Laura T is enjoying every minute she has left in South Africa

I cannot believe we have just over a month left in South Africa! Time is flying by and I am enjoying every minute of it. This past weekend was full of adventures, including enjoying the best veggie burger I’ve ever had at the waterfront, spending the day at Muizenberg Beach and the night at a carnival with amazingly large and elaborate floats, and then paragliding from Signal Hill on Sunday morning. Although it did not give me the same adrenaline rush as bungee jumping or skydiving, it was still so cool to float over Cape Town and do tricks over the waves. I’d recommend it to anyone who wants to do something adventurous but not terrifying! Tuesday was Human Rights Day, an important public holiday in South Africa, so Kaitlyn, Alex, and I took advantage of the day off to hike up Lion’s Head to see the sunrise. It was beautiful and I will definitely do it again if anyone else is willing to wake up at 4:30am with me! The rest of the 90° day was spent relaxing at Bloubergstrand Beach; we stayed to watch the sunset and it was absolutely gorgeous! That entire day just made me feel so good and happy, and it was made even better by a delicious Mexican dinner that Ethan cooked for us all.

           

Even though I had Tuesday off, this was still a busy week with my internship.  A long but great day of meetings and presentations Wednesday was the culmination of a month-long “research sprint” that I have been working on with SJC and a partner organization called IBP (International Budget Partnership). This project involved researching South Africa’s and Cape Town’s policies regarding upgrading informal settlements and how these policies are funded, as well as investigating local and international case studies to provide a comparative analysis.  The objective of this project is to develop a more focused strategy to guide SJC’s campaign to upgrade informal settlements and ensure the provision of land tenure to residents of these settlements. To me the most important part of this was identifying the challenges that slow the progress of upgrading and discussing recommendations and solutions. Sometimes I feel that my work at SJC is not always purposeful, so it was rewarding to be able to see my research have an important use. I am excited to go back to work Monday and see what new steps the organization is taking as a result of this project.