Spring (fall) break!

Starting tomorrow, I will be on a week long mid semester trip without internet.

When I return I promise lots of updates!

Lotus Park Revisited

This Wednesday I headed back to Lotus Park, the informal settlement we went to last week, to help with enumerating dwellings. SUN Development and the City of Cape Town are working to number all the houses in Lotus so they can set up a mail system and map the settlement. I spent all day photographing numbers that we painted onto houses and the houses themselves. The system was a little hard to follow; some houses already had numbers, some had numbers but needed new ones, and some houses were completely unmarked. Going around Lotus for 8 hours was certainly eye opening. Some of the houses are completely hidden and we had to squeeze between buildings to access them. Many people were wondering what we were doing and some of the other enumerates spent the whole time explaining what we were doing. 95 percent of the day, I didn't hear any English, just Xhosa. It was an exhausting day but quite an interesting experience.

On Saturday, I was back in Lotus again for a photo shoot for Dead End Production (DEP) Family, a collection of rap artists Claire S is working with. Claire had invited Erin to take photos of all the groups for the website she is developing. Charlie, Bridget and I tagged along to assist with interviewing, carrying equipment and safety. It was so much fun to see the groups in their element, they were all dressed and ready for their photos and knew exactly how to posed without direction. We hurried through the photos because the artists were very concerned with us being in Lotus too late. Below is a photo of all of us (minus Erin the photographer) together at the end of the day. I also got a CD filled with DEP videos and music!

DEP fam

Narrow ways through Lotus

Enumerating. The red painted number (B76) is what we were doing on Wed.

More views of Lotus

Volmoed

This weekend we left Friday straight from school for a weekend retreat in Volmoed (pronounced Full-mud) to meet with John De Gruchy, the author of Reconciliation: Restoring Justice. Located just outside Hermanus, the best place for viewing whales (unfortunately they are not in season until late July), Volmoed was incredibly picturesque and in wine country. We were able to hike, see tons of baboons, and spend quality time together. Highlights include swimming in a waterfall and stargazing in the field.

Baboons at the water

Getting up close and personal

The Waterfall

Wine grapes at lunch

Our delicious lunch

Climbing on the rocks

 A reflection spot

Standing on top of an underwater cave when swimming on the waterfall. Look for the rope swing right to the left of the waterfall

Mizolis and Rugby

I apologize for the delay in posting, last weekend I opted for pick up soccer and writing a paper instead of heading for the internet cafe so now I am playing catch up. Last weekend we had a huge braai at our house for the Stanford house as well as friends from school and service. I invited Amanda and Isabelle, the Canadians, and Julia the German from Saartjie Bartman, as well as our soccer/drum circle friends. It was a great night and involved a lot of food. Saturday was a relaxing day before we headed out to see a professional rugby game, our local franchise the Stormers, who played a team from Australia, and won by a nervewreckingly small margin. On Sunday morning we left around 10am to go to Mizoli's, a very popular (and touristy) restaurant in Guguletu, a township. The restaurant serves basically only meat (delicious delicious meat!) and features live music and big crowds. It involves lots of drinking and eating and lasted until 3pm. When I got back, I was able to go play soccer for two hours which was the perfect way to end my weekend. (Mizoli's photo cred. goes to Emma!)

Meat at Mizoli's

Dancing and music

Emma's order

Stormers rugby

My Mizoli's order

Where you bring your meat for braai