I MADE IT!

I have officially been living in Stellenbosch almost two weeks now! I left the States the Wednesday before last, did a very rushed tour of London on Thursday, and then arrived in Cape Town on Friday! My arrival marked 13 months to the day that I left last year - I knew I would be back someday but it really is amazing how quickly I was able to do it.  I am now all settled in and it feels like I never left!

first sighting of Cape Town from the plane

This time around has been completely different than the last, both in good ways and in ways which will take time to get used to. First off, I arrived to winter instead of summer. Last year I left a miserable St. Louis blizzard and stepped off the plane to a beautiful, sunny, warm Cape Town day. However, this time I left warm, summery St. Louis and arrived to a dreary, cold, winter day in Cape Town. It has been in the low 60s here during the day and then 40s at night. While that may not sound too bad, the buildings are not insulated or heated and it is the rainy season so you would be surprised how cold it does feel. My bedroom is about 55 degrees Fahrenheit on average which can make it pretty miserable to change clothes or get out of bed in the morning. The first two nights here I didn't have bedding yet so I wore coats and boots to bed and got a pretty decent ab workout from the constant shivering. I am getting used to it already though and am beginning to look like a local with a hot cup of coffee or tea constantly in my hands. I am told it will start warming up in September!

Another way in which this experience has already been different is that with the study abroad program it was nonstop fun activity from the moment we landed at the airport. This arrival has been much more relaxed with me doing a lot of the getting situated activities on my own. I don't have an instant group of American friends to hang out with either. Overall I think this is a good thing because I feel like I really do live here instead of just doing an Americanized stay. I have had to learn a lot of 'South African' things that I wasn't exposed to last year such as how to buy electricity at the supermarket, how to operate the electric fences that surround the homes and businesses, and how to converse in Afrikaans.  

I have two roommates, Charne and Jen, as well as two puppies, Dexter and Molly. I am loving living here - both roommates are wonderful and my dream of having a pet finally came true! Dexter is the sweetest dog and Molly is a bundle of energy - if dogs could be diagnosed with ADD, she would have it. She loves tearing up just about anything and always has mud on her nose from digging holes in the 'garden.' The dog psychiatrist actually paid a visit the other day to see if there was hope for Molly and it sounds like there is! The girls have been very welcoming as well and make sure to take me out with them.  There are always people at the house so I have had no trouble meeting people.

I started worked last Thursday at Women on Farms Project and while I am still excited about it, I think it is going to be way more of a challenge than I anticipated.  Afrikaans is spoken 95% of the time and so I tend to fall a bit behind in conversations. The conversational Afrikaans I learned last year doesn't get me far in an NGO environment where a lot of the topics are political based and spoken super fast. Working at WFP has definitely encouraged me to pick up the language faster so I will be looking for a tutor as soon as the university students return for their spring semester! As far as what I will be working on, there are two main projects.  The first is the Young Women's Project in which I will be going into schools and speaking to students about their rights as people and as South Africans. I will also be informing them of their opportunities post high school off the farms.  The other project is a mushroom cooperative in which women on farms have joined together to grown shiitake mushrooms in order to have more food for their families and more income.  I am currently working on marketing their product.  My favorite part of the internship thus far has been visiting the farms and meeting the local women. Not only are the drives to the farms beautiful, but I have gotten the opportunity to see a side of South Africa that I did not have much of an opportunity to experience before. I can already tell that this is going to be an influential experience for me - I am working in an environment that is completely foreign to me, with women from diverse backgrounds very different than my own, and on projects that I am genuinely interested in. There is a lot for me to both learn and contribute which should make for a positive experience.

In addition to WFP I will be helping out with the CIEE study abroad program I participated in previously. I visited with Bradley and Joe from CIEE upon arriving in Stellenbosch and it was so good to see them! There are only four students on this semester's program but they said they will let me know when I can help out.  The four Americans, all girls, arrived yesterday so I showed them around Stellenbosch in the afternoon and got them set up with cell phones, etc. It's nice to still have a tie to the university and the CIEE program and I'm sure I will enjoy participating when possible. Plus the four students all seem very fun so I am excited to have a few American friends again!

That's it for now! I will try to update more frequently from now on!