All Quiet On The Eastern Cape

The next handful of days were almost depressingly monotonous (hence the lack of posts): wake up, breakfast, class, work on projects, lunch, work on projects, class, dinner, "work on projects" (this never happened), then sleep, with resting and regaining our sanity in there somewhere. It’s almost sad how fast things seem to be moving here now. In our first few weeks, we were all doing and seeing so much stuff that was not only interesting, but new. I’m not saying I want to leave the Haven, but the repetitive nature of everything reminds me too much of being back at school when the days just seem to blend together; things you think happened yesterday actually happened two, three days ago. Before I know it, the projects will be finished and presented and we’ll be on our trek back to Cape Town. Thankfully a group of us are staying later to experience South Africa not in the context of a class, but in that of a glass.

We do sneak some fun in pretty often, though, whether it’s the beach, playing darts in the bar, or just sitting around bullshitting. On Thursday (the 15^th) we finally got to play with the two little girls who live here (they’re a real life Zack and Cody, down to the blonde hair), which was an oddly satisfying break from the nonstop work schedule. There’s something funny about hide-and-seek with kids like a third your age that just makes you stop worrying about the buttload of work you have and just have some simple good old-fashioned fun. We’re also attempting to ease our transition back into American culture by filling out brackets for March Madness. Note to Steve: ‘Cuse better show up, I’ve talked them up a lot here. St. Patty’s was a really easy day: work, pass out, drink, and watch The History of Us and basketball. Neil left yesterday (St. Patty's) for the weekend so our work ethic was a little lower today; some of us barely banged out some quick work (putting some finishing touches on drafts or final projects for our projects, working on video journals, etc.) before heading to the beach to relax and make the most intricate sandcastle ever. Ironically enough we saw some familiar faces there, as some of the kids from the schools we among a group of them that walked/rode donkeys down to the beach to actually do something productive for their families while we played in the sand. Awkward.