The good, the trying and the dark side-- 21st of May

So, as you have probably noticed, I have been awol for some time now.. it has not been for nought. It has been because the work load is exactly that a load. All the fun days that I wrote about in the early months.. I keep wondering whether it is the same person that went through all that and where did she get the time!? Sigh… and exams are in one week exactly.

I feel like a child who has been given a shot and the same doctor has given me a sweet to make me forget the pain I am feeling. Just found out that there will be free hot chocolate/coffee at campus for the next two weeks courtesy of and as an incentive to join ens Africa (who btw are my fav law firm.. who does that!) and this ‘service’ will be there till 11:30 pm every weekday night and during weekends, from 8-5pm. I am so happy… I think this has touched me than probably an expensive piece of jewellery would J it is an apt gift for this time.

So, lemme not bore you with explanations about my trials and tribulations of school, in between the test by fire, there have been islands of icecream..

So, today I went to have lunch with some of my class mates who are doing Refugee Law. We went to Knead. Now for all of you who have been to SA you will agree with me that knead is just a great place… the chocolate chip cookies!! Mmmmmhhhh… and everything else… yours truly got a burger.. I know it sounds so common place but I was hankering for one and some fries… but the burger was amazing… im sure I will need to work out for like a week to cut down all that bacon, beef and cheese but eh.. it was worth it while it lasted.

treats from all over Africa..

after the food bazaar came the performances, songs, poems, fashion parades etc

Africa Day at UCT… well its actually Africa Month at UCT  but none the less what im talking about is just a couple of hours on the 15^th. So as you know I am part of the post graduate law student council, well, we were tasked to come up with something that represented ‘Law in Poetry’. So we came up with a ‘native attire’ parade, two poems and a meal of Jellof Rice. You can be assured they were a knock-out. The poems were original and moving, the parade was in my unbiased opinion the ‘crème de la crème’ of the Africa Day. Not only was it colourful, it was also entertaining. Our ‘models’ were post graduate students and some even danced when they reached center stage.. how amazing is that? So I appreciated it a lot. After the parade, we held up a banner echoing our brothers and sisters around the world in #BringBackOurGirls. Meaningful and entertaining. A great mix. The Jellof Rice, prepared by some of the Nigerian Council members sold like hot cake.. I should know.. I was dishing it up for people… and the feedback I got… people loved it.

Cape Town now is a mix of cold and biting and random sunny days. It is honestly much better than Arusha where if the sun decides to hide, it goes into hibernation and does not come out for ages. So I have adjusted… always with a hoodie but it does the job. At the beginning I thought I would never get warm and my heater (oh btw you have to have a heater if ever you are to survive the nights) was constantly on. But now, I can sleep quite comfortably with two blankets on and no heater. That for me is bliss.

Apart from missing home terribly and throwing my own pity party on face book (bless the hearts of those wonderful people who consoled me), I am excited that one of my friends is coming to Cape Town. That is definitely something I am looking forward to and it gives me the rare opportunity to be the host in a foreign country… fun eh?

Oh I also met an old friend who I hadn’t seen in ages but seems they were in UCT… its very interesting I must say. And with my natural love for hosting… we had Sunday lunch together and I hope more will come. Truly you do not appreciate familiar faces until you live in a foreign country with no hope of going home soon. It’s a slice of heaven and you hang on to them for dear life (of course if they are cactuses then hanging on to them won’t make any sense)

I’m still baking.. muffins, brownies, cakes etc… don’t get me wrong, I am bust as busy can be but cooking and baking is an excellent way to de-stress and have excellent outcomes after it all.. so y’all can have some optical nutrition on my recent babies.

vanilla flavoured muffins.. yes they tasted as good as they look

Friday i went to Cape Peninsula University of Technology and this view just blew me away

the mountain peak all covered in clouds was just a feast for my eyes.

Other interesting things include the grading at UCT. It is a mix of extremely strict and ridiculously shallow. You will get penalized heavily is you do not put a full stop at the end of your footnotes or if your grammar is less than perfect.. now that is a cross that not only I bear but many of my colleagues who do not have English as their first language. I was talking to one of my flat mates who is Rwandese and he was down in the dumps as to his work saying that it is terribly difficult for him to translate from his mother tongue-Kinyarwanda to French and then to English and then put it on paper. And be graded with the system that UCT uses! Yhor.. unimaginably difficult. Im not whining it is just a fact and not a very good one. Extra classes should be given to people who have a language issue and an entire course on citations should be offered. I mean all the money we dish out to UCT really should be put to good use. The university has a ‘writing center’ who are supposed to help with all the language issues that students face when writing. However, you meet up with them when you have a writing and its like a post mortem in my opinion. A class at the beginning of the semester would go a long way to make school more bearable for many of my friends and others to come.

As all academic institutions, UCT overflows when its nearly exam time… students it seems are the same wherever you go.

Oh and you meet the most insufferable people at UCT and also some of the kindest. What prompted this was a scenario I met in the course of last week. UCT, my friends, is not a water bed. No it can be a watery grave. A lecturer I know told one of my friends he didn’t think she could make it or pass his course, that she was incapable and incompetent and that he had seen the ‘likes of her’ and he knew exactly what she would get or rather not get. This my dears was all said because this gentle soul of a student missed a couple of classes because she was sick. She had not done any single assignment to warrant that harsh assessment, had not handed in any work and he had not had any proper opportunity to grade her. I mean! The audacity of some people amazes me! My first reaction was that perhaps its racism but no way.. the lecturer is as dark as hot chocolate but with such a mean spirit, an uncouth mouth and an uncensored mind. I was so disappointed by that conduct… so ofcourse me being me, followed him and talked to him…. Yhor! The man feels soo justified there is no way you can ever tell him he is wrong. Now what just leaves my mouth hanging is that this isn’t the first time he has done this.. and he is not the only one who is known to treat students in such a disrespectful manner. Honestly… I am waiting for an opportune time and should that continue happening, I will not only lodge a formal complaint (which had the student above decided, she would have) but also actively de-campaign UCT to everyone I know, see and write to. Now this is one heck of a dark side I never expected to find. But all these subtle racist comments, snide remarks and snarky retorts are couched in thin smiles and fancy language… what a shame!

Now, lemme try and rinse out that bad taste off my mouth and yours and move on to happier topics. On Thursday there is huge concert that is to take place celebrating 20 Years of democracy of South Africa. It is expected to be grand. I truly want to go... I even bought a ticket for r90 however I also have a presentation to do in class at the time the gates open and close.. hmmm.. we’ll see if I can present and run off (highly unlikely) but let’s hope… or I can give it a person who doesn’t have.

The voting day in SA was uneventful with an expected result of ANC winning. And that is all that I am going to say on elections.

the tent being set up for tomorrow

Now lemme get back to work.

Did I tell you I have a 7 day exam!?? I’ve never had one of those and I’m awaiting to see what’s going to happen. Say a prayer for me would you?

xoxo