happy 100th blog entry!

well folks, africa just keeps on getting weirder and weirder. today, while walking down stanley road after lecture, i saw a juvenile gorilla in somebody's front yard. i don't think this is quite normal for cape town, as i saw a few locals standing in front of it in awe. i wonder if somebody's keeping it at a pet. i wish i'd had my camera.

keeping in line with my luck relating to volunteering, i didn't do young in prison yesterday. agnes and i met with the individual in charge of yip's volunteers, and although she does want us to volunteer, there wasn't enough room in the vehicle yesterday to transport us to the prison. she did, however, suggest that we take public transportation to the prison. (agnes and i hastily declined.) the woman did mention a new outreach program that yip is starting up, in which individuals (both volunteers as well as ex-convicts) go into primary schools in less-than-affluent neighborhoods and speak with high-risk students. it sounds like a great opportunity, so i'm looking forward to getting into that.

i met with brigid, liz, sara, and sean for dinner last night to discuss our upcoming spring break plans. our itinerary has changed a bit, and right now it looks like we're spending 2 nights in port nolloth (northern cape, south africa) 2 nights in swakopmund (erongo, namibia), and one final night in either lüderitz (karas, namibia) or sossusvlei (khomas, namibia). obviously, i am most excited about swakopmund, because this is where brangelina's daughter was born!!!

click here to read the super-informative article!!!!

"namibia is one of africa's best kept secrets - until we came of course."
– brad pitt (obviously, my favorite quote ever)

i am also so glad that angelina jolie "discovered" namibia... she's a modern-day christopher columbus!

oh, speaking of amazing quotes, apparently one of my fellow ciee cohorts asked in one of her lectures, "if blacks and coloureds didn't like apartheid so much, why didn't they just vote against it?" facepalm. (i think it's time we leave our little hegemonic bubble, shall we?)

hmm... what else? i went to a lecture today on urban development in africa. it was interesting, although it went on a bit too long. the hors d'oeuvres served afterward were delicious, though. :) i'm also looking to attend an on-campus opera tomorrow evening, as well as a parliamentary debate sometime in the near future. i'm not sure if i'll be able to fit that in before namibia, though. :(

happy 100th blog entry! quite frankly, i'm surprised the number of entries ever got into the double-digits, much less the triple. i know this blog can account for myriad ups and downs in my personal development, but i'm enjoying the tone and style it's taken on in recent months. looking back on my premiere entry, it seems awfully familiar, although i feel very much like a changed man as well. we'll see where it goes from here. ;)