Meg's long and busy week

After having quite a long week at the internship I have realized a few things about myself and the work environment here in Cape Town. First of all, the work ethic we are used to in the US is extremely different than here in South Africa. They call time “Africa Time” meaning nothing gets done quickly, ever. Given their natural inclination towards building relationships with people, the mindset here is they rather have longer more genuine conversations than hurry off to get tasks done on time. There are definitely some benefits of this including the obvious one of deeper relationships and stronger community ties. However, it can be frustrating for someone who grew up in an extremely task oriented culture. For example the German interns at CMES are constantly criticized for seeming impersonal because they are trained to get in, do your work, and go home; the workplace is not a place for building friendships in Germany. With that said, working in an environment like this and alongside a wide variety of people is definitely preparing me well for the future. People keep commenting that I will be able to work with any kind of person after working at CMES.  The discipline here is also very different and much more traditional especially at school. Teachers often raise their voices in class, will lightly slap students heads, and they use being suspended as one of their default forms of discipline. Granted I do work at a school for students slightly different than the average, so I would be curious to see how teachers act at more mainstream schools in the area.

Thursday night after the usual very informative two classes at UCT, a group of us trekked down to the city for an event called first Thursday. It is a sprawl of art galleries, bars, and restaurants all open late with tons of locals and international people exploring. It was really cool to be surrounded by so many different kinds of people and so much culture. The art exhibits were all so unique but all portrayed a lot of social commentary about South Africa.  Most Friday’s in the future will be spent doing an activist project of our choice. Lily, Eric, Drew and I have decided to put our efforts toward giving new life to a physical therapy garden at a local non-for profit hospital. The garden is very rundown and the paths are too narrow to get wheelchairs through. Our hope is to plant new flowers and vegetables, widen the walkways, create new benches for enjoy the garden, and do arts and crafts activities with the kids to display in the garden. We have high hopes for the project and I am extremely excited to get started on all the hard work! This Friday was a little different though since we haven’t started yet, so instead we got the chance to explore the beautiful Kirstenbosch Gardens! We walked around the enormous garden complex, went in the green house, walked along the canopy tree walk, and even spent some time in a rock sculpture garden. To top it all off I got to munch on the best chocolate croissant I have ever had! The views were so beautiful and it was such a peaceful way to end a hectic week and start a weekend of adventures. Friday night I also had my FYE interview, which I think went really well! I came to realize that all the experience I am getting here will really be able to apply to being an FYE mentor back at home, especially when it comes to all the skills I have acquired at CMES (lesson plans, mentoring, etc.).

Saturday once again was a day full of adventures! Josh’s friend Ryan from the states joined us for a morning of food eating back at Old Biscuit Mill. On that mornings menu for my stomach: an egg blt with on a ciabiatta roll, a raspberry fruit tart, a watermelon agua fresca, and multiple little tastes of all different snacks (aka I love all the food here). After that with full stomachs we thought it was a really good idea to go on a 10 mile hike! Despite it being one of the hardest hikes I have ever been on, it was super rewarding getting to the top with this group of hikers. It was so cool because parts of the hike looked like Minnesota, some was your stereotypical picture of Africa, and other parts looked like an ancient civilization; all were equally as beautiful. To end the packed day we decided to make a family meal for dinner and spent the rest of our night breaking bread and sharing laughs. It was really nice to hangout with some different folks than usual and to add a new friendly face into the group.