God bless the rain down in Africa

There's something exhilarating about being in a new place for me. The possibility of new sights, smells, sounds, feelings, knowledge, you name it.  I think that's why I love traveling. The adrenaline you get when you go to a new place and know not what to expect next is indescribable. Being in Cape Town has proved no different and I love it. Some snidbits:

HCT in Khayelitsha

The sight, smell, and sound of the largest township in South Africa, Khayelitsha, during an HCT (HIV testing and counseling) tournament last Friday. The sight was filled with hundreds upon hundreds of houses right next to each other, a lot of them purely shacks, others with shacks attached to the back of the house, and some stereotypical houses. As more sights came to view there were children running and playing, people dancing, women and girls playing games, and soccer fields. The sound was that of people laughing, talking, and dancing to the music playing loudly across the speakers. This sight put with these sounds in one of my favorites. It may not be the most breathtaking sight but it's a sight that reminds me that people everywhere are "rich" in different terms (shout-out to Don Jose for that life lesson).

Office pick-up on Sundays 

The second sight is that of my desk (or someone else's that I'm occupying for the time being) at the GRS office. The sight where most of my time over the next year will spent working on M&E related projects. In an office that is filled with energy, passion and opportunity. An office filled with sounds of a juggling soccer ball, people chatting, and if were lucky some kilos or some grunts from office wide push-ups and squats. Work started this past Tuesday and so far it's been great!






The third is more of a day-wide feeling of giddiness, happiness, and adventure. It starts with a stop at The Old Biscuit Mill. The new favorite Saturday morning routine. A food, drink, and hipster clothing market-spot marks the smell of a delicious ostrich burger that this vegetarian proudly bought and ate! Don't worry the second time here I went back to my vegetarian ways and bought an amazing falafel pita and some sangria. The second spot is Muizenberg beach spotted with colorful changing houses, possible sharks, a ton of surfers and a longing feeling of a warm sunny day. Hopefully the sight of a new hobby of surfing/wind surfing? I think so. The third new sight on this day was the African penguin at Boulders beach. The adorable little things hung out in shrubbery and changed my idea that penguins are smart when it comes to crossing from one rock to the other. Yes, we watched two penguins wipe out and get stuck trying to cross--maybe not the highest IQ animal. The picture speaks for itself on that comment. The third and final sight gave the most excitement to this day. It was found at the most south western point of Africa- Cape Point/Cape of Good Hope. It's where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans begin to meet. If one is lucky, it's also where you can see baboons roaming and/or stealing people's lunches. After we ran to the top of Cape Point in some serious wind and a little bit of rain we weren't lucky enough to find any baboons. We piled back in the car about to accept defeat in seeing any wildlife until we turned down a road toward the cape of good hope and boom there were all the animals! Insert lots of excitement-WHAHHH EEEE AHHHH YESSS! clearly it was the cape of good hope. Or the cape of the feeling of almost being blown over or off the cliff by some forceful hurricane worthy winds while standing above crashing powerful waves.

Muizenberg beach

This week will only bring new adventures, sights, smells, sounds, and probably more rain. I neglected to mentioned why this post was named this....it has rained a lot. So I will leave you again with another long blog post to hold you over and a huge I MISS YOU ALL!