That is me at the beach taking in the atmosphere. I love the sea, there is actually nothing more theraputic than just sitting at the sea and listening to the waves. Painting is also a good one. :)
So I'm back at Rhodes. It is really nice to be back in this surrounding. Easter vac was really great and it was awesome to be spending time with my oldest friends and my family. One of the highlights of it was definitely going to the beach with Mom and Gregs. I love spending time with them, and I am always pleasently surprised at how much I have missed my brother who gives me endearing nicknames like fatty and ugly. <3
I was also quite shocked at how much I missed my friends from Rhodes company. Especially after only knowing them for 3 months. It just shows how quickly you can grow to be close to people. Once you get used to people being around you, and then they aren't for a while, you realise how special they actually are.
But now I am back and it is sweet. The workload is already piling up as it is exam term, and rehearsals for the Decisive Play Greg and I are in will be starting soon. The student newspaper, Activate, likes to have long and tedious meetins that take up my time. Haha but I am not complaining because it will pay off eventually to be involved.
Last term I wrote a blog for Journalism, we are getting it back today. So here it is, uneditted and unmarked. It was called Authors of Identity, and is pretty self-explanatory. I really really enjoyed writing it.
Life’s authors write a new page
By Robynne Peatfield
My name: Robynne Peatfield. First year student at Rhodes University. 19 years old, Western English culture, Christian, comfortable and happy in life.
Subject: Vuyiswa Mame. Cleaner at Rhodes University, 32 years old, isiXhosa culture, Christian, comfortable and happy in life.
It is a difficult task to answer questions about yourself, your brain really gets a good workout. You have to dig deep in order to be honest, and you don’t want to come across as someone you’re not. I thought about what culture I belonged to, and came up with a general answer; western English. My reasons for this were quite simple, I have grown up speaking English, it is my home language and forms part of my identity. I have also been fortunate enough to grow up surrounded by advanced technology and have always felt educated, and connected to the world.
I decided to look at this perspective when I spoke to Vuyiswa Mame, a cleaner in my residence at Rhodes University. Vuyiswa is 32, and has worked at Rhodes for 3 years. Over a cup of tea in my room in residence, Viyiswa told me that she feels she belongs to the isiXhosa culture of Grahamstown. Although this is a different culture to mine, like me, Vuyiswa said she feels this because she has grown up with isiXhosa as a home language. She explained how she feels language represents one’s home and history. She doesn’t feel like she is part of a minority because more than half of her community speak her language. This really interested me. I don’t feel apart of a minority because all the students in my community, an English based university, all have access to western aspects of life; we all have access to the internet, communication and adequate transport. Vuyiswa and I not only differed in our own cultures, but we also had different ideas of what constituted culture. I told her how much I appreciate being a student at Rhodes, and in turn she told me how she appreciates the opportunities working here gives her, such as learning how to use a computer.
I thought more about our differences after that. Other than our cultures, there were several more aspects that Vuyiswa and I didn’t have in common. As some mellow Jack Johnson and Johnny Clegg came quietly from my laptop, Vuyiswa told me about her love for gospel music, and for the Lord. She even gave me a humble sample of one of her favourite Rebecca Malope songs, Uthando Lwami. I was really touched by this, and downloaded a couple Malope singles after that.
When we spoke about what made us happy, Vuyiswa said her five year old daughter makes her the happiest. Just watching her sleep, feeding her, or just spending time with her brings sunshine into her heart. Even though I mentioned things like thinking back on my travels in my gap year, or spending time with the ones that matter, or just simply laughing, Vuyiswa felt the same kind of happiness just by looking at one person in her life. I thought this was incredibly special.
Speaking to Vuyiswa got me thinking about identity more than I expected. She and I come from completely different backgrounds; we speak different languages and do very different things in our day to day activities. But we cannot undermine our worth by comparing ourselves to others, and we don’t set our goals or how we think by what others deem important. Vuyiswa and I are different in many ways, but the same in so many other aspects. We are both content, and comfortable in our own skins.
After all, we are all writing our own identity books. We are our own authors and essentially, it is because we are different that we are exceptional.
