Well, it’s been a while since I’ve left an update here. Headed into my third week, I’m starting to
get into a routine. We (the volunteers)
all get up at 7 for breakfast then everyone else heads off to placement and I
head into the house lounge to sit at a little white desk overlooking the
backyard and start on my work for the day.
In the afternoons on the weekdays we have cultural and learning
activities, which are always enjoyable.
On Fridays and weekends, we have to arrange our own fun and the other volunteers
and I have seen some excellent tourist sites and entertained ourselves at home.
The internship:
The tasks that the CCS staff needs me to do are exactly in line with my interests and
are great experience for me. Over the
next 12 weeks, I’m focusing on three main things: reviewing and strengthening
the volunteer impact evaluation tools, helping develop volunteer development
workshops, and helping to develop a partner program evaluation and development
workshop. So far, I’ve already: helped
to develop, implement, and revise a volunteer placement workshop; laid out an
evaluation plan and logic model to help organize the existing evaluation tools
(like surveys, feedback meetings, etc); started inputting data from Volunteer
Personal Growth reflection forms; and started to visit the partner programs
where the current volunteers are working.
The two staff members I work with are amazing and share similar
interests in volunteer impact. Also,
they are experienced and respected social workers, leading an excellent CCS
site. After the first couple weeks, I
have the option to do extra hours in the afternoons with CCS or add on an extra
placement site so I’m thinking about what I’d like to do. There are a couple of placements that
interest me…one is working with high school youth on a school environment
improvement program that includes clean-ups, life skills, and other groups…the
other is with a refugee resource center that offers a wide array of services
for refugees (www.scalabrini.org.za).
Cultural & Learning Activities:
This week we visited Bo Kaap and the Slave Lodge. Bo Kaap is the colorful area of town that was
originally home to freed slaves. Cape
Town was part of the Indian Ocean slave trade so slaves here were largely from
Madagascar, Malaysia, and other East African and Asian countries rather than
West Africans taken in the Trans-Atlantic slave trade for the U.S.
We also had an African drumming session where we learned
some rhythms on Djembe drums.
We’ve had a couple of presentations at home base, one about
HIV/AIDS and another about refugees and diversity in South Africa.
AND! We had our first language lesson on Tuesday—I’m going
to study Xhosa for the first 4 weeks.
While the words are hard to remember, they are easy to pronounce once
you learn the simple rules of the language.
There are some subtle differences in sound between “t” and “th”, “b” and
“bh”, etc. We haven’t started to learn
the clicks yet but that will be an exciting part of the language…taken from the
Khoi San language, clicks are always the hardest part for non-natives to
learn…even the word Xhosa is pronounced with a nice little click at the
beginning…I still can’t do it.
Free time:
This week, the group and I explored Simon’s Town, the
Waterfront, Camps Bay, Haut Bay, the Old Biscuit Mill, and a couple of the
markets in the Cape Bowl District. Lots
of nice scenery around…some zebras and seals right here in town. The trip to Simon’s Town was exciting because
we got to see lots of wild penguins up close and personal. Yesterday, we saw a soccer game in the World
Cup Stadium! It looked much bigger on TV
but the vuvuzelas are much louder up close and personal. I’ve also had a bit of time to run…there’s a
nice park a few blocks away but I also look forward to exploring the University
of Cape Town campus which is just across the railroad tracks from us.
Photos are heeeeeere! https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10101628305923693.3226108.2260930&type=3
Side notes:
Food is never as you’d expect here…we tried a nice Mexican
restaurant in Haut Bay this week…my beans in my enchilada tasted like refried
baked beans (they were sweet) and the other volunteers who ordered beef in
their burritos or enchiladas literally got beef stew in a tortilla shell. Tried to buy some tortilla chips at the store
since I am starting to go through withdraw from my staple foods of beans and
corn tortillas…they don't even sell them!
Luckily, we finally found some decent ranch dressing…it doesn't nearly
stack up but it’s nice to have on the salads instead of the staple “sweet
chili” sauce that pops up in every meal here.
Also starting to discover South African television…they have
the equivalent of soap operas here that are pretty similar to telenovelas…the
cool thing about them is that they’re in both Afrikaans and
English…Afrikaglish?...so they keep you on your toes.
Still trying to find some good live music…no luck yet
surprisingly. Cape Town is known for its
jazz and hip hop but I also want to see some other local types of music.
My favorite part of Cape Town so far is how diverse it is
everywhere you go. Inequalities are
certainly present and obvious but, moreso than I’ve ever experienced in the
U.S. or other countries, people are really integrated in all of the areas I’ve
visited. People interchangeably
communicate in English and other languages like Xhosa or Afrikaans or any other
language. I’m starting to be able to
point out the American girls but, other than that, it’s pretty challenging to
know where people are from since there are so many tourists, expats, and
refugees from all over Africa and the world.
P.S. Did you know that the U.S. is the only English-speaking
country that says “z” the way we do (“zee”)…everyone else says it “zed.” Learned that today!
