Chillin' at the Waterfront. Haggled for those sunglasses.
Best 60 Rand spent.
I finally have some time to update you guys on what I’ve been doing! A lot has been going on over the last few weeks and instead of doing one long post, I’ll break it up into a few short ones. Work has been really busy, and I have seen so many interesting things while working and driving (!) around the townships . That’s right, I am DRIVING in South Africa – where they drive on the left side of the road. It actually hasn’t been that bad since the traffic here is not nearly as crazy as the tri-state area. Though I did get a flat tire within 30 minutes of getting behind the wheel for the first time (funny, it was my first flat ever). And the townships…well that’s for a whole other blog post. OK, onto the fun stuff:
There may be a major heatwave in the US, but it's a cool 60 degrees here.
Table Mountain! I hiked up Table Mountain a few weeks ago and it was AWESOME. First of all, there is not a bad view in Cape Town with this gorgeous mountain overlooking the city. It is so cool that a city as big as Cape Town has such a great place to hike literally at its feet.
Table Mountain from the Waterfront
It was a tough (but rewarding) 2.5-hour trip up on what felt like a giant Stairmaster most of the time. But I was in good company: Gowri (a UMass Med student who is staying at the Green Elephant as well), Jocelyn (a Canadian student who used to stay at the Green Elephant), Robin (our native Cape Tonian friend), and Ray (a friend of Robin who was our trusty guide. This guy is seriously ridiculous. He has walked/cycled to and from Zimbabwe and is now planning to circumnavigate the globe using only a bike and paddleboat).
Our trusty guide, Ray
Making our way along the trail.
The view of the city and the Atlantic Ocean were amazing as well. Take a look at my Flickr account for more pics!
On top of Table Mountain, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.
A dassie basking in the sun. The closest relative is the elephant.
TIA (This Is Africa.)
After the hike we headed to Camp’s Bay, which is a really nice suburb on the coast, to watch the sunset. What other city could you hike a mountain and 10 minutes later be at the beach?
Jocelyn rockin' out to the awesome sunset.
Camp's Bay, both a mountain and beach town.
Beach at sunset.
Grassroot Soccer! Last week I took a very special trip to the South African headquarters of GRS, which is located in Cape Town. The people there are all really cool and showed me around the office.
GRS is doing great work all over Africa.
The GRS office.
The GRS staff working hard to prevent the spread of HIV in children.
It’s not a very large office, which makes it even more impressive that they’ve already educated over 400,000 kids about HIV! They want to reach 1 million kids by 2014, in time for the next World Cup taking place in Brazil. So help them out!
Things to look forward to in future posts:
-Bastille Day is South Africa?!?!
-I’ll tell you a little more about my work (since they are the ones who are funding me… because I actually do some work around here).
-Some stories from the townships.
Until next time!
John
You look like a mafia don in that first picture. It's a good look for you.
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