The results are in!

I'm not going to lie, my Developmental Economics exam was stressing me out. I was convinced that I either failed or just barely passed. Today out of the blue the exam results were posted. When I looked at my mark I could not believe it, and even more so when I found out that our marks were not even scaled, my mark was legit!!

After all my stressing I am very proud to say that I received a 24/30 which is an 80% !!!!!!! Thank you to every one from Canada to South Africa and in between who was praying for me to do well, it worked!!


For a look into the exam questions, check out my previous blog post
http://catherine-robar.blogspot.com/2011/01/catherine-robar-dies-of-exam-induced.html

A random piece of news

I was talking to Gcinisizwe on the phone today and he told me something that I have to say, I find very exciting!!

Every December Xhosa people from all over the country return to the villages for holiday celebrations. It is a very important time in their culture to see family and to pay respect to their ancestors. This is also a very important time to share information with family members who are ordinarily spread all over the country. Well they got to talking while Gcinisizwe was in Nqiningana and people were so shocked to hear that the rumors were true, that Gcinisizwe had actually been married, and to a white Canadian woman!

I knew that I was the first white person in the history of the Noyakaza family, that bit of news was shocking in itself, but Gcinisizwe told me today that I am the first white person in the history of the entire Diya clan! I have no idea if this is true or not, but if it is that is huge!

Many of you might not understand how this works so here we go. Picture the entire population of South Africa, it is divided amongst 4 groups of people, Africans, Coloureds, Indians and White people. The African population represents around 80% of the population. Of the African population there are different tribes, for example, Xhosa, Zulu, Tswana etc. The Xhosa tribe is the second largest tribe in South Africa. The Xhosa tribe is divided into clans, this is something we dont' have in Canada, but basically you could think of it as this, in 1752 my great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather, Casper Zinck, left Germany and took a ride on a tall ship named the Anne and arrived in Nova Scotia. Everyone born after him is part of the Casper Zinck clan. It is the same thing only the Diya clan has been around for thousands of years, so by now it is huge. Within the Diya clan is the Noyakaza family, as in Gcinisizwe Noyakaza.

I knew I was the first white person in the history of the Noyakaza family which I must say was pretty crazy news, but if it is true that I am the first white person in the history of the Diya clan, well that is just too cool.

Wow, so a big thank you to everyone in South Africa who has welcomed me as part of the family, I feel so blessed to be one of you, and so honored to be an official member of the Diya clan. It is an honor that will make me smile for the rest of my life.



Catherine Robar dies of exam-induced heart attack....

I think that this picture gives an accurate portrayal of the stress
I was feeling. Thank you to the link below for sharing
http://exjerseygirl.blogspot.com/2005/11/scenes-from-haircut.html

Ok, that is what I was expecting to see in the newspaper headlines but in actual fact I survived. Yes folks, I just wrote the most intense exam of my life and from my understanding, the biggest in the Masters program. My exam was for the Developmental Economics module and covered 9 very diverse and complex economics subjects.

When I first signed up for this masters program it didn't really occur to me that I would once again have to take economics. I must admit, I didn't do so well during my undergrad, I remember struggling through Micro and Macro Economics and cursing the day that I ever chose to do a commerce degree. So really, the only more logical course of action was to do a masters degree where 1/5 of the program is on this same subject. Although I must be honest and say that I really did not enjoy the micro and macro portion of the program (sorry to my professors, it's not personal), I did really enjoy the other topics which included everything from Environmental Economics, The History of Foreign Debt, dissecting the World Bank and the IMF (my personal favorite) and even more abstract fields such as communication and how it impacts development work.

It seems that in my obsessive studying that everything else went out the window. Although my exam was on Friday, January 7th, I am only now starting to get caught back up with my normal life. I studied for 13 hours a day for 2 weeks straight, and previous to that maybe 5-8 hours a day. Despite that the exam still kicked my butt, and actually every one's butt in my class. Our exam was allotted 3 hours and 45 minutes, and the first person only finished at the 3 hour and 5 minute mark. 80% of the class was still sitting there when the time was called at the end.

I took the liberty of writing down the exam questions so that I could review them when I returned home. Just for the fun of it I will share them with you. The first word is the surname of our professor who assigned the question. Below each question was a big gaping white empty box, yes, all our questions were to be answered essay style....As you can see, it was not a fun exam!

1. Crespi- Describe the main characteristics of public goods and explain why this is a case of market failure

2. Trezzini-Discuss the main features of the Solow explanation of economic growth. What is the origin of the stated tendency of economics to converge

3. Costantini- What are the environmental effects of Structure, Scale, Income and Technology

4. Nenci- According to trade theory , what are the main effects (traditional and non-traditional) of Regional Trade Agreements

5. De Maio- Using Game Theory, determine the equilibrium. Why does this justify the need for organizations such as the World Trade Organization

6. Gorgoni- Discuss one of the three types of innovation. Example: Radical/Incremental; Product/Process

7. Pallottino- Why is internal debt an issue to be considered in today's situation

8. Paloni- The World Bank claims that stream-lining conditionality and turning ex-post conditionality's into ex-ante are measures that foster reform ownership. Explain

9. De Muro- Explain the difference between the Washington Consensus and the Post Washington Consensus.

Pretty much the craziest night of my life. NYE 2011 in Rome.

New Year's Eve in Rome is like a very sloppily crafted recipe, handed down from generation to generation only the cook is slightly in the bag and kind of just dumps things in the mixing bowl.

The night started off innocently enough. I was joined at my apartment by Valentina, her brother and girlfriend, Edgar and Brad for a fun night of silly conversations, pizza, cake and wine. Nobody was allowed to leave until they ate the cake that was brought over on Christmas Day. It sat on my shelf, all pretty and unopened just waiting for some unsuspecting visitors to eat it, so that I wouldn't inhale the entire thing by myself. It is a lovely Pandoro cake, an Italian tradition for this time of year. On the box it looked so pretty with icing sugar dusted around the edges so when I opened it I was a bit disappointed that there was no delightful dusting of sugar like in the picture. That is when Brad said "Catherine, the sugar is in the box". That's right, the icing sugar is done very Kraft Dinner-style, being in it's own separate package that you must self-apply.

Valentina shows us how it's done

Edgar watches with great intensity as Valentina begins to shake the bag

And voila, a perfectly sugared Pandoro cake

 


Wow, two pieces, thanks Valentina!

We gathered our things and headed for the Metro to take us into the historic centre. As the clock struck 11pm (midnight in South Africa) I got on the phone and called Gcinisizwe to wish him a Happy New Year!! He is in Nqiningana right now visiting his family, so I wasn't really sure what to expect from a Nqiningana New Year's celebration being that there is only a population of 60 families! The village was rocking, I could hear everyone singing and yelling and I know that there was dancing. Gcinisizwe's 84 year old grandfather was dancing up a storm I am told until 12:30am when his grandmother came to fetch him and take him home for bed. Ha ha, that man can really dance. Check out my Themba Tales blog for video and pictures of him dancing!

Meanwhile we were actually passing through the streets very military like, trying our hardest to not get hit by one of the many fire crackers being thrown off of people's patios. Finally we made it to the Metro station and joined the hundreds of other people filling up the trains to make it into the action-zone in time for the count down.

I still laugh at myself, I cannot seem to shake that "I will get in trouble if I am seen with alcohol in public" attitude so kindly given to me by the Canadian government. There I am with 2 bottles of champagne in my bag, careful to keep it well hidden when ALL around us people are drinking beers, wine and anything else consumable on a moving Metro.

We finally make it to our stop, Colosseo, right in the middle of all the action. Everyone was very jolly and I really got a kick out of everyone singing and dancing their way out of the metro.


Then add some Earth changing insights by yours truly....

Nope, cats don't like New Year's Eve.......

Now that was a well timed picture



I have to put this into context for you before the next part. You now how at home the government has strict controls over the purchase and use of fireworks? And you know how they have specially trained professionals on hand to deploy our fireworks so that it is a safe and wonderful evening? Yeah, that does not happen here. Instead very drunk local people take the lead and fire off their own fireworks in the street. Fun!  ......


Ok, so at this point it gets a little messy. We are now at 11:50pm and we decide to move away from Colesseo and head towards the concert that is further down this road, sounds easy right? Did anyone bring their bomb-squad protective gear?

"Is this where we are going to wait?", Edgar responds "This is not ideal".....Really? Really???? Because just before I turned the camera on I seriously thought I lost an eyebrow when a firework blew up right next to us, the shock wave was pretty crazy! Ha ha, such a insane night!

Ladies and Gentlemen, this is officially where I must caution you for the language you might hear ha ha. Keep in mind that although there was a moment or two when I felt "concerned", overall we were all having so much fun that we couldn't stop laughing. My favorite quotes from the below video are:

"It feels like Afghanistan here!!"

and "The riot police are here, that is not ideal"

But of course the best part of this video is when the fireworks start shooting into the crowd where we are standing and as we run back to get out of the line of fire I grab Edgar and use him for cover ha ha, nice Catherine, very nice. Sorry Edgar ha ha.

Again, I am really sorry for the bad words, I hope you can forgive me given the circumstances!

Our friendly neighbourhood riot police

Anarchy, I mean Rome....

I think those are the government fireworks



 

As the riot police walked by one of the men smiled at me and looked excited to be on camera. I wish you could have seen it, so cute!

I think that these were the "official" government fireworks, oh yeah, I forgot about those!

I'm pretty sure that the Canadian government would take your child away from you if they saw this. It was amazing to see all the babies, small dogs dressed in suits and children who were dragged here by the families. I don't know about you but this does not look like a good place for any of the above mentioned!



When we left the streets were COVERED in bottles, broken glass and garbage. Someone is going to have a heck of a job cleaning that out of the cobblestone in the morning!!

A blurry photo of me, Edgar, Valentina and a dude in a hat.

Mass exodus passed the Colosseum

Fabulous friends



Thanks to a friendly passer-by we finally captured a photo with the whole group.
Shortly afterwards we toasted the evening with a glass of champagne. Thank you to Brad
for carting the bottle all through Rome when he doesn't even drink! Way
to take one for the team Brad!



Me enjoying a view of the Colosseum

So, that was New Year's Eve in Rome, Italy. You know how I tell you that Italy looks like a developed country when you come as a tourist but really, at it's heart is a developing country, well maybe now you will understand what I mean.

2010 was hands down the best year of my life. On December 31st at 11pm I arrived in Cape Town and was reunited with the love of my life, Gcinisizwe Noyakaza. I finally met a dear friend of mine in person, Agnesia and the amazing Brock family.

I was able to follow my dream of traveling. I lived in South Africa for 7 months and was able to run my own humanitarian-aid organization. I was given a Xhosa name, Sandise, which means "the strength of the community". I traveled to the former Transkei region, home of Nelson Mandela and the birthplace of Gcinisizwe. I became Makoti and even took part in my brother-in-law's traditional ceremony to become a man in the Xhosa culture.

I then went to Lesotho and spent a few nights in the deep bush which was only accessible by horseback. I stayed with the local people in traditional houses. Stood at 3500m above sea level on my quest to find a waterfall in Lesotho at the same time as a major lightening storm passed overhead. Gcinisizwe and I flew to Zambia, his first flight ever, saw Victoria Falls and met the amazing people there. We then toured around Botswana and even went bush camping in the Okavango Delta. We traveled through Namibia and met everyone from the Herero people to the Himba people, and even made some amazing new friends from Zimbabwe and Northern Namibia while in Swakopmund.

I got married to an amazing and loving man who is coincidentally from the Xhosa tribe and grew up in Apartheid, something that I still find extraordinary.

And now I sit here in Rome doing a Masters in Human Development and Food Security, a program that works to fight chronic hunger around the world. 2011 you have some BIG shoes to fill!

Happy 2011 everyone!!!