Poetry in Motion

Winter in Cape Town
Summer at home
About the seasons
Is my poem

I write right now
Safely inside
While wind blows
On the outside

Rain falls swiftly
At my feet
Hood covers face
Making it hard to meet

People walking around
Cigarettes in hand
To classes, labs
Teachers who demand

Students to work
Day and night
Ah! What should I do?
I took a long flight

To come here to learn
In the classroom and out
3 or 4 classes?
I am in doubt

Whether the weather
Will wither
Or whether the sun
Will come out.

Now that all the big firsts have happened, I am moving on to my seconds: 2nd day of classes, 2nd day in my new flat, and 2nd day of Cape Town winter weather. Let me expand.

Classes… I am taking African Dance; Race, Culture, and Identity in Africa; Critical Psychology; and Zulu. However, as mentioned above, I am debating hard about dropping a class for sanity’s sake and for being able to have more time to experience life as well, including some really amazing volunteer opportunities. Two of the courses I have are going to be pretty tough, one being a post-grad 6-credit course and another being an undergrad 6-credit course. Unfortunately it is Zulu that would have to go, which was my 2nd choice of languages (going with the theme) because the other 3 classes are nicely fulfilling all sorts of requirements at Macalester. But 2nd choices or options are sometimes just what is meant to be. After all, South Africa was also my 2nd choice and it’s been great. So I’ll keep y’all posted on what I decide in the next 3 days.

New Flat… Yes, that’s right folks! I have a place to unpack my life and my energy; a place to read books, to cross-stitch and to relax, including a TV show every once in a while. I moved in with a Persian girl named Anisa who was born and raised here in SA, however her parents now live in Botswana. Her cousin, Mona, from Thunder Bay, Canada, is also staying here for about another month, then she’ll go home for a bit and come back to do her honors at UCT. She originally came down to southern Africa for a wedding and has since fallen in love, feeling amazingly at home, imagining she could spend the rest of her life here. This is not an uncommon occurrence; I feel like every other person I meet who is not from SA has found it to be the place of their heart’s calling. Me? I’m not so sure for myself, my heart fluttering more at the thought of Minnesota or Jamaica, but one never knows. Nonetheless, these two girls are amazing to live with although I miss having kids knocking on my door every once in a while as well as having the Heegaard family energy around! But the two best things about it are: 1) they are Bahá’í and 2) they live only100 meters from the place I was staying so moving was easy. I couldn’t have found a better place. HOWEVER, my room is completely bare and it needs things to liven it up. SO, I will put my new address where y’all can send me something to put on my wall :)! PLEASE HELP MY WALL.

Address:
Brittany Lynk
#1 Florence Villas
9 Nursery Road
Rondebosch
Cape Town 7700
South Africa

To SMS or text me:
011-27-72-796-8220 (I think that should work)

Weather in Cape Town… Winter here is quite chilly, oftentimes rainy, very grey, and cloudy. Winters here are also sweaty warm, sunshiny, cloudless with a blue background, and completely unpredictable. The whole first week was the second option and now has changed to the first. I have been told also that some days have all four seasons in one. Of course winter here is nothing like in Minnesota, but it’s definitely not conducive to meeting people around campus or enjoying the fresh outdoors for long. Nonetheless it’s the real ting dat, and it comes with the package. I met a girl on the shuttle today who absolutely loves this kind of weather because she comes from Natal in the eastern part of SA where it is always hot…no change. More than anything though, weatherwise, I wish I still had those nice long days of Minnesota. It gets dark here around 6, and with the dark for sure comes the cold (and there’s not really heating like we’re used to), so I just have to stay strong like a true Minnesotan or whip out the one and only sweater I brought due to packing limitations, which isn’t my favorite and really doesn’t keep me warm. But it’s the experience.

On a last note I think it’s important to mention that I had my own first real Bahá’í experience on Saturday. Many Bahá’ís seem to miraculously know all other Bahá’ís, or know of each other through people, meeting at some conference in Munich, serving together in Delhi, being friends with someone who grew up in Haiti with another friend, or whatever…there’s always some way to connect. So I can oftentimes do the connection thing, where I can meet a Bahá’í and find a connection 1 or 2 levels removed, but not on Saturday. So I was getting picked up to go to Bahá’í Winter School for a few days, something like a church retreat for people of all ages and the people driving said they had to go pick up another American girl…they didn’t know her name and didn’t know where she was from. So we stopped and she hopped in, very bubbly and said, “Hi, I’m Soriah and I’m living in Boston.” Now, I was starting to think I recognized her, but didn’t really know how until she said her last name, Anvary(sp?), at which point I remembered she was Baubeck’s sister and I had met her at Kate’s New Year’s Eve party half a year ago! So that was very exciting to me and definitely started off the weekend right. The Winter School was amazing, and I got to meet so many fun pre-youth, youth, and adults; plus I got to eat some delicious food. Mmm mmm! It was lovely.

Tonight, I hit the books and the needle, and I suppose tomorrow will be the day of thirds, full of fun adventures.