Welcome to Beautiful Cape Town

Week 1:

Day 1

I arrived into Cape Town on Friday, October 14th after a 9 hour flight to Heathrow, London, a 7 hour lay-over and a 11 hour flight. Two of my house mates were supposed to pick me up at 8 am, but I arrived through customs to find only 3 people in the waiting area. It was a very weird feeling to not have any foreign currency, no phone and no phone numbers to call. i did, however, have the address to where I was living so an hour later (I was holding out hope) as I was negotiating my cab fare two friendly faces popped around the corner. Boy was I glad to see them.

From there we drove to our humble abode...3c Gordon Street, Gardens, Cape Town, 8001. The house is basic at best and has been through 3 years of prior housing for GRS volunteers...needless to say it is not in the best condition. The location, however, is stellar. We are a 10-15 minute alk from the downtown office, 1 minutes from decent grocery stores and 5-10 minute walk to Long Street which is home to restaraunts and bars galore (don't worry mom).

The front of our house (we have the first 2 floors and the top is rented out)

Street in the Gardens (what the neighborhood is called in Cape Town of the Westerm Cape)

Looking up Gordon St. (table mountain is straight ahead)

Just around the corner from the house

Roommates side of the room

My fine twin bed with springs that stick through (very pleasant)

Lovely kitchen with a fridge that shuts on and off

Family room to hang out (note the coffee table of cinder blocks)

I was able to unpack, shower (which we all know I love) and then was asked to head into the Grassroot Soccer office for a quick meeting with my "boss" who was heading out of town on Monday of the next week to Johannesburg (Joburg). I ended up "getting" to sit through 3 meetings and left the office with the rest of my house mates at 5:30 pm. I made it to 11 pm hanging out with everyone until I passed out sitting on a chair in the living room while everyone pre-funked around me prior to heading out to Long St.

Day 2 and 3


The weekend was a blur as I tried to get settled, organized and learn the lay of the land (which I stil have a ways to go). On Sunday I made it to cathoclic mass at the local St. Mary's (go figure) which is a 10 minute walk down the street. After mass I went to a cool breakfast place called Buzz before heading to Camps Bay  to a beach call Clifton beach # 4 (supposedly #2 is the best).

View from the sand

Camps Bay and the beaches remind me of so. cal beaches- there are some nice house around there

Looking up from the beach- Lion's Head

After the beach we headed back to play some pick up soccer with GRS staff and other NGO staff based in Cape Town. It felt so good to play again. There are turf fields about 5 minutes away from our house (when I say 5 minutes away I mean walkin distance if you haven't caught on by now).

First week of work (Oct. 17-21, 2011)

To come shortly...