Settled In Cape Town

Today is the one week mark since I left the states. I am feeling very settled in my new home on Gordon Street. These next few posts are geared toward prefacing a little about life here and GRS so upcoming posts will make sense. I apologize if they are long but hopefully you find them somewhat interesting!

[1] Living situation: I live on Gordon Street in downtown Cape Town with 5 other interns- Jeff (operations intern), Katie (business development), Kat (curriculum and training), and Ali (comm and marketing). We each have our own room and we have enough different doors with locks for security. The other 5 interns are in a house about a 15 minute walk away called Kloof.  Living there is Eric and Anna (programs in Khayelitsha), Caitlin (programs at HQ), Scott (my fellow M&E buddy), and Kelsey (Peace Corps partnerships). Everyone is fantastic and it's been so fun to get to know everyone.

Some of the Cape Town interns on lunch break

[2] Food: Is delicious! Lots of burgers, meat, avos, pesto, cheese-especially gouda, coffee and tea. Anything really. Besides box macaroni (good thing I learned to make a cheese sauce before leaving) and Cheez-its. You can find an ostrich burger at a market here as well. Being a vegetarian you would think I would never eat it but I've been challenged by a friend to never say no to any-type of food in the first month of being here (this means I can't be vegetarian), I stepped up and bought the burger on Saturday. Surprising really good-leanness of turkey but had more flavor like a hamburger.

The ostrich burger :)

[3] Weather: It's winter right now. Well more like fall. Upper 50s. Rainy and windy. Great scarf and boots weather! This will not help my scarf obsession. Summer will be here soon which means two summers in a row basically. yippie

[4] Language: There are 11 main languages in South Africa. Where we are in downtown Cape Town English is fine for communication if not used very widely. Xhosa, Zulu and Afrikaans are also used widely. I've been learning some Xhosa from a few local volunteer/interns. It has clicks for a a few letters so i'm horrible at it but getting there! Molo-hello; Unjani-how are you; wamkilikile- you're welcome; Engosi-thank you. That's all i've got. A long way to go but hopefully I'll be taking some language lessons from someone soon so I can learn more.
         Interesting difference in words here: stoplight=robot; lightbulb=globe; call you=phone you; shame; now=now, now now=soon; just now=never.

[5] A short background on South Africa: The history of the country goes back about 3 million years. For the sake of your time and attention this post will skip all the rock and skeleton history. South Africa was settled by the both the Dutch and English. The Dutch discovered the Cape in 1488 with the discovery of diamonds in the 1830's bringing in more colonial competition. In Boer War the English unified South Africa and took control. South Africa broke from British rule in 1961.

South Africa is mostly known for its apartheid history. During British rule as well as after independence the government created laws restricting the privileges of non-white citizens. It wasn't until 1994 when South Africa held its first democratic election. Nelson Mandela was elected president and that is when injustices started being erased nationally. The separation and effects of apartheid is still widely known and I cant speak on the topic much because I don't know anything yet. It is something that I want to explore more while I'm here by talking to people firsthand and really diving in to it.
   --> by the way to expel anything you might have thought: Afrikaners are white Africans not a tribe from Africa. I admit I thought this and am very glad I learned quickly.
--> The history of South Africa and politics will come up in more posts throughout the year and more will be explained each time. But if you're interested I encourage you to read up on it.


So far this place is magical and I am falling in love it. Sorry Mom and Dad I might stay here longer.