Triangle

            During my time here in South Africa, I had the great opportunity to work at Triangle Project, a NGO based here in Capetown, which focuses on serving the Capetonian and South African LGBT community through Health services, Counseling, Peer education, and Policy advocacy. One of my main tasks while at Triangle was to research and create a policy brief concerning the importance of LGBT sensitivity training for healthcare providers, mainly physicians and nurses, in South Africa. While researching, I was shocked at the stories from various study participants, who reported being ridiculed, gossiped about, or asked inappropriate or invasive questions when visiting various healthcare facilities. Other patients were simply turned away without being seen at certain facilities and would have no way to receive appropriate care or resources, especially around sexual health, if organizations like Triangle Project did not exist. While the South African constitution and other documents are quite progressive (same sex marriage was legalized in 2006 and the constitution explicitly stipulates no discrimination due to sexual orientation/gender expression etc) , the discrepancy between what’s written down and what actually occurs is staggering. Before working at Triangle, policy work, in general, seemed slow, entrenched in politics and generally unfulfilling to me yet my experience in Triangle has definitely given me a new found respect for policy and the impact that it can have on a systematic level. That being said, a large part of societal stigma is rooted in culture and this can only change when people can learn to accept our differences yet realize how similar that we all are.  

- Max Morris

Homestay

One of my favorite parts of my South African adventure was the weekend home stay in the neighborhood of Zwelethemba, which sits in Worcester, a city that sits an hour and a half outside of Cape town. While the pace of life was definitely slower and less modern than that of the city, it was a welcome break for the weekend as I played cards with other members of our group, had dinner with my host family, and relaxed. Despite the cold winter temperatures, which were close to freezing, and losing water the first morning, something that I was somewhat used to because of past family trips to Jamaica, I definitely enjoyed myself and the connections that I made with my host family. One of my host family members, Odwa, is nineteen and close in age to me so I was able to talk with him and his friends about everything from university, music, television shows, or what languages we knew. Walking around the neighborhood and hearing about its rich yet complicated history, which connects to the struggle against apartheid and transition period that South Africa went through during the mid 1990s, was also very interesting. While deeply saddening, hearing from older members in the neighborhood about their struggles during apartheid definitely put the events that I had heard about in museums and during class into perspective. Overall, spending time with the family and around the neighborhood that weekend definitely showed me that certain things, like good food, conversation and laughter are universal and connect us all.

- Max Morris

Rugby at Newlands Stadium

One of the coolest experiences I've had here in Cape Town was being able to attend a professional rugby game at the DHL Newlands Stadium. The professional rugby league in South Africa is called the Super League and is made up of many different teams from all around the various provinces. The most popular sports in South Africa are cricket, soccer, and rugby, so the Super League maintains a good following. This particular game was between the Cape Town based team, the DHL Stormers, and a Johannesburg based team the Sunwolves. Having attended numerous professional sporting events in the United States, I had certain expectations about what the experience was going to be like, but honestly they were all exceeded. The stadium was a lot like the football and soccer stadiums in the United States structure wise, but one end of the stadium was a general admission type "standing room only" area. I liked this concept similar to bleachers in the outfield in baseball stadiums, but these were way closer to the field which gave the fans a totally different experience. The area had railings you could lean against and was behind one end zone so we were literally able to get right behind the action. Sports is such an interesting culture in the United States as football, basketball, and baseball have such a religious following and can create an intense environment in stadiums. This was no different in South Africa. I was fascinated to see that it was staggeringly similar to the sports culture in the United States. Uniform vendors with brightly colored shirts emblazoned with various logos, loud and rambunctious fans, and lots (and lots) of beer. Rugby is a game with similarities towards football, but with much more physicality and finesse rather than strategy. Rugby looks like a brutal sport on television, but in person you literally grimace every time someone takes a hit to the chest or the head and then endures a collision with the ground because it’s you’re so close to the field. The celebrations are equally as hype as any European soccer celebration, complete with flags flying, and chants that single out specific players. In the end, the Stormers completely dominated the Sunwolves as expected since the Sunwolves had only won one game up to that point. If anyone ever has an opportunity to go to a rugby game in following years, it is a very underrated experience that everyone should take advantage of! You won’t regret it!!!!

- Arjun Mathur