4 Mar 2009 – Brief Update, Prepping for Plett

Tomorrow afternoon the group will head off to Plettenberg Bay and Tsitsikamma National Park on a three and a half day self-organized “mini-excursion”, and when we weren't working on assignments and papers these last few days, many of us were arranging the last minute trip plans. The smallest details – adjusting the laundry schedule, planning out how and what to pack, and figuring out when and where we’ll need to be throughout the weekend – have been complicated by the need to account for and include all sixteen (Ben will be joining us on the trip) individual perspectives. And of course, determining the mini-excursion budget is a task all by itself.

To back track a bit – the last four days have been fairly unremarkable, at least in the sense that they included no new or particularly exciting events. It’s safe to say, now that we’ve officially reached the halfway point in our time abroad, that our internship-day schedules have become a steady routine. After a Sunday split between attending friends braais, walking to a nearby park (with swings), and trying to get ahead on class work, we headed into three days of work at our internships. At Black Sash we’ve been working on several long-term research projects involving social security and also consumer protection after the melamine scare in dairy products. We’ve helped to compile a two-year history of the organization’s recommendations to government through press statements, as well. At some of the other internship placements, students have been involved in activities ranging from teaching classes at the elementary and high school levels to tracking down rogue porcupines in the suburb of Durbanville. In general, most of us seem to have been fully incorporated into the daily projects and assignments at our respective internships, no longer wallowing in the somewhat awkward “is there something I can do to help?” stage.

On Tuesday evening we had our weekly house meeting, returning to occupy the usual space in the upstairs common room. We ran smoothly through Plettenberg logistics before turning to more cumbersome discussion topics like house guest policies and community appliances, at which point the meeting unraveled into a rambling dialogue about communally-agreed-upon rules and regulations. As usual, we couldn’t escape the protracted expansion of our own ideas, and the meeting lumbered on until after 9 o’clock.

Wednesday, the pending thrill of our weekend plans kept everyone fairly busy after work. Finishing assignments for Thursday’s classes and packing for Plettenberg were paramount to the usual post-work activities of chatting and unwinding in the common room. Last Wednesday, three of us had participated in the weekly time trials around the Commons, which involved running once (or twice) around the 2.5km loop while being officially timed. The Wednesday evening event functions much like an informal race, but without number tags, registration, or awards. For those who choose to run the 5k, however, correctly predicting the amount of time it will take you to complete the distance will win you a small monetary prize.

This evening, just two of us jogged out to the Commons just before six o’clock to run the one-loop course, again, hoping to improve on our previous times. About thirty runners were signing in and stretching at the far corner of the Commons when we arrived, and despite the generally cooler weather so far this week, the beating sun had driven the temperature back up into the high eighties. Despite the heat, it was an exhilarating run and a pleasantly familiar experience to be running amidst a group of seasoned runners. And tomorrow we will undoubtedly be thankful for having stretched our legs this evening, as we sit cramped inside the rented van for the six hour trip to Plettenberg.