Orientation and Life in Observatory

Today was an eventful day here. We had our first series of orientations that ran for 7 hours today. It was a full day’s work. We walked to the Stanford Centre (official South African spelling) for the first time at 9 this morning. It is only about 5 blocks from our house, so it shouldn’t be too hard to use in the future and most of our classes will be there. We had all kinds of safety meetings and information thrown at us. We also got the chance to meet all of the professors that will be teaching this quarter and got to hear about their classes and interests in Cape Town. It was a really fun experience. We basically just got to hang out and talk with the Professors for several hours and I feel like I will get to know them quite well by the end of the quarter.

I think I’ve decided on my courses, though I may change a little bit tomorrow when I have a meeting about service learning. I’m taking a course on how HIV/AIDS affects vulnerable populations that will also have a field study which gives me the chance to work on trying to assess where vulnerable populations exist. I will also be taking an Archeology class studying stone age humans that will involve looking at artifacts and visiting locations with cave art. The professor seems really interesting and excited about what he’s doing, so it sounds like it will be a great class. Lastly, I’ll be participating in a service-learning course which allows me to work with a local non-profit. I will work out my placement in a meeting tomorrow and will let you know!

After dinner we visited an interesting poetry reading that happens at a local restaurant every Monday. It was one of the first non-Stanford events that I’ve participated in and it was really an interesting event. A very mixed race group gathered in this restaurant and took turns reading either poems they had written or poems that had really touched them. It was such a treat to see both black and white South Africans mixing over a common interest. I may try to go back next week.

As a part of our orientation, we got a chance to hear from a man who works with a local nonprofit aiding the homeless community in our neighborhood here. His organization is working with local grocery stores to provide meal vouchers that can be given out to homeless people which will get them a meal and will get them in contact with his nonprofit so that they can be placed in the proper care systems to rescue them from homelessness. I want to end this entry with a story about one of the local homeless men. Colin is a white South African who is homeless and has a mental disorder. He decided to take up residence on our porch over the last several weeks. Several nights ago he was having a manic fit and screaming, cussing, and spitting all over the porch. The disturbance was enough to scare the newly arrived group here and security was called to remove him. We told the leader of this nonprofit about him and he knew a little bit of Colin’s story. He had been a math professor until he witnessed his wife and child murdered in front of him. Seeing this act caused him to lose his mind and he has been homeless since and unable to get the help he needs. We saw him on the streets later today and all I could think about was the tragedy of his situation. I wanted to do something. I wanted to help him. Hearing stories like this really makes me want to support organizations that help the least fortunate among us. I pray that as you read this your heart will be spurred into action for a cause that really tugs at your heart. Sometimes you don’t have to look past your front porch for a way you can make a difference.

Tim