Greetings from approximately 8,500 miles away,

I remember I was wandering around the heart of beautiful Cape Town, enjoying the serenity moments right before the roaring earthquake abruptly ruined everything. Everything was shaking and my vision was blurred before I woke up and realized it was my vibration alarm clock breaking me away from my dream. I looked out the window and the sun rays were glaring right at me. We've been blessed with around an hour of extra sleep, and met with the rest of the group for breakfast at 8:45. Since we've stayed at this hotel for several days now, we knew what we wanted right away and I got my usual omelet and yogurt. A good start to a long and exciting day, indeed!

We went to the Parliament of South Africa for an in-depth tour led by Wilma Newdoudt-Druchen. In case you have never heard of her, she is very well known and major contributor in South Africa's Deaf community. Most importantly, she is a deaf Member of Parliament of South Africa! That is absolutely not an easy feat to accomplish, but she shattered the barrier and proved to the country that deaf people can do it. To be clear, Parliament to South Africa is what Congress is to United States. We had to get our bags checked through security before we could procced and got our special visitor permits. First building we were introduced to was gigantic offices for Secretary of State and cabinet (president's staff). We learned that Wilma has been in Parliament for 15 years, starting at 1999. She eventually did take a hiatus before coming back few years ago. Wilma has heavily emphasized that she is a strong advocate for accessibility for disabilities and subtitles on TV. She is still a part of the Department of Communication AND People Committee. She wears a lot of hats, and that still didn't stop her. An extra interesting tidbit regarding to Parliament: Currently there are ELEVEN different political parties in Parliament! Compared to America's only 2: Democratic and Republican. Wilma is a member of the ANC, African National Congress, a predominant party. ANC currently holds 267 seats out of 400 in Parliament, making it barely over 66% which is required to pass a law. We toured around the humongous building, we even saw a former assembly chamber which was much smaller and only used during apartheid for white men only. The current chamber is much bigger and we even saw Wilma's seat! We wrapped up the tour with a nice cup of coffee/tea with muffins and listened to Wilma's advice. We walked down the street to Green market square after the visit to Parliament.

The Greenmarket contains tens of different vendors selling many hand-crafted items, paintings, clothes, and jewelries. We were overwhelmed with the vast of options we have at our hands, but we eventually got around to it and went straight to negotiating business! That is easily my favorite part of buying items, knowing I have done a hell of job driving down the price to my range and getting what I want. It was blazing hot outside and our shirts were drenched in sweats. We shopped for a good 3 hours, buying gifts for loved ones and especially myself! Since we ate just muffins for lunch, we were starving! Good thing we found a restaurant named Mint a street next to Green market, and we gobbled down our plates of delicious food! Shout out to Jennifer for generous gift for each of us students. We received small drum, similar one we used at Gold restaurant. What is a good way to cool ourselves after a day in sun? Of course, swimming! After we arrived at the hotel, we changed and went to swimming. Unfortunately, the sun sets fast and the water was so COLD! It was not long before we were shivering and went back up to grab a hot shower! As per tradition, we completed our daily journal entry and chilled before we hit the sack!

- Nevan

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Comments:

Wanda Kelley: This seems to have been a very exciting day!

Traci: Good informative, Nevan! Glad you all got to meet Wilma.

Crystal Schwartz: Wow Jennifer! Sweet!! Thanks for the gift for our students! and yes, Wilma is awesome. Glad you all got to shop today at the market and experience more of their culture. By the way Nevan, you had me there for a second, I really thought I missed the news of an earthquake happening. At least your alarm did a good job waking you up for another productive day! :-) Stay safe, everyone.

Kat Murphy: How amazing to have a seat in parliament! I am in awe, I cannot imagine the obstacles Wilma has to face to in order to advocate for the Deaf in South Africa, she is one brave lady.