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Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Friday, January 22, 2010
Well hello again.
It is the end of my second week in Cape Town.
Yesterday I went with colleagues to do ECG's, cardiovascular measurments, on some of the participants of the PURE study. We went to Langa, a township about 15 minutes by car from the city center. As this is a long term study, the participants have worked closely with the University staff, completing surveys, blood tests, and many other health measurments. In order to organize which participants we were to see, we called about 20 people living in Langa, close to where we would set the equipment up. However, when we arrived, close to ontime, we found that about 1/4 of those whom we had contacted had arrived. In order to make our trip worth it, we ended up walking to participants houses and asking them to come with us to complete their ECG's if we gave them a ride there and back, about a 10 minute walk.
The township of Langa is quite large, and a very tight knit community. Children run up and down the streets, playing games and splashing in small brightly colored plastic pools. Men, just returned home from work, sit drinking a beer while women chat to their neighbors and sho children from their kitchens. Four kids run up the street all in one hulahoop, the game being whoever is not dragged along behind wins. In the afternoon sunlight the township is a show rich in culture and community.
However in Langa, and all other townships, infrastructure is visibly beginning to fail with the pressure of growing populations. On the drive home I was given a tour of the real Cape Town, formed of many townships and shanty towns, from a man who grew up here and has returned. As a result of the lack of jobs, corruption , and failing politics in the Eastern Cape province people are looking for a place to move to. So one family member moves to Cape Town, in the western province, builds a shed in a shanty town, gotten a decent job and invited the family. These areas have a huge population influx, up to 200 new people daily.
Shanty towns are government land where people have moved in and build homes out of medal and wood. Water generally comes from one pump which supplies about 50 homes, and electricity is skillfully wired from a "near by" light post or traffic light. Electricity is stolen as a result of the government not ackloedgeing people living there and providing it. Therefore the lamp posts have tanlges of wire which wrap around and around the pole, and then could stretch accross the road, in a few ditches and than be split to provide 5-10 houses with electricity. Some Townships have been recognized by the government, and as a part of their constitution, the government is required to provide adequet housing, including electricity, for citizens.
One of the largest problems with the townships, is that they are placed so far from the city center, where many jobs are located. Buses are pretty expensive, therefore trains are generally the only option. Townships are also the center of much violence in Cape Town, which generally occuring between locals in the townships.
However, despite the many problems with infrastructure, those living in townships have a much richer community than most areas in the U.S. As a colleague who grew up in a township said, "They may live in a shack, but they are not a shack. They go to work and sit next to you on the bus, they just go home to a shack."
I have not taken any pictures of these communities, but if you look up townships or shanty town in Cape Town, there is a mass of information, this is just my first impressions and thoughts so far.
The experience has left me pondering, my instinct is that they are living in terrible conditions, and this must change. But when the problems are so large, and there are so many, where do we start and how do we learn from the richness and support found in these communities? How will the segregation and unfair facilities resulting from Apartheid change, and when?
I hope to have more experiences, rather than just glances of townships while I am here, and I hope to meet more people who live here in order to further understand the culture.
I would love your thoughts on all of this as well.
I have also posted a few pictures of the view from my apartment and the beauties in and around Cape Town.
Much love.
Cheers.
It is the end of my second week in Cape Town.
Yesterday I went with colleagues to do ECG's, cardiovascular measurments, on some of the participants of the PURE study. We went to Langa, a township about 15 minutes by car from the city center. As this is a long term study, the participants have worked closely with the University staff, completing surveys, blood tests, and many other health measurments. In order to organize which participants we were to see, we called about 20 people living in Langa, close to where we would set the equipment up. However, when we arrived, close to ontime, we found that about 1/4 of those whom we had contacted had arrived. In order to make our trip worth it, we ended up walking to participants houses and asking them to come with us to complete their ECG's if we gave them a ride there and back, about a 10 minute walk.
The township of Langa is quite large, and a very tight knit community. Children run up and down the streets, playing games and splashing in small brightly colored plastic pools. Men, just returned home from work, sit drinking a beer while women chat to their neighbors and sho children from their kitchens. Four kids run up the street all in one hulahoop, the game being whoever is not dragged along behind wins. In the afternoon sunlight the township is a show rich in culture and community.
However in Langa, and all other townships, infrastructure is visibly beginning to fail with the pressure of growing populations. On the drive home I was given a tour of the real Cape Town, formed of many townships and shanty towns, from a man who grew up here and has returned. As a result of the lack of jobs, corruption , and failing politics in the Eastern Cape province people are looking for a place to move to. So one family member moves to Cape Town, in the western province, builds a shed in a shanty town, gotten a decent job and invited the family. These areas have a huge population influx, up to 200 new people daily.
Shanty towns are government land where people have moved in and build homes out of medal and wood. Water generally comes from one pump which supplies about 50 homes, and electricity is skillfully wired from a "near by" light post or traffic light. Electricity is stolen as a result of the government not ackloedgeing people living there and providing it. Therefore the lamp posts have tanlges of wire which wrap around and around the pole, and then could stretch accross the road, in a few ditches and than be split to provide 5-10 houses with electricity. Some Townships have been recognized by the government, and as a part of their constitution, the government is required to provide adequet housing, including electricity, for citizens.
One of the largest problems with the townships, is that they are placed so far from the city center, where many jobs are located. Buses are pretty expensive, therefore trains are generally the only option. Townships are also the center of much violence in Cape Town, which generally occuring between locals in the townships.
However, despite the many problems with infrastructure, those living in townships have a much richer community than most areas in the U.S. As a colleague who grew up in a township said, "They may live in a shack, but they are not a shack. They go to work and sit next to you on the bus, they just go home to a shack."
I have not taken any pictures of these communities, but if you look up townships or shanty town in Cape Town, there is a mass of information, this is just my first impressions and thoughts so far.
The experience has left me pondering, my instinct is that they are living in terrible conditions, and this must change. But when the problems are so large, and there are so many, where do we start and how do we learn from the richness and support found in these communities? How will the segregation and unfair facilities resulting from Apartheid change, and when?
I hope to have more experiences, rather than just glances of townships while I am here, and I hope to meet more people who live here in order to further understand the culture.
I would love your thoughts on all of this as well.
I have also posted a few pictures of the view from my apartment and the beauties in and around Cape Town.
Much love.
Cheers.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
First Week
Hi everyone
I safely arrived in Cape Town a week ago, after a long trip. I flew from Seattle To Chicago, Chigago to London, and London to Cape Town. With layovers this was about a 32 hours trip.
I am living in an apartment right in the center of Cape Town, with two girls who are also interning in Cape Town, one is from Australia and the other California. My room mate from Australia has been here since mid-November, and will be leaving Mid-Febuary. However my other room mate will be here for the same amount of time as me, until end of March.
I have spend a lot of time this week wandering around town, and figuring out where main aspects are located. The city center of Cape Town is small while the rest of Cape Town is very spread out, and can be reached fairly easily by train, bus or taxi. The city seems very European and is full of museums and gardens to visit.
I began my internship on Tuesday morning at the University of Western Cape Town. I have been taking a train every day to commute, which takes about 20 minutes. The Campus is great, and full of students as their new term is just beginning. I am interning at the School of Public Health with a research project called PURE. It is a long term study located all over the world looking at the health effects of development. My superviser at UWC wants me to experience all aspects of medical research, so I will be doing a large variety of tasks. This week I worked in the office doing data input and working with a few statistical analysis programs. The PURE study has many aspects, and this week I worked with the stacks of surveys which have been completed on food frequency. All the data from the surveys has to be put into a computer program, SPSS (similar to Excel), in order to understand the significance.
Along with interning and wandering around the city, I have been doing some tourist activeties. I have been to the National Gallery and the Natural History Museum, both of which are excellent. The Natural History Museum is enormous, and has information on geology, plant and animal life, as well as native groups who lived in Africa. There was also an incredible photo exhibit from photographers around the world . Yesterday I went with some other interns to Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope. It is rumored to be the most southern point of Africa as well as where the Indian and Atlantic oceans meet. This is not true. However it was beautiful landscape and we were able to see Ostrichs, baboons, and many species of birds.
There is a big night life scene here as well, with a lot of people from around the world occupying bars and clubs almost every night of the week. It is an interesting combination, as the city center has a lot of tourists and bars, which the townships that surround Cape Town the poverty and inequality is abundent. The effects of Apartheid are readily seen in predominantly white or black neighborhoods.
Overall I am enjoying Cape Town. It is a beautiful place. Thank you all for your support. I will keep you updated in the near future.
Chelsea
I safely arrived in Cape Town a week ago, after a long trip. I flew from Seattle To Chicago, Chigago to London, and London to Cape Town. With layovers this was about a 32 hours trip.
I am living in an apartment right in the center of Cape Town, with two girls who are also interning in Cape Town, one is from Australia and the other California. My room mate from Australia has been here since mid-November, and will be leaving Mid-Febuary. However my other room mate will be here for the same amount of time as me, until end of March.
I have spend a lot of time this week wandering around town, and figuring out where main aspects are located. The city center of Cape Town is small while the rest of Cape Town is very spread out, and can be reached fairly easily by train, bus or taxi. The city seems very European and is full of museums and gardens to visit.
I began my internship on Tuesday morning at the University of Western Cape Town. I have been taking a train every day to commute, which takes about 20 minutes. The Campus is great, and full of students as their new term is just beginning. I am interning at the School of Public Health with a research project called PURE. It is a long term study located all over the world looking at the health effects of development. My superviser at UWC wants me to experience all aspects of medical research, so I will be doing a large variety of tasks. This week I worked in the office doing data input and working with a few statistical analysis programs. The PURE study has many aspects, and this week I worked with the stacks of surveys which have been completed on food frequency. All the data from the surveys has to be put into a computer program, SPSS (similar to Excel), in order to understand the significance.
Along with interning and wandering around the city, I have been doing some tourist activeties. I have been to the National Gallery and the Natural History Museum, both of which are excellent. The Natural History Museum is enormous, and has information on geology, plant and animal life, as well as native groups who lived in Africa. There was also an incredible photo exhibit from photographers around the world . Yesterday I went with some other interns to Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope. It is rumored to be the most southern point of Africa as well as where the Indian and Atlantic oceans meet. This is not true. However it was beautiful landscape and we were able to see Ostrichs, baboons, and many species of birds.
There is a big night life scene here as well, with a lot of people from around the world occupying bars and clubs almost every night of the week. It is an interesting combination, as the city center has a lot of tourists and bars, which the townships that surround Cape Town the poverty and inequality is abundent. The effects of Apartheid are readily seen in predominantly white or black neighborhoods.
Overall I am enjoying Cape Town. It is a beautiful place. Thank you all for your support. I will keep you updated in the near future.
Chelsea
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