Do You like T-Pain? I love T-Pain!

The past 2 days have been the most tiring of our orientation schedule so far because they have been spent touring all of the internships. In all, there are 13 different sites located all over Cape Town and the surrounding areas. We had a lot of traveling time in the van (sometimes the drivers, Parks and DuMasani , would play soul/mood music…these were usually the times when everyone would fall asleep) but it was great to see where everyone else was working. It also caused a lot of jealousy because we all want to do everything. Our group of 15 is very diverse when it comes to majors (Econ, Biol, Nutrition, History, Cultural Studies, Drama, Political Science, Business, International Studies) and internships (Children’s and Women’s Rights, HIV/AIDS, hospital, clinics, education, consulting and development, Refugee Center, Journalism). We had some great times at all of them, but I’ll focus on just one.

Today we visited the Christel House, a school opened in a middle-class neighborhood for children coming from poverty-stricken areas and giving them the opportunity to learn in a safe environment. We were taken into a 6th grade classroom and allowed to just talk to the kids for a bit. Right away these 3 girls began chattering away with me, and pulled me to the back of the classroom so that I could point out where North Carolina is on a map. These girls were cracking me up! They had so many questions, and there was so little time to answer them all. They asked me if I had been anywhere else in South Africa yet, and when I said I hadn’t, they gave me a ton of suggestions.

“Oh, go to Namibia, it is be-yooo-tiful.”
“Oh, go to *insert town*, it is be-yooo-tiful. My family lives there!”

They also conspiratorially pointed to Thomas, a 6’5 boy on this program with me, and asked me “Why is he so tall?” I didn’t know how to respond so I asked if they wanted to talk to him. This brought on some giggles but they refused to go over to where he was and instead asked me to call him over. I did so, and posed the question to him. Josiah answered that his parents had stretched him out as a baby, and they started cracking up. When the boys left they kept giggling and staring at Thomas. Oh to be in the 6th grade. When I told them where I was interning they asked “where is Thomas working?” and when I told them a girl got really excited because her father also worked for the same newspaper! She seemed very happy about the fact that they might meet one day, and her friends were a little jealous.

They asked if I had been to Las Vegas, and when I said I had, they asked if I had seen any celebrities. I, unfortunately, couldn’t say that I had so instead I told them my sister saw Justin Timberlake in NYC. Well, that brought on a chorus of “oooh! Justin Timberlake? ” and then they burst into chorus of a JT song that I did not recognize. Their favorite female artists were Rihanna and Beyonce, and they also liked Akon and Kanye West. So we’re chatting away, and it is time to go so almost my entire group has left the classroom but these girls just had too much to say! So I’m inching toward the door as they talk about their favorite artists and one girl said “Do you like T-Pain? I love T-Pain!”

Gotta love it.

Also, Random fact: The radio station here that plays current American pop music is 105.1. This is a ridiculous coincidence.