Touchdown in the Mother City

Greetings from Cape Town!

It is Day 2 in the city - I wanted to post and update yesterday, but it took some time to set up everything. So I finally made it after a 16+ hour from JFK to Johannesburg, which ended up not being so bad when I ran into Temi and Star at the gate, who happened to be on the same flight for their trip to Mozambique. And here you can see they are very happy to be getting off the plane:

Mount Sinai representin'

From Johannesburg it was a 2-hour flight to Cape Town and a 20-minute drive to the place I’m staying in Observatory, which is a neighborhood in Cape Town. The cab driver was explaining to me how divided the country still is even after the end of apartheid, which you can definitely see in where people live in the city. The townships right next to the airport are where mainly Blacks live. WARNING: YOU WILL LEARN SOMETHING HERE, PROCEED WITH CAUTION. There is an interesting distinction between Blacks and Coloureds in South Africa stemming from how people were racially classified during the apartheid era. Blacks (or Africans) are people whose ancestors are from the native African population of the area before the European settlers arrived (eg, Xhosa, Zulu). Coloured refers to people whose ancestors were not native to the area, and were probably brought to South Africa as slaves from some other place, including other parts of Africa. (If you are interested in learning more about South Africa, I highly recommend A History of South Africa by Leonard Thompson.)

World Cup Stadium - if only I was here last year...

This reminds me: PLEASE DONATE TO GRASSROOT SOCCER!

Observatory is a pretty young area filled with students (including many international ones), and it is where the University of Cape Town is located. There are a good amount of cafés and bars in the area that cater to students, but I still need to be careful about being robbed, which unfortunately is not uncommon (hasn’t happened to me, knock on wood). I’m staying at The Green Elephant, which I would describe as an environmentally conscious hostel. I thought it was cool that they use the used water from the washer for the toilets (and I’m grateful it’s not the other way). There’s a lounge and a nice bar/patio outside too. My room is pretty modest, but the view of Table Mountain is nice.

My room = alright...

 The view from my room = SWEET!

The people I’ve met here are all really nice. The staff is extremely helpful and friendly, and the other people staying here have been great. I’ve met a group of 12 Norwegian medical students who are here for 3 weeks volunteering at a clinic and 2 British medical students who are on what I guess we would call a rotation, but from the sound of it it’s just a vacation). These guys are all pretty entertaining (and check out my video blog for more once I can figure out the Internet here):

 Norwegians and Brits, all medical students

OK, I don’t want to make this too long. You can check out more of my pics on Flickr. I’m already homesick and miss you all!

Take care,

John

Take-Off

I'm at the JFK airport waiting to board my flight to South Africa. Just 18 more hours until I arrive in Cape Town!

Thank you to all who have donated to Grassroot Soccer. We've already made $200! And if you haven't donated yet, you have 2 days to enter the June raffle and win some awesome prizes such as PIZZA PARTY! Visit my donations page for more details.

Sorry that this is so brief. I'll post more when I get a more stable Internet connection.

Take care,
John

Africa-Bound

I’m embarking on two exciting projects this summer and invite you to follow me on my brand new blog, 3000 for Africa! First, I am heading to Cape Town, South Africa this summer for a research project on HIV vaccines. This will be my first time to Africa and I will be going by myself (but feel free to come visit!). So this blog is in part to keep you all updated on what I’m doing as well as to make sure that I am alive and well. I’ll be updating the blog at least once a week. And keep a look out for awesome pics, videos, and prize giveaways from South Africa!

Second, I am excited to be raising money this year for an incredible organization, Grassroot Soccer, while training for my FIRST ever marathon, the ING NYC Marathon on November 6^th, 2011! Over the years I have worked towards eradicating HIV both here in the US and around the world, and Grassroots Soccer’s mission to use the power of soccer to educate, inspire, and mobilize communities to stop the spread of HIV meshes perfectly with the work I have been doing.

We all remember the amazing World Cup last year in South Africa, but you may not have known that an estimated 330,000 kids are living with HIV in South Africa alone – that’s about the population of Honolulu, Hawaii or Tampa, Florida. Grassroots Soccer wants to educate 1 million youth about HIV by 2014, in time for the World Cup in Brazil, and they’ve reached 400,000 kids to date. However, 7,000 people become infected with HIV each day, and 45% of those infections occur among young people between the ages of 15-24. We need to educate these youths to combat the spread of HIV, and your donations will help in this fight.

Did you know it only costs $25 to educate 1 youth? You can’t even buy 2 movie tickets in NYC for that much! My goal is to raise at least $3,000 this year for Grassroots Soccer so that they can continue to educate children about HIV – enough support for 120 kids. Your contributions will help me reach that goal and help me cross that finish line in Central Park on November 6^th (hope to see you there if you can make it!). Please consider donating as much as you can, whether it is $10, $25, $100, or more (fingers crossed!). And as extra incentives to donate, I'll detail some cool prizes in a later post that you can get for your donations!

Please feel free to contact me with any questions, comments, or words of support you may have as I explore Cape Town and train for the NYC marathon.

Thanks!
John