Table Mountain

We have settled into a nice routine of hiking once a week here, and we are loving it.  We have both moderately enjoyed hiking in the past but never pursued it regularly enough to get into good shape with it.  Now that one of the most beautiful mountains in the world is in our backyard and we have pretty relaxed schedules, there's no excuse!

Our first trip up Table Mountain was with Trevor, the Rotary coordinator for Ambassadorial Scholarships.  He was an excellent guide, taking us up some rock pitches off the normal trail that gave the hike a bit more challenge.  We felt proud when we came across this sign pointing down the trail we had just climbed!

 

Enjoy the views...

One to One

Today was a genuinely unique experience, and it has challenged the way I think about community service. 

The Roggebai Rotary Club that sponsors me joined together with a number of community service clubs and civic groups to sponsor an event for local residents struggling with various mental and physical handicaps.  The event is called “One to One,” because each person with a handicap is accompanied by a sponsor.  Basically, they take over Cape Town’s second largest convention center and set up a giant fair—with each organization creating their own booth or sideshow. 

 

The Roggebai Club had a booth featuring a rather simple game—but it included enough shining lights and loud noises to be fun.  The gist was that a metal ring had to be guided along a curved wire without touching.   Touching the ring to the wire would complete a circuit, resulting in lights and loud buzzing.  Some people had the necessary motor skills, while others just enjoyed making noise!  Everybody got a prize when they were done, and then it was off to the next booth.

 

This event was striking for two reasons:

 

§  First, so many charities are simply focused on dispensing money that they forget about the lived experience of the people they are trying to help.  It’s obviously important to think about food and shelter, but there can be an impersonal condescension in these efforts.  Being human is about more than having a full belly.  “One to One” may not have addressed institutionalized poverty or the greater trends of social justice, but a bunch of marginalized people were able to feel special. 

 

 §  Second, we tend to equate efficiency with moral value in our community service.  The best charities are the ones with the most fluid turnover in dollars and the slickest websites.  Love does not necessarily have anything to do with efficiency.  I was impressed that “One to One” was such an extravagant event that had nothing to do with institutional poverty whatsoever.  This is obviously not a long-term strategy for community development, but if charities cannot keep this more personal perspective in mind, their efforts will be hollow and condescending.  

Our Roggebai Club

Really.  It’s ours.  We are keeping it. 

 

These guys are awesome! When I first planned on studying in Cape Town, I anticipated having to stay with friends about ninety-minutes away and commute into the city every day while I looked for accommodation.  The Rotary Club of Roggebai would have none of it!  They met us at the airport en-masse, treated us to lunch, and then two local Rotarians put us up in their own home.  Anne and I felt like VIP’s!

 

I don’t think I realized how much fun a “Civic Organization” could be!  The average age of the Roggebai Club may be growing a bit long, but these guys know how to have fun.  They come together to serve not out of a somber sense of duty, but because they genuinely like each other and want to make a difference in their community. 

 

Perhaps most striking, however, is there sense of responsibility.  This club is involved with more service projects than they have members!  I am starting to get involved with some of these projects, but I thought I would attach a general list here.  

Baby Steps (Or...”I'm baby-stepping! I'm baby-stepping! I'm not a slacker.”)

Considering that today was our first day in a very new place, it was remarkably uneventful (probably a good thing).  We were met at the airport by a wonderful group of six Rotarians (one of whom is a fellow scholar), and they are taking good care of us.  We need it too!  Cape Town is a car city, and the suburbs where we are currently staying are even more spread out.  We can see the University from our hosts' house, but we are still reliant on them for rides.

 

The area is as beautiful as we had been told.  We had a wonderful view of the mountains as the plane was approaching, including the “tablecloth” -- a thick cloud sitting on top of Table Mountain. 

Our hosts for the first few days, Sonia and Humphrey, have been wonderfully welcoming and made us feel right at home.  They even explained cricket in a way that we could understand!  A match lasts 5 days, and at it is still possible to end with no winner – Humphrey calls it a sport with “a high degree of subtlety.”  Andrew started gnawing on his hand.  

Having so much help during our first few days makes us wonder what people do without it, for even with their assistance we feel like we are taking baby steps.  For instance, today we accomplished the monumental tasks of buying electrical plug adapters and getting cell phones, and it took about three hours and lots of driving.  We hope that everything won't be as difficult, but we also appreciate the opportunity to learn to be patient, to accept help graciously, and hopefully to be attentive to other people's needs when we are in a position to help.  It is especially ironic that all the things we rushed to close down in Vermont--like phone plans and bank acounts--now need to be reopened.

The highlight of our day?  We wanted to buy our cell phones as cheaply as possible, so we asked where to buy used models.  Humphrey suggested a store called (no joke) Cash Crusaders.  Sonia asked, “Isn't that where all the stolen phones get resold?”  Humphrey responded “No love, that's Cash Converters.”

 

What aspect of moving to a foreign country would you most want someone else to take care of for you?