O-whata-week

i mentioned something about orientation week and jadedness, but it was hard not to have some of that energetic, youth-bursting atmosphere rub off on me. it helps that i couldnt go anywhere without having to go through the spread of carnival all around the campus. although, i must say that i have been asked my age in one week more than i have ever in any 3 years back home! crazy people...:






gay and lesbian club - a very important association in school. you get all sorts of networking opportunities!


oh my che guevara, the heady insignia of every self-respecting university










you know it's hectic stuff when the student union (oh yes, unions... hallelujah...) provide sofas al fresco (and al free of charge!)
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then last sunday we headed to the beach. perfect weather - 20 deg, with the white sands, beautiful (and scantily-clad) people, and the pacific ocean rolling out before you:














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and then an opening dinner at college, rounding up the first week of school:
























You grow up in a place where you are told your country is multi-racial. But of course it is. Yet you, and every one of you, acquiesce to having your ethnicity effaced, erased, and abstracted to an inaccurate, erroneous, vacuous, category. Not for a moment do you stop to ask, what does 'Other' mean? What about the many other others? What does ‘racial harmony’ mean in a place whose people are ignorant of their own and of another's histories and culture, whose anthem is a foreign language, and whose pledge is an empty emblem? What does it say of a people who do not care that their unity is a mirage?

Then you come another place discovering that perhaps you have been deceived; that there is no such thing as the labels you have been acculturated with – that there are only you, and me, and anyone else who walks on this same ground. And if you are fortunate, half the world might travel to a place your paths could cross easily, and you might pause for a moment, say a hello, and have a picture taken.