Botanical Gardens Trip & Other Updates

Two days to update on tonight. First: Wednesday.

Wednesday morning I went to Scalabrini where I first stood downstairs in the “store” helping Christin supervise refugees who were coming into shop. They were allowed three items of clothing per person (though we did not count undergarments, sleepwear, or ties). There was not much for me to do since it was really a one person job. About halfway through my time down there, I went upstairs for a meeting regarding the Employee Help Desk, since that will be my job when Antoinette leaves at the end of next week. The meeting was rather boring and only about the last half hour was there anything of interest for me. I told them I can do job searches and find jobs for the refugees to apply for and all the stuff they want me to do. They keep apologizing for throwing me off into the “deep end” but really this stuff is high school stuff to me. Scalabrini (and apparently most of South Africa) operates slowly and very inefficiently. It's rather annoying to stand there doing nothing for long periods of time.

After lunch I went with a group of seven people (so 8 including me) to Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens. I loved walking around the conservatory and the grounds. There were wide open spaces of rolling grasses, trees, flowers, and all sorts of plants. The place is very hilly (more an incline towards the mountain) as it lies near the base of Table Mountain. I have numerous pictures for my mom and everyone else. I'll have to upload them tomorrow afternoon or Sunday afternoon as it is 10:20pm here and I have to get up at 6:45am in the morning tomorrow. After the gardens we stopped in the gift shop where I bought a green statue of a lion, a t-shirt, and necklace with a symbol for bravery. I feel that embodies this trip for me and have decided to take several people's suggestion and wear it everyday. I love my lion sculpture. I have a feeling I'm coming back with several sculptures and masks. I'd rather have those than clothes or other non-unique things.

For dinner we took a cab down to the VA Waterfront. We walked around for awhile and then Ben & Carli went off to have dinner with Carli's relatives who were visiting SA from Wales. The rest of us wandered around then ate dinner at a restaurant that I cannot remember the name of. I had an amazing steak, about 4 glasses of white wine, and a chocolate desert that was amazing. I had the best day and was sad when we all remembered our curfew. After paying our bill we headed towards the taxi circle to meet the taxi we called. We were several yards away when saw the Excite taxi pull up and saw some people get in. We ran like crazy to stop the taxi only to find out it was Ben & Carli! We had a good laugh and all squeezed into the van. I was quite tipsy and couldn't stop laughing until after I went to sleep.

Now today: Thursday.

Placement was boring. I helped people fax their CV's and made copies of CV's. Lunch was prety gross, it was mac & cheese with tons of mushrooms in it. I picked at it. Since today was Sabrina's birthday, the staff surprised Sabrina with a cake. It was delicious. The afternoon was filled with a boring, yet important and informative lecture on HIV/AIDS. Everyone left shortly thereafter for dinner with Sabrina. About 6 of us hung back, me included. I had things to do and didn't actually get them all finished. I'll have to upload the pictures tomorrow I took of the home base and the area these past few days. For dinner it was spinach and feta quiche. Yuck. I ordered magherita pizza and and 500ml coca-cola light (aka diet coke). I loved it. I will be ordering that again in the near future.

I had lots of insights and commentary I wanted to write about but I'm just too tired. It is late and tomorrow is early. I have some errands to run and then I'm going out for Kacie's birthday. Saturday I'm going to Cape Point so pictures may not go up until Sunday. I'm sorry for the delay, but I'm so busy right now! Things will die down after the initial three weeks I'm told.

Goeie Naand!
Good Night (in Afrikaans)

First Day at Placement!

Today was my first day at placement. Here is the link to the Scalabrini Centre of Cape Town: http://www.scalabrini.org.za/about.html. Kacie and Luann walked into the center with me. Kacie teaches English there and does other small projects. I've been asked to write some proposals in my later two months but I do not want to do that. I came to Cape Town wanting to help out where I was needed, but not do work that I typically do back in the US. They told me it was fine and told me I would work at the Employee Help Desk. My duties are to help refugees that are seeking asylum in South Africa obtain jobs. Refugees come in around 9 am and sign up on a list to be helped. I call names of the people on the list and ask how I can help them that day. They are allowed to send 3 emails, fax 3 times, make 3 photocopies, or have a CV typed up. I helped men and woman from Zimbabwe today with those tasks.

This afternoon after lunch I walked about 15 minutes to Rondebausch to buy a South African cell phone. It is much cheaper to use the SA phone than the US phone. You can give me a call at 07 6591 9619. Right before dinner we had language lessons. Since I'm here for 12 weeks I can take both language courses. I'm starting with Afrikaans and will take the other (I can't spell it) next month.

Simmone was cooking dinner today when I came in the kitchen and I noticed the mushrooms in the dish and asked about them. She said they were for the chicken pasta. I told her I didn't like them and left it at that. However, when I came through the kitchen again, she pulled me aside and told me she left some pasta out for me without mushrooms in it. I was super happy. It tasted good, but I didn't eat all of it because I wasn't too hungry.

Tomorrow I have placement in the morning and a free afternoon. I'm not sure what I'm going to do. We'll see what people are doing and I figure things out then.

I'm off to shower. I've decided it's easier to shower at night here. I've tried uploading a video of my room but it hasn't worked. I'll have to take pictures and upload them soon.

Township Tour

Today we went on a township tour. The townships are the developments where the poorest South Africans live. These are black and colored South Africans. Black SA are people who are completely one race and coloreds are people of mixed race. People who live in the townships live in the worst conditions I've seen. We were able to enter one house in which the government had renovated 1960s hostels for migrant workers into family apts. These hostels were built for men only so the rooms are tiny. There were 16 families sharing 8 rooms in the unit we visited. Yes, that means two families were sharing a single twin size bed. These families are not large, I assume. We met one man who was eating pap (looks like white rice, tastes like grits) and smiling in this tiny room. There were two bunks that were filled with stuff and the top beds were removed in favor of storage. The place smelt of an outhouse and there were flies everywhere. I couldn't believe the horrible living conditions. Yet while where in inside there were children hugging us, wanting us to take their picture, and play with us. It was amazing the level of enthusiam and happiness these children had when they were walking barefoot through broken glass and dirt and living in such squalor. Everywhere we went the children were excited to see us, they waved, they danced, and they smiled.

It's hard to comprehend the two worlds of Cape Town. There is the affluent side where people live in expensive homes along the beaches and then there are the townships where people live in the worst conditions I've ever seen. The landscape is beautiful, I have some pictures of Signal Hill I'll upload sometime.

It is very windy tonight, I think maybe a storm is coming. Sometimes when I think I hear thunder it is only the train that runs just beyond our backyard.

I've Arrived!

I've arrived here in Cape Town and am now living at the home base here in Mowbray, South Africa. I was very overwhelmed when I arrived here on Saturday and still am a bit overwhelmed with the country and the program. The flight from Detroit to New York was nice, there were only 24 people on a 50 seat plane so I was able to stretch out a bit. From NY to Cape Town I was squashed in the middle of a row. We stopped in Dakar, Senegal to refuel and pick up/drop off a few passengers.

I do not have pictures of the home base yet, but I'll tell you a little about it. It is a 270 year old house that is considered a historic site. CCS just purchased the home about 9 months ago and are planning to do some remodeling to it soon. The bathrooms really need upgrades. Since I am staying 12 weeks I've been put in a good room. I have only one roommate, my own bed (no bunk bed), and a bathroom in the room. However, the bathroom is a little strange, the toliet, shower, and sink are all in the same unit. I can shower at the same time I brush my teeth or use the toliet. It was an akward first shower last night. The other key issue to the akward shower is the hot and cold water handles are reversed here. So the shower was COLD until I figured it out.

Today was the first day of orientation and we went over the policies of CCS and the home base. It was a little boring, but it needed to be covered. After a cookout welcome lunch we had some more covering policies and then had a driving tour around Cape Town. I'm still lost, but at least I got to see some of the city. There are three mountains here, Table Mountain, Devil's Peak, and Lion's Head. They are clustered together but are distinct in their shapes. I enjoyed driving around, observing traffic on the left and people watching. Tomorrow we have orientation at our placements and a tour of the townships. The townships are where the poorer South Africans live.

I'm excited to be in Cape Town, but it's been very hard on me. I'm not homesick, but I think I have some really bad culture shock. I hope it gets better soon. I start my placement on Tuesday and I'm hoping that will help easy the anxiety I have.

Pictures to come soon.

PS: The date/time stamp is the Eastern Time, not South Africa time.

Almost Packed

I can't believe I leave TOMORROW for Africa! I have to get up around 3am to get ready to go to the airport. I need to leave by 4am in order to arrive at the MacNamara terminal at Detroit Metro by 5am. The plane boards at 6:30am and takes off about 7am. Two hours later I'll land at JFK airport in New York City. I'll have a 6 hour layover where I need to grab some lunch, switch to the international terminal, and hopefully get to see the NY skyline from a distance. Never been too NY and this is the best I'll get for now. My plane for Cape Town takes off at 3:55pm and I'll arrive in Cape Town at 4:30pm local time on Saturday, which will be about 10:30am Eastern time.

I'm excited, thrilled to be finally going, but I'm starting to develop a little case of nerves. 3 months in another country is a long time. I was only in Australia for 6 weeks.

Tonight I'm going out to dinner with my parents to Outback and then going to bed as early as I can, since I have to be up so early. My dad is kind enough to get up at the same hour to drive me to the airport. Thanks, Dad!

I'll look for free WiFi at JFK to update again, so until then, adios Michigan!

Volunteer Placement & Flight Info

I will be working at the Scalabrini Centre teaching English to refugees!

Volunteer Activities / Duties

· The primary duty is to help teach English to the refugees

· Assist teaching computer literacy

· Help create structured and organized games and activities

for children, as needed

· Creating class activities/games

· Initiate projects or programs (i.e. bringing in music, helping

kids put together a play, etc)

· Interact with students and teachers on a personal level by

talking and teaching about your home country

· Assist with administrative duties of the Centre

Follow this link: Scalabrini%20Centre%209.29.09.doc to see all the details I know of my placement.

I'm beyond thrilled to be leaving THIS FRIDAY for Cape Town.

Flight Details
Delta Airlines #6608, Oct. 24th, DTW (Detroit) to JFK (NY), 7am - 9am.
Delta Airlines #128, Oct. 24th JFK to CPT (Cape Town), 3:55pm - 4:30pm (16 hrs 25mins)

Delta Airlines #129, Jan. 17th, CPT to JFK 7:05pm to 7:10pm (17 hours 35 mins)
Delta Airlines #6371, Jan. 18th, JFK to DTW 8:45am to 11:10am (2 hrs 25 mins)