I left Charleston, SC at around 10 AM. After a painless pass through security, I boarded the plane and a quick flight brought me to Dulles airport in Washington, DC. This included a 6-hour layover. Luckily, this gave me time to do lots of facebooking and catch up on episodes of Glee and House. I then departed DC around 6:30 PM.
The subsequent flight was to Amsterdam and was a total of 7 hours. I enjoyed the fact that the KLM Dutch Airlines employees wore uniforms of bright royal blue; it reminded me of Duke a good bit. In addition, I had access to my own personal entertainment console with video games, movies, television, and music. The food wasn’t that bad, either. Still, 7 hours was a long time.
Once I got to Amsterdam, I had about 2 hours until my next flight so I wanted to make contact with my parents and let them know everything was going alright. However, I quickly found out that: 1) There is no free internet in the Amsterdam Airport; 2) The paid internet didn’t work; 3) All pay phones which took credit cards refused to take any of my American cards. Luckily, I finally figured out that an international collect call would work. After gathering my things, I headed out to the 11-hour flight to Cape Town.
This flight was REALLY LONG. The airline food (and the employees’ uniforms) were quickly losing their novelty, and my personal entertainment center was defective. So.. I slept a lot. Which was fine except for the jet lag I’d later suffer.
When I finally got into Cape Town, it was 10:30 PM and I really couldn’t see anything (obviously, since it was dark). I stood at the baggage claim for half an hour, and I never got my main suitcase with all of my toiletries and 90% of my clothes; GREAT. I went to baggage claim and stood in line for what felt like almost another hour, and found out the bag never got out of DC. So.. I’m stuck with a minimal set of clothes until Saturday night. Once I finally got out of claims and customs and all of those other departments, two ProjectsAbroad members met me and drove me to my host family’s house.
My host mother Phillida, who gave me a big hug and immediately offered me tea or coffee, met me with open arms. Since it was 1 AM, I politely declined, but I was really struck by her kindness. I got to my room, which was shared with a 26-year-old German named Sebastian and quickly went to bed.
The place I was staying was surprisingly nice; there was a separate wing for Sebastian and I who had a bathroom, media room, and a bedroom. The media room had a large TV with DVD player, a computer (without internet, unfortunately), and a lounge area for hanging out.
The next morning, Phillida greeted me and offered me a choice of cereals and breads for breakfast, and made me coffee. Already, I felt like part of the family because she was so caring. It was good to know I had someone genuine to come home to at night.
At 9:00 AM, a man from ProjectsAbroad came to give me my “volunteer orientation” and take me around Cape Town. Normally, to get to the ProjectsAbroad office, I would simply take the train into town and walk a short distance. However, the train workers were on strike. So.. we took the signature form of Cape Town travel, the minibus. Think Voltswagon bus crowded with 14 or 15 people; really cozy. We took three different minibuses in total to get to our destination.
Frankly, at the moment, I’m pretty daunted at the prospect of having to do this on my own; the minibus routes seem confusing, the people aren’t exceptionally friendly, and I feel a little out of place. I’m sure I’ll get the hang of it in time though.
Once at the office, I met Dana, the leader of the Cape Town ProjectsAbroad team, and several other members of the office. They were all very friendly and willing to help me with any questions I had. Once some initial paperwork had been completed, a worker named Jason took me out to lunch and to show me a bit more of Cape Town. We walked to a nearby shopping mall which was very comparable to those of America. And yes, it had a McDonalds – they really are everywhere. After a delicious chicken melt and berry smoothie (and a great chat), we walked around the mall and got my US dollars exchanged for South African rand, visited a computer store (since Jason knew I was into computers) which was basically comparable to Western prices and selection, and bought me a cell phone which could use a local SIM card. And voila – I had a South African phone number, courtesy of Vodacom.
Perhaps the most interesting part of my day was when the ProjectsAbroad members took me to the place I’d begin working officially on Monday. The Philiza Abafazi home for women and children is run by a woman named Lucinda who receives no outside funding other than the wages she can raise through grants and her husband’s wages. Providing after school care, sexual/domestic counseling, and literacy/numeracy skill enhancement, the center is an amazing place run by one of the kindest souls I’ve ever had the pleasure to meet. Lucinda told me I’d be helping with the IT project that they were just beginning, which was focused on teaching women and young adults the skills they need to be comfortable with a computer and able to create a resume. Lucinda also said this would allow them to possibly become entrepreneurs. She sent me on a walk with two of the members of the home, who showed me the area I’d be working around. The surrounding area was impoverished, with people living in shacks made of wood and sheets of metal. I wanted to take pictures, but I forgot to bring my camera; I’ll get some pictures another day for sure though. They took me by a satellite of the Philiza Abafazi office which had several broken computers; just from initial inspection, I wasn’t able to fix them, but we’ll see as time goes on. I also went by the library in the crèche, which was active with many children participating in arts and crafts projects. The library also had some computers that needed fixing.
After a long tour and briefing on the next week’s goals, I was brought home for dinner (delicious!) and hanging out with some of the volunteers. We threw a small party for one of the volunteers who was leaving tomorrow. This mostly involved lots of karaoke to the Bee Gees, Whitney Houston, and Mariah Carey – needless to say, I was ok with that. Everyone I met today was really friendly, and I think if I can just figure out a few other things, I’ll be very comfortable here.
Annoying Things: Communication with home; the lack of internet is really jarring, and the closest place with access is a 20-minute walk. I bought some minutes on my cell phone for calling here and home, but a 12-minute call home burned up the entire R10 card. So.. I’m going to need to find a way to get reliable access to the internet and have a better way to communicate to home than the cell phone. I’m hoping to stop by the mall tomorrow and figure this all out. With any luck, I’ll be back home with a cell phone full of minutes and a wifi card for my laptop that will give me internet. Here’s hoping for the best!
UPDATE: Obviously, since I'm posting this, I got internet access. More news on how I got that later. And pictures coming soon!!
Fun fact about South Africa #1: Traffic Lights are called Robots. Makes you wonder what they call Robots, huh? I'll let you know when I find out the answer to that question.
- David
What a great start to the blog of your adventure! Glad that the only flaw in the process was something like luggage, which is either findable or replaceable :) Looking forward to reading more - Dr. G
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