Laura T excited to be here three & a half months

When we first arrived in Cape Town I was in awe at everything, at the beauty of Table Mountain looming over the city, at the sight of the bright blue ocean in the distance, at the feel of the warm sun on my skin. It feels surreal to be here, almost like I’m living an amazing and impossible dream. The first few days it felt like I was on vacation and would be heading home soon. Nearly two weeks in to our time here it is just starting to hit me that I am going to be living here for three and a half months, and I am so excited and feel so lucky to be able to have this experience. Everything we have done so far has been so fun and amazing.

Being over 7,000 miles from home, I expected that life here would be a lot different from life in New England. But I’m surprised by how, especially during the first week, I didn’t really feel like I was in Africa, on another continent, in another hemisphere. While it is certainly different from home, there are also a lot of similarities. This was one of the things that surprised me most about being here. In addition, I was surprised when driving to the house from the airport: on one side of the road were informal homes made of metal with dirt floors, and on the other side were nice, well-made houses. I knew there was a large wealth disparity in Cape Town but I didn’t expect it to be so stark and apparent. The poverty is quite visible here. Yet despite the difficult lives so many people live, most people I have encountered have been very friendly and polite. Also, people are very open here. I cannot count the numerous times someone has brought up Trump and politics in conversation, even people who are almost complete strangers. I like listening to their perspectives and find it cool that a lot of people here are politically engaged. I loved that we went to the women’s march the day after Trump’s inauguration, it was awesome to see so many people involved.

I imagine that the atmosphere here during Trump’s inauguration was much different from 2009 when Obama was inaugurated.  It must have been amazing to be here, everyone full of hope for the future and pride that Obama was elected. But now it is much different. Instead of pride and hope there is disappointment and frustration. Instead of positivity and optimism there is negativity and pessimism. It must have been empowering to be here during Obama’s inauguration. Now it is frightening. There are so many feelings I have about the election of Donald Trump. I am ashamed, embarrassed, disappointed, saddened, frustrated. I am shocked, as are many people here. A lot of people have mentioned Trump to us as soon as we tell them we are from the US. Many people we have met so far call Trump crazy, and ask us what on earth Americans were thinking when we voted for him. Some have said they feel for us. So far I have not met anyone in Cape Town who supports Trump, although I am sure that there are some. At the women’s march it was nice to see everyone standing in solidarity against him, and it was nice to see that although people are upset, they are not defeated.

Laura T, Erica, Taylor, & Alex at Cape Town's Women's March