Entry No 8: Ayoba no more times...

Highlights from the past week or so:

District Six Museum

Went to the District Six museum last week and it was definitely worth it, as District Six is considered a model for the apartheid movement in South Africa. District Six was named the sixth district of Cape Town in the late 1800’s and grew into a vibrant multi-racial community of mainly non-whites by the 20th century. However, as early as 1900 – Africans were moved from the community and relocated to other parts the Cape Town area. Finally in the mid-1960’s, the district was declared as a place for whites only and over the next 20 years over 60,000 people were forcibly removed (or left on their own when they realized they had no choice) to other parts of Cape Town. They were mainly displaced to Cape Flats, which is where many of the townships exist today. Now, District Six is a barren area in Cape Town, as many whites did not move there and instead its just fields of weeds and no housing. The area is located right next to where I live in Cape Town, and its pretty crazy to see it and imagine so many people living there once upon a time. There have been talks of giving the land back to the families that once lived there, but nothing has come to fruition at this point.

The museum itself is a testament to the people that lived in District Six, as there are many accounts of families that lived in District Six and in general the museum depicts what life was like in the area. Many members have come back and written messages in the museum stating what street they lived on and how much they loved life in that area. The street I live on now (Roeland Street), is where a lot of the factories were located that people from District Six would work in, and after seeing pictures of the area back in the mid 1900’s – its hard to imagine how different it looks now. Its quite sad to see how harsh their lives turned and one of things they talked about in the museum was how all people in Cape Town had to carry these cards which stated what their race actually was (White, Colored, Indian, Black). Whenever an authority asked for your card, you had to present it otherwise you went to jail. Pretty hard to imagine how different life was back then but overall I’m glad I went to the museum, as I learned a lot about the apartheid movement and how it affected everyday ordinary people. Its weird to think that during the 1960’s – the equal rights movement was occurring in the USA and moving in a positive manner, but here in South Africa it was heading in the exact opposite direction.

Last Saturday we also went to the Old Biscuit Mill , which has this market with stalls that serve all types of food and fresh produce on Saturday mornings. The food was incredible and reasonably priced so we'll probably head back at some point soon. Definitely one of the best places I've been to while here in Cape Town. Since it was raining on Saturday, we also went to the aquarium here (pretty good) and saw Toy Story 3 in 3-D, which was doooopppppeeee. It was the first movie I've seen in 3-D, and even though it was animated I had a great time I'm not gonna lie.

World Cup Final

For the world cup final we started with a pre-game brunch at Mikel and Oianna’s place, both of whom are from Espana and part of the Connect-123 program. Mikel made a tub of sangria for the festivities, and it was probably the best I’ve tasted at this point. I got the recipe, but I’m gonna keep it secret for now and overall it was a great start to the day as we all hung for a couple hours and then headed to FanFest together. Fanfest was a blur, but there were live bands playing from like 2pm in the afternoon and it was absolutely packed as everyone was just dancing and having a good time. I remember one of the girls breaking her flip-flop while dancing and someone just put a plastic beer cup on her foot (as a shoe) and she just kept dancing like it was no big thing. We also played some spin the bottle dance off, where if the bottle landed on you...you had to get in the middle of the circle and bust some moves. I think the bottle landed on me like 9 times honestly but not sure. That’s the kind of day it was, as everyone was just celebrating how awesome a world cup host South Africa was and how great of a time everyone has had over the month or so.

About a couple hours before the game, we went to get dinner at the Eastern Food Bazaar, which is this local food court kind of place right near FanFest and had local Indian, Chinese, and Middle Eastern food. I’m not sure the FDA (or my mother) would approve of the hygiene standards haha but the food is pretty damn good and cheap so it’s become a favorite food spot for kids in our program.

Overall I’m really pumped that Spain won, as they are my favorite side besides the USA and they definitely deserved it since I think they played the best over the entire world cup. Netherlands should have had at least 2 red cards in the game (De Jong’s tackle on Xabi Alonso was absurd), but in the end the team that deserved it won. The fan support was pretty even for both sides, although I think Netherlands had the edge here because of the Dutch influence. We met some people from Holland at FanFest and I was disappointed for them, but I think they could admit that Spain was the better side.

Now that the world cup is over, you can definitely see how different Cape Town has become, as it is much quieter and less touristy. I drive to work and while listening to the radio... all they can talk about was how they want to keep this South African pride and atmosphere going which I hope they can. I think a lot of people are dealing with post world cup depression hahaa and the rainy/cold weather here has not helped.

I really hope they can continue the atmosphere at least in supporting their soccer team, but there’s already been stories of xenophobic violence that has started again as many non-South Africans are now being displaced from their homes and/or having their stores looted and burned down in the townships here. Xenophobia is an extremely real problem here in South Africa, and something that the rest of the world needs to be aware about as it is starting to destroy this country. If you don’t know what I am talking about, I definitely think you should look into it, because I feel the only way for it to stop is if the rest of the world is aware of it and puts pressure on South Africa to act properly

Work

I got clearance from the hospital to go on ward runs this week, so I’ve been shadowing doctors and going on patient visits with other interns/students as the doctors make their rounds at my hospital. Today, I went to the pediatric neurology ward and saw some interesting cases of children that ranged from Tuberculoma, Epilepsy, and even a few cases of children with symptoms that could lead to Meningococcal disease. It seems that outbreaks of certain diseases (for example meningococcal) break out in the Western Cape and the hospitals end up seeing many patients with similar symptoms. For example, the main doctor told us about how a couple months ago there was a measles outbreak and the hospital had to dedicate an entire ward to care for patients with measles. Overall, the hospitals here are well run and technologically they’re up to standards, but the thing I notice the most is how much the doctors care about the patients.

I also sat in on a Radiology meeting where they would put up CT scans and MRIs of interesting patients who hadn’t been fully diagnosed. All the doctors would then talk about what they see and try to come towards some sort of conclusion on what could be going on. It was interesting to hear and see what they look for in these different scans as I’m starting to understand what sorts of things to look out for even without knowing the complete medical terminology behind it.

In terms of my research project, I am starting to statistically analyze all the data that I’ve been organizing for Dr. Laughton as she is hoping I can help determine whether the Molteno and Griffith tests compare well to each other and correctly diagnose what is going on in the patients she sees. The main question I am trying to answer is whether the patients score on the Molteno is a good indicator for their actual problems (behavior, neurological, physical) and whether it can be substituted for the Griffiths, as the Molteno is a much easier and less time consuming test.

Upcoming

Besides my research project, I hope to do a bit of travelling in the next month or so I have here. My roommate Mike and I are planning a trip to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe for a few days in August and the other main thing on my agenda is bungee jumping off the Bloukrans Bridge (highest commercial bungee jump in the world). The bungee jump is about 4 hours away from Cape Town, and many people do it while they’re travelling on the Garden route towards Port Elizabeth and Durban from here. If I don’t get to do the entire garden route, I’m going to make sure I at least go and bungee. People are trying to pressure me into shark cage diving, but honestly all I can think of when they say that is the JAWS theme song so I’m still not sure I’m going to be able to man up for that. I have also yet to see any animals/wildlife, but while in either Zimbabwe or the Garden Route, we’ll definitely hit up some game reserves and chill with the Animal Kingdom, which I can’t wait for.

I’ll hopefully be heading to Robben Island this week and on Saturday our Connect-123 group is going to the Bastille Day Festival in Franschhoek, which should be a lot of fun even though I’m not a huge fan of the French. It’s Mandela’s birthday on Sunday too, which is called Mandela Day here so I’m interested to see what goes on.

I’ll leave you guys with a few songs that are burning up the clubs and radio stations here in Cape Town. I don’t think people have heard these back home so take a listen:

Liquideep - Fairytale

Dennis Ferrer - I Heard You Say

Tinie Tempah – Pass Out

Tinie Tempah - Frisky

Heres a cool link that tells you a bit about South Africa as well: http://zar.co.za/world.htm

Also, since ayoba time is officially over...I’m going to leave you with a youtube link to a commercial that would play on TV like 20 times a day here during the world cup. It pretty much depicts what the world cup atmosphere was like here...I’m definitely gonna miss it.

Here’s the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfIZ7krIg8E

Just remember...AYOBA ONE MORE TIME.

-Prabhat

Entry No. 7: Howz it Bru?

I know its been a while since I’ve last posted, but here we go. I’ll try and break it down by subject this time:

World Cup Games

Hillar and I ended up going to 5 world cup games (England v. Algeria, Cameroon v. Netherlands, Argentina v. Mexico, Brazil v. Chile, and Portugal v. Spain). The games seemed to get better with each one we went to with the highlight definitely being Spain beating Portugal at Cape Point stadium here in Cape Town. I’m praying that Spain wins the world cup now, as they really play incredibly as a unit – which makes sense since half of their starting team are players from FC Barcelona. Actually seeing it in person is even more entertaining. Its almost impossible to take the ball away from them, plus they have my favorite player David Villa. He’s everything you’d want in a striker...and Rooney certainly could have learned a thing from him during this world cup. I’ve been rocking my Villa jersey all the time and I hope he can get the golden boot over Klose. I hate Germany with a passion, I don’t even know why but I just do – probably cause they’re such a machine.

We travelled to Joburg in order to see the Argentina and Brazil games. The Argentina game was at Soccer City stadium and that is one of the biggest/craziest stadiums I’ve ever seen. It looks absolutely enormous from outside, but when you get in it actually looks a bit smaller than expected. It’s in the Soweto area, which is considered the largest township(s) in South Africa, but honestly there was nothing around the stadium really. The crowd inside the stadium was definitely pro-Argentina – although Mexico certainly had their share of supporters as well. The second Tevez goal was at our end of the stadium, and Hillar almost jumped out of his seat when it happened, since he’s a huge Tevez supporter. As a Manchester United fan, I want to kill myself every time I see Tevez score though...knowing that we should have kept him over Berbatov.

The Brazil game was at Ellis Park stadium, which is where the final for the 1996 rugby world cup that South Africa won was held (If you’ve seen Invictus, you’ll know what I’m talking about). The stadium itself is in the old downtown and it’s a pretty shady/sketchy area to tell the truth. Hillar and I pretty much only went from our lodge to the games and back as we decided it wasn’t really worth trying to check out whatever Joburg has to offer – we’ve heard not much. If you’re ever looking for a place to stay in Joburg, I definitely recommend checking out the Kwa-Mkhabela lodge though. We ended up booking that lodge the day before we left for Joburg, after reading reviews about our original hostel (Ball n Kicka) and how it was a complete scam. The Kwa lodge shows South African hospitality at its finest as the owner of the place Jamal drove us from the games and back, plus his family runs the place and it’s a really nice lodge.

Back to Ellis Park...as we were driving into the stadium – different guys in crossing guard vests would run by our car and tell us to follow them to a parking spot. One guy even yelled for us to follow him, as he was the VIP usher and he saw that we were in a BMW. I’m not sure what would have happened if we ended up following one of these guys – but probably nothing good. The game itself was awesome as Brazil put up 3 goals, but Hillar and I came to the conclusion that Kaka is probably the most overrated soccer player in the world. For someone who gets mentioned with the likes of Messi and C. Ronaldo, Kaka did almost nothing in the game really besides get a yellow for a reckless challenge. All in all, this wasn’t a good world cup for the superstars (Messi, C. Ronaldo, Rooney, Kaka, etc.) – as it seemed that most of them were just frustrated playing on their national teams plus really tired from a grueling season that just ended before the world cup.

Lions Head

About a week ago we also climbed Lions Head, which is one of the mountains here in Cape Town. The original plan was for us to climb Table Mountain, but after leaving our apartment and going outside – it was extremely windy and clouds covered the entire mountain so we went after Lions Head instead. If someone can explain to me why the clouds are so low in Cape Town even though we’re at sea level..I would really appreciate it. We’ve tried to find the answer but have come up with nothing so far.

My buddy Max from BU also came to hike and I really want to thank him and his dad for taking us out to Mama Africa for dinner in Cape Town and around to Camps Bay/Lions Head the next day. If you ever end up coming here, Mama Africa is one of the first restaurants you need to go to and check out. They have authentic African music/food and it’s a great place to hang for a night on Long Street. Max and his family have also been in South Africa for a while – travelling around and going to world cup games. Check out his website www.maxcondren.com - as he’s made some incredibly cool movies/blog entries that really capture what SA is like. If the internet at my apartment worked properly, I’d be able to show you some cool things too but I think I’ll have to end up waiting till I get back to the States. Look out for a facebook album soon though.

The Lions Head climb itself wasn’t too bad as it took about an hour up, but it was the first time I’d done anything like it really since I’ve never hiked much before so it was cool. Getting to the top was awesome as there were some great views of the Cape Town area. You could even see Robben Island, which is where Nelson Mandela was held in prison before his release in the early 90’s. Hillar was decked out in some Annie Mulz gear so I’m thinking that might be a worthy picture for your website Matt O – I have a dope pic of Hillar repping Annie Mulz which I’ll try and post soon.

That night we ended up going to the Purple Turtle again to see USA play Ghana and honestly I don’t want to say much about it. Losing to Ghana twice in consecutive world cups really sucks, especially since the USA team could have easily made it to the semifinals this world cup. Either way I’m proud of our boys but absolutely baffled at the starting line up we put out for the game. I mean Ricardo Clark over Edu? That was the biggest mistake we could have made, as the first goal Ghana scored was definitely Clark’s fault. All in all I’m pretty happy Ghana lost to Uruguay in the QF, although I felt bad for the manner in which it happened.

Other Highlights

Other than those two things, I’ve been going out with kids at the program and having a good time. Nate's older brother Andrew came and visited for one night a few days ago and we went to Royale for dinner, which is considered to have the best burgers in Cape Town and possibly South Africa. I was hoping to get an ostrich burger, but they were all out of ostrich so I went for the lamb. Overall it was a pretty low key night, but just wanted to thank Andrew for dinner as well. The craziest part of the night was while we were hanging out on a balcony at Stones watching people in the street, a small fight broke out across the street and a huge group gathered around. We ended up hearing from one of the ladies watching that a kid had run out of an alley and she said when he lifted his shirt, it looked like he'd been stabbed. We saw a group of kids carry a person into a taxi and speed off...and about after 20 minutes a ton of police showed up and they had two kids kneeling against a wall. We couldn't really see the entire thing though because it was mainly happening behind a gate in an alley. Safety is a priority here but I think its also exaggerated at times, as long as you are smart and aware you're usually alright. Number one rule: Don't walk into sketchy dark alleys.

Work has been great as well, as I was able to check out another hospital called Karl Bremer last Thursday and see how things are run there. I sat in on some infant visits and I pretty much played with little kids as the main doctor talked to the mothers and did check ups. Karl Bremer is considered a secondary hospital and their sickest patients or patients they don’t have room for – are transferred to Tygerberg hospital, which is where I actually work. Tygerberg Hospital is one of the biggest hospitals in the Cape Town area and Karl Bremer was a bit smaller/more specialized. I’ve found out that there is a huge discrepancy bettwen public and private hospitals here in South Africa, as they level of care is much different. About 95% of this country is medically uninsured though, but if you do have Medical Aid – then you go to a private hospital. Tygerberg and Karl Bremer are both public hospitals though, so they deal with the most/sickest people.

One of the main questions I had was: how do patients decide which hospital they are going to – especially when it’s a public hospital? I found out that each hospital is assigned a main area, which it covers and Tygerberg’s area is Khayelitsha, which is the biggest township in Cape Town. I also did some ward runs at Karl Bremer and learned of an interesting program they run called Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC). They do the program with premature infants and infants who aren’t growing to expected standards. What they do is they make sure the baby and mother have skin contact so the baby stays under the mother’s clothes (like a Kangaroo pouch) and they’ve found that this causes the babies to start growing and developing much faster. It was a treatment that I had never heard of but something that I found quite interesting. I’m also hoping to get to some clinics in the townships soon, which should be a great thing to do as well.

Yesterday a group of us went to Mzoli’s (look it up), which is kind of this tent covered restaurant and party area in the Gugulethu township. We took a mini-bus there (my first time), which was quite an experience as it was packed with more people than it should have been and only cost 9 rand (taxi would have cost over 100 probably). How Mzoli’s works is when you get there you choose what and how much meat you want (that is all they serve, sorry Vegans/Vegetarians) and then they cook it for you over a Braii/Fire Pit area. Once it’s all cooked they bring it in a huge bowl to your table and then you just eat it with your hands. We ended up waiting like 2 hours for our food to come so by the time it did, we absolutely beasted on it. It was pretty savage haha – as they don’t give you utensils or napkins. While this is going on people are just partying and dancing as there is a DJ in the tent too. It’s like an enormous tailgate but pretty impossible to explain if you don’t experience it yourself. The fact that its in the townships makes it that much more of an experience as its both tourists and locals just mixing and having a good time. The area is not somewhere you want to be travelling/walking in by yourself, but on Sundays its like a huge party where everyone just is together and having fun. I think we’ll definitely end up going back again and hopefully I can take some pics/videos of the place next time to show you guys.

That’s it for now, pretty pumped for Spain v. Germany and Netherlands v. Uruguay. I’m hoping for a Spain v. Netherlands final but we shall see what happens. In the meantime, I’ll leave you with a couple sayings so you can understand some South African lingo – remember to say all of this in a South African accent:

Howz it? – means: Whats up?

Iz it? – means: Is that true/Oh really?

Now Now – means: I’ll do it in a little bit

Cheers,
Prabhat