Snippets from my first three weeks at The Star newspaper:
Representative of the most privileged group in SA’s society, a white male gets passed over for a promotion he may have deserved. “It’s because of BEE,” he tells me, referring to Black Economic Empowerment, South Africa’s version of affirmative action. “But it’s worth it,” he slips in quickly. He may be disadvantaged now but he believes it is a sacrifice he must make to further his country’s future.
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“Want to go to the Zuma trial?” asked Yvonne, a news editor at The Star, who I had just met. “Go with Demian but hurry up.”
I had been reading about former deputy president Jacob Zuma since the start of my 10-week prep course for my internship. I had seen pictures of, and read editorials and countless political cartoons about the man who was rumored to be the leading candidate for South Africa’s next president, but who is now taking the stand to defend himself against charges of raping an HIV-positive 31-year-old woman in his home last November.
This was the man who had been in charge of the South African National AIDS council, and who had exhorted the country to stand up and fight against the epidemic. The same man who now claims he took a shower to cleanse himself of HIV… what!?
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It’s time to wish SA Blog’s pioneering first student blogger, Karen of the University of Chicago, goodbye and good luck! Karen has departed Cape Town for the final leg of her program in the Kruger National Park (no blogging facilities there!), and - apart from one or two possible post-Kruger reports - this may be the last we’ll hear from her. Sniff.
View all of Karen’s posts: Karen UChicago
Karen’s departure means that SA Blog now has a vacancy in its Student Blogger department. Applications welcome! If you’re studying abroad in SA for any length of time, answer to …
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Paradise, it would seem, is not lost but slipping away. That is how I feel, at least, with my last week in Cape Town just around the corner. It is surely a feeling that confronts every traveller or student: what does one do when the time is ticking?
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It’s very exciting when one has the opportunity to be in such a welcoming city. Sometimes I feel that Cape Town has extended her arms towards me; I’m in such a comforting embrace that, while miles from home, I feel at peace.
When feelings such as these arise while travelling or studying abroad, you know you’ve hit it big.
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Waking up at 9 am was already considered late for the hardcore beer-drinkers at the Oppikoppi Easter Festival. We walked from our tents to the outdoor bathrooms to brush our teeth as a group of people returned from playing a round of beer golf and began their morning braai of sausages and eggs. “Four!” shouted a drunk man as he swung his golf club at the beer can he had just drained.
Drinking made up just a fraction of the festivities during the weekend festival, where bands - mostly from South Africa - came together for three days to play rock and punk against the backdrop of the hills in Northam, Limpopo Province.
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Howzit, SouthAfricablog.com!
Shelly
The energy and sunshine of Jo’burg is absolutely exhilarating! What a great change from the Chicago chill. Hey everyone, my name is Shelly and I am a Junior at the Medill School of Journalism, part of Northwestern University. Hailing from Dallas, TX I gravitate toward the sun and am currently interning at the Star newspaper in Johannesburg.
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Parker Cottage
3 Carstens St
Tamboerskloof
Cape Town | Map
Accommodation type: Bed & Breakfast
Number of stars: 4
Rooms starting from (per person sharing): R350
SA Blog recommends? Enthusiastically!
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Located in trendy Tamboerskloof, Parker Cottage Bed & Breakfast is, to say the least, simply a pleasure. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my stay here, and have been treated to the same level of service as any normal guest, even though I’m just a student!
(See full review below.)
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Flash your student card at the Pasta Factory - one of a string of posh new restaurants lining Cape Town’s suddenly hip Park Rd., off trendy Kloof St., (click here for map) - and receive a 50% discount on any of the pastas on the menu.
This includes everything from the simplest spaghetti pomodoro (tomato, basil and garlic sauce; R12.50 with discount) to the rather more substantial penne tonno fresco (seared tuna; R22.50 with discount).
The special price is available to all students - local or international, as long as you’re studying in Cape Town - and makes the Pasta …
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I arrived in South Africa on January 3rd, to a Johannesburg that I had only read about. With a group of 23 other students, I spent a week in SA’s cultural capital, staying at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits for short), College of Education Campus. We took classes at Wits, where Professor David Bunn, a renowned scholar on the social aspects of game reserves, took us through African literature and apartheid history.
In Jo’burg, things were quite controlled. We only travelled as a group, sheltered by the hired tour vans and protected by the phalanx of people sent to watch us. Class material was stimulating and intriguing, but the conditions in which we operated felt somehow highly contrived.
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