africa, which has one of the highest rates of rape in the world.

I've added pictures from Hermanus and the Slut Walk at the end of this album.

After the Slut Walk I had lunch with Gabby and then hung out with her until her going away party. I had the chance to finally meet a lot of her friends whom she had been talking about whom were fantastic. I left that night with almost ten new friends, which included South Africans, Tanzanians, Ugandans, and Americans. The party also reminded me what a wonderful energy being with a group of women can generate. Don't get me wrong, I love my male friends and they are wonderful and important in my life, but there is definitely a different energy with all women that I also enjoy. It was a great evening of food, wine, and laughter.

Lastly, I recently attended a Q&A for a new book at the Cape Town Book Lounge. I'll be honest, the event itself didn't hold much appeal to me--I hadn't read the book, didn't know who the author was, and didn't know what it was about--but my friend Katherine had invited me so I decided to go. I glazed over for most of the talk while eating the complimentary finger sandwiches, but there was one definite exciting moment: when Archbishop Desmond Tutu walked in! Yes, he is just as precious in person. We didn't speak to him as he left before the end of the talk (and as some of you might now, I hate introducing myself to "famous" people) but it was still neat to see him there. Just goes to show how small Cape Town is--never know who you might run into!

Now I must get back to working on a paper for my Economics of Health Systems course. Missing you all and looking forward to being home with you again soon!

Back from Break

Hi folks,

Oh my, it is August 1st! I will use the university break as my excuse for not updating. The Namibia trip did not pan out, but I did a couple of day trips and spent time with friends. It was a good stress relief. I received "firsts" which are sorta like As in three of my courses and am waiting to hear about the last course. It was my most challenging class (Public Health and Society) so I'm not expecting a first, but hopefully I did well.

I am still working at the Italian restaurant and should be starting with the music school soon. I don't have any private students yet,  but I'll be teaching a woodwind sectional class with clarinet and saxophone. Should be a challenge, but I am looking forward to it.

Class has started again and I've just finished my block classes. I decided to take three courses rather than two. My plan is too finish all of my course work by the end of the next semester so that I am free to travel during my last semester (when I'm writing my thesis) if the opportunity arrises. I'm really enjoying my courses this semester, which are more Health Systems focused: Health Policy and Planning and Economics of Health Systems. I'm also taking Evidence Based Health Care, which isn't health systems focused, but the concepts can certainly be applied (using research to make policy decisions rather than clinical decisions).

Thomas and I are still doing well, though it's been difficult for me that so much of his work is in Joburg. It's the reality of our situation and while it's better than living in different countries, it's still hard. I think this is worth mentioning. There are some positive things about long (or short!) distance relationships, including having "self" time. However, at the end of the day, I think most of us would rather have the person you love nearby. I'm really surprised there isn't more information/support out there for people doing the long distance thang, what with globalization and all. Surely someone somewhere should be making money off of this? :)

I'm still lacking in the activism department, buuuuut the Cape Town Slut Walk is coming up! We were also treated to two famous feminist thinkers visiting Cape Town last week: Judith Butler and Raewyn Connell. Butler didn't come to speak about feminism--her topic was about Zionism, but I really loved what she had to say (what I could follow, at least!). Connell spoke about Transexual rights in relation to feminism and was a really good talk. She feels that women whom are transexual should be working towards policy change for women that includes trans women, as opposed to policy targeted only at transexual women. I both agree and disagree with her, but I definitely see where she is coming from. My only concern is how to actually make "women" an inclusive term, especially under a legal setting. For non-trans feminists, she urged that we spend some time learning about what the lives of trans women (and men) are like. She gave us a reading list and I plan on checking at least one of the books out.

Time for me to get back to the reading grind. Sorry to have disappeared for so long, but I plan to be updating regularly now. Love!