Being the best gargantuan sea monster I can be

"I usually solve problems by letting them devour me," wrote Franz Kafka. That's an interesting approach, I guess, and though it might work for a fire sign or air sign, it's not a wise policy for you Pisceans. In fact, I urge you to fervently resist any temptation you might have to allow your problems to gobble you up. On the contrary, be like a gargantuan sea monster in the midst of the perfect storm. Rise up as high as the dark sky and growl back at the thunder. Shoot flames from your mouth at the lightning. Become too big and ancient and wild to ever be devoured."
-Horoscope for week of May 31, 2007, www.freewillastrology.com

Shoot flames from my mouth?

...sweeeeeet!

This has been good advice lately! You haven't heard from me cos I've been holed up in a little place called my dorm room doing the most wicked studying a girl can do. Hey, but I can breathe a bit now...thank goodness. I just finished my second exam in 2 days this morning and I think I'm standing pretty tall after both these little exercises in futility. I've got a week and 1/2 now to myself (ok...there will be more studying in that time) until my next exams mid-June. But the hard exams are done and it's smooth sailing on rippling waters from here on out. I can't wait to get into the radio studio so I can finally have as much time as I want to play around and learn!!!!! I know it sounds weird, but I've been dreaming of the red studio walls for a week or so now...production studio here I come!

Final exams started for us on Thursday and I started it all off with a nice little exam in Carbohydrate metabolism. Then today I took a Genetics exam. Exams here are nuts...they count toward 50% of your final grade (usually it's like 15-30% at U of IL). It's really an all or nothing situation. I think it's kind of a stupid idea to put all your eggs in one basket like this, but it's the way South African institutions decide to see if you really did memorize all the structures of the major carbohydrates and Citric Acid cycle intermediates. When I studied in Pietermaritzburg I went from having one of the best grades in my Pig/Poultry Production class to barely passing the class (I actually think I passed on mercy) all because I totally bombed the final. I must have got like a 30% on the final, seriously. It certainly wasn't my finest hour. I guess Secret Agent Brain can't save my tail every time.

I've been feeling incredibly defeated because of all the studying I have had to do in the past week. Studying this semester really stresses me out because it's so useless, but requires a lot of time and energy on my part. I mean I've already done these classes at U of IL so I'm not really gaining any new knowledge from the material. The classes aren't necessarily getting me anywhere because I don't know if I will get into vet school after this year's worth of academic uselessness. But the most annoying part is that if I want to have any chance at getting into vet school in the convoluted fashion the University of Pretoria has set out for me then I MUST do a really kickass job on these useless and difficult classes. It's a seriously bad situation for my mental health. Oh, and I'm a few thousand miles away from home. Being away from home is no thing, but coupled w/the the bad vibes from my academic situation...well it makes for one homesick girl sometimes. I'm not a homesick person usually, but this semester it's been biting hard because I'm so frustrated with my situation here in Pretoria. Academic, social, Rotary, etc.

Anyways...these bad vibes have been burning a hole in me for almost 2 weeks now (but also this has been a broader pattern since I've arrived...and even just before I came here). That is so lame! I'm a fighter. Not an armadillo that will just play dead and hope that the danger passes! But something has really been bringing out the armadillo in me lately. It sucks. I see it happening and then I get pissed off at myself...but I still just lie there in the fetal position hoping this will pass. I'm sick of it. I was so happy to read my horoscope this week. In fact, I think it's the one thing that was able to help me refocus my energy such that I could actually study effectively. For most of the week I was just staring at pages too stressed out to let info actually pass into my tightly clenched gray matter. I wrote part of the horoscope on my hand so I could look at it when I was studying and when I was in my exams. It's weird how something so random can really perk you up.

On a positive academic note...I have had some more replies from the Administration in the Veterinary School here and there may be a resolution to my problem that I can live with. I may have been advised incorrectly when I first arrived (wow that will piss me off). There may have been a place in vet school for me. Etc etc etc. All this is hearsay and conjecture at this point. I'm still waiting (waiting for the last month actually) to hear a definitive word from the Dean/Associate Dean in the Vet Faculty. They were away in Australia for the last few weeks which is why they haven't replied to me in ages. Hopefully I'm actually on their agenda now...but more importantly...hopefully something can be done to get me to the place I need to be. Not in this brackish academic backwater pool I currently am stagnating in.

Last weekend was pretty crazy overall. My Rotary district had their annual convention here in Pretoria. My sponsor club (Pretoria Silverton) organized the whole thing so they were pretty busy keeping the whole thing going. I think it went really well and it was interesting to attend the conference. There are about 50 clubs in my district and I think there was somewhere between 150-200 people at the conference at any given time. I gave a speech about myself and my experiences to date on the Friday of the conference. It made me nervous (but not too nervous) to talk in front of all those people, but it was only for 5 minutes and was on a topic I know lots about...me!

The best thing about the conference (besides the fact that the District Governor, DG, opened the conference with a blonde joke...serious!) was FINALLY being able to make contact w/some of the Rotarians in the district. I've been super frustrated with making contact with people. I sort of didn't have a plan on how to do it and what I did try got almost no response. I sent out an email letter to all the club presidents in the district when I first arrived, but only 1 club out of 50-ish emailed me back. D'oh! I also haven't really gotten any direction/assistance from my host counselor on connecting with various Rotary clubs. I haven't been too aggressive in seeking his help, but he hasn't really been too forthcoming in offering assistance either. Guess I'm on my own...the story of my life here in Pretoria.

Yeah, that's another thing I've been really frustrated with as far as the whole Rotary scene goes here. I really feel like I'm just blowing in the wind here in Pretoria. Like Rotarians might know I'm here (maybe) but there hasn't been that great of a reaching out process on the part of my "hosts," despite attempts on my part to reach out to them. It's not what I expected at all from an organization that prides itself on building goodwill and better friendships! But maybe my expectations were too high...people are people after all. There have been some people that have been really great at keeping me in the loop as far as Rotary is concerned. Inviting me to their club and to other clubs or events, giving me rides to events (a major issue for me to be involved in anything here). I really value those precious Rotarians. I guess this lack of connection generally ties into not being able to make good contact with the various clubs. I don't quite know how to shoot flames from my mouth at this problem. It's sort of a large problem with many solutions. I feel like I've been so consumed w/school that I really haven't had time to problem solve on this issue. But now I've got some tools and I'm going to try to make a plan. I was really happy to hear a speech at the Conference from the Youth Leadership Coordinator about how Rotarians were neglecting the youth. I wanted to jump up and say "Right on!" a few times during his speech! His speech mirrored my experience here in a number of ways (like the ones I mentioned above).

One of the hottest issues of the conference was re-districting. I'm in D9250 which includes Botswana, Swaziland, Southern Mozambique, and NE South Africa. Because the # of Rotarians in the district is below the # required by Rotary International (1000 Rotarians, I think), Rotary International wants to switch the districts around. The proposed redistricting would group Mozambique and Botswana with Angola and Zimbabwe. The remainder of D9250 would fuse w/the Joburg clubs. Makes sense if you are drawing up plans in an office in Evanston, IL USA (the world headquarters of Rotary), but on the ground in Southern Africa the plan just doesn't jive. Just on a practical level it apparently doesn't work. There aren't good roads (or flights) connecting Angola to Mozambique. The DG would have a terrible time keeping up w/the District and Rotarians would never be able to affordably travel to a convention at the other side of the district. On Saturday morning there was a plenary and vote on this issue and I hear it was the most heated part of the conference. I was asleep at home (more on this in a sec) so I missed the whole thing, d'oh! I guess that Botswana and Mozambique clubs were pretty irritated at the prospect of being dropped. A really neat thing though is that ALL the clubs in the district got behind the Botswana and Mozambique clubs in saying "hell no!" Every last club voted 'no' to redistricting. Solidarity is a beautiful thing! I spoke to a woman from Botswana later at lunch and she was so happy to see the solidarity shown w/the people that were potentially being dropped. I'm sorry I missed the chance to see a mostly elderly Rotary crowd get crazy over something they were passionate about! One of the main issues people were angry about is that they felt they were never informed of this potential change. DG Chris Pretorius sent out all sorts of letters and stuff to warn the clubs about the potential redistricting...but poor communication seems to predominate in this District. I guess I don't feel too bad about not getting in contact with various clubs if even the DG has trouble keeping in touch w/all the clubs spread out over the Southern African plains.

One sucky thing about the conference is that I got sick from some of the buffet food I had at lunch on Saturday. "No seafood in Pretoria" should be scrawled into my mind forever now!!! I had the same food poisoning thing going on that happened to me over Easter (fever and sick stomach). One of my fav Rotarians in my club, Andre, gave me some Bicarbonate Soda that was so nasty on its own that it made me throw up. But that was a really good thing because it meant I was only SUPER sick for a day instead of 3 or 4 days. I missed the big gala dinner and dancing on Saturday night cause Andre took me home early. I even threw up on the way home. I had to make Andre stop the car RIGHT NOW so I could puke out the open door. It was kinda cool and dramatic in a sick way I guess. I've never puked out of a car door before. Kind of exciting. Anyways I went home and pulled my own Rip van Winkle. I went to bed at 9pm-ish on Saturday and didn't wake up until 2pm the next day. I think it helped me to recover a lot too.

Friday night of last weekend was Tuks FM's 26th Bday party....Jungle Fever. So I double-dipped radio and Rotary last weekend. Hectic! The party was pretty cool, literally and figuratively. I know it's hard for those of you in the warm embrace of June in the Midwest to picture the fact that it's winter here. But it is. It's not super cold, but I did have to buy another blanket last week cos it was too cold for me to fall asleep. I heard that the coldest it will get here is around 10C which is about 50F. I think it might get colder here in Pretoria, but not much colder. No wind chills, no freezing this, sleet what what. I guess there has been snow and ice in parts of the country (Plettenberg Bay and even ice in Joburg), but it's just not the same. A huge difference between dealing w/the cold here and at home is that almost no buildings here have heat in them. My dorm has no central heating unit. I don't know if I've been in a building here that has central heating. So when it's chilly you are sort of on your own. The sun is nice though! And the production studio at the radio station is also super warm! It's funny to check people stressing about the cold here though! A chick on my floor is from Mozambique and so the weather here is REALLY cold for her. Last night it was so pleasant out...not even nippy. She was shivering and freezing to death. It's all relative I guess. The lady that cleans my dorm, Sarah, and I always talk about the cold cos it's the easiest thing to talk to people about right now. And I can tell them horror stories about my hair freezing on the walk to school in IL. That's always a shocker. Anyways the other day Sarah was like "man it's so cold." I agreed and showed her how many skirts I was wearing. Hey, this lady had me beat though! She was wearing leggings, pants, a skirt, a BATH TOWEL!, and her cleaning uniform. And I thought we knew something about layers in the Midwest!

Sorry...I digress.

So Jungle Fever was pretty cool. I had to work the door w/my friend Kenzy (a DJ at the station). It was fun cos we got to give people crap AND take their money! Oh yeah! And our shift ended before we ran out of R10/R20 notes so we didn't have to scramble to make change. Whew! After that I just enjoyed some beers with my radio station compadres. Met some random people (beer always makes it easy to talk to strangers), found R20 on the ground, and saw some people from around campus. It's still weird for me to go places and see people I "know." I just don't expect it and it always leaves me feeling sort of discombobulated. But it's a welcome change to anonymity. The bands Ef-El, One Sock Thief, Myepic, 16Stitch, and The Parlotones played at the party. I saw Ef-El and then caught most of The Parlotones (until my ears were ringing that is...). Ef-El is a band made up of whippersnappers and has a pretty characteristic young boys jammin in the garage sound. But they were enjoyable. The Parlotones were very rad...and if you are going to hit myspace to check out any of the above listed SA bands, then this is the band to check out. The Parlotones are probably one of the biggest rock bands in SA right now. I don't know how to describe their sound except that they rock. They aren't quite into that whole experimental/electronic infused style of indie rock that has taken over the USA...but they aren't far off. Check 'em out!

I guess that's about all I have to say. I thought not much has happened except doom and gloom since I last came atcha...but that's not ever really true is it? I started to write down nice things that happen to me everyday and it's pretty amazing that even on the crappiest day at least one thing had to have made you smile!!! Try it. Take the time to think of all the funny, small, stupid, positive things that happen to you in the span of one day. I promise that even on the worst day at least a comic in the paper made you smile. Promise...

I added some more photos to my Picasa site: http://picasaweb.google.com/lynseemelchi
Check out General Photos for Jungle Fever photos. Check out Rotary General Photos for a few snaps of the conference.

Also please check out this blog: http://radiopcp.blogspot.com/
My friend and Central IL (and CentroAmerica) radio compatriot Bill Taylor is at it again! Bill's organization, Primary Communications Project, is heading down to La Esperanza, Honduras to help an indigenous rights organization (COPINH) to build a radio station. The radio station will help to better organize the Lenca (and other indigenous groups) so that they can continue to consolidate their power against "the man." Okay it's not that hokie...really! Basically the Lenca, like many indigenous groups around the world, are fighting encroachment on their lands/resources as well as fighting to preserve their culture in this crazy global world of ours. Please check out what Primary Communications Project is doing and if you have a few bucks...I'm sure Bill could use help w/gas money down to Honduras!!! The radio station that is being built is supposed to be the sister station to Radio Free Urbana, my radio baby in Urbana, IL. Anyways...check it out!

Hope you are all well and learning to shoot flames out of your mouth at any of the problems you face!

For those of you in Central IL with a view from the porch...soak it up! I want a full lounging report!!! Not a day has gone by these last few weeks without fond memories of slapping mosquitoes and drinking 40s on my High St slice of heaven.

Later
Much Love
Lynsee