Emily--so much to do, so little time

Emily climbing Lion's Head

This weekend was by a long shot, one of my favorites so far. We managed to have as busy of a weekend as we had during orientation and we planned it all out on our own, with some helpful suggestions from Ben, Jess and Marita! On Friday we all went to the beach and a group of us did the St. James walk along the coast into St. James. We browsed through the shops and a few of us had an amazing lunch at this New York style café where Tom and Taylor consumed two of the largest burgers I’ve ever seen! On Saturday we went to The Old Biscuit Mill, a really neat marketplace with tons of local and fresh products and some of the most delicious food I’ve ever had! After that we went into the city and took part in the annual Gay Pride Parade. This was an amazing event. It was the first march of its kind that I had attended and so I was quite surprised at its size and its color! Everywhere you looked there was a new bright color or a bedazzled social justice comrade. My favorite part of the parade was seeing the few people protesting it being covered in bubbles by the LGBTQ community of having twenty whistles blown right in their face. Needless to say, their protesting went unheard for the most part. It was by far one of my favorite events that we have been to while in Africa. After the parade a few of us went to hangout with Logan’s French co-workers and it was nice to sit down and talk to students from another country. Sunday we went to the famous Mzoli’s, an outdoor Braii/BBQ where you bring your own meat and alcohol and they cook for you. We went with some of the South African friends we had made over our human rights training weekend and it was nice to see them again in a more relaxed setting. Buying alcohol out of someone’s home and being asked at least 14X to buy a pair of sunglasses were some of the unique experiences we shared there. There was mist being spewed from the ceiling to keep us cool and many people were dancing in the street so that it had to be closed down. After Mzoli’s our group went to the Gold Fish concert in the ever-beautiful Kirstenbosch Gardens. It was a great show and even if the music had been terrible sitting in that garden staring at the mountain is reward enough. It was an exhausting weekend but well worth the lack of sleep. It is amazing to see the mixing of cultures here in South Africa. I’ve never met so many different people from so many different places. I am proud to say that I now have friends from South Africa, Zimbabwe, Somalia, France and Ireland, whom I most likely never would have met had I stayed home in Connecticut. I’m glad our group has begun to feel the sense of urgency to do everything and see everything while we are here because I know we all realize our time in this amazing place is dwindling. I loved being immersed in the culture this weekend whether it be at Mzoli’s or the Gay Pride Parade. I feel that I learned a lot and the most rewarding part of it all was that I felt welcome in each community I took part in.