IT'S TIME FOR AFRICA!!!! Cape Town 2012: DAY EIGHTEEN:

I CAN’T BELIEVE IT’S ALREADY THE HALFWAY POINT!!!!! It’s going TOO fast!!!! Today was a day of new experiences… to say the least!!! As usually, we had class in the morning. This morning we focused on the definitions of culture and ethnocentrism. We discussed the influences of other cultures on one another and the consequences of globalization. Highlight of the class… the god-awful book I had to read before my freshman year of high school, The World is Flat, was brought up. Y’all remember that one??? My first high school assignment for my first AP class: a 2000 page book on globalization. Not my favorite. But anyways, I was like the only one to have heard, nonetheless read, the book, so my teachers were very impressed. I made sure to tell Mr. Staruch haha. After class, instead of going into Sir Lowery’s Pass, we got the opportunity to go back into the township of Guguletu, where the Amy Biehl after school program is held. There, I got the chance to talk to one of the teachers at the school. He taught fifth grade and was explaining to me what a typical day looked like for his students. I was in shock!! In fifth grade, they have NINE subjects!!! This teacher taught lifestyle development, which I think should be brought back to America. Basically, he teaches the kids everything they need to know about how to live health lives, and it is specific to their area of residency. He taught on safe drinking water, spread of diseases, affects of drugs and violence, cooking meals, etc. He also explained to me that the kids have a hard time picking up English. They are taught in their native language, typically Afrikaans, up until fourth grade. In fourth grade they immediately switch over to being taught in English. I kept trying to relate this to my experiences with Spanish while talking to him, but they’re so drastically different. I can’t imagine how hard that switch must be! After he told me about his class, he explained that he also started a boxing club to try to keep the kids off the streets and out of gangs. He pays for everything out of his pocket and even trained someone to represent South Africa in the Olympics!! Once I left his classroom, the regular school day finished and the Amy Biehl foundation took over. We got to decide which class we wanted to observe and I chose the maramba. The kids performed a few songs for us and then each of them grabbed one of us to teach us the song. I was AWFUL at first, like it was embarrassing!! They were all laughing at me. My kids/teachers were both 16 and were just cracking up the whole time, taking videos of me failing miserably. But, I eventually got!! It was so much fun being able to interact with them like that and learn something new! They told me it was a Sean Kingston song that we learned, so that’s pretty cool haha. Now here’s where the real experience starts! For dinner, I went to Beef Cakes, the restaurant with a drag show. Oh dear lord…. FUNNIEST NIGHT OF MY LIFE!!!! The drag queen, or Diva as she would like to be called, thought we were hilarious Americans and would keep coming over to our table to dance on. This place was so fun!! When Diva wasn’t performing, they played the best sing along songs like Spice Girls and Britney Spears and Mama Mia and Proud Mary. And the waiters let me tell you about the waiters. They are all incredibly attractive guys that have to wear these skin tight tank tops and practically do whatever Diva says, like... walk around shirtless all night. Lots of abs haha! After we left Beef Cakes, we went to this Bar called the Assembly to meet up with some more Global LEADers and all our wonderful taxi drivers! It still amazes me that Ish, Bradley, Lance, and Corbis stay in the clubs with us to make sure we are okay and no one bothers us. They say that their job is to be out partying with us till 4:00AM and up at 7:00AM to drive us to class. They are just the best!!! Well I have class bright and early tomorrow, so goodnight!!!