Rooibos and work

Work at Khayelitsha was fantastic, but I have also already had some cool things come up at work on my other days at the desk. I have been assigned to take some video and photos for two separate videos. One is a thank you to GRS donators and the other a thank you to soccer players Sagna and Pires of Arsenal for their work as GRS Ambassadors. I am going to Khayelitsha tomorrow to get some of this footage. I have also been assigned to do a lot of the operations work for the new interns who are set to begin in August. I was also assigned to do a short three paragraph article to highlight GRS’s partner in Kenya that will be in the GRS newsletter.  So I am very excited about all the things that I will do. I will however say that 40 hour work weeks are tough! Once I am done with work I do not feel like being productive but rather prefer just sitting on the couch. And getting up in the morning is also tough.  But I think as most things in life, it just takes a bit of time to get used to and then it should be okay. Anytime I am bummed out that I have to be at work, I just think to myself, I am in Cape Town! What an opportunity! Soon the haze of sadness dissipates and rays of sun shine bright.

Moving onto the weather (what a segway!), evidently it has been rather great weather considering that it is winter. There have only been about 2 days in the 8 since I have arrived that it has rained (and it is the rainy season). I would say about 5 days have been almost perfect weather: 70-75 degrees during daytime with not a cloud in sight, including no “table cloth” on top of Table Mountain. During the night, it definitely gets much colder, maybe 50 degrees, I did not bring warm enough clothes to be in during the evenings especially considering no one really has heaters here.  

I am truly thankful for Rooibos tea (Rooibos literally means red bush), especially based on the temperature.  I usually never have tea in the U.S., only coffee. But everyone has instant coffee here and that stuff is awful! So I have between 2 to 8 cups of Rooibos tea per day. This tea is only native to the Western Cape of South Africa. It is starting to become popular around the world because it has high antioxidents and no real negative effects. It also is supposed to have an effect on clearing up acne and pimples… which I will say that I was trying to figure out why my face was clearing up so nicely and I think I might have found my answer! I will definitely be bringing a lot of Rooibos tea home with me!

           A post from my first weekend in Cape Town is soon to come!