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| Ryan looks happy to finally be in Cape Town |
So we’ve been in Cape Town for almost 2 weeks now and I’m finally starting to settle in and feel at home. I can honestly say that I can see myself settling down here permanently one day. This place is so amazing and beautiful that it’s indescribable in a single blog post and the pictures that accompany it cannot possibly do it justice. We’ve done so much here in the past 12 days that it feels like almost a month. In the first week we did many different activities such as site seeing, trying new foods, and getting to know our surrounding community. We’ve eaten dinner at an Ethiopian restaurant, took a bus ride around the peninsula, swam with penguins, registered at the University of Cape Town, explored the city, visited the Waterfront, toured the townships, listened to jazz music, went to a vineyard, and attended a service at Sivuyile Baptist church. Every single activity so far has been amazing, but besides visiting many popular tourist destinations, learning about the history and culture of South Africa has also been an incredible experience. Touring the District Six museum, the Slave Lodge, and Robben Island have all been remarkable experiences that truly complement learning about the country’s long history in a classroom setting. I particularly enjoyed the tour of Robben Island because all of the guides there are former political prisoners during apartheid who have different stories to share.
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| Ryan, Nellie, Kelsey, Theresa hanging with the penguins |
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| Ryan & friends enjoying penguin watching |
Most recently, in the past 2 days, we have spent most of our time visiting each other’s internships around Cape Town to obtain a better description of the environments that each of us will be working in. Yesterday we went to the State Attorney’s office, the Black Sash, the Network of ViolenceAgainst Women, Thandokulu high school, the City Mission Educational Services, and the Maitland Cottage Hospital. After visiting about half of them, I was extremely excited to see mine today and anxious to begin working on Monday. Today we went to see the Cape Argus newspaper, the Children’s Resource Centre, the Vera School, Christel House, Beautiful Gate, and finally Tafelsig CommunityClinic where I will be interning. Tafelsig is a poor community in the township of Mitchell’s Plain where the majority of the population is classified coloured due to apartheid. I was really nervous at first walking into the clinic with many people patiently waiting for their care in a large lobby, but after getting briefed on what I will be doing and who I will be working with, the feeling of excitement soon retuned. Many of the other internships caught my eye but one that I found particularly interesting was Christel House and how their program is structured to reduce poverty in families and subsequent generations. As of now I cannot wait until next week when I will be helping out at a clinic that sees over 500 patients a day and learning more about the history of this magnificent place!
From Ryan's first 2 weeks in Cape Town:
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| Michael & Ryan at arrive at their home away from home |
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| Ryan at Signal Hill "embracing" Table Mountain |
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| Ryan at Maidens Cove |
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| Ryan & friend at Elonwabeni Home |
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| (clockwise from bottom) Kelsey, Nicole, Ryan Amariliz, Kimmi, Maria, Brandi, Sam |
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| Maria, Brittany & Ryan lunchtime at Moyo |
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