Work, Gordon Street and CT

So I’ve officially been living in Cape Town for about two weeks, and I’m only now beginning to understand a small fraction of the unique energy that is Cape Town (streets/roads are another story entirely though, I’ve almost been hit by about a dozen cars, usually from looking the wrong way when I cross the street!). Still, despite this daily game of dyslexic frogger that I play while walking to work, the experience thus far has been amazing. For this first couple of weeks I’ve been spending most of my time in the townships, at both the ‘Football For Hope Center’ and various schools in Khayelitsha and Gugulethu. Getting to work in the townships has been awesome and I’ve gotten to meet some incredible people in my first week on the job. Tony Gubesa aka “The Man” has been my coach/tutor in terms of both African culture and township life. He pretty much keeps me in-line, lets me know when my dance moves are out of control (we spend a lot of time dancing in the townships, and my rhythm, or lack there of, has gotten me banned from more than one dance circle) and basically helps me navigate all aspects of the job. I’m going to try and interview him later in the year and hopefully upload the video to my blog. Tony is an incredibly articulate and insightful guy, I’ve had the opportunity to see him speak a few times (in a public forum) and he is definitely a wealth of knowledge on all aspects of AIDS, AFRICA and GRS.

Quick tangent but I feel that I need to discuss the dancing situation here. So, I’ve never really been a big dancer, I don’t know exactly why…actually that’s not true, I have a phenomenal lack of rhythm (thanks Mom and Dad). When I dance in public I’m basically a musical hazard. Unfortunately that doesn’t really fly here in Africa. Every time I go to the schools for an intervention, I have to introduce myself, then jump in the middle of a circle and dance, which is actually my “real” introduction. I have yet to not get completely laughed off the stage, but I will say that I’m improving. Lunga, between fits of laughter the other day, told me that I’m no longer the worst dancer he’s ever seen…but still pretty horrible.

Okay, now back to Cape Town. Now that the realization I’m going to be here for a year has finally set in, I’ve started to try and get more involved in other aspects of the city. Jamison Merrill (a fellow member of the house’s northwest contingent, along with Margaret Owen) has convinced me to try Yoga, so I’ve joined a local Yoga studio with some other members of the house. I’m hoping the increased flexibility will directly correlate to an improved performance in the dance circles. I’ve also joined a local soccer team, which is pretty cool. And last but not least, I am going to finally learn to play the guitar. There’s a guitar here, left by a former intern, so Charlotte Hastings (another one of my housemates) and I have decided to finally learn how to play. Side note, not having a television or Internet is actually really awesome for learning new skills/personal growth/getting work done. Reading is a little tricky here in Africa, I got a library card but the selection isn’t great. If anyone has any good books ideas let me know, used bookstores, from what I’ve heard, are the way to go.

Finally, I need to talk about the food situation here. I’ve been trying to eat as many new, different and exciting foods as possible. I haven’t quite mustered up the courage to try sheep’s head (just fyi, they call it Smiley) but I’ve made some promises and eventually I’ll have to bite the bullet. Other than that, there are a lot of traditional African and Indian restaurants by my house. The food is always delicious and I’m just trying to find new varieties and combinations everyday. Also, on another side note, avocadoes are so cheap here (and when I say cheap I mean about 20 cents a piece) I pretty much put them on everything, even things they probably shouldn’t be put on.

Should also mention that no shops are open on Sundays in Cape Town. Well, that’s not entirely true. The only café (with internet access) that’s open on the weekends is…the Jewish Museum of South Africa. So yes, every Sunday to get my work ready for the week to come, I post-up in the gift shop/café of the Jewish Museum of South Africa. Kind-of ironic but also hilarious.

Also, the pictures that I’m putting up (a little later because we're running low on bandwidth) are from my house, our street (Gordon Street) and my walk to work, along with a few random shots of my roomies.

Later.