Blogs from Grahamstown, Eastern Cape, South Africa, Africa - page 3

I’ve been having a blast with all the new words and phrases I’m learning here. Like in many other English-speaking countries, South Africans eat biscuits instead of cookies, stand in a queue rather than a line, and say “cheers” when departing. But there are quite a few things that I think are uniquely South African. Robot - traffic light (just imagine being given directions and being told to turn left at the robot) Slip slops or just slops - flip flops Digs - off campus housing Oppidans - people who live off campus Hash - the pound key (this one threw me off when trying to set up my voicemail) Bakkie - pick up truck First year spread - freshman fifteen (both the South Africans and I had a good laugh hearing the other term for ... read more

There are a ton of different organizations on campus, and I’m going to have a hard time deciding which to join! There are something like 30 clubs (sports) and 60 societies (everything else). You have to pay to join each of the groups, unlike at home where everything is free. But it’s really not too bad, usually somewhere in the $20-30 range. This past week was sports awareness week on campus, meaning all of the clubs had open practices so that students could try them out before deciding what to join. I’ve played soccer everyday, and really like the team so I’m definitely planning on joining. It’s very relaxed, and there doesn’t seem to be pressure to make it to every single practice. They play games in Port Elizabeth on weekends. I’m planning on traveling a ... read more

The weather the past few days hasn't been as great as the first couple. It was sunny and warm at first, but now its gray and rainy. It doesn't get too cold though so I'm not complaining. And the rain has been more like a mist, kind of like standing near a big waterfall. I've been doing a lot of running around to different academic departments the past few days for registration. It takes a lot longer than just signing up online, but it's cool because you get to meet a lot of the faculty in the process. Right now I'm signed up for classes in Geography, Environmental Science, Botany, and Zoology. I'll probably drop a few of them though. I brought my camera with me to the Botany department, and pulled up pictures of trees ... read more

Alright, so I left Rochester on the 31st, flew to Washington where I met Jess, another girl from Geneseo who is also going to Rhodes. From there we flew to London. We had a 15 hour layover there, so we checked our baggage into a storage center and were able to get around London for several hours. We hit up all of the basics like Big Ben, Westminster, Tower of London, London Eye. And we also got to do a few things that I never got to over spring break - like platform 9 and 3/4, Tate, and Shakespeare's Globe. It was a bit rough walking around with my full backpack and laptop, but definitely worth it. So Friday we had an 11 hour flight down to Johannesburg and we landed Saturday morning. I sat ... read more

Choughi and Amal have spent their lives as pioneers throughout Africa, and he is the descendant of one of the first Babis to leave Iran and begin teaching the Faith in Egypt. Choughi is a retired physician and has on occasion received requests from the Universal House of Justice to take up residence in countries where he and his wife were needed. They are now retired in Grahamstown, where they have a son and daughter-in-law who are both working for Rhodes University. They also have two grandchildren here, which means that Grahamstown’s entire Bahá’í community is six in total. This changes occasionally as Bahá’í students arrive to attend Rhodes. The National Spiritual Assembly (NSA) of South Africa had asked us to consider settling in the Grahamstown in hope of establishing a more vital community. We were ... read more