Tom reflects on many things

A little more than three weeks in and I still haven’t gotten over my living situation.  I am living in a beautiful home in Cape Town, South Africa with 16 incredible people…what?!  Usually if it sounds too good to be true it is, except in this situation.  Living in the house has surpassed my lofty expectations and is already one of the greatest experiences of my life.

On a slightly more somber note, internships started last week and, for me at least, it has been an eye opening and not always easy to handle experience.  I am working at TAC in Khayelitsha.  I have found that Khayelitsha is not even close to anything I have ever experienced before.  Coming from a semi-sheltered life in an affluent suburb in Connecticut the idea of no running water or electricity is not even fully in my consciousness.  I have realized that I have taken advantage of this incredible privilege the entirety of my 20 years of living (even know I’m taking advantage of it as I type this).  One of the big challenges is avoiding the inevitable feeling of guilt in the pit of my stomach.  I’m learning that guilt accomplishes nothing; au contraire…it is completely counter productive.  Guilt is an excuse to do nothing, to sit on your bed and cry or pout.  Instead, I am working on motivating myself towards action (actively combating the injustices I am seeing in any capacity I can). 

On a completely other note (as you can tell I am all over the place right now) I am still reeling from my experience climbing Table Mountain.  I had never really been hiking before; suffice it to say that this one up Table Mountain will not be the last time I do it either.  I’m not sure if it was the endorphins rushing through my brain or what but I, at least temporarily, figured stuff out.

Right now I’m just trying to get better every day (this is always the goal).  Sorry this post is so scattered and unfocused and not particularly in depth.  It is a reflection of where my mind is right now.  It is not quite wrapping around what I’m experiencing yet, I’m sure when it does the blog posts will improve a little bit and they may actually say something.