Eating and Drinking my Way Through Cape Town

Another great week in Cape Town. I’ll try and keep this one short and sweet, because as my parents said, “you know you don’t have to write a novel, right?”

Here are some highlights, and if you can't tell by the title, there was a lot of food and wine this week: 

At work I’ve been working on some exciting projects including writing two grant proposals which will, cross your fingers, get us some money to help implement two awesome projects. Below is a video Ali, another intern/roommate, and I made for a separate grant proposal we submitted. These two girls, Sony and Athi, are from Khayelitsha and spoke about how AIDS was affecting their community and how something needed to be done.  It’s pretty unusual to submit a video with a grant but I think it turned out well and will be really impactful for the foundation to see.

On Tuesday it was a full moon, which I guess are a semi-big deal here? Ali, Susie (a short-term volunteer), and I went on the popular moonlight hike up Lion’s Head. We got made fun of a little at the office for doing something “so touristy,” but it worked out perfectly because it was a little overcast and is still winter here so it really wasn’t too crowded at all. We even brought wine, cheese, crackers and cookies up and had a nighttime picnic at the top. We stayed up for a while enjoying ourselves and ended up being the last ones left, which was both awesome and slightly scary.

Had to use the self-timer since we were the only ones left

Home

Wine and cheese at the summit

It was yet another great weekend here in CT. Friday I ate a burger the size of my head, and I’m not exaggerating. It was one of those super hipster places (everyone loves to hate on hipsters here, it’s funny) that only makes 50 burgers a night and you write your name on a chalkboard wall to order. It was definitely an experience.

I don't think this picture does it justice 

Saturday we went out to Khayelitsha to support another non-profit, Waves for Change, that held the first-ever surf competition there. It’s crazy that there is a beach so close to this gigantic township yet nobody ever goes there or knows how to swim. They’re doing some great work getting these kids involved in a hobby like surfing to keep them away from gangs and the dangers of Khayelitsha.

Khayelitsha beach 

We went straight from there to the great Mzoli’s! This place is kinda hard to explain, I was confused about it until I got there, but I’ll try my best.  Pretty much you go to this tiny butcher shop, tell them the kind of meat you want and how many people you have, and then you go next door to this big tent and drink until your meat is ready. Once it’s done it they serve it on a big metal platter, or in a plastic bucket depending on how many people you have, and then dig in with your fingers. It’s a really cool because it’s one of the few places where you can find any type of person (black, white, colored, local, tourist, expat, student), which is really unusual here. And yes, those are the politically correct terms. Anyway, we drank, ate and danced the day away and made plenty of new friends. If any of you come visit, a Mzoli’s trip might be in your future.

Sunday I was treated to a day in Constantia, part of wine country, by a co-worker of one of our family friends, the Wrights. I was spoiled to breakfast and lunch at two beautiful cellars with a nice walk in between. It was extremely nice of them to bring me along and it made me realize just how much I have yet to see of Cape Town. This is such a beautiful place.

Cellars-Hoenhort

Well this was definitely not short and sweet, so apologies for my novel-length blog posts.  Oops. I’m working on it. I’m also going to start to work on my GRS post (I realize I’ve said this before), I can’t wait to tell you about what I’m actually doing and this awesome organization I get to be a part of. I want to do it justice, which is why I’m taking so long to write about it, but I’ll make it happen “now now.” (In South Africa, “now now” is equivalent to saying, “soon” when there is no definitive time frame or end. As in, “Dad, are we there yet?” “Be quiet, we’ll be there now now.”)

Hope you all had a great week, and special birthday shout-outs to Sara Sutyak and Katie Pope! And happy birthday week to me, woo!