Hello everyone.

As of one week ago, I have officially been in South Africa for one month. It is incredible. The time is absolutely flying by, but I am cherishing every moment.

In work related news, last Friday we held our postponed dialogue on racism and xenophobia at the Zolani Hall in Nyanga, a township outside of Cape Town. It went really well. We had nearly 200 people come, which was somewhat surprising considering the short-term notice we gave to everyone. The speakers were great and many guests showed a real passion and interest for coming together and working to eradicate racism and xenophobia. There was some tension, especially when we broke into small groups to address specific issues (like how can we work together to improve our communities and fight crime), but overall the discussions were constuctive and helpful. By the end, we had many participants coming up to us asking to have more dialogues in other townships.

On Monday, we found out in our weekly meeting that sometime this month or next, we will all be heading to the Eastern Cape for work related to the Racism and Xenophobia Project, which will be incredible. We will drive, which should take a day, and on the way there, we will be stopping by a place to bungee jump--the highest bungee jumping spot in the world at 216 meters. If I can work up the courage, I will do it and you all will surely hear about it. :)

I am continuing to work on my proposals. This week, I wrapped up my country profiles. Right now, I am working on a proposal focusing on what we call the Trilogue--the correlation between gender-based violence, HIV/AIDS and poverty. Our director, Judith, will be heading to a meeting to present our proposal at the end of the month to try to gain financing for it. If this proposal is successful, it would be really awesome because it would mean that I helped bring in more money and jumpstarted a really important project for Samgi. I will write more on that as it develops.

This past week has been really laid back, but it flew by. I woke up Monday and the next thing I knew I was going to sleep on Friday. I am now heading into my sixth week in Cape Town...my trip is nearly half way over! Last Sunday, I went with a couple of my roommates, Kate and Kelly, into downtown to hang out for the afternoon. We walked through a park called the Company's Garden. It is really beautiful and relaxing, full of amazing plants and flowers and super friendly squirrels who will run right up to you looking for food in your hands. Wednesday, we got to experience a real rarity here in Cape Town: a world famous band playing live. A group of us went and saw Coldplay. It was incredible. If you head over to videos, you can see an amazing recording on "Fix You", one of my favorite songs by the band (they started out the song with "Rehab" by Amy Winehouse, which was really cool. I love bands that play cover songs at their live shows). Needless to say, it was an awesome experience and a nice surprise considering I definitely didn't think going to a huge concert was on my list of possible things to do here. Friday we went wine tasting at a gorgeous winery called High Constantia. It is small and intimate, perfect for the small group of us who went. The wine was great and the company better.

And now to the part of my blog that I know many of you look forward to (I'm looking at you, Megan)...the food. :) Last Thursday, I had Thai food, fried noodles with duck. The dish as a whole wasn't particularly memorable, but that was the first time I had duck and I liked it a lot. It's light, but has a lot of flavor. Last Saturday at Biscuit Mill I had the omelet I promised I would have. It had salmon, white cheddar, rocket (a type of South African lettuce) and mushrooms. I will confess, it tasted as amazing as it looked. Last night, I went to a local restaurant and bar here in Obs called Trenchtown. It has a lot of Caribbean influence and it is really relaxed and friendly. A fellow intern and I split an appetizer (Chili Poppers) and a dinner (a jerk chicken burger with camembert and cranberries). The chicken burger was so awesome and paired surprisingly well with the chili poppers. Finally, this morning was, again, the Biscuit Mill. Today I decided to go with a sweet breakfast since my meals there have only consisted of savory thus far. So, this morning a got pancakes with blueberries and ricotta cheese in the batter, with a bit of whipped cream on the side and covered in syrup and a side of bacon. One word to describe this dish: amazing. I wasn't expecting the ricotta to actually be in the pancakes; we thought it would be on top. It was so good though and a perfect compliment to the blueberries. The internet in our house went down this morning so this afternoon I, along with Kate and Kelly, headed down to my favorite restaurant Hello Sailor to use their internet. (This is precisely where I am right now). Because you have to buy some food to use it, we all decided to try malva. Malva is a South African dessert; it is a spongy-textured pudding served warm, usually with ice cream or, as in this case, créme anglaise. It is super good, something every visitor to South Africa needs to try.

Well that's all I have for now. I hope to post again soon. :)

The photo is a common flower here in South Africa, the Bird of Paradise flower or the Crane flower are its common names. I took this picture in the Company's Garden.