The Other Other Side of Cape Town

Well it has been a pretty lazy week since this is our first week we have not had activities planned for nearly every afternoon we are here and it was quite rainy so we ended up reading and napping a lot as a group. We did go out a few nights during the week for some more karaoke and a few dinners out since it was Erica, Swapomthi, Emma, Karli, Theresa, and Ran's last week and we are all going to miss them terribly :( The good thing is we won't be spending near as much money after this week so I will be able to do some better saving!

I am getting much more information about the project I will be working on while I am here and I am really getting excited about the prospect of what it could be. I had a meeting with Luann and Tahira, my supervisors and CCS head staff, to talk about what it will mean for me to be heading this project. They are putting a lot of responsibility on me because it will end up being a project more for/through Cross Cultural Solutions than it will for Nomzamo but it will still be very beneficial for their work/mission. I was excited to hear that actually because that means more resources will be available to me when researching and making connections within the community. We are going to try to have one big day when the mural painting will take place with food, music, games etc and I am going to try (with lots of help) to get a celebrity sports player or someone like that to come and to get a radio station to broadcast from the backyard at Nomzamo. It will be a lot of networking and "creative persuasion" as Luann put it to get sponsors for the day and to make this a big event. I think it will be great for the community, for Nomzamo, and for CCS so I hope I have the skills to pull it all off! I am actually doing work on it tonight and writing up a force field analysis and maybe just for kicks also do a SWAT analysis for all you Social Workers out there! haha Anyway its feeling good to actually get to do use some of the skills I have learned this year at U of M.

On another note, I had my first attempted mugging today :( wah wah. Its okay we made it out unscathed and with just a bit less cash, but it could have been much worse. Its frustrating because it was just Erin and I and we were out during the day and we took the train into Cape Town to save some money and get to know the city a little better and this happened! We got off the train and walked out, not exactly sure where we were but we knew we were downtown Cape Town, and the day was beautious so we started walking. Well I guess we went the less traveled route and a man approached us asking for money. We said we didn't have any and tried to keep walking. Well he was not having that and was asking for a 'note' or a paper bill not just change (which I tried to give him). Then he kept saying 'I dont want to commit a crime here ladies dont make me commit a crime' and he had this real intense look in his eye that definitely scared us. He was also commenting that he just got out of jail and was trying to get some bread for his family but he was definitely not in the right mind if you get my drift. So we walked across the street while he followed (and while many other people passed us by I might add!) and I saw a man that looked nicely dressed and bigger than this guy and I just walked right up to him and stood next to him and said 'were just going to hang out here for a little while' and he was receptive but still did not say anything to this creepy man. But it did the trick and scared him off so needless to say Erin and I hurried along to the busiest street we could find and made our way but opted for a cab back to the train station for the way home!

A few of our adventure things this weekend fell through, we were supposed to go sandboarding but the weather has been pretty not great and then we were supposed to fly to Robertson on a friend's plane for the Wacky Wine Festival tomorrow, but that has also fallen through because of a double booking on the plane! Ahh well good thing I have 2 more months to experience those things :)

I'll update again soon hope everyone else is doing as fabulously as I am here in this amazing place!

peace & love,
alyssa