Melissa: It's Been Awhile....

I had such illusions about this blog at the beginning. Having never managed to keep a diary, I was convinced this would be an easier way to record my feelings and experiences on a regular basis. Here's the thing about illusions: they are usually erroneous, as this one proved to be. I have not written on this blog for a month and, while I have kept my family and close friends up to date, I must apologize to those who do not have regular contact with me except through this blog. With that said, let me recap some highlights from the past month.

The week after Spring Break I spent the majority of my time studying for a history test. Having taken pages and pages of notes, I read and summarized and outlined and drank a lot of tea in the process. It all paid off the next Monday when I came out of the three-hour test feeling confident about my essays on African colonization.

The next weekend Josh, Drew, and I headed off to Auntie Vivian's house again. This time we cooked Mexican food for 8 of our friends. Here's a funny story...That Saturday I was watching drama scenes until 1:00 when Josh and I were supposed to meet at Pick 'N Pay (our grocery store of choice). I show up on time and he is not there so I wait outside for awhile before searching inside the store and then waiting outside the store (but inside the complex the store is in) until about 1:30. Josh doesn't have his phone on him, so I assume something came up and he can't make it; I begin shopping for all the food we need to feed 11 people. I finish shopping at around 2:30 and carry the baie heavy bags all the way back to Concordia. Josh comes in about 10 minutes later with his bags of food. Apparently he thought my theatre scenes weren't going to be done on time, so he showed up at around 1:20, didn't really look inside and just waited outside the complex until around 1:45 when he gave up on me and began shopping. Pick 'N Pay is not all that large. I have no idea how we shopped for a good 45 minutes in the same store and never once saw each other!! It's like those scenes in romantic comedies where the guy and the girl walk right past each other but don't meet. It's funny because when we looked at the food, it was obvious we were circling each other. He got to the yellow peppers first and took all the good ones (I didn't buy any because the rest weren't fresh), while I got to the red peppers before him and stole all the good ones. So yes, we had soooo much food!! We still have some of it left. :) But we spent a wonderful evening at Auntie Vivian's and introduced our friends to fajitas, guacamole and stuffed bell peppers. Needless to say, they are all fans of Mexican food now.

I spent the next week contemplating whether I should stay in South Africa for another semester or not. There is so much I would love to do here and the theatre department is very supportive of my work, so it was tempting. The week was spent calling and emailing countless people both at Missouri State and Stellenbosch as I tried to figure out if it was even possible. After wavering back and forth on an almost daily basis I felt called to come home. I'm going to spend the next semester volunteering with the Springfield Regional Arts Council and hopefully directing a show at either the YMCA or Boys and Girls Club.

The weekend before last, the boys, Jacques, Daniel, Stacey and I hit Bikini Beach at Gordan's Bay. It was small and steep, which meant there were no noisy kids running around. The vast majority of beachgoers were between the ages of 18-30 and very respectful. We alternated between laying out in the warm sun and venturing into the cold water. The ocean was actually quite pleasant once you got up the courage to submerge yourself! It was just those first few minutes of actually getting in that was hard! Entering and exiting the water was also a bit dangerous because the fierce waves brought rocks that pelted you when the waves crashed. All of us ended up with cuts and bruises on our feet; Drew got hit with a pretty big rock and limped for a day or two afterwards. Despite our minor injuries, we all plan to go back to the beach soon.

I've spent a lot of my time working with Theatre in Action. As mentioned before, I am working with about 16 students aged 14-18 from Kayamandi High. Of the four of us from Stellenbosch, I am the most consistent about attending rehearsals (I've only missed one because I was writting the test) and have the most authority, though until about a few weeks ago that authority was minimal. When I tried to speak it was often difficult to get the kids to quiet down and listen. Two men in the group had much more authority than I did; I call them "men" even though they are only 17 or 18 because they have "been to the mountain" and are now considered men in the community. It is a tradition in Xhosa communities that fathers and uncles take a boy up into the mountains when they reach a certain age and spend several days teaching them to be a man. It's quite secretive and I don't know what all it entails, but I know that not everyone comes back from the mountain. The ritual has gotten safer over the years (it's actually been deemed dangerous and illegal by the government, but that doesn't stop it from continuing) and it is not mandatory to participate. The dwindling number of participants means that those who do go to the mountain are regarded highly. Flabba and Langa, the two men in Theatre in Action, are distinguisable by their jackets and hats that mark them as men. When they speak, everyone listens. Another person that has respect in the group is Bongi, a professional actor/dancer who recently moved into Kayamandi to be near his mother. Bongi has become the "director" in the group, using his authority as an adult, black, Xhosa-speaking male to get results that I could not. He can quiet the students with a snap--a trick I'd like to learn!--and is not afraid to be the "bad guy" to get results. It has been Bongi respecting my opinion and direction and telling the students, "She doesn't have to be here. She's trying to work with you so if you really want to become actors you should shut up, be professional and listen to her," that has resulted in my increased authority lately. I no longer have to fight for silence and as a result, rehearsals are much more efficient. It is still a highly collaborative effort, but the increased focus and respect means people can share their ideas more easily and quickly.

After finalizing the script, we began blocking and rehearsing. Our sets are minimal--a table, a few chairs, a few blocks--and there are few props or costumes, which made rehearsing easy. We did have some difficulty because our performance venue kept being changed. Initially, we were going to perform in the HB Thom Theatre in Stellenbosch, so we blocked the play assuming there was wingspace. However, we got booted out of the theatre due to Cabaret being performed. We were then going to perform in the theatre's foyer, where a small stage has been set up. However, there is no wingspace stage left, so we reblocked the show so everyone entered and exited stage right. That's complicated! Then we got word that we could not use the foyer and would have to perform in a classroom. So we reblocked the show again because it was silly to have everyone entering and exiting from the same side. We borrowed flats to create a kind of backstage and just hoped that it would work. And it did. We performed about half the play for Stellenbosch University acting students last Friday. (I was backstage making sure everyone knew which side they entered on and had their correct props.) We could not finish the performance because the kids had to be back in Kayamandi by a certain time to leave for an academic camp. I think I've told the story of how the play ends about 30 times; everyone in the audience enjoyed it and wanted to know what happened next! This Saturday we perform the whole show in Kayamandi, which should be really exciting.

Friday night Josh, Drew and I went with our friends, Harrie and Ivan, to Cape Town to see a play at Artscape called "Dalliances." Part of the Artscape New Writing Programme in 2007, it is a current view of young Cape Townians, love, the absence of love, friendship, and HIV. We all enjoyed it--I especially appreciated the innovative set and recurring use of the color yellow in the set, props, costumes, etc. After the play we danced the night away and then spent most of the weekend sleeping.

Today, Josh and Drew had their Xhosa final and all three of us took a mock Afrikaans oral exam. The real exam is next Wednesday. This is the last week of classes for me; how crazy is that?! I need to finish one more paper, but then all I have left is studying for finals. Afrikaans and Acting finals next week, History the week after, and my two Theatre classes the week after that. I'm used to taking at least one final every day for a week and find it interesting that exams are so spread out here. It's nice to have time to study, though, as finals are worth about 60% of the class mark.

Though the next weeks will be busy as we attempt to do everything and hang out with everyone before leaving Stellenbosch in mid-November to travel, I will attempt to do a better job about keeping up with this blog.

Much love and God bless,
Melissa