I woke up
this morning to the sound of pouring rain, something I personally love to hear.
However, I thought about the people living in Khayelitsha, Langa, Nyanga and
other townships—how do they handle the rain? They aren’t living in a two story
house with insulation and a stable, flood proof structure. Their homes
definitely aren’t built to handle a storm and surely have crevices that aren’t
covered by a roof. Rain is yet another daily challenge that people of color
must face but that whites don’t even have to think about. Something really
needs to be done to improve these living conditions and reduce the inequality
gap in the near future.
This past
week has been really nice. I went on an outing with two of my coworkers from
Reception (Tracey and Valda) along with Derek and Eric. They took us to
Grand West Casino for some ice skating! It felt pretty funny to be ice skating
in Cape Town. I still can’t put my finger on it as to why, but its probably
because skating is an activity I do back home in the winter, so something about
the nice weather and lack of winter hat felt a little off to me. I had a good
time watching Valda and Tracey ice skate for the first time, and anyone on the
outside could tell they were beginners. At one point Tracey fell and since we
were linked at the arm, she took me down with her. Many laughs later, and after
she tried to put the blame on me, someone helped her up and we continued ice
skating. There was a lot of improvement by the end of the session.
Then on
Sunday Derek and I participated in the annual Spar Women’s Race with
Sister Castle. Mariko, Maria, and Isabel also came but they ran the 5k while
Derek and I strutted with Sister Castle. Although Sister Castle was upset we
didn’t receive a medal upon our finish, we did get a pretty cool bracelet, a
T-shirt and an awesome goodie bag which provided me with groceries for the week. Sunday we
had a braai to thank our program leaders for everything. Everybody brought a
dish to contribute. Drew and I made guacamole out of 16 avocados—it was
definitely the biggest mound of guac I’ve ever seen. It was really nice to see
everyone cooking together and I think we put on a really nice braai.
I’ve
started to make a list of all the things I am going to miss about Cape Town.
Just to name a few:
- the backyard view of Table Mountain and the ability to hike whenever you want
- the hidden satisfaction you feel when you receive a milkshake at 10am instead of an iced coffee
- roobois tea and tea time!!
- the food
- minibus taxis, especially the party buses
- daily routine and walking routes (through the commons, to UCT, to the grocery store)
- Sister Castle and learning at the clinic
- dancing and music everywhere you go
- Old Biscuit Mill
- living with the most wonderful, intelligent coeducators who are willing to have meaningful conversations any time of the day or night
- the most beautiful beaches I’ve ever seen
- accents, friendliness, and diversity (it will be hard to be back home without these)
- being treated like a long lost cousin when you meet someone new
- pace of life—most people on our trip wish it was busier but I personally love the relaxed mentality, im definitely less stressed here than I am back home
The
countdowns have begun as my family and friends back home remind me how many
days until I’m home, and Sister Castle counts the number of days left at the
clinic (Which is sadly just two). People keep asking me if I’m ready to leave
and the answer is not yet. I am excited to see everyone back home, and the
thought of a laundry dryer does sound nice, but I definitely do not want to
leave Cape Town. It’s going to be really hard for me to have to say goodbye but
I already have plans to come back. Marita always says “Come to Cape Town once and
you fall in love, come twice and….”
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