All work and no play makes Thomas a dull Missionary

So, the post everyone is interested in. The “adventures” I have been on so far. I may have only been in South Africa for a little over three weeks, but I have still been able to have some good times.

The first one I should mention occurred the first weekend I was in Cape Town. One of the other workers at HOPE, Jenny Dick, invited both Lacey (the other YASC intern) and I to a braai (known as a barbeque in the states) on Sunday, October 4^th. It was wonderful to attend, as we got to meet her husband, her brother, her sons and her daughter as well as her grandchildren and some family friends. They were all very wonderful to us and we had a great time getting to know them and enjoying some delicious food. I’ve never really been one to enjoy the spot light, so it was nice to be able to share it with Lacey. We were always asked to take the first share of each dish, which is something I hate doing, because I never know how much to take. The braai also turned into an early birthday celebration for Jenny and I, since we both share a birthday on the 8^th of October (she discovered this on my first day in Cape Town and we immediately became “Twins”). Overall it turned into a wonderful Sunday afternoon spent enjoying the company of a very loving and caring family that accepted us into their home and made us feel welcome.

The next event worthy of note would have to be my actual birthday. Besides the birthday celebration we had in the office (luckily the responsibility for lunch and cake was shared between Jenny and I) I was able to visit Table Mountain. Table Mountain is the ever present watchman of Cape Town. It literally overlooks the city, and is the most prominent landscape feature in the immediate vicinity, with the city sprawling around and out from its base. It stands roughly 1,086 meters (3,563 ft) high at its highest, and the mostly flat plateau from which it derives its name stretches approximately 3 kilometers (2mi) from edge to edge. It turns out that South African citizens get a free ticket up the Table Mountain Cable Car for their birthday, which can be used at any time during their birthday or the 7 days that follow, and Jenny regularly goes up to the top every year. Luckily for me she knows someone who was able to get me a ticket as well. We left the office shortly after lunch and traveled to the cable car station and took the ride up to the top. Talk about beautiful views. I ran my phone battery dead trying to capture the amazing views of Cape Town, the sea, and the surrounding area. Trust me people, the pictures do not do it justice, not in the slightest. We spent a few hours walking around, taking in the sites, hiking and jumping over rocks, and generally just en


joying the beautiful views and weather. At one point we witnessed a double rainbow in one of the ravines. I highly recommend to anyone who visits Cape Town, or South Africa in general, that Table Mountain be on your list of things to do. You can take the cable car ride to the top or hike up one of its many paths, which I look forward to attempting one day.

After my first week in Cape Town, I changed residences from the Schoenstatt retreat center to Ann House, which is a student accommodation house offered by the Anglican chaplaincy and run by St. Paul’s in Rondebosch. This is where Lacey is living for her year with HOPE. The combination of now having a person I knew that was also from the States, as well as having access to more things to do, meant an increase of possibilities. Ann House is located right next to the middle campus of UCT (University of Cape Town), and there were many more opportunities than there was at Schoenstatt (which had lovely surrounding areas, but not much to do within walking distance). The next week or so found Lacey and I, accompanied by either Coworkers or other residents in Ann house, exploring the area and trying different restaurants usually suggested for their selection of craft beers (Lacey is a self-professed beer snob). One place, the tap room, had an amazing IPA as well as the best lamb burger I have ever had. Another place had a nice outside eating area where we were able to watch the US rugby team get absolutely steamrolled by the South African Rugby team in the Rugby World cup. Wandering around the UTC campus was interesting as well.

The most recent excursion that was undertaken was my last Saturday in Cape Town. Ignatius (Iggy) France, another member of HOPE, had tipped us off about a craft beer festival occurring in his town of Stellenbosch on the 17^th of October. We traveled out there and met up with him his girlfriend and went to the festival. It was great. There was a variety of interesting craft breweries there with some really great wares. My favorite had to be either the Wild Beat stout or Everson’s mulled cider. To top off the day the

festival showed the South African rugby team playing the Wales Rugby team. Imagine a ton of slightly tipsy to roaringly  intoxicated (the group next to us) South African fans and a few wales fans (only one of whom had their jersey on) all watching the game together on a giant screen under the sun just enjoying each other’s company, some good beer, and life in general. It was great. To make it even better, the Springboks won.

Only three weeks in, and I’ve had a great time. I can’t wait to see what I will get up to now that I’m in beautiful Hawston, with a world renowned whale watching village, Hermanous, nearby. 

Three weeks in, might as well start posting.

I’ve been here for around three weeks now, and surprising that makes updating my blog that much harder. If I were to include everything about my time here, we would end up with another very very long post, so instead I think I will break it down into more manageable posts over the next few days.

Let’s begin with my work. Today, the 21^st of October, was my actual first day working at the Overstrand Care Center in Hawston. The delay in beginning my work here was due to some issues with arranging housing in Hawston. Those issues have been sorted for a little while by having me stay with a local family who lives across from the clinic (I will cover more about that in a letter post). During the first two and a half weeks of being in South Africa I was staying and working in Cape Town in the HOPE Africa main office.

My very first day here was spent at a HOPE Africa Retreat. Once a year HOPE gathers all of their workers together for workshop day where they spend time in reflection and gathering of themselves facilitated through a day of mostly silence and meditation. It was a very interesting first day with the organization. The second day I tagged along to a presentation that HOPE was giving to an organization called the Mothers Union, which is like a group of women in the church. Mothers unions are very influential here and HOPE has worked with many of them throughout Anglican Church of Southern Africa to enact many of their programs. This particular group had traveled in from one of the more remote areas to hear presentations from HOPE as well as some other organizations within the Anglican Church. The presentations were set up to happen in the fellowship hall of the church that was just a few blocks from the HOPE main office. Ignatius France and Melanie Pakoe (HOPE Africa Staff) as well as Lacey Oliver (another YASC member assigned to HOPE’s office) and I all arrived early to set up the hall for the presentation.  All was well, until we received a call from the Mothers Union’s liaison. Apparently there had been a dispute with the bus drivers (like tour buses, there was about 90 of these Mothers union member here) that they had hired to bring them from their hotel to the church. They were unsure if they would be able to make it in time. Since there was a time crunch between this event and another even that we had to be at, we packed everything up and hoped in the car to go to the hotel to give the presentation there (this was after waiting about 45 minuntes to see if they could resolve it with the bus drivers). On the way to the hotel we received another call saying that it had been sorted out and they were on the way. So we raced back to the venue and set everything up again as quickly as we could Ignatius (Iggy) gave HOPE Africa’s portion of the presentation, and when that was finished we hopped in the car again and set off for our next appointment. There was a daycare center in one of the townships where there was to be a program of handing out school uniforms to the children of the area. Hope had helped collaborate on this project and so we attended. Iggy again spoke a little, but it was more just this time being a part of the collaborative group. After that it was the end of my first two days in South Africa and the beginning of my first weekend (more on that in another post).

The next two work weeks found me in the HOPE main office doing what I could to help out. I received orientation and found out more about what the program does in all its aspects. I was put in charge of emailing out information on the Sustainable Development Goals, which are goals set by the UN to end poverty and improve the wellbeing of all the world’s citizens (anyone familiar with the Millennial Developmental Goals will understand it as a continuation and evolution of those). I gathered some of the information and then sent it to the Bishops and Parishes in our contact list. That takes a lot longer than it sounds when the Bishops are being emailed individually and the contact list has over 2,500 people on it. After that I set about compiling all the emails that were kicked back as incorrect emails.  Also, a task that takes longer than it sounds. After that it was mostly just helping out on projects as I was asked, gathering information, and doing other intern related tasks (getting lunch, making coffee and tea, the likes).

My First day in the clinic has gone well. As far as I can tell the work will be a little bit different than what I am used to as a Certified Athletic Trainer, but I will hopefully be able to find my place. They do a lot of longer term care, and I worked mostly with the stroke patients who are receiving physical therapy. I will also be working with the in home care givers helping those patients receive physical therapy as well.

That is all I have for the work aspects of my time here so far. Stay tuned for the really exciting stuff, what I have done with my free time (Celebrating my birthday in South Africa is just one of my adventures so far).