Welcome to the "fake" Africa?

Hello lovely people!

I had a blast writing my blog in Ghana, I'm excited to keep it up with my new adventure in South Africa. I have regular and reliable internet access here so you can expect lots of pictures and frequent posts (yay).  So let's get some intro FAQs going:

So, what are you doing in South Africa?

I am doing research at the wonderful University of the Western Cape located in Cape Town, South Africa. This research is part of the Johns Hopkins University's  MHIRT Program (Minority Health and Health Disparities International Research Training)  program funded by the National Institutes of Health. I will go on into my later posts about my specific research, so stay tuned. But now...

What's with the "Sleeping with Tygers" title? 

I am living in the outskirts of Cape Town in a suburb called Tygerberg. Cape Town is probably one of the most touristy cities in the world, despite the breathtakingly beautiful Table Mountain, it's fairly urbanized and entirely (too) Westernized. There is absolutely no animals around, definitely not tigers. But that's part of the theme of this blog, trying to make sense of such a radically different African experience than I had in Ghana. But don't worry, I'll be taking at least one trip out of here for a safari, couldn't leave South African without it.

The "fake" Africa?

At JHU a couple of weeks ago I attended a week-long orientation. Got to meet my US and South African mentors, the other 10 students around the world in this program, my research partners and my awesome awesome roomate and adventure partner, Raji (you can follow her blog here, I can promise you it will be a fascinating one). Upon meeting my US faculty member, she asked if we had ever been to Africa before, when I had mentioned I had studied abroad in Ghana last year, she was quick to tell me that I would be just fine, that West Africa is the "real" Africa, and I won't see any "people with bones in their nose" here (...yeah....just slightly racist...). 

That conversation got me thinking, if there is a "real" Africa, is there a "fake" Africa? No, not at all. This continent is so wonderfully diverse. There is an urbanized Africa, and an affluent Africa and many other adjectives that Americans don't generally associate with Africa, but that doesn't make it any less real. The incredible history of this country can leave anyone awestruck, and the remains of apartheid are very obvious and even palpable. There is so much that these next 10 weeks are going to bring, will I be uncontrollably pooping on the floor of a palace of a rural village? Probably not, but that doesn't mean this experience won't be any less humbling and informative, or hilarious for that matter. This is only day two, I am quite crafty in getting myself into crazy things.

I am excited for all that South Africa is to teach me, so follow along, comment, question, suggest, I'll be happy to take all opinions. Thanks for following. Here we go.