IVORY DOESN’T GROW ON TREES, JUST BUILDINGS

Today was a throwback to a much darker time. I’m going to try and explain it—but that doesn’t mean I agree with it. We went to orientation on campus this morning. Thus far UCT orientation has been pretty standard and interesting in it’s own way. Professors saying stuff like “the neo-Colonial architecture and ivy growing on the buildings is indicative of the historical ties of our university and the idea of an Oxford in Africa…” which prompted hushed conversations like:

Sophie: I can’t understand his accent. Is he saying “ivy” or “ivory??”

Ellen: I’m pretty sure ivory doesn’t grow on buildings so probably “ivy.”

Sophie: Well I don’t know, it’s Africa!

This morning, the news was a little different. We have been waiting to get access to our student accounts so that we can have access to free, unlimited WiFi like at home. Today this innocent looking librarian informed us that since the university has to pay a bundle for wireless bandwidth every year, there is a cap on each student’s monthly internet usage: 250MB every month. Basically the equivalent of Skyping with video a few times or checking my Gmail inbox. As soon as the poor librarian said this, the entire crowd of American students started murmuring and had somebody busted out a zip drive and led the revolution, only the spirit of Dewey Decimal would have saved her. She did allude to “hope on the horizon” for faster internet in Africa. There is some sort of new network that is already in parts of South Africa, but hasn’t made its way to Cape Town yet. The way she described it made it sound like someone was physically going to strap “the internet” to their back and bring it to Cape Town by March. Sounds reliable. This was Part I of the Dark Age.

And the Dark Ages get darker…you know how we register for classes by clicking a mouse a couple of times, looking at our nice little time blocks and hitting Commit Changes? Yeah, not so much here. Registration is crowding into the same room with tons of other people and waiting for hours with slips of paper in your hand. Today we started pre-registration when they posted a list of classes we were pre-approved for. Ellen was only approved for 2 classes, which was a little problematic. And because of scheduling conflicts and the fact that we need our afternoons free to volunteer at Ubantu, we still need to get approval for more classes. In order to do this your apparently have to find the head of the academic department somewhere on campus, wave your transcript in their face to convince them you can take this class, and get them to sign off on them. Now UCT is nestled into the base of Table Mountain—making it both scenic and perfect raw material for a Tony Little inspired calf workout. So Ellen and I start trudging up and down this mountain to and from home to get our transcripts and try and get this ball rolling. But it’s a big ball and its uphill both ways. So we went to an internet café and emailed advisers back home instead to see if this was even worth our time.

I feel really typically American for being surprised about the lack of internet connectivity here. I don’t think I would mind at all being in a place without internet if I wasn’t thousands of miles away from the people I love.

I’m starting to get a little antsy. I feel like I need to be doing something. Every time I pass by something that seems unfair, I feel like we should be helping. I think it will be better once we can start at the volunteer sites. Or once I find a hobby, like power crocheting.

-Becca