I'm a big kid now!

The past week has been pretty intense as I have begun my internship at the Cape Town Refugee Centre. It blows my mind at what they do at the office, and I quickly realized how unqualified I am for this position. Monday started off with a meeting with my boss, Christina Henda, Director of the CTRC. We agreed that I would shadow a member of each of the three branches of the program: Psycho-Social Intervention (when she started throwing this word about as my specialty I almost shit my pants), Empowerment/Self-Reliance, and Education. After a getting an overview of each program I will pick my specialty, a single branch to work with for the next 10 weeks.

Three days a week the office is open to refugees to come in an make a case for receiving help with rent, food, courses, small business ventures, etc. As an introduction to the Psycho-Social Intervention branch I sat in on her interviews with the more problematic of the cases. I’ve been telling people that I’d be doing intake interviews as part of my internship but I never really understood what that would mean, it was just a term to throw about to pretend like I knew what I would be doing. My first day I got to experience them. They were absolutely crazy! Listening to people’s situations, what they need in terms of assistance, trying to figure out a plan with them, I mean, there is just so much to it. Not to mention that in the few days I have been there I have spoken with people from Zimbabwe, Somalia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Rwanda, and Angola. Holy shit, this is a dream come true.

My third day I arrived at the office via train (all by myself, I’m a big kid now) and was immediately told that I was leaving. Where? The Haven Night Shelter in Green Point. For what? To put on a presentation about refugee rights… ok… This turned out to be an amazing experience, quite eye-opening really. Instead of presenting we opened it up as a forum for people to share what problems they experienced in the shelter, with refugees, in everyday life, etc. The residents weren’t all refugees but South Africans of all gender, color, religion, you name it. Xenophobia has been a big issue in recent history in South Africa. Some of our clients are victims of xenophobia in Cape Town. This was a big issue brought up in the forum, one which my boss would like me to focus on: holding workshops in this particular shelter to combat xenophobia. How? Not quite sure but I feel up for the task. That same day my new roommate arrived in Cape Town. Not only are we living together but she is working at the CTRC with me. We spent our night brainstorming sustainable programs to start at the CTRC. Not a bad way to spend a Friday night, working to change the world.

On a side note, it has become a running joke that the refugees think that I am in charge of the Centre… This arose during my first day, during one of the interviews one of the men would only speak to me though it was Christina asking the questions. At the forum Wednesday, we met one of our clients that I had spoken with the day before. She greeted me, completely ignoring my boss. Luckily Christina found this funny rather than rude, thus the joke began.

This past Thursday was Heritage Day, a public holiday celebrated across South Africa. I’m sure there is a more thorough explanation for it’s origination but for me, it meant a day to sleep in, dine with the other interns, and generally recover from my first few days at work. Supposedly Heritage Day is a day where everyone has a braai (bbq). We passed one on our way to coffee in the morning but alas, my South African roommates did not braai for us. Though a braai for me would typically be sad and depressing as I do not eat meat, I think I would try it at least once here. I mean, it’s not like I can make it to South Africa on a whim so for the chance to say I’ve tried it, why not? Speaking of roommates… After I challenged myself to get to know my South African roommates, the plan nose-dived.That is putting it lightly. One disappeared for a time and the other refused to acknowledge my presence. It was a complicated situation made weirder by the fact that we had never really been introduced… But, I am delighted to say that things are on the mend. Khaliso returned, and Pamusa spoke to me for the first time the other day sans glaring! Life is good again!

I would like to say that I have begun exploring Cape Town. Though the means by which I began were, how shall I put it, less than comforting, I have begun! On Saturday morning, me and Samantha set off on an adventure to Signal Hill and Lion’s Head despite some rough weather advisories. We’re both from the Pacific Northwest, we can handle some rain! We decided to do this the most inexpensive way we could: train then walking. We got down town on the train, took the first road we came to that headed straight, got to the base of the hill and began trekking up it. For a brief period we were followed by a strange man. Occasionally we would look back and see him sitting down in the tall grass, only his hat exposed. We followed a network of trails until we reached a barbed-wire fence which announced the presence of the noon gun! It was such a treat to come across it when we had only expected to see Signal Hill. The canon is fired everyday at noon from a now defunct military installation and luckily we were able to hear much farther down the trail.

After taking some pictures and getting glares from a 10 year old, we set out again up the hill. An old service road offered us a sheltered path up most of Signal Hill though we were fairly isolated from any human contact. I’ll try to describe those moments: Two girls dressed in hiking attire. Gravel road heading uphill into the forest. Beautiful wild flowers surrounding the road. Foreign trees. Being in nature, in the middle of a an industrialized city. Having to remind ourselves that we are in Africa! By the time we reached the top of Signal Hill the weather had severely picked up. We found ourselves in the midst of quickly passing clouds wrecking havoc on the city and coastline below. Lion’s Head and Table Mountain were completely out of sight. The wind was so intense that standing on the ledge overlooking the Atlantic, me and Samantha had to yell at each other though we were standing a foot apart. It seems almost wrong to scream at someone how beautiful the scenery is when the wind is absolutely howling and you’d rather be away from the ledge. We scrapped our plans for climbing Lion’s Head as it would be pretty dangerous, apparently there are chains and ladders involved in the hike, not something you want to do when you can’t see anything but clouds. Thus we descended the hill, all the while listening to the call to prayer from the city mingling with the rustling trees. I must say, I absolutely love life in Cape Town so far!