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).