"TIA, yall"

The ABCs of this week:

Apartheid

Brownlow

Ciproflaxin

Let me explain.

A)   Apartheid was real and scary and depressing and it really is racist here. We went to the District 6 Museum the other day jusssst to make sure we all got 67times more depressed than we were before.

B)   Brownlow is the name of the street we live on. Thus, whenever something goes down at the house, we encourage each other to “Keep it on the Brownlow”

C)   Ciproflaxin. I love it but I hate it.

Is it better to:

1)    Keep having this gnarly bladder infection I’ve had now for over a week and take cranberry supplements that don’t reallllly work and walk around with an uncomfortable, swoll belly and have to pee all the time

OR

2)    Take Cipro, which stops the bladder infection but makes me way nauseous and tired and out of it. I spent the whole day yesterday feeling side effects. Eh.

 In other news, the beautiful weather we were graced with upon our arrival has left us and The Lord has officially placed his tablecloth over Table Mountain. Thus, the Robben Island trip was postponed. Last night there was a pretty big storm, the shutters were banging around and the wind howling. Today we got a little relief and tried to climb up to Signal Hill which is right behind out house, ultimately failing and making my bladder say HAY KAITLIN WHUCHU DOIN BETTER DON’T. Thought I would go to the swanky gym I just got a membership for…… then decided some pasta and homeopathic bladder infections drops I got at the health food store would be a better fit. If you can’t tell, despite all the fun rain and Cipro have to offer, they have over stayed their welcome for sure and I’m kinda bored. Thus updating this bliggityblog.

  Today we did a “public transportation exercise.” Meaning that for 2 hours I was reminded of the things I did not enjoy so much about Africa last time. MINI BUSES (South African dalla-dallas)!!!!! Once I got on I thought, “Here I go again!” Oh, it SAYS no more than 15 people at a time….please. All the fumes and overcharging for being white and weird looks and yelling and clinging to your bag and being called “baby” by the driver….. ohhh how I’ve missed it. We went pretty far and I was pretty ready to be done by the time we got to our destination. Fellow CT-er Alyssa said it best:  “2 words, yall. NEVER. AGAIN.” Only to find out later this afternoon those are the same mini buses I will need to get to Molo Songololo, my internship. Yay.

Finally,  here’s a big decision I came to. I’m just letting some of the truth slip out:

No offense Cape Town, but as a city and someplace to live I like London better. Is that a crime? Hope not. In London, I could walk around by myself at ANY hour of the day and never feel threatened. It was clean. It SMELLED clean. Public transport was swift and easy. It wasn’t so damned racist and I didn’t feel like a big white fool all the time.

 But, as I say and as we all say here on this program every day,

“TIA, yall”

 THIS IS AFRICA.