4 Apr 2009 – Internet, Jazz, and Field Trips

For most of Tuesday and Wednesday, the Black Sash was without internet. The staff took it in stride rather well – probably because it is hardly an unusual event – but Cassidy and I found ourselves floundering for ways to stay productive without the immediate access to social security stats and other information for research. The national office technical staff helped us set up a proxy network late Wednesday afternoon, so we got back up online about an hour before leaving for the week, giving us just enough time to tie up some loose ends.

Since Ben has been in Durban all week, we did not have a house meeting on Tuesday, but Wednesday marked the first night of the International Jazz Festival in Cape Town, and many people spent the evening in the city. From 5-10PM, the festival opened with a free concert on Green Market Square, just a few blocks from the Black Sash office. The crowds and music made for a lively atmosphere in the center of the city. On Saturday and Sunday, the big concert events cost R330 (about $33) per day, so the free performances on Wednesday were all the more attractive to the jazz lovers in the house.


Instead of walking up to UCT on Thursday morning, we boarded our rented van and rode into the city to the provincial parliament building. There we met Marita and two tour guides, who showed us around the hub of Western Cape politics. We learned about the relatively new democratic structures and symbols set in place at the end of Apartheid, 15 years ago, and spent part of the tour in the parliamentary chamber, taking group photos and asking questions about various provincial government functions. The tour concluded with refreshments and the presentation of commemorative copies of the South African Constitution around 11AM.We took the next two and a half hours to walk around the city, which the people who intern elsewhere found particularly advantageous. Some of us took the opportunity to visit the stands at Green Market Square, others grabbed lunch at local cafés, and the brashest of the group made a stop at a tattoo parlor on Long St. We met up again at 1:30 and took the van to Observatory (or “Obs”), which is a small section of Cape Town along Main Rd. between the city and Rondebosch. From 2-4PM we attended a lesson/discussion at one of Cape Town’s Rape Crisis Centres, taking in the heavy subject matter and then applying the insight we’ve gained through Marita’s women’s studies class during the question and answer session that followed. The stats on violence against women are staggeringly high in South Africa, and the woman who led the information session talked about the current efforts to prevent and treat the effects of rape in Cape Town’s communities.

We had the evening to ourselves – unusual for a Thursday night – so some people opted to head out after dinner. Many people also used the last two hours of daylight to run around the Commons or visit the gym on Main Rd. Ever since succumbing to the eyes-bigger-than-stomach folly during the buffet-filled excursion week, the house has seen an upsurge in daily exercise efforts; over the past week, more people seem to be making it a priority to be healthier. Since the early autumn weather has brought temperatures more conducive to outdoor activity, perhaps the incentive to remain active will not be as fleeting as the memories of 5-course dinners in Durban.

The cool, fall air of the last week, however, has spiked once again to deliver another batch of days in the mid-90s. Yesterday afternoon, we roasted in the upstairs meeting room at the Rape Crisis Centre, and today walking the dogs at TEARS, we plodded red-faced and sweaty down the sun-baked, rural road near Masiphumelele. Today was the last day officially designated to activist projects, as our related papers and presentations are due next Thursday, but those of us who’ve devoted our Friday mornings to the animals at the rescue society are likely to continue volunteering until we leave at the end of the month. Other people spent the afternoon at the beach soaking up the lingering rays of summer sun or at other activist projects in the townships. On the way back from TEARS, I picked up a package of magazines from home at the Rondebosch post office and a few grocery items at Pick ‘N Pay, then devoted the rest of the afternoon to reading, homework, and the leisurely playing of my guitar in the pool house. Watching the heat simmer above the bricks outside the open pool house door made me appreciate the shade and the unhurried pace of the afternoon even more.

Tomorrow four or five of us will head to Table Mountain for another climb to the summit, so we’re hoping for some cooler air, come morning.