Brittany seeking her identity

Brittany

It’s the end of week five in Cape Town. Can hardly believe I’ve been here this long. Time truly does fly when you are having fun. I am definitely past the tourist stage, now I am really trying to learn about the people and organizations here. In the past weeks, it has become clearer to me that I am foreigner to South Africa society.

                 

Every day I wake up early to take the 7am train. I ask the conductor for a return to Cape Town and then head toward the train platform. The trains are usually packed with people going to work and school. There are days when everyone is crammed into the train and we are literally packed like sardines.  I don’t jolt when the train moves because someone is there on all four sides to cushion my fall.   I arrive in Cape Town ready to start my day. I am truly settling into life in Cape Town and I am enjoying every minute of it!

                 

As much as I feel a part of Cape Town, I still realize that I am a foreigner. One of the highlights of my day is taking the train home with my friends from work. We laugh and joke about our day. But they get the biggest kick out of my American accent. All though it doesn’t bother me, for the first time I am the odd one out. I have never considered myself to have an accent but sometimes people can’t even understand what I’m saying. They teach me different words and laugh at my pronunciations. They tell me to say “wah-ter” rather that “wader” and “moun-tain” rather that “moun-an” all the way back home. I laugh at how different we pronounce words and at how foreign I am for a change.

                 

Another way I am an outsider is through the color of my skin. As mentioned in previous blogs, I am very conscience of race here. I have been struggling with where I fit in this society. Of the three classifications; black, coloured and white, I don’t think fit into any. Most people would not consider me to be Xhosa black. But on the other hand some would not consider me to be coloured. It’s like I’m in between. Also, depending on how I wear my hair, I can jump between the statuses as colored and black. When I talked to an attorney at my job about this, she told me that I would just be considered a foreigner. So I guess there are four classifications: black, coloured, white and foreigner. I find the classifications to be limiting. They don’t account for the diversities of ethnicities in Cape Town.

                 

As I continue to find my identity in Cape Town, I hope the people of Cape Town will discover an identity beyond coloured, black and white.

Brittany & friends at beach