Emily making the very most of the time she has left in Cape Town

Now that my time in Cape Town has begun to wind down I have spent a lot of my time reflecting on all of the incredible things I’ve had the privilege of experiencing and completing some of the last few activities I hadn’t gotten around to yet. I initially worried that these last weeks would becomes stressful from me trying to pack so much into them however, I have consciously decided to try and approach them with an openness and flexibility.

In Kuyasa at Prevention in Action, Kayla, Vernon, and I are currently helping the organization to put together a strategic planning exercise that will hopefully lay the groundwork for Prevention in Action going forward. I think the event itself will be challenging since the community of Kuyasa itself has been presented with so many challenges but I think it will feel good to leave Prevention in Action knowing that they have a concrete plan. It has been incredible to consider and look towards what potential there is for the future.

This Thursday I finally got to attend a “First Thursday,” in Cape Town wherein most of the art galleries are open late for observers. I was impressed with the variety of artists and types of artwork present and thoroughly enjoyed getting to engage with the art community here. Having that particular experience was something pretty high on my Cape Town bucket list so I was thankful to have been able to experience that.

On Friday I spent the majority of the day at my activist project, Heaven’s Nest children’s home where we are working on painting a mural to brighten up the front of their facility. It was nice to be painting again, as that has been something I have missed while in Cape Town and it felt good to know that we were getting steps closer to the goals we set out to achieve through our activist project. Hopefully this week we’ll be able to complete the project and get started on our next one before we have to go.

In order to make use of the warm weather this past week, I took the train to Kalk Bay to walk around and enjoy the area before heading over to Muzienberg to go for a swim. I imagine that this trip will mark my last to the beaches in Cape Town and while that makes me sad, I am glad to have had such a relaxing day enjoying the incredible beauty of this incredible place.