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Yesterday was the first day of rain, and unfortunately the first day that was described to me as a “typical Cape Town winter day.” Luckily anytime I was travelling it was not raining terribly hard, but the rain has woken me up two nights in a row because it is so loud on the roof.

At the gym yesterday in Rondebosch, the neighbourhood where the SAEP office is, I noticed someone wearing Duke shorts and after strategically snagging the treadmill next to hers realized it was the graduate resident from my freshman year dorm. How bizarre! She is here on a two year fellowship after graduating from the Duke Div School and works close to the SAEP office.

I have now been in Cape Town for a full week, which has gone by quickly. The first few days were exhausting because everything was new and I was constantly trying to figure out where to be, how to get there, what was safe, etc. I feel much more settled in now, although there is certainly much more of Cape Town to familiarize myself with. The lodge I’m staying at consists of four separate houses that are all within the same two or three block radius. I am living with six kids from Chapel Hill, a guy from Duke, and two German girls. We have a great house dynamic and have had a lot of fun together thus far. On Tuesday night a few of us went to UCT to hear the orchestra play and met a few students who gave us tips on where to go and what to do. Wednesday night we went to a café in Observitory, where we live, to watch the soccer championships and eat half priced pizza (for students’ night). An entire pizza was roughly 3 US dollars. The place was full of soccer fans and it was a great atmosphere.

One of the most difficult things to figure out has been transportation. Our options to get around are the train, van taxis (they carry many people at once and one man’s job is to hang at the window yelling at people on the street), or private taxis which are a bit harder to find and take a while to arrive. The trains are safe in the daylight, although around 6 they become really crowded and are impossible to squeeze on. I even had trouble getting off one the other day because so many people were pushing to get on. The van taxis are an experience and are generally safe, although their driving is a bit erratic, particularly at night when there are fewer cars on the road to slow them down.

SAEP has several programs, one of which is a “gap year” program for students who need to study for one extra year before entering college. One of these guys, Thobela has offered to give the American volunteers Xhosa lessons two days a week. The kids we work with in the townships all speak Xhosa so it will be really helpful to have some vocabulary, limited though it will surely be. Xhosa is a language with clicking, which is an added difficulty for me. I have been practicing, but have not improved beyond my awkward initial attempts. At least the kids have a good time watching me call out the role before class. Qaqambile, Phelisa, Luzuko, Mphou–I call on Victor a lot…

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