Day 8: Oranges and Apples, arrrgghh too many differences!

Created with flickr slideshow from softsea.

It's intriguing how different South Africa is from the United States and Nigeria. One of the first things I noticed was hair. Coming here, I had to mentally prepare myself to see all weaves, some side looks for my natural hair and other things of that nature. As a matter of fact, I considered saving myself any uncomfortable feelings and simply having a weave for the trip. I decided against it however. Nigeria is notorious for the weaves and wigs and natural hair is more of a rarity and of course I expected no less from South Africa. I was so wrong. Here, at least judging from the festival, natural hair is the majority and weaves/ wigs the minority. Whoaa that was a culture shock. I've seen so many people with locks - they are always in designs so I can't help staring when they walk by, people with shaved heads, straight up natural hair, some girls with mohawks; I saw this one girl with shaved sides and the middle of her head braided into this spiral design. It was so edgy and cool. I was like mayne I wish I could pull that off, danggit, if only my head wasn't so big.

It's also interesting how race is categorized here: black, coloreds, and then white. This colored category is the most confusing ish ever. It's seen as its own separate entity, with coloreds marrying other coloreds, producing generations of coloreds, who by the way, speak Afrikaans. It's so different. It's not so different from the U.S. though when it comes to who guys prefers. The guys I'm cool with here, love the "yellow bones" as they put it aka red bones as we call it in the U.S. It's all about them light skinned girls. smh. Nothings wrong with it, but can dark skinned girls get some love too??? LOL

So unto performances today: we saw this dance from a company who uses "differently-abled" dancers as well as actors to give further meaning to the term "integrated dance." It was, to say teh least, an experience. Basically the dance, Love Affair, challenged perceptions of disability and gender. I was so into it, trying to understand, trying to see what they wanted me to see. It was very different, "weird" as one of my friends put it, but I actually liked it. It was touching and I feel like if I had a disabled friend, I would have been moved to tears. Other people in the program didn't care for it though *shrug* to each its own.

We also an hip hop group from Durban, ah! That was a joke. I had my fun though being extra hype for some pretty lame music. It makes it all more enjoyable. We also saw this weird physical theatre show, Inua. This was hands down to me the worst show ever. My professor felt the opposite, she loved it, and read into the movements; she raved about the ingenuity of it, how it showed a transformation of man etc. I just felt it was bullsh*t. The girl rolled around on the floor like a baby, made weird noises, I was like wtheck is going on? She dressed like an eskimo, acting in my opinion STUPID. Then again, maybe my mind is just so closed off that I can't see the beauty or cleverness of it all. I did also sleep through some of it- I'm sure that doesn't help. LOL

Day 7: More tidbits here and there

Happy Independence day!!!!

One of the guys on the trip went patriotic to the max today and wore his american flag boxers over his jeans, lots of blue and red, and beads. Creative but I'm sure the people here thought he was weird, considering most people didn't know we were a) American and b) it's our independence day.

On a different note, I realized I forgot to post some videos from yesterday. I saw a street performance- xylophone. Cool stuff.

Also this is from the African Rhythm performance we went to see. Mayynnee, talk about a workout. Those guys were AMAZING!!!

So today:

We went to see this really cool performance with a trapeze artist from Spain. Apparently she's quite famous. The chick was PHENOMENAL. I wish I could have got some video footage but it wasn't allowed :-(

We also saw this play called History Boys, also apparently well-renowed. It was like British comedy, quite crude, with things about homosexuality, elite education (Oxford), and other things. At first I didn't like it. People laughed all around me but the jokes were...different for me. Eventually I got into it. It's not my style of comedy, but it was alright.

Cheers!!!

Day 6: Naija Accent on deck!

Today we finally saw traditional or rather indigenous south African performances. So cool. First one was outdoors and freeeeee which was awesome. Footage is below. The next one we saw was in doors and had 3 diff groups, also very cool. I got some awesome pics. I also went shopping at the flee market and did some major battering. I definitely put my thickest Nigerian accent on and haggled my way to some good prices. First I got a dress from this lady, I think she was either from cote d'ivoire or Senegal because she spoke French to her partner. Anyway the lady tried to cheat me by telling me it was 170R for the dress when her partner had told me it was 150R. I ended up paying 130R. I also bought this awesome bag. Absolutely love it. The seller was a Senegalese man and he thought I was Ghanaian (what else is new) anyway he wanted 150R, I payed 100R. Ah!! LOL Well we settled for 110R but then I couldn't find any change so it took me a long time searching through my bag, so the guy got tired and just said give him the 100. hahaha SCORE. I also got another bag from a lady. Price was 70R. I had a sad face on cause I only had 50R (that's what I told her) and I stayed at her stand/store for a long time looking at the bags she had. Eventually she was like she never takes that low but she will this time. So yup I only paid 50R. Mayne I wish I could batter like this in the US.

Day 5: Jazzy nights

Met the director and actresses of 8 minuets at the club yesterday. I really want a copy of the script and told him. he said he could get it to me....ahhh that would be a dream. Today was a jazz day like literally. First we saw Swan lake the ballet then we had 3 jazz shows - Tutu, Soweto Kinch, and Cape Guitar Summit. Tutu was so good, her voice was beautiful, only thing is I wish she had gave me more- more vocals. the ultimate best was Soweto Kinch. when I say amazing, I mean literally AMAZING. It was loud, big jazz and there was a beat boxer, it was absolutely amazing. I was so blown away I had to get his CD which I also got him to sign. funny thing is that he recognized me cause he said he'd seen ne before at Alan gray - the building he is staying at, also where I go to use the internet. yea I felt pretty cool. I also met this American guy from DC while at the jazz gig. The guy is an actor and lives in new York but came to south Africa to celebrate his birthday. He told me bout Cape Town and how different it is from Grahamstown, also how European it was. We sat next to each other during Soweto's concert so we were jamming all the way, fun stuff.

P.S. I used the bathroom in one of the building and there was condom dispenser- free. LOL. I thought that was hilarious.

Here's some video footage: Tutu and then Soweto Kinch underneath.

Day 4: Shoulder's Broad, Head Up High, Walk Tall

    

        I love the decor of the fast food places around here. Had some KFC and also went to this cute lil cafe. For dinner we went to a restaurant called spurs. the decor was amazing and they also did happy birthday songs in Zulu. I have video footage :-)

There's lots of art here, I love it =D

       

8 minuets

I went out last night and got my first experience of the social scene in Grahamstown. First thing I noticed is that they looooove house music. I went to this spot called Equilibrium (EQ) which has an all black crowd, complete with sketchy and creepy guys as well. The music was really good and I had so so much fun dancing, they even played Wiz Kid (Nigerian music). The students I've becoming really cool with were making sure creepy guys couldn't dance on me, lol it was quite entertaining.

So for the shows, we saw three today: Desert crossings- a dance, Abnormal Loads- a play and 8 minuets, also a play. I absolutely loved 8 minuets, it is hands down the best performance I've seen so far (hence the title, it was one of the phrases in the play). Abnormal Loads was really good too, it's received lots of awesome reviews and the writer has received some award of some sort for it. Desert crossings was also superb. Its a modern dance piece and wow it was a full house. The groups is actually known internationally so it was really cool to get this exposure. All in all, 5 stars for the performances today.


Desert Crossing

Day 3: White prostitutes and classical music

Finally moved in!!!!! Stayed up last night having a convo with some students here. So we're staying at Rhodes University out in Grahamstown and so far the people have been reaaaally nice. The area is like a university city, almost like Penn in a way because its the university and all these shops surrounding it. Unfortunately that's all they have. There's nothing else cause its right in the middle of nowhere...BUMMER. It's really nice though, the scenery is beautiful.

Later:

We went to see a dance performance: The Anatomy of Weather. It was a contemporary/ modern dance piece, my FAV type of dance. It was really interesting I must admit and one thing I love about it is its abstractness. It gave room for discussions because the dance and the story being told could be interpreted in different ways. To sum it up, it's basically a metaphor for the different stages of relationships, or seasons of relationships- the flirting and happy beginnings that goes on in Spring, to the heartbreaks and loneliness in Winter.

The second show we saw was classical music by Ben Schoeman. It was a piano recital by a white south african who according to my professor is recognized internationally. Honestly my first thought was, this was not what I came to South Africa for. I have nothing against classical music, but to me, I don't see anything African about classical music. It screams European to me, and rightly so. The guy played pieces by well known European composers and although he played a piece by a South African composer he had to read the sheet music for it, while for the others he played from memory. That was interesting in itself. What does that say about classical music as it relates to South Africa? European classical music is clearly engraved in the mind and has been adapted more as a culture than classical music by South African composers.

As I walked into the theater for The last pro of yeoville, I was struck by the amazing scenery and props on stage. They had sketches of (cross sections) of female body parts, bright colors- reds and oranges, it was all so pleasing to the eye. The play was about a white prostitute who moves to an all black neighborhood to continue her business, she's getting too old for work which is what influences her relocation to this area. The storyline is interesting because the time period was during apartheid era, so this was introducing the idea that in prostitution, black and white were equal- color does not matter. Hence a white woman doing prostitution in a white neighborhood was simply business.

Pictures of the set:

Day 2: 16 Hour Flights...YIKES!

This flight has taken forever and a day!!! Seriously! I'm in Port Elizabeth right now. The flight to Joburg took almost 15 hours! Ridic. And what did I do the whole time??? Watch movies and sleep. LOL. Let's see I saw Green Hornet, Spud the movie (South African Movie- HILLARIOUS), Rando and Just go with it. Spent a great deal laughing on the plane, I know people kept looking at me like okay, can you shut up now?LOL. Oh well. The flight to Port Elizabeth took an hr and a half. I wish I could have explored Joburg, but it's cool, just two weeks and I'll be there =)

So far, I've been surprised by the racial make up of South Africa. I'm not exactly sure what I was expecting to see, but apart from the white, and black, I've also seen what appears to be Latinos and South Asians. I'm pretty sure the people I saw weren't Latino, but they kinda looked like they could be. For the most part, I wasnt expecting any diversity of any kind, just white and black, and oh yea, so far I've seen mostly white, especially in this airport- Port Elizabeth. I'm guessing its a predomninately white area.

Oh yea forgot to mention while going to Joburg, a flight attendant asked if I wanted red wine, I was like come again?? LOL. So drinking age doesnt matter on the plane I suppose, or else she thought I was of age. Oh well, either way I felt fancy drinking my red wine and watching my oh so funny movie. =D