One Year Ago Today

If I were to rewind back in time to exactly one year ago today, I would be aboard South African Airways, in transit across the vast Atlantic Ocean. 29 brutal hours later, I would be back home in suburban Georgia, recouperating from the time difference. As sad as it makes me feel (eep, it is actually heart-breaking to think about...), I can't help but only reflect upon the good times. There are some moments that are so highly vivid and engrained in my memory that it seems absolutely ridiculous that a year has passed. But the fact that I am forgetting street names, store names, even people's names is a sign that Cape Town is slipping away from my memory. It makes me sad. I wish I could have stayed longer than 4 months. I consider Cape Town to have been my home, even if it was just temporary. A huge, huge, HUGE (I don't think I can emphasize enough) piece of my heart was left behind there. If I were to personify South Africa [Mama Africa], I would call her beautiful, both inside and out. Words cannot do justice to how shakingly eye-opening and incredible my experience was. Even with pictures to browse through right in front of me, I like to rely mostly on what I remember - faded memories, mental pictures, smells, sounds, sights.

I went to Cape Town without knowing a single soul. Seems as though that has been the trend to all the places I have lived in outside of Georgia - Boston, Lyon, Cape Town. Of course, it never hurts to know someone there already, but there is something so raw and stimulating about going to a new place all by yourself. It tests your independence, your spirit, your ambition. It ends up being about what YOU make of it since you have no one else to depend on. Needless to say, my solo journey to Cape Town turned out to be more than just a learning experience for myself - it turned out to be an unforgettable adventure shared with new friends from all around the world. I am indescribably thankful to have left with handfuls of amazing friends who I still keep in touch with to this day. Talented, intelligent, and down-to-earth souls who have enriched my life by their mere presence.

Here comes a stream of consciousness of random memories from Cape Town - excuse the bad syntax.

who knew such a love would ensue. the highest of expectations were met. meeting locals and becoming friends with them. exploring some of the most beautiful sights in the world. garden route road trip. sky diving. learning how to drive a manual car - emphasis on no power streering and no automatic anything - on the wrong side of the road and on the wrong side of the car. i think k feared for his life the first time we took taz out on the streets. the joy i felt the first time i saw an african sunset. the first time i heard the waves crash against the giant fiction-like boulders. the first time i reached lion's head and felt like i was on top of the world. the first time i successfully drove through the hilly cliffs by the ocean without stalling. surreal. writing these memories seem like i am pulling them out of thin air. it really was a dream. my own world. the pearly white smiles of children from the township sites i visited for work. the infectious joie de vivre they possessed. so thankful for so little. rubbed off on me to not take anything for granted and to enjoy the pure simplicity of everything in life. the winelands. the food. oh, the food. spontaneous bar hopping on long street. street food. late nights, late talks. game drive on horseback. zebras, giraffes, elephants, springbok, hippos. work culture. family like environment. breath of fresh air from corporate world. sigh. it hurts now. reflecting and reminiscing on all of this is literally breaking my heart. will continue with more when i get home from work with pictures.

--edit: picture overload!--

knysna keys

a scenic stop in the middle of being lost on the garden route road trip

cango caves adventure tour

meet nomonde - one of the strongest women i know, with a heart of gold

nomonde invited me into her home and cooked me a lovely dinner

wola nani life - zanele and i posing for the camera while evaluating some of our craft products

meet yonela - my favorite girl who came into the office

leigh-ann and i - she's about ready to pop!

philippi - one of my township site visits. the children are playing their version of "red light, green light"

mziwake's daughter - so adorable and sweet

a few clients learning a new product for the paper mache product line

philippi - the children learning how to take care of their bodies while the teacher used a garden as an analogy

silly mziwake made us pose this way :)

philippi

philippi

khayelitsha - i love these smiley boys!

they danced for us :)

visiting the wola nani site right after their day of school

gugulethu site - look at her million dollar smile!

counseling/support group in gugulethu

zula - absolute favorite bar in cape town

a few minutes before passing security :(

royale cafe - best burgers in town!

an alley in the obz

street art in the obz

tagging adventure

tagging adventure

tagging adventure

tagging adventure

first stop of the graffiti/tagging adventure

skydiving - one of the best decisions of my life

addis, one of my favorite restaurants in cape town

mama and baby elephant in knysna

passing through wilderness

chasing the sunset at wilderness

en route from knysna

oh african sunsets, i miss you

playing affectionately with one another

resting its heavy trunk

one of my favorite memories - the knysna elephant park

my lovely friend, agnes came all the way from france to visit!

first rugby game i've been to

strandloper beach

waterford - favorite wineland

handmade baobab trees (got one of these guys for myself!)

oh, sometimes you see baboons on the road - just make sure you don't have food on you

addis - ethiopian food, mmyum

where to go next?!

waterford - wine tasting day

meet tazz - the toyota devil i drove around

seapoint sunset

seapoint sunset

on the road

it takes both rain and sunshine to make a rainbow

horseriding at sunset along noordhoek beach

nelson mandela's cell while he was imprisoned on robben island

dessert time after wine tasting

construction of one of the stadiums for the world cup 2010

wakame - my favorite sushi place in cape town

kirstenbosch gardens - summer concert series

my first ostrich burger - very tasty!

one of my fondest memories - atop lion's head with a local who was teaching me how to play the djembe

feeling like i was on top of the world

charlie's mucking afazing muffins

love is all i've got for south africa

colorful huts on simon's town beach

the view from my amazing apartment

scary table cloth

driving to franschoek for a chocolate adventure

landing from an amazing freefall

llandundo beach (thanks neha!) - watching surfers in the sunset

lion's head sunset

sunset view from table mountain

the lazy fun way - cable car-ing up to table mountain

my first hike - this sight was breathtaking

cape agulhas, straddling the point where the indian and atlantic oceans meet

bo-kaap - a beautiful, colorful neighborhood located on the slopes of signal hill

the classic table cloth

--another edit for Jess--

The reason I was there... :)

I was there for my second co-op! I spent a few months working voluntarily at an NGO that specialized in bringing aid and relief to communities hardest hit with the HIV epidemic. The organization is called Wola Nani, which means "we embrace and develop one another" in Xhosa...one of South Africa's 11 official language. I spent most of my time in the office working on their income generation project - a crafts production that allowed HIV+ victims to earn money so they could stress less about typical anxieties like feeding their families. I worked on new product development for their line of paper mache items. So thinking of new paper designs and colors to work with. Loads of fun to see the entire operation of drafting the idea in my head, to seeing it in production, and then seeing buyers interested in them. The most noticeable buyer Wola Nani has had in the international realm is Anthropologie and I pretty much had tears when I came back to the states and saw the bowls in their stores. It was just incredible to see a small grassroots organization located halfway across the world selling their products to a store with a positive and successful reputation.

So yes - that is what I spent most of my time doing. :) I had many opportunities to participate in other fun things after work and on weekends, but I would love/need to go back so I can experience more of South African life!

I feel like everyone needs to get a small taste of it too, even for a 2 week visit :)