Beautiful Day-U2

While many of you were just getting up yesterday, it was the middle of a beautiful afternoon in Grahamstown. It was sunny, and warm for a change… it hasn’t been this nice since the first few days I was here. Besides the list of homework that is not finished, it was an extremely productive and enjoyable day...

The reason my last post was so late was because I was having internet issues, and I couldn’t connect to post it, but things are all good now. In an example of fate’s twisted sense of humor, my browser was crashing every time I opened any webpage… except facebook. So I couldn’t do the research for my history paper, but I could get on facebook—not a good combination. Plus, my mail program and dcplus were both connecting to the internet fine, so I could waste time watching tv shows or checking email, I just couldn’t do any important work. However, I took my laptop to the helpdesk yesterday and they got everything straightened out, so I have full internet back now.

This weekend is Intervarsity, which is when Rhodes and three other universities compete in a bunch of sports competitions from rugby and soccer to surfing and tennis (and don’t forget water polo, squash, and debate). Unfortunately, Tri-Var—apparently the 4^th school was added recently, and people haven’t really switched to calling it Intervarsity—isn’t being held at Rhodes this year, but that doesn’t mean that nothing will be going on. I haven’t figured out if this is more of a homecoming or Springfest sort of weekend, but there will be a lot of school spirit (as well as some other spirits). Anyway, one of the Tri-Var traditions involves painting overalls with purple paint for school pride, so yesterday afternoon I successfully got myself a pair, which I painted with some of the girls in my res last night. I figure that while I am here, I might as well be like all the other Rhodents.

In other fun, Tuesday was a national holiday: Women’s Day! I absolutely love the fact that Women’s Day is important enough to justify no classes (especially since nothing at Gettysburg is important enough to merit a day off). I have unfortunately missed the silent protest the Rhodes has every year for Sexual Violence (I think its in april… and it is a crazy intense silent protest. The slogan is Sexual Violence=Silence, and the protestors all cover their mouths with duck tape and don’t speak, eat or drink all day. Also, they have a “die-in” in the courtyard outside the library, as well as a march downtown… you can find some pictures or more info at:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/164677043587907/

Anyway, the sad news is that I missed it, but the good news is that there are some other women’s day events this week, including a production of The Vagina Monologues. For those of you who haven’t heard of it, The Vagina Monologues is a play written by Eve Ensler, based on interviews she did with over 200 women from all over the world. It brings attention to important women’s issues, and proceeds from the show are used to fund anti-violence and women’s empowerment programs. I performed in Gettysburg’s production last year because I think that brining attention to some of these unspeakable issues is important, and I was really excited to see Rhodes production last night. It was well done, made me extremely uncomfortable at times (not surprisingly), and was overall a good show. It is a new experience every time, and I was amused by the South African accents in abundance throughout the show (Eve has notes directing different accents for some monologues, and it was fun hearing a typically southern monologue performed with a SA accent).

Lastly, other than the history paper I have not been researching that will not have to be done during Tri-Var weekend, I am enjoying my classes. I had a particularly good philosophy class today; we are studying ethics, and it is kind of funny to have the Divine Command Theory presented by my atheist professor. Its really interesting to think about ethics and why we have them… I have a tendency to rest secure in the knowledge that God is greater than I am, and that there are things I just can’t comprehend in this life, no matter how hard I think about them (what heaven is like, the purpose/plan in suffering, how the genesis account of God’s creation of the world fits with scientific interpretations of evolution… the list goes on). While I enjoy having some of the ‘peace that passes understanding,’ I think it might result in laziness on my part sometimes. I don’t try to understand things because I know I can’t totally figure them out right now, but that one day I will know. However, class is beginning to make me think that spending time thinking about things such as goodness can really be beneficial, and gaining a deeper understanding (albeit, one that is still incomplete) of these concepts actually helps to understand God better. Anyway, class has been interesting recently, and I especially enjoyed when one girl today proposed that good is that which brings glory to God, which totally nullified the criticism we were discussing and left the teacher pondering in silence for awhile. Eventually, he decided that he didn’t really have a response other than that this definition of good seemed a little weird to him, and that most people didn’t understand goodness this way. Haha, love it.

P.S. Today is my one month anniversary with South Africa. Cheers :)