London to Cape Town!

Oh man oh man oh man! Where do I begin? There's so much to tell, so many little anecdotes that I feel need to be shared even though I know the don't. Luckily, I'm not too sleep deprived and jet lag hasn't really effected me too badly but things have been crazy hectic ever since I arrived in Cape Town. And London for that matter. So let's start from the very beginning! A very good place to start! In the beginning there was the word...hahaha just kidding! 

In the beginning I got on my plane. But before I got on my plane I had to wait until 30 minutes efore boarding to get a seat assignment. Good sign. I was hoping that I would get my usual window seat. I was one of the last passengers to get called. Great sign. Then I got on the plane, find my seat between an old British couple on their way home from holiday and an Indian couple. Yay. The old British man immediately hits on me in front of his wife, while the Indian lady is glaring at me because I practically had to straddle her to get to my seat. Two more great signs! Nothing super eventful happened on the flight. The first 2 hours was the kind old British gentleman regaling me with stories of his life in the military. It was hard to hear because he talked so quietly. Then I fell asleep for 30 glorious minutes and got woken up by a smack to the face. At first I couldn't figure out what (or who and if who, why?) hit me and what smelled so nice. Then I got hit in the shoulder and I found the culprit. That lovely (and I'm not being sarcastic because despite having a bad case of sour grapes this lady was gorgeous) Indian lady  in the seat next to me had hit me with her extremely long-longer than mine!-hair. Twice. And every time she woke up from her cat naps and came out from underneath her blanket, she'd do it again. For some reason I didn't say anything. I guess I just figured if I had to get hit by something, it might as well be by something beautiful that smells good. 

Anyways, London was awesome! I got in 45 minutes early, got through customs, headed out to the Tower of London (like a pro I might add), and prepared myself to walk in the footsteps of historic figures like that syph-infected king we all love to hate, King Henry VIII, his conniving mistress/wife Anne, and then the cool ones like Isaac Newton and Thomas Moore. I had an awesome tour guided by a "beefeater." Don't ask. I did and he didn't even know why they were called beefeaters. I have to admit, it was a weird feeling to know that I was walking on the same streets as all those psychos I learned about in history. Then it was off to see the crown jewels and the whole survived armory of King Henry VIII. I could go into crazy amounts of detail (and I did in my journal) but I want to talk about Cape Town! Let's just say, I used to hate London, now I kinda like it after my day of wandering around.

Ok so now for the good stuff! Cape Town! I arrived at 9:30 in the glorious morning and met up with Kiemmie, my driver, and Diana, who was on my flight-not that I knew that. We hopped in the van and proceeded to what will be our home for the next few months. On the way we immediately saw the stark reality of the townships and the beauty that is Cape Town. The house is awesome! It's a 150 year old historic protected house, meaning it has some history (something about a famous woman who had a scando affair). And it's yellow!!!! I love yellow! We were met with a very warm welcome by the staff and fellow volunteers who have already been here for a month or so. The day was pretty much just hanging out around the house, trying to get unpacked, and getting to know the other volunteers while trying to stay awake and beat the jet lag. Everyone is so nice. One of the girls took a few of us newbies into Rondebasch so we could pick up a few things we needed. It's only about a 10-15 minute walk and about 5 minutes away from the house it started sprinkling. By the time we got to the store we were drenched. By the time we got back to the house it looked like we had jumped into a pool. Hahaha! I loved it. It was great! I know I've only been here a couple of days but seriously, I feel like I'm going to love it here. The group in the house is one freaking sweet group! Our ages are mostly from 18-26 with a couple of outliers in the 40-60 range.

Sunday and Monday was orientation. Sunday morning was just the typical policies and rules but in the afternoon we went on a tour of the city of Cape Town. We stopped at Cape Town Castle for a quick photo-op and then made our way up to Signal Hill which has got to be one of the most gorgeous look-out points ever! You stand on this mountain in between the ocean, Cape Town, and Table Mountain and just stand there in complete awe. Absolutely breathtaking and the pictures can never do it justice! Fun fact - from Signal Hill you can see where they're building the stadium for the 2010 World Cup. It's sitting in the middle of a golf course that they tore up because FIFA wanted the backdrop of the stadium to include both Table Mountain and Robben Island. So they tore up the oldest golf course in Cape Town. Typical. 

Today (Monday) was more orientation, but the good stuff. We learned about South African history and talked a lot about our placements which pretty much just served to get us all even more excited to start tomorrow. All of us are now very antsy in the pantsy. After a wonderful lunch of bbq chicken, sausage, and some other type of meat with salad, and pup (maize) covered in a tomato sauce, we headed out for our tour of the townships. Our guide was Coceko (clicks included!), or Richard. We went to 3 different ones, Langa, Guguleto, and Khayalicha. In Langa we went inside some of the homes and saw how the locals live. The house we visited used to be a mens hostel during the time of apartheid. There were 3 men to a room, and 6 rooms to a house, 18 men in all. When apartheid was over, and the men were allowed to be reunited with their families, they brought their families to live there with them. Imagine 3 families sharing a single room and 18 families sharing a single home. That was the condition they lived in. But walking through the townships, we were swarmed by children. Let me just say, they are characters! They loved getting their picture taken and were absolutely hamming it up for the camera! It was great! A lot of them kept asking, "Sweet? Sweet?" 

After going into the homes we went to a preschool were about 30 of the most adorable kids sang and danced for us. One of the songs they sang for us in English said, "This is my body. I love my body. I respect my body. It is not okay for anyone to hurt my body." They are taught this to help break the cycle of abuse, in the hope it will be easier for kids to tell their teachers when they are experiencing some kind of abuse. These kids are crazy smart though. They sang the South African national anthem for us...in TWO languages! I can barely sing ours in English. Ok so that's not true but still, I was jealous. We were able to play with the kids for about 20 minutes or so before Richard had to drag us into the van. The preschool just got me even more stoked to start tomorrow! 

Next we went to Guguleto to see an African medicine man. We went into a dark shop with animal skins and bones hanging everywhere (and what looked like a couple of voodoo dolls) and got blessed to bring us "many many boyfriends" haha! Then it was off to Khayalicha where we stopped at the very first bed and breakfast ever built in the township. Across the street there was a shop where ladies made rugs from t-shirts that had been thrown away. The money they make helps support one of the local preschools. One thing that absolutely blew my mind throughout the day was how resourceful the people here are. In the townships, everything from a payphones, barber shops, to schools and appliance stores inside of old shipping containers. Even some of the houses are. 

It was a lot to absorb in 4 hours and I know I'm leaving a bunch of information out, but I'm exhausted and excited so you'll just have to forgive me. I swear I'm keeping a better account in my journal so you can get a more detailed version when I have time or when I get home. I don't know if any of this was interesting or if it makes sense but I don't care because I get to meet my kids tomorrow!