It's winter..

I have been very lucky as far as weather goes so far in Cape Town, but that luck ran out yesterday. It started pouring rain and gusting wind. It looked and sounded like a hurricane. To make things even more fun and exciting, I just discovered the extent of my roof leak! I may need to acquire more buckets...

I have had a good chance to learn a lot about some of the people at my work this week. One man was the president of the student body in Congo, which is apparently basically equivalent to being a political opposition group. The students comment in the media and are a very powerful force in their society. As such, the president is under a lot of pressure to agree with the majority government. The man I work with was even bribed, and was asked to work for the government following his presidency (which is what most people do). He refused, as he did not support the policies of the government at the time. Following this refusal, and some involvement in public commentary surrounding a fraudulent election in Congo, he had to flee the country and has been living as a refugee in South Africa ever since.

A woman I work with, from Burundi, acted as a peace keeper for the UN during a conflict in Congo. She has now been chosen to spend two months in California working with university students (I believe she said they are international law and policy sutdents) in order to teach them about African conflict and its effects on the people. She is one of only a few people chosen to go in all of South Africa. She is an amazing lady with a lot of interesting stories.

Last weekend, my flatmates and I, plus one other intern, got the chance to go on a safari at Aquila Private Game Reserve. It was a really cool experience, and we got to get up close to a bunch of different animals, like lions, elephants, zebras, rhinos, annd hippos. No one could adequately explain to me why the lions didn't just jump into the jeep and kill us all. The only response I got was "don't worry, they like to chase the vehicles and attack the wheels and the door, but we've never had one try to jump in.." Questionable.

We also went to a party in Nyanga township with a bunch of other interns. We got to meet a lot of locals, especially children. The kids couldn't get enough of us! We all played and sang and danced for hours. They were all super adorable, and loved getting their pictures taken and playing with the digital cameras. A band came in and played music for us, and we got to sample lots of local food. It was a really cool experience.

I've also started doing hot yoga at a really cool studio in the city centre. It is on the tenth floor of a building, and has only one studio which can be (and typically is) filled with almost 70 people. There are a whole team of interns who go regularly, and it is definitely one of my favourite places in Cape Town so far.

This weekend is supposed to be filled with hiking through caves, parties, and markets. Fingers crossed that the hurricanes stay away. ;)

Hello from Cape Town

So, I had planned on starting this blog immediately upon leaving the country, but since finals I am TERRIBLE at accomplishing anything. Since Croatia seems so far in the past already, I will just start with a brief synopsis of what I have been up to since arriving in Africa!

I moved into my apartment on my first full day in Cape Town. I am living in a loft in Observatory, which is a southern suburb of the city. It is a fun/busy/studenty type neighbourhood with a lot of bars and restaurants. I am living with 5 other interns right now: Manal (Lebanon), Brett (UK), Adele (France), Stephanie (US) and Andy (US). We are a pretty fun team. ;)

I also got to go on a bus tour of the city on the first day with two other interns (Mike and Nagina from the US), so I briefly saw District 6, Table Mountain and all of the other Cape Town sights. I also got my first experience with the schizophrenic weather here. On one side of the mountain, it was incredibly hot and sunny. We turned the corner, and were essentially in a cloud. It was hazy and freezing and ridiculous. I have never seen anything quite like it. I got to see a little bit of the beach through the fog, and apparently Robben Island was out there somewhere. This area also had some of the most beautiful real estate I have ever seen. Not quite what I expected in South Africa!

I started work officially on that Wednesday. It has been quite an experience already. I am working at the Sonke Gender Justice Network. The building I work in is right in the centre of the city, so I am hoping that I will get to spend a lot of time exploring. My first project here is to put together a manual surrounding the legal issues faced by refugees and provide the trainers here with practical solutions that they can use when they are working with these refugees. I have been learning a lot about the refugee situation in South Africa. I really had no idea of the kind of issues they are facing. Last year they had the most asylum-seeker applications in the world. This has led to their system being completely overwhelmed, with people waiting for years for their applications to be processed. But, more on that later.

I have been spending minimal amounts of time actually in the office. I have had the chance to go out and do “fieldwork” nearly every day, and it has been incredibly interesting. My first day, myself and three of my colleagues here went and polled people on their opinions surrounding Sonke’s new campaign. The campaign is called the Red Card Campaign and is focused on preventing sexual exploitation of children. You definitely get some interesting responses out of people when you are asking questions on that type of topic.

On Day 2, the director of Sonke rounded up everyone in the office to attend a protest for gay rights. The protest took place outside the Department of Home Affairs. It was based on the conviction of 2 men in Malawi of “gross indecency” for being in a relationship. As homosexuality is illegal in Malawi, these men have been sentenced to 14 years in prison simply for loving each other. There were many different groups in attendance at the protest, and the people were all singing African protest songs and dancing. It was very high energy. Eventually, a couple of ministers came down from the building to listen to the proposal of the organizing group and accept a copy of their memo. There was also an appearance from the winner of Mr. Gay World 2010, who comes from South Africa.

Monday, I got the chance to go to the largest township in Cape Town to see the filming of the promotional/instructional video for the Red Card Campaign. The townships are both sad and pleasant at the same time. On one side, there are thousands of people living in incredibly tiny shacks that look like they could fall over at any second. In some parts of the townships, the poverty is so apparent that it can be hard to look it. On the other hand, the people seem to be incredibly kind and so full of life and spirit. They are happy to meet people and talk to people, and there seems to be a strong sense of community.

Yesterday was my most interesting field trip yet. I took a train out to Maitland (I believe it is a suburb) to visit the refugee department at Home Affairs there. Firstly, I was the only white person in sight, and I don’t think I have ever been so blatantly stared at for such an extended period of time ever before. So uncomfortable. Secondly, the scene itself was complete chaos. I have done hours of reading about the situation of the refugees here, but I don’t think I would have ever fully appreciated it had I not gone to visit this particular building. This is the office where people come to apply for refugee status, to renew their permits while they are awaiting decisions and to appeal decisions if they have been refused.

My colleagues and I went inside to hand out information about the refugee programs at Sonke and to collect information from people in order to invite them to training and workshops. The people I met were from so many places – Congo, Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda and more. Nearly all of them had been waiting for upwards of 6 hours to see an official – this was at 11am. Apparently, many people have to sleep outside overnight for days in order to get inside the building. There are hundreds of people inside, and hundreds more outside in line waiting to come line up again inside the building. I cannot even describe it. I can’t imagine how horrible it is to have to stand outside day after day waiting. Not only is it terrible, but it creates infinitely more problems for these people. They have to miss work to stand outside and wait to renew their permits. These people are typically already poor and not truly able to bear this kind of burden. Further, if they are late renewing their permits, they may be fined hundreds of dollars they likely don’t have, regardless of the fact that they may be late because they were lined up for days trying to renew it. The whole process takes so long that by the time they finally do get their papers renewed, it is only a couple of months before they have to do it all over again. I didn’t take any pictures, but I will add some that I found online. I just can’t get over the frustration that these people must feel.

Today, I got to sit in on one of the refugee training programs surrounding rape and sexual assault. It was actually incredibly interesting, especially to hear the different perspectives of the people here on this topic. This training continues tomorrow with the same group of women , who come from Congo, Burundi, and possibly other countries as well.

I have luckily had time to squeeze in some fun and non-traumatizing activities as well.. But more on that to come. ;) I am all rambled out for one day.

Cheers,
Amanda