I am almost half way done with my internship at Empilweni. So far it has not been at all what I was expecting. I was hoping to get a lot of one on one client contact and practice all of the skills I have been learning for the past year in the Family and Human Services program. Due to the language barrier, that has not really been possible. I have however been exposed to more diversity than I could have ever imagined. Working in Khayelitsha and observing the way of life has been an invaluable learning experience alone. My hope now is that observing in an environment I am not used to, will take the place of actually practicing skills. Comparing this internship to my internships I have had back home, I feel useless!

The fund-raiser project I am working on is also coming along much slower than I would like. I went to five schools last week to propose the project to them. Some were obviously more interested than others. The schools I went to were all located near the area I am staying (so not in the townships). I think that if I went to schools in the townships, it is likely that they would be much more interested. The only problem is that I cannot go to townships schools alone because of safety issues. My supervisor and I have been the only ones working on the project, so today I presented it to the rest of the staff. They seemed somewhat interested and said they would try to help. I am optimistic that they will find the time to take me around to local schools! At this point, this project seems like the only thing that I can do to make a difference during my time here.