Hello!

A lot has happened since I last posted, so I’m going to try to touch on all of the exciting things happening here. Apologies in advance for the length of this post – it’s been a packed two weeks! I'm really starting to feel comfortable and at home in Cape Town, and I like feeling like I know what I'm doing now. It's so strange to think that we've been here for nearly 5 weeks now, because there's so much that we still haven't done, too. My camera broke a few weeks back, and I just replaced it, so I'll be able to post pictures again as soon as I load them onto my laptop!

Yabonga:

My friend and I started at Yabonga just over a week ago. We are working as interns in the office 2 days/week, and at an after-school program in Nyanga 3 days/week. Yabonga is an organization that works to empower children and families infected or affected by HIV/AIDS. We are working with a phenomenal group 14-16 year olds, and will soon be starting a theater/movie project, where they speak out about issues related to HIV/AIDS, community misperceptions, and “living positively.” We will be playing theater games, discussing social issues, and writing monologues throughout the semester. On the days where we don’t lead our workshops, we will be helping out with the soccer & literacy programs, conducting program evaluation interviews, and workshopping a former CIEE Service-Learner’s career manual.

We are absolutely thrilled with our site. The learners we work with have been incredibly friendly – and they love to laugh at our attempts to speak Xhosa. It’s a great motivation to study our vocab! The office has been an incredibly friendly environment so far and we’re really excited for all of our upcoming projects!

School:

We had our first test in Xhosa last week, which was surprisingly manageable. Luckily we all freaked out and over-studied, planning for the worst. I feel like my vocabulary and confidence has doubled since those intense study sessions! We also have our first Poverty & Development research paper due at the end of next week, so I’ve been researching and beginning my draft over the past few nights. I’m hoping to give my professor a first draft so that I know I’m on the right track for it. We’re discussing development & modernization theory in South Africa, which is actually a super interesting topic. Although of course, I’d also be fine with not writing papers this semester…

Johnnie:

On August 11th, the world lost an great man. My great-uncle Johnnie was one of my favorite people to visit as a child, and we used to spend every April Break visiting him & my Aunt T at their apartment in New York. He has been struggling with cancer for some time now, and I've been missing my family as we all remember the years of fun we had with him. He and T were like another set of grandparents, bringing together that side of the family and keeping close connections throughout the extended family. He was loved dearly and will be missed.

Last Weekend:

Last weekend, my program had a few pre-planned activities for us to participate in. On Friday, we had tickets to a rugby match. It was rainy, and I didn’t understand the sport at all, but we certainly had fun cheering and buying snacks. The Western Province (our team) ended up losing, but it was a very close match. I’d love to go back when the weather’s a little bit nicer and see another game.

On Saturday, we went to a vineyard in Stellenbosch for a wine tasting. The vineyard we visited, Simonsig, frequently wins awards and is known for being one of the best wineries in the area. I can’t say that I’m much of a wine fan, but I really liked the sparkling wines and one of the whites that I tried.

Sunday, I met up with my friend Elena who has been living in South Africa over the summer doing a research project. We cooked dinner together and attempted to make our own spaghetti sauce – which mostly worked. After dinner she and her friends took me to a very cool open mic night. The guitarists were absolutely incredible, and the whole atmosphere was a lot of fun. The restaurant that holds the event every Sunday even has small djembes, singing bowls, and other percussion instruments for onlookers to join in the jam session.

The Strike:

The municipal worker’s strike, which started last week, is a strike mainly in the cleaning sector. We first heard about it when our trash didn’t get picked up. It was a peaceful protest at first, but has intensified over the week. Two days ago, there was a riot in town, and yesterday we were told that it was unsafe for us to go to Nyanga, because rioters were burning tires in some of the townships. Today, again, the after-school program was cancelled, so we’ve spent a lot of time in the office working on our curriculum for the coming workshops.

Today during our lunch break, we went to the mall across the street to get lunch. Shoprite, the grocery store in the mall, was closed, so we were debating the pros and cons of a particular take-away place’s menu when an announcement was made. We ignored the announcement and kept talking, but the workers went into panic mode. The woman at the front counter said they couldn’t serve anyone else and promptly shut down the take-away station, and everyone in the mall started streaming toward the exit. As we left, we saw workers frantically pulling on their coats and locking up. We didn’t know what was happening so we went across the street, got sandwiches, and discussed what could have been announced.

When we got back to work, our boss told us that she had also been in the mall when it happened and that she had been worried when we didn’t come back to work after the evacuation. She’s not sure exactly what happened, but the people who were evacuating said that there was a bomb scare in Shoprite, probably related to the strike. Luckily, the whole place was evacuated, and it seems that the situation was well under control. It’s definitely interesting to live in a place where public demonstrations escalate this way. It makes me laugh to think about how different this is than the protests we see in Washington, DC – the people flood the metro and GW’s campus with their signs, do their thing over by the White House or on the Mall, and head home after a couple of days.

The coming week:

My roommate from freshman year is paying me a visit for the coming week, before she has to head back to GW for the school year. She flew in today, and I left work for a bit to meet her at the airport. I’m beyond thrilled that she’s here and can’t wait to show off all that Cape Town has to offer!