Student Budgeting - The Sum Of All Fears

Leaving the school uniform behind and coming to varsity has its advantages. You get to gain some independence from the parents, meet new people, unwind at your local haunts without being asked for ID and finally graduate with a degree (hopefully) but it isn’t all fun and games. Varsity life can be quite a costly business. Whilst living at home you don’t have to worry about the food prices increasing, the cost of petrol or your pocket money ever running out thanks to having a mobile ATM, aka your mum or dad, by your side 24/7. So where are students going wrong? Surely if our parents can manage, so can we, right?

There are certain requirements when it comes to being a Rhodent that didn’t apply to any of us when we attended school. Before a big night out on the town a new outfit has to be bought, pre-drinks need to be chilled and a small sum of money needs to be tucked away for sobering oneself up with Pirates Pizza. All of the above would have all been taken care of when living under our parent’s roof thanks to a little thing called Mastercard. The repetition of this weekly spending spree usually results in many students uttering budgeting plans for the next month which naturally fall away as soon as shear desperation results in a phone call home asking for some extra cash.

Other wallet lighteners for students at Rhodes include having to buy litres of bottled water each week from Pick ‘n Pay or Checkers due to Grahamstown water tasting like it’s from the toilet cistern. Fantastic! I have yet to find another varsity where the faeces content of the water out-numbers the H20 particles. I’m still waiting for my drink to suddenly come to life or grow fangs like a failed experiment from a science fiction movie. Thank you very much Makana Municipality. I’m sure you must have a fantastic deal with the Grahamstown food stores who are rolling in boodle due to selling so many bottles of a natural resource, which flows basically for free from our taps, in non-biodegradable bottles. No wonder students are feeling the pinch at the end of every month. If we get tired of carrying 10 litres of water up the hill every week and finally decide to stop buying it, we then have to pay medical fees due to health issues caused by highly contaminated H20. Nice one!

Res food adds to a student’s struggling cash flow. Not only are many of the res food options usually inedible, they’re usually unrecognisable too, so naturally students avoid eating the donkey meat with gravy option and choose to buy ready-made meals which are stomach friendly. This shouldn’t be the case seeing as staying in res costs our parents around R20 000 a year. Don’t get me wrong, not all res food is bad nor do all students hate it, but not being able to decide if your meal consists of beef or rat meat makes one wonder if spending a few extra bucks on nibbles from Pick ‘n Pay isn’t worth it. It may not be the healthiest option for a student’s wallet but with the current craze of being thin, maybe your wallet losing a few pounds isn’t such a bad thing.

As a student at Rhodes I have learnt that I have a fantastic ability to spend money but am useless at counting it, hence me being a BJourn student and not a BCom student, so saving a few extra Rand every month has been a bit challenging. After being tired of trying to stretch R20 over a two week period, I decided to try and satisfy my spending addiction whilst making use of the many student discounts that are available from various food and clothing stores. It hasn’t been easy due to a girl needing nearly every new product that appears on the pages of Cosmo but by cutting down on the nights out and making use of a few money saving tips from the parents, I have managed to avoid the dreaded pinch before pay day and no longer fear the balance on my ATM slips.

Academic Freedom?

There is the common misconception that academics at Rhodes University promote academic freedom. Of course they do, it sounds good and they punt it in their lectures. We are encouraged to create our own arguments and take a strong stand on our views. Isn’t this great I first thought! But the reality is something quite different and first year students, specifically BA students suffer under a system which suppresses academic freedom. You find yourself having to choose between either making a stand and promoting your own arguments or getting a first. Getting a first involves, as I eventually discovered, providing a strong argument but using the viewpoint of your lecturer or tutor.

Academic freedom is the freedom of students and academics to enquire openly and to express their arguments without being targeted by anyone to whom these views may be inconvenient (i.e. political groups or other authorities.) An article by the Council of Higher Education on academic freedom says that “Institutional autonomy could in the end empower the institutional bureaucrat to such an extent that the freedom of individual academics could be imperilled.”

Last week I wrote and essay about a play called Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett, for English 1. As much as I would have loved to write 600 words on exactly what I felt the play was about I knew that my tutor would not agree with my views and I would get marked down. So I hauled out my lecture notes and regurgitated everything that my lecturer had said on the topic. Needless to say I got my first, but was not at all proud of the fact that it had entailed me using someone else’s opinion rather than my own.

When I confronted my English tutor about my feelings he brushed them off saying that as long as we think critically we will do well. Thinking critically is all fine and well, but it is our lecturer’s or tutor’s thinking that seems to count and as long as we write that down religiously we are seen as critical thinkers.

First year BJourn student Caeri Dunnell agrees: “I certainly think we are encouraged to believe in specific ways and I do think that if we went against these ideologies that we are being taught you wouldn’t get the marks for it. For example, our tutor never lets us disagree with her in tuts and therefore we don’t contradict her view in essays because we realize we will loose out.”

Drama is another subject that restricts our creative academic freedom. When people hear that I take drama as a subject they think it’s wonderful “because I am able to express myself.” But even drama at Rhodes brainwashes its students into performing in a certain way and using styles that are liked by “those who mark.” Rhodes Drama department has a very specific and distinct taste and as soon as one breaks that mould, or uses styles that are looked down upon by the department, you are immediately at a disadvantage. You would not have thought this to be the case with a subject like drama.

In the light of this is university really just one big scam to brainwash us? Bring your children to get an education, hoorah! Meanwhile we are being taught how to use someone else’s ideas as our own. We are being brainwashed into abiding by certain conventions and being educated to believe in ideologies unquestioningly.

The above might not hold true for the other faculties and other years at Rhodes, but it certainly seems to hold true for the first year Humanities students. Whether or not this will change in second year I don’t know. But I continue to ask myself should I be aiming for that first or should I be aiming for complete academic freedom even if that means I don’t achieve as well.

“To care for anyone else enough to make their problems one's own, is ever the beginning of one's real ethical development.” Felix Adler

It’s the general consensus that Rhodes students don’t care about the poverty in Grahamstown and aren’t bothered about what happens in Joza. As long as their tragedies don’t infere with our fashion-obsessed, drinking and partying lifestyle they’re of no real consequence. I strongly disagree with this consensus. Just because we’re born out of privileged circumstances, this doesn’t mean that our humanity disappears just as fast as a bar tab at the rat.

I could be mistaken for the generalised version of the Rhodes student; I’m blonde, love clothes and I’m from a privileged background that has enabled me to come to university to study. But just because I embody the generalised characteristics doesn’t mean that I don’t care. Yes, I can’t give all of my spare change to every beggar that I see outside of Pick n’ Pay but that doesn’t mean that I don’t care or that I’m heartless.

For the last six months I’ve been volunteering at St Mary’s day care centre working with children from the township. But I’m not the only one. The Student Volunteer Programme has 300 programmes currently running in Grahamstown. Each of these programmes runs from Monday to Friday, with some even operating on Saturdays. This fact alone shows that there is a large support of students who work alongside with the Centre for Social Development (CSD) to benefit Grahamstown. Yes, not every single student volunteers but there is still a strong group who break the mould.

Varsity is a time for us to change how we perceive certain things. And developing a sense of social justice is part of what makes us human. My upbringing has given me an advantage over others. But it’s how I choose to practice this advantage that counts at the end of the day. What I look like or my upbringing doesn’t define who I am. Instead, it’s a challenge to venture out and make some type of difference. Yes, when I first came here I was into the partying and found the beggars on the street an annoyance. But the more I began to ignore the problem, the more it reared its head. The sense of guilt was overwhelming. But these feelings found direction through Rhodes’ a stellar volunteer programme catering to every type of volunteering. They provide an opportunity to use the skills that we develop in university outside of the lecture hall. It’s a chance to move outside the comfort of the Rhodes bubble and to engage with people from the ‘other’ side of Grahamstown.

The answer to the problems in Grahamstown isn’t in the occasional donation to a beggar outside of the shop. It’s in supporting NGO’s, CBO’s and schools who are slowly making a difference in the township. It’s like the Chinese proverb says, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” In this same way, through teaching sustainable skills to the community change is possible. But this can only be done through student volunteering. So when students are ready to move beyond their constant complaining and are ready to do something constructive for the community, then we will be able to move beyond the generalisation that we don’t care about the outside community.

The Lecture Theatre Relationship

“You with the black shirt, yes you. Would you like to sit in the sin bin?” is not an unusual statement to be heard in a Journalism and Media Studies (JMS1) lecture of late. I do not think that anyone doubts that there is currently a problem with the relationship between students and lecturers in the JMS1 class this semester. As a JMS1 student myself I feel that the situation deserves attention and discussion.
In an attempt to discover the reason for this breakdown in the student-lecturer relationship I first compared faculties. As someone who has attended some Bcom lectures like economics I can say that when comparing economic lectures to journalism lectures the behaviour of both lecturers and students are continents apart. There are no ten minute discussions about why you were talking during class; the lecturer does not give late comers the third degree nor do students try to sneak out during lectures even if they consider them hellishly boring. It would then seem that the problem lies within the humanities faculty as a whole but as I am currently studying a BA degree with all humanities subjects I can testify to the fact that JMS1 is my only subject in which the behaviour is way below par.
Looking then specifically at the JMS1 class I struggle to understand how we ended up in a situation where students are made to sit in the ‘sin bin’ or as some people have begun to refer to it as the ‘Sim bin’. Does the fault lie with the lecturers, the course, the students or the general attitudes of both? In our previous narrative and genre course the lecturer Priscilla Boshoff also experienced the problem of trying to keep the class under control which makes me think can the problem really lie with three different lecturers or does logic not then suggest that it lies with the students?
I find that students are not behaving in a manner that is appropriate for the situation. I was particularly embarrassed after Professor Pityana’s speech on academic freedom which was compulsory for all JMS1 students as the behaviour was totally unacceptable. What has happened to respect and common decency? Not only for the lecturers, the classroom setup, our fellow students but for people in general. A student even said to one of the lecturers during a class that if the people talking are preventing others from listening than “it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that if you can’t hear you should sit in the front”. Although I can see the point that the student was trying to make his argument had one fatal flaw which was that if you are not attending the lecture to listen then you should not be there at all. The room is structured so that the lecturer can have the floor, face his audience and address them. From a young age I was taught that it is rude to interrupt someone when they are talking why then do students think that is ok to discuss their social lives or even work while the lecturer is talking. Do not get me wrong I do not think that students should sit like robots during lectures just taking notes too scared to say a word, but there is a healthy balance between saying a few words to your friend and having a full on discussion during the class.
The general attitude of the JMS1 students seems to be that we are all so hard done by which is seriously lacking in truth. The student that emailed Sim Kyazze for an extension gives us all a bad name as from the email you could tell straight away that the student had not even read the assignment brief for the opinion piece never mind gone to lectures or they would not have made such careless mistakes as saying that the assignment had to be 1500 words.
As the dreaded exams creep closer it would be wise for us all to take a deep breathe and get back to basics to ensure a healthier, happier and more learning friendly atmosphere in the lecture theatre.

Alcohol consumption at Rhodes...

Grahamstown which is commonly referred to as a dreary town by students, is the home to a few thousands of Rhodes students who refer to the place as being isolated, boring with limited forms of entertainment and somewhat an untrue reflection of ‘the real world’ out there. Students’ complaints about the tiresome town have resorted to a majority of them turning to alcohol as a means of entertainment. However has anyone ever stopped to think that in terms of alcohol abuse, the university provides an exemplary image of the society we live in?

In modern day society, one finds that by the tender age of 13, children have already had their first encounter with alcohol; I am not excusing the high usage of alcohol amongst Rhodes students. I am merely emphasizing on the fact that reckless alcohol consumption is rapidly becoming problematic amongst the youngsters in our society. Alcohol is seen as a form of entertainment amongst us youngster, some go as far as to say ‘before you go out, you need something to loosen you up abit’ a comment made by Amanda, a student at the university. What has entertainment done to our society; that we depend on alcohol to have a good time? Some may say that’s not the only reason for drinking, as research conducted at the Pharmacy department at Rhodes, has proven that most students drink as a result of boredom and loneliness.

Numerous of students blame the University for its passive response towards alcohol abuse at Rhodes and I also use to be one of those students. I believed that the ‘Cheese and Wine’ gatherings were an indirect way of the institution promoting drinking amongst students, coming from high school where alcoholic beverages were not served at school functions, it was abit overwhelming and exciting that one could drink opening in public without death stares; so one gets carried away and enjoys the freedom.

Recently a good friend of mine, Karabo Tledima pointed out to me that the university hosts these ‘Cheese and Wine’ events to students because they believe that the students are responsible adults who know how to handle their drinking, she continued to state that, even in the work place and social gatherings alcohol is present and it is up to you as an individual to practice self control.

This strong opinion made me realize that the university in a sense is trying by all means to promote alcohol awareness, the institution went as far as declining hosting the annual sport contest, Tri-Varsity due to the manner in which Rhodes students conduct themselves when drunk. The Dean of students was quoted as saying to The Daily Dispatch that ‘the university has started a program which promotes alcohol awareness and during orientation week the students are given a talk about the dangers of alcohol by their leaders’

I beg to differ with regards to first years receiving a talk about during Orientation week about the haphazard of alcohol. If one calls a quick general knowledge chat about drinking and res rules with regards to alcohol a ‘talk’ then good luck to decreasing the figures. I believe that Orientation Week is the best time to tackle drinking amongst first years, with the aid of the drama department a performance could be conducted about the dangers of alcohol because a number of students out there view drinking as a joke; ignorant towards the damages alcohol causes to the body.

The town maybe small and desolate but they are various things one could do besides drowning their sorrows in booze, having a good time at a club should not be dependent on how intoxicated one is, personally I have been out with friends, sober and have had a great time. I fail see the fun in making a fool of yourself in public, doing inappropriate things with various people and not remembering the following day.

If you going to drink do it responsibly and be mature enough to take credit for your own actions. The university and location should not be used as an excuse for your yearning to drink, you’re an adult now and your life is depicted by the choices YOU make.

Entrepreneurial Emah

As part of blog action day, which is today, we’ve been asked to blog about poverty. I know that this blog post deviates from the topic of University life and being a first year, but I’m still going to write it as it involves a very special person whom I admire enormously! When we were told to blog about poverty this person immediately sprang to my mind. She is one of the poorest yet most amazing people that I know. Her name is Emah.
During my high school years I lived in a small Free State town called Harrismith. We “inherited” Emah, the char/ house keeper/ maid (I’m not sure what the politically correct word is) from the people who sold the house to us and she became a part of our lives in Harrismith. It didn’t take long for this voluptuous Zulu lady with her big laugh and smile to creep into our hearts and find a firm place in our family. Emah who was in her late forties at the time never had a bad word to say about anybody and does not have a resentful bone in her body. She constantly showered my family and pets with affection- she laughed with us and she cried with us as well. She probably has one the biggest hearts of anyone that I know.
Even though Emah is all smiles she leads a hard life. She lives in a township outside Harrismith called Tshiame and is one of the poorest of the poor in that area. She shares her shack and small property with her husband (who was ill for along time), her married son and his wife and a few chickens. Emah only had the opportunity to go to school until grade 2, when she had to leave but despite this she is very intelligent and with a completed education I have no doubt she would have gone very far in life. She is fluent in Afrikaans, Zulu and Sotho and can read and write a little bit.
Although we would have liked to have paid Emah a huge salary, this was not possible, but she always got extra food and old clothes from us. My mom helped her earn extra money by pricing old clothes of ours and other items and Emah would sell them at the taxi rank, getting a large percentage of the earnings for herself.
In 2006 my family had to move to the city and so they left Harrismith and Emah behind. When we left Harrismith she flattered us by saying that she did not want to find another job as a char as her next employers would not be the same as being with us. We suspect that at some point in the past she must have had a bad experience with her employers. Sure enough Emah didn’t look for another job. Instead she started small entrepreneurial ventures of her own in Tshiame. She grows vegetables in her garden and uses these to feed her family. The extra veggies get cooked and sold for a couple of Rand near the local school. She also cooks pap and other food and sells it cheaply. Not only this, but she uses her generator to sell electricity. Sometimes she cuts the grass at the side of the road and uses it to make beautiful hand brooms. Although all of this only earns her a minimal income, Emah has managed to keep her family alive and has also saved enough money to buy bricks so that she can turn her draughty shack into a more solid brick house. Last time I saw her she was saving money for cement and then the next step would be the actual building of her house.
Emah’s initiative, entrepreneurship, determination, refusal to give up or to rely solely on handouts and her big heart and warm personality is why I have the hugest amount of respect and admiration for her. She is truly someone that I look up to and I think that with the right prompting and encouragement a person like this can empower herself and her community. Is this not a better solution to poverty than constantly giving handouts and by doing this encouraging people to beg and to expect handouts? Shouldn’t we rather help people to help themselves and their communities? In this way one small ripple will spread quickly and not only help to relieve poverty, but also change people’s attitudes about poverty.
I miss you Emah and I take my hat off to you. You are one very special woman and we need more of you in this country...

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The Grahamstown divide

Since my first few weeks in Grahamstown I was struck by the enormous and blatantly obvious divide between rich and poor in our town. It feels to me like Somerset Street is some kind of a railway track. On the hill-side of the railway track is the University with its affluent students and as soon as you cross this railway track you are bombarded by street children and beggars. Only yesterday I was “harassed” for the goodness-knows how many-eth time by a beggar in town. His calls of “mamma, mamma, please, some bread, please mamma, some bread” not only had me feeling uncomfortable, but also extremely guilty. Most of us don’t think twice how lucky we are when we sit down for meals, or climb into a warm bed at night. I’m again filled with guilt as I realize how often I say “I’m starving!” in a week, when in fact I can’t even begin to describe what starvation feels like. I don’t sleep in a box in a cold doorway at night, I don’t have to scratch food out of bins and if I really want to I can ignore that these things happen at all. I don’t know what I can do to ever change this situation. I know that whatever I am doing now and still plan to do to try and help will only be a tiny drop in a massive ocean. I know I can make a start by appreciating all the privileges in my own life and continuing to do what I can, even if it is only on a small scale. Every bit helps and as students we should aim to make the gap between our University and our town smaller so that we can be a true Grahamstown community and not one divided by wealth and a lack of wealth.
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RUTV Documentary Film Festival

Last night I attended the fourth year TV Journ student’s final documentaries and WOW!!! I can’t believe that in three years time I’m going to be producing work that it that amazing, be it in TV or any one of the other forms of media! I am totally in awe at the high standard of their documentaries and the emotions that they elicited in me. There were times when my legs and arms were covered in goose bumps and I could feel the hair standing up on my neck. I also frequently found myself with a lump in my throat and by the second last piece I couldn’t control my emotions any more and was in tears! A five minute long documentary about Rhino poaching in Zimbabwe was what did it. The footage of a one month old Rhino named Nyasha covered in gashes, lying next to a fire with her new care taker, having just lost her mother to the brutality of poachers was too much for me to handle. The text on the big screen then informed us that the baby Rhino died the next morning. These documentaries not only reminded me of the suffering caused by the cruelty of humans, but it also brought human suffering very close to home. I was surprised at the amount of insight the journ students were able to get into the lives of various Grahamstown people. It hits hard when you realize that down the road from where you live are prostitutes who can’t bear to face life anymore, married couples coping with HIV, atrocious backstreet abortion scams and people breaking the conventional and traditionally accepted boundaries of who lives in which area. I found most of the documentaries extremely evocative and I only hope that one day I am not only able to produce such amazing material, but to be able to use that material to make a difference in the lives of others. I hope that as a journalist, I can turn journalistic conventions on its head by not only being a witness and reporter, but to use my talents and skills in a compassionate manner to better our world.

Remember the poor - it costs nothing

They say that the gap between rich and poor in South Africa is largest in the world. And as a resident of Grahamstown where you can't escape the poverty, I have to agree. Our Gini coefficient is 57.8 which is one of the highest levels of inequality. And again in Grahamstown, the two worlds couldn't be further apart. As I walk down from the clock tower, I look directly into the township. There's no escaping it. At least in Johannesburg I can conveniently roll up my window and not have to deal with the impoverished. But I have to ask the question, is the right response? Yes, here in Grahamstown I can't give money to every beggar on the street but still, aren't we moving beyond our humanity when we refuse to acknowledge the needy?

I know that I as a privileged, private school girl from the northern suburbs of Johannesburg, I have no right to lecture people on inequality. But I can share my experience of volunteering at St Mary's after school centre which has become one of the most rewarding experiences. In my first semester, I found myself becoming incredibly self centred and disillusioned with Grahamstown. I really existed in the Rhodes bubble where the beggars on the street where a major annoyance in my tranquil world. But the more I lost my perspective on being part of the entire Grahamstown community, the more I felt uncomfortable and guilty. I knew that I wasn't just living in Rhodes but rather in Grahamstown and Grahamstown's problems were my problems.

So I started to volunteer at St Mary's working with children who come from the township. Every Friday afternoon for an hour I work with six girls who always give me a reason to smile. With them I can see the effects of poverty like the inferior education that they receive which stunts their academic development. But these kids aren't stupid. Far from it. They just haven't been exposed to exercises that stimulate them. So we try to expose them to things that they lack. Like last week Friday, we sat and made beaded necklaces and bracelets. Supporting St Mary's has made me realise that even though the poverty situation seems dire, we as students can rally around organisations that really are making a difference. After all if we aren't here to help our fellow man, then why the hell are we here??
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Existential crisis no longer

So I've just gotten back from the Fourth Year TV students' year works and I'm so inspired. As a budding TV journalist myself, I was floored at the level of professionalism, insight, depth and empathy that their documentary's showed. So often Journalism is charcterised by short tempered journalists and even shorter deadlines. But these documentaries really show what journalism is about; people's stories. I've found that, especially in writing for a news section of a paper, I tend to get so disconnected from the actual stories in focusing on the facts and not the impact on people. In pairing music, film and photos, stories that newspapers cover so often move past cliches into living, breathing media that connect with the viewer. Tonight also confirmed my second major, Sociology. In whatever arena of Journalism I go into I know that I want to tell people's stories. So Sociology makes sense. I guess I'm just going to have to suffer through terrible lecturers to achieve the final goal. Honestly, this year has been one big existential crisis with my constant questioning of whether my degree is right for me etc. The Journalism Department go out of their way to make it tough; what with their constant reminder that only 120 get into Second year. But like a very wise friend explained to me through the metaphor of shoes; "You bought them because you liked them. You just have to wear them in." Thanks Cands for both reminding me of my shoe fetish and why I'm at Rhodes.
Concluding this rant, I'm more motivated than ever to stick through my degree and wear it in. This time in 3 years, my documentary will be showing at the Roxbury.
xxx

Pub(ic) Wars: Episode 2...

Ditto, ditto, ditto to everything that Tarryn and Sarah have said below about our comic; there’s no point in me repeating any of it as I agree with all of it! :-) I can say why my experience of making the comic was slightly more warped though... as it involved the unwanted attentions of a drunken pervert old enough to be my grandfather (Gag!!!!) Yes, that’s right, while decorating Mr Spikey and taking the photos, me (and to a lesser extent the other girls too) had the unpleasant experience of having to deal with the inappropriate attentions of an old man. The weather was sweltering hot and even though most of us were dressed in shorts and strappy tops as a result, we should not have to endure sexual comments and advances by anyone, let alone from an old “ballie” who is probably at least three times our age. And no, I don’t enjoy having you grab my hand and recite the words of some lame song about us being in a green boat and being alone with you on the shore, while backed into a corner with the only escape being a jump into a prickly pot plant, with your disgusting beer breath in my face. As complimentary/ flattering/ seductive as you may think you are being, we also don’t like being whistled at and belittled into mere sex objects. If I wasn’t so nice you would have gone the same way as that spiked drink- except I would have knocked you out a lot harder. Don’t mess with these girls- they deserve respect from you and everyone else!

Our comic: My version of a Time Capsule

I think Tarryn really summed up the creative process involved in creating our comic. But I'll just add that a far as group work goes, I've been blessed with an amazing group where everyone pulls their weight. One of the reasons I think we all work so well together is that we're friends as well as being tutlings together. Group work is normally, like Tarryn said, a hellish experience. But it's really been a fun journey with lots of laughs and minimal drama. And in all honesty, this term of Journalism has been the best so far in doing fun and interesting assignments like our comic. When I look back at my first year of Journalism, I'll smile because of the experiences this term. Our comic will always, for me, be a reminder of good times and wonderful friends.
All my love,
xxx

All in a day's work

During this last week Tales from a Rhodent has taken up the challenge of becoming SUPERHEROES in the comic book world. You are probably looking very confused right now and wondering what on earth I am talking about, so let me start at the beginning. Our latest assignment in our Narrative and Genre course of Journalism is to create a photo comic using a website called Comeeko. We would be responsible for the entire creative process from coming up with an idea, storyboarding, photos and dialogue. I must admit that at first it all seemed extremely daunting. Especially as it had to be done as group work, which is probably the most loathed way of working on any assignment. The hellish task of finding a time to meet is the main problem and from what I hear most groups have had many more like people not showing up or pulling their weight. But I am glad to report that our group, Tales from a Rhodent were awesome to work with. They made the assignment so much fun and, as you can see from our comic below, very fruitful. Our tale is one of how when your drink is spiked and transforms in an evil creature out to get you, you need to step up to the plate and become a superhero in order to defeat it. We wanted to send out a message that the spiking of drinks does happen and that you need to be alert and your own superhero. It worked out really well with Nonhle as our super cool hero and Sarah as the ditsy but awesome sidekick. The photo comic was shot at The Old Gaol and didn’t feel like work at all but rather a hilarious photo shoot with the girls. The facial expressions of our drama princess Nonhle had us all rolling around with laughter and brought the comic to life. All in all a great time was had making the photo comic except for the last step of loading it all on to Comeeko which managed to make our dialogue disappear three times! To say that it was frustrating is putting it mildly but we conquered the Comeeko beast and ended up with a really kick ass comic!

Our Kick Ass Comic!!!!