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