A foodie from Cape Town who is going to Kenya. Yebo!

The two month mark has come and gone and scary to say, but I may not get a chance to blog until the 3 month mark on November 9th. The reason being (for all you blog skimmers, I'm blessing you with the big news first this post):

I'M GOING TO KENYA!!!

The grant came through, my boss is amazing, and now... I'm off to Nairobi and Muhuru Bay for two weeks!!!

You're probably sitting there wondering... How the heck did she manage that?! And to be honest, I'm still not entirely sure either. After participating in the Generation Skillz Training of Coaches in early September I was given the opportunity to get involved in curriculum development and next thing I knew work entailed...

     -Re-writing a lesson for girls that addresses puberty, sex education, and mother-to-child HIV      transmission

     -Helping out with a grant proposal to Nike (RED)

     -Learning how to assess potential implementing partners

This Saturday(October 23rd) I'll be flying off to Nairobi, putting my public speaking skills to the test and helping Taylor out with a Training of Coaches for a week. From there I'll be hopping on a bus and making a solo trip to Muhuru Bay (see below) to check out WISER (Women's Institute for Secondary Education and Research).

WISER, associated with Duke University, (check them out at WISERgirls.org) "is a non-profit NGO working to build the first girls' boarding school and research center in Muhuru Bay, Kenya". With only 5% of girls in the community finishing secondary school and an estimated HIV prevalence of 38%, Muhuru Bay definitely needs WISER and is a perfect spot for Grassroot Soccer to have an implementing partner. Much more to come on this in the next few weeks...

A big thanks to my co-workers/bosses: Tay for getting me involved in Kenya curriculum development, Elise for suggesting a visit to WISER and Leah for giving me such incredible growth opportunities. I can't wait to get to Kenya and make it all count!

And just when I thought work couldn't possibly get any better...

-Sara and I had a conversation with Zak and Elise about starting a research project to help gear up for the Randomized Control Trial that starts in 2012.

-The Gear-for-Education exchange program that Julie and I dream of may actually happen. December's inventory numbers will tell all..

-Um... did I mention that I'm traveling to KENYA for work?!!!!!!

WOWZA.

Starvation

In other news, I got ROCKED by Rockin' the Daisies. We arrived early on Friday evening, I enjoyed some bizarre South African music, ate some chicken and lamb schwarma, finished off a nutella and banana crepe and then... proceeded to spend the entire night getting sick outside our tent. My roommates woke up to me curled up in a sleeping bag in a lawn chair (I quickly got over unzipping the tent flap to run outside) and drove me the hour and a half back to Cape Town. Sad/happy to say, there are no pictures from the weekend. My rockin' in short: Saturday was spent trying to calm a 102 degree fever, Sunday attempting to drink water and Monday shoving crackers down my throat. Food poisoning or nasty South African flu... not entirely sure. I do know, however, that I won't be eating meat any time soon. Currently Day 10 as a pescetarian and still feeling strong... 

Indulgence

-Talia and I currently have a 200 Rand bet to see who can stay off of chocolate for longer. While I've steered clear of Cadbury bars, my roommates are a little worried about my sudden interest in vanilla ice cream and Mentos... 

-Jamo, T, Graham and I splurged and ate in style yesterday at the swanky Blonde Restaurant, set literally 30 steps from our front door. Combine South African prices with 50% off Sundays and you get a meal complete with: 

     -a scrumptious slice of salty sourdough

     -crisp bread with salmon pâté

     -an amuse-bouche (in our case, a tiny shot of soup from the chef)

     -a mini tarte tatin topped with tomato and goat's feta

     -a spoonful of lime and ginger jelly to cleanse the pallet 

     -a main course of pan-fried sole served with pommes-frites 

     -small chocolate truffles (don't worry, I steered clear)

All for a grand total of....... 12 US DOLLARS. 

Hi. I'm from Cape Town.

Beyond the eating extravaganza at Blonde, this past weekend was one of the first where I actually felt like a true Cape Town resident. Saturday: grabbed a croissant and read the paper at Cook Shop Bakery, shopped around the boutiques at the Old Biscuit Mill, tanned down at Camp's Bay beach, played tennis with Taylor on Hof street, and danced the night away on Long Street. Sunday: ran along the promenade (dodging around hundreds of people participating in a Ghandi Peace Walk), watched movies with Marg, and did some work from home. It's official. I'm a local.

Below are some pictures from the world's ugliest beach, Camp's Bay... Ha. But seriously, it isn't on our list of favorites. That should give you a good idea of how gorgeous the others are. 

Signing off for now, but be on the lookout for an update from Kenya.

Empty House Weeks/Weekends

Heritage Day Weekend

The past two weeks have been a little quieter than most with Talia and Julie spending Heritage Day weekend in Soweto, Graham working in Port Elizabeth for a week, and Jamison house sitting for our co-worker Matt, but rest assured Cape Town has continued to impress. 

September 24th marked Heritage Day for South Africans and for me, my first three day weekend in Cape Town. With Jules, T and Graham absent for the weekend, the mood in the intern house was a little different but we certainly kept ourselves busy. First off, the office got rowdy and we had a dance off prior to departing for the weekend.

 Thursday evening was spent at one of Cape Town's first ever beer festivals situated in the Old Biscuit Mill (of course the event was full of posh, really good looking people) and on Friday, Margs Sara and I walked around the cute, old fisherman's town, Kalk's Bay. Knowing we had two more days of weekend ahead of us, we took our time and weaved in and out of secondhand book shops, antique stores jam-packed with washed up glass bottles, and dainty little designer boutiques. Taking a break to indulge at 'Pardon My French', an adorable, open air restaurant that sits right on the seawall, I found myself having flashbacks to summers spent exploring islands off the Maine coastline. After daydreaming for a bit and stuffing ourselves with yummy Nutella and banana and ham and mushroom crepes, we hopped in the car and continued down the shoreline to explore Boulder's Beach, the land of the penguins. (See pictures below!) 

 

The rest of the weekend consisted of getting dominated by some huge waves when trying to surf at Glenn's Beach, falling asleep on the beach and somehow managing to avoid a burn, running along the beach promenade in the rain, and baking cookies with two really awesome girls (a Midd alum, Hannah, who is Princeton in Africa fellow and knows Nina Sheth and a Brown alum, Melanie, who is doing public health research at UCT and going to Harvard Law next fall) who we met through my roommate, Margaret.

The Work Week

Coming back rested and refreshed after the long weekend, I hit the ground running and spent Monday helping out at our first ever Generation Skillz Skillz Holiday. Skillz Holidays are jam-packed, five-day programs that occur during school holidays. They are an intervention designed to deliver our program quickly and to also provide a safe space for kids while they aren't in school. While they are awesome they also require a lot of planning and since we only took four days to get this round of Skillz Holidays off the ground, the first few days were a bit crazy.


Think... 9-week intervention in five days. Now add to that the first ever delivery of our new curriculum Generation Skillz. NOT AN EASY THING TO COORDINATE. Jamison and I were assigned to help Ayanda (one of Grassroot's incredible Community Project Coordinators) and boyyyy was it a hectic day or what?! While Ayanda handled an overwhelming number of kids, newly trained coaches, and a difficult setting (we were working out of a library), Jamo and I spent most of the day in the car making sure that everyone got lunch, transporting coaches between the three sites where Skillz Holiday was taking place, and getting lost out on the unmarked roads of Khayelitsha and its surrounding townships. 


After Monday, I spent the rest of the week in the office getting to work on some grant research and curriculum development, but from speaking with the coaches and Jamo, T and Sara who stayed out at the sites, it sounds like everything came together and we were able to graduate almost 350 kids in one week! A big plus for the week: Generation Skillz was a huge hit!!

Saturday instead of being a day of rest and relaxation was instead spent out at Khaye helping to run a LIVESTRONG tournament that Margaret coordinated. Older men and women were attracted to the center by a soccer tournament (all players were 30+ years old), booths were set up next to the turf field to provide players and fans with educational information about cancer, and after every game, teams went through a Generation Skillz lesson. The day started off a bit slow, but by lunchtime there were people lining the sidelines and little kids were running around everywhere. At lunch time two cancer survivors gave speeches about the difficulties of living with cancer in South Africa and a young boys dance group performed for the crowd. At the end of the day there was a big awards ceremony, lots of dancing, and a car full of exhausted, dirty interns. It had been a veryyyy long week.

Llandudno and Garden Dinners

Tired after a long week, but in need of a good workout I woke up early on Sunday and made my way to Llandudno to surf with Tay Downs. Arriving at 9am, we beat the Sunday rush, had zero issues parking, and quickly made our way down to the secluded cove that is vacation home to David Beckham and Elton John, among many others. We threw on our ankle straps while standing in the worlds softest, white sand, paddled out through crystal clear water, and spent the rest of the morning riding (or at least trying to) fast, powerful, and perfectly breaking waves. While my attempts at standing up were pretty futile, Tay gave me some great tips and I enjoyed my most beautiful morning workout to date. I loved the spot so much that I dragged the whole crew back there three hours later to enjoy some sunbathing on one of the world's most beautiful beaches. 

That night we threw together a pasta dish and made our way to Taylor and Corey's apartment, which is tucked right at the end of Long Street and filled with beautiful African art and surfing magazines, for a family potluck dinner. Our crowd consisted of Tay, Corey, Elise, Amy, Ryan, Jeff, Tay's fabulous friend Daniel, and all of the interns (minus T who was visiting a friend). When all of the dishes were ready to go we made our way down to the little secret garden space that sits behind their apartment and enjoyed yummy food, great conversation, and best of all, Cadbury chocolate for dessert! 

On tap for this week... Corporate Soccer League in Sea Point tomorrow, Soweto interns Clint, AJ and Tizzy (from Hanover!!!) arrive tomorrow also, and ROCKIN' THE DAISIES THIS WEEKEND!!! Prepare for some wild stories...