Cape Town- Part 1

I am currently writing this from our guesthouse in windy Cape Town, South Africa. Our plan was to go take the cable car to Table Mountain tonight for sunset, as it has been for several nights. However, the previous nights they were closed due to limited visibility, and tonight it is closed due to high winds. We will prevail (eventually).



That was as far as I got writing while in Cape Town. A month later, here I am on Christmas break trying to remember what happened what feels like quite a while ago. We left early in the morning, or late in the night. Our train from York to Manchester departed at 1:52 AM, at which time I said a sad farewell to Jon who walked me to the train station. We then flew from Manchester to Amsterdam and on to Cape Town with little incident, save a mean immigrations officer at the Cape Town airport, and finally arrived at our guesthouse near midnight. The next day was just spent recovering and settling in. Monday we had our induction to the field trip, followed by a "political tour", which provided some insights into the community we were about to spend the next two weeks working in. Tuesday began real work.



While most groups had teamed with NGOs based in the city center, working downtown in a high-rise office, our group was unique in that it was a grassroots localy based NGO who worked in the various townships. We met with the administration of The Women's Circle on Tuesday and planned the rest of our time there. Tuesdays and Thursdays we would be attending/participating in two different circles, with our group of six split into two to alternate between the two townships. The circles are groups of women who meet and use participatory methods to engage the community in determing their areas biggest problems and how they can go about coping with and finding solutions to these problems. Wednesday, Friday, and the following Wednesday, we met with the facilitators to plan a series of health workshops which we planned to put on the last Thursday.



As I said, our group was the only one doing grassroots work, which we quickly discovered its pros, learning the real heart of the community and the people that are in it, but also its cons, lack of organization and complicated transportation. One of the circles we went to several times was about an hour bus ride away from the center of town, and then another half hour walk back to the guesthouse. We used a variety of transportation means, from buses, taxis (which usually tried to rip us off), to taxi buses, which we usually tried to avoid. Our days were fairly laid back, not starting work until 10:00 or 11:00 most days and done by 3:00 or 4:00. Afterwards we would try to find something cheap to eat in town, maybe do a bit of market shopping, and then head home. The guesthouse we stayed in was so friendly and hospitable, having tea and coffee and snacks ready for us whenever we came home. For breakfast every morning they would feed us eggs, toast, muffins, and fruits. They would clean our rooms, and do laundry for a reasonable rate (which was most helpful, since I packed all my clothes for two weeks in a backpack).



During the weekend, we had some free time to do touristy things. We could wander around the waterfront, see Robin's Island where they held political prisoners during Apartheid, or, as our group did, take the train to see the penguins in Simon's Town! Who would have thought, seeing penguins on a sandy beach in 80 degree weather. It was strange. We actually could get quite close to the little guys and watch them walk around on the beach, go out for a swim, or dig themselves a sandy little hole. Lunch at a pattisserie made it quite a lovely day. Other food experiences from the week included a place called Eastern Bazzar, which is like a giant food court full of stalls of awesome cheap food from Turkey, India, China, etc. You could get a giant plate of curry and rice to last you at least two meals from 3 pounds. We also went to this awesome Ethopian place with a bunch of people where it was all about the experience. We sat low to the ground, ate food with our hands, and ate a lot of tastiness.