And you will be spending the next year of your life in...

The whole first week built up to where each of us would be assigned and what jobs we would be doing. It is important for the South African staff to get to know us before they assign us to a place where we will be working for the entire year. This is why they keep us in the dark for so long. It was something hanging over our heads since we accepted the job and we would finally find out Friday night. We went to Bill’s house and played a huge game of soccer before the assignments were revealed. Originally we were told there would be three people in Kimberley, eleven in Cape Town, five in Port Elizabeth, three in Zambia, two in Malawi, and two in Namibia. The day of the unveiling we found out there would also be one traveling to a refugee camp near the border of Zimbabwe and two people traveling to Lesotho, a completely land locked kingdom within the borders of South Africa.

Tannis, one of the interns who had been working for GRS in Cape Town for the summer, was the one to reveal the assignments. Finally the information was released and I was assigned to work in the programs department in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Port Elizabeth (PE) is located about 800km east of Cape Town along the southern coast of South Africa. There would be one other girl, Sarah, working with me in programs. Rosie was assigned to operations in the PE office, and Mike was assigned the task of Monitoring & Evaluation in PE. The four of us will be living together for the next year in PE.

It was a great relief for everyone to find out their positions and placements whether they had expected them or not. There were a few surprises, but regardless, it seemed as though each of us was excited to embark on our year long adventure. The relief made for a good night out in Cape Town on Friday. We also had a relaxed weekend with the freedom to explore the city and no GRS commitments. Saturday we watched the big Rugby match between the Springboks and Australia. The Springboks are the South African national Rugby team. Sunday a group of us hiked Table Mountain. We scaled up the backside where Skeleton Gorge emerges out of the Kirstenbosch botanical gardens. Once we reached the top and had enjoyed our well deserved view, we descended down toward the city through Platteklip Gorge. The weekend was full of great weather and fun! Within three days we would be leaving for PE with a lot of work ahead of us.