Claire's becoming aware of how quickly time is passing

With this past Friday being the one-month mark of our stay here in Cape Town, I am quickly starting to realize how fast this semester is going by. 10 more weeks to venture through this beautiful city, 10 more weeks to learn and grow and 10 more weeks to leave a lasting impression. But more on that later, I don’t want to think about having to leave the Mother City so soon.

I can’t believe it has already been 3 weeks since the start of my internship at Christel House. I am very much enjoying being able to work in social services as well as working with kids. Although working with the social services team isn’t what I expected, I still think it will give me the exposure I need to go back home and (eventually) decide what I want to do with my major. I am working with the junior school social worker in creating a character-building program called COMPASS to help teach the young ones social skills such as perseverance, obedience, resourcefulness and self-control. It takes a lot of planning and detailed work, but I am completely up for the challenge knowing that this program may still be in place in many, many years. Working with Grade R has brought me nothing but joy. Going into internship everyday is no longer something “I have to do”, but now something that I wake up in the morning bright eyed and bushy tailed for, anxiously awaiting our departure time of 7:30am so I can rush into class and see all the little ones who make waking up early so bearable. As I am starting to learn all 30 of their names and as they are finally getting used to having me around, I am noticing that they are all very interested in my life back home in the United States. There won’t be a day where I don’t get asked the names of my parents, my siblings, my grandparents, my aunts, my uncles, the street I live on, etc., etc. (the list goes on!). At first I was a little confused as to why they were so curious, but after being asked many times, I think I understand why. I think that they are appalled, for the lack of a better word, by the fact that I am here from a country that seems so far, far away and foreign to them. With little exposure so far to the geography and history of surrounding countries and different cultures, they don’t have too much of an understanding of a place other than South Africa and they aren’t used to spending time with people other than those who they surround themselves with on a day to day basis.

 

Bongi, Claire & Maddy at the Ajax vs CPT City Game

 This past weekend was one of our first free weekends to explore Cape Town. Old Biscuit Mill was, without a doubt, our first stop on our agenda for the weekend. From the local food vendors to the craft shops, OBM is a quaint little market that I will for sure be visiting at least every other Saturday. I made sure to go hungry: I had a delicious Belgian waffle, a smoothie and the infamous mac and cheese balls that almost every single person who goes on this trip raves about- so worth waking up early for! Saturday night we went to a Cape Town City vs. Ajax soccer game at Cape Town Stadium. It was a really cool experience to sit front row and to be in the stadium where the World Cup was played in 2010. To make this experience even better, Bongi joined us and made the event 10x more exciting. I can’t wait to start working with him for one of my activist projects. To round off a fun weekend with my co-educators, a few of us headed to Muizenberg Beach for the day. A day that started off with clouds and rain and eventually turned to sun (which we all misjudged), ended with quite a few sunburns and some unhappy campers.  

Maddy & Claire at Cape Town Stadium, Green Point

Muizenberg Beach

                  

In just two short weeks, my family will be arriving in Cape Town. I am so looking forward to showing them around the city that I have come to know and love.