Life in Cape Town

So, I have been here over 2 weeks now and am fully settled in and having an amazing time!! Living in Obs is wicked, its all students and artists; a total mix of people and a crazy, vibrant place to be! I live with 7 awesome people from all over the world in the cosiest house, there's always something going on and people coming and going.
The refugee centre where I work is hectic. The day I started I was thrown in the deep end and had to interview a family who were living 10 in one room and had had to flee the DRC as they had been attacked; the kids had seen their mother murdered. It is a hard job as you have to make a call on how to assist that person, obviously I wanted to pay rent for them to live in a house and food for a few months until they could become self sufficient etc but on the other hand, none of the adults were working or even looking for work and when asked how they live, they responded that they live off the kindness of church members so by assisting I would have merely reinforced their lifestyle of expecting handouts so it can be very emotionally draining! Another sad issue is that some of the refugees know how to work the system. We were deeply concerned for one woman who claimed to be living in a garage with her 2 children; her husband had left and she was unemployed and she was about to be evicted. In most cases, we do a home visit to assess living conditions before we decide how to assist and when we visited her, the husband answered the door and turned out to be a mechanic so she had lied to make herself seem more vulnerable. I started to find the job a challenge as it wasn't very relevant to my field and I didn't feel I was gaining anything that was useful for my degree. Last week, I was moved into a research project which involves me making a database of every business that we have funded and how those businesses are doing now; at the end I have to make a proposal on how the UN grants can be better distributed to have a greater impact on the families and communities which will be very interesting for me! The people I work with are great, our office is full of laughter, we have Afrikaaners, English, interns, Xhosas, a few former refugees and other internationals; I am totally enjoying the mix of humour and culture. They are all so enthusiastic for life here and we are making plans to buy fish straight off the boats and braai them on the beach and someone will often cook their local dish for lunch which has ranged from the mammoth Gatsby to a meal I can't remember how to say but it is porridge with sour milk!!

I am really enjoying the local area; if I lived in Cape Town 10 years, I would still have more to see and do, this city is alive with activity! The people I am staying with have not really seen Cape Town so we are having a great time being tourists and making the most of every second of time off work! My bosses are great about letting me go off for activities, I took a half day on Friday to go on a wine tour in Stellenbosch! My friend Pieter has been around as well and he is Cape Townian so he has been driving us around!
Last weekend, we went into central Cape Town go shopping and enjoy the Company gardens before heading to Stellenbosch to explore the beautiful city and see the botanical gardens and then we had a picnic and wine on the beach in blaauwberg. On Sunday, I had a lovely morning with friends who then took us up walking through the Table Mountain nature reserve in the afternoon and we enjoyed the stunning Newlands Forest, Rhodes Memorial and Signal Hill. We had a proper SA braai in the evening, with 6 types of meat, local wine and I baked bran muffins; they're my favourite! We have also been to Canal Walk; a huge shopping centre on the outskirts of Cape Town and had such a fun day there but I am totally shopped out, its everything you need under 1 roof!
This weekend was so also really busy! Friday afternoon saw us take a wine tour at Spier (I am now a wine connoisseur!), have drinks at Moyo (one of the most beautiful restaurants in South Africa) and then we had a massive house party at my house for some of the guys who were leaving. On Saturday, we had breakfast at the Old Biscuit Mill which is incredible! It is an like a public market with every food you could ever dream of and everything is the best of the best! They sell clothes, antiques, furniture, crafts. It was packed; you could spend a day there! However, we left promptly to go rock climbing at the local centre which was great fun and the walls there are intense, its 2 days later and I still can't lift my arms fully up! In the afternoon we headed to Kirstenbosch gardens which was as beautiful as I remembered; we challenged ourselves a little by walking part way up Nursery Ravine, climbed up a waterfall and then came back down Skeleton Gorge. I seriously can't wait to fully climb Table Mountain!! On Sunday, we started early by heading out to Big Bay to surf. I haven't surfed in 2 years so was frankly, pretty rubbish but it was a hot day (I think SA is heading into spring at last!) and we had a lot of fun as the waves were massive so we got knocked about a bit! We ate local fish on the beach for lunch then had cocktails at Moyo (don't judge, its the weekend!). The Moyo in Big Bay is brilliant, the tables are in swimming pools so as you eat you are up to your knees in a water; there is also a full pool where you can drink cocktails on bar stools in the pool! We spent the rest of the afternoon at the Waterfront, shopping, watching the boats come and go in the harbour and watching the Arsenal match in the local pub. At 5pm there was a free concert in the amphitheatre which was great, especially when the drummer went into a digereedoo instrumental!
A few of us have been running regularly around the mountains and forests in the evenings which lets us get to see the city from up high at night and get a bit fitter at the same time! Next weekend, we are hoping to hire a car and explore the area outside Cape Town around Hermanus and Cape Point and Somerset West and do some serious hiking!
On regular weeknights, we fill our time by trying to work our way through every Obs restaurant, watch films in each others houses and having new things like Xhosa lessons (Molo, Unjani!) It is wonderful to get immersed in Cape Town life; even catching the trains and taxis are eventful (We have been sung to, preached at and heard the jazz keyboard-the trains are crazy for busking!).

I think that is literally everything now! This week is already shaping up to be very exciting so I'll keep you posted with all I'm up to, hopefully more frequently and please keep the emails and updates coming on your lives and I miss you all so much and love being kept in touch!!