Cape Town photo diary

It's time for some photos from my recent trip. Cape Town has got to be one of the most beautiful cities on the planet because of Table Mountain - it dominates the skyline everywhere you go and we had a great view from our hotel:
Often the top of Table Mountain was shrouded in what locals call, the 'Tablecloth' - fluffy cloud spilling over the top, the photo below was taken from the very touristy Waterfront:
We took the cable car ride up to the top of Table Mountain one day and had a great time soaking up the panoramic views of the city from the top:
We could also see Robben Island in Table Bay, beyond the peaks of Lion Hill (L) and Signal Hill (R). I would have loved to have gone there for a visit, but we ran out of time - it's top of the list for any future visits!
Cape Town has its very own '12 Apostles', cliffs which jut out along the coastline:
We got the opportunity to encounter some of the local wildlife when we hired a car and went to Boulders Bay to say hello to the penguins:
Nice location for a penguin to call home, I'll bet it makes the Emperor penguins in Antarctica kind of jealous!
They were rather cute!
We did an open-top, hop-on, hop-off bus tour and made a stop at the World of Birds on the outskirts of Cape Town, where as well as various multicoloured and exotic birds, we saw monkeys - they had a special enclosure where you could get up close and personal, and I think they know what they're doing as this little guy made a beeline for the zips on my bag!
Again, they're cute wee guys:
One of the stops with the bus tour was Imizamo Yethu township where local guides showed you around and told you something of their lives. We wrote about this on the work blog and we were all struck by the levels of poverty. 20,000 people live here in a space of 18 hectares.
It was cool to discover strong links with Ireland with the contribution of an Irish businessman to building houses for people in the township. But the thing that was most difficult to grasp was that when we got back on the bus and travelled down the road about 5 minutes we were seeing views like this and lots of very fancy villas/apartments.
On the weekend we had the car we made the most of it with a stunning drive along the coastline on Chapman's Peak Drive. The road isn't always open because of high winds but we were able to get through and were completely wowed with the spectacular views of Hout Bay:
Of course we did actually do some work here and there! I was very impressed with Bush Radio and their work with young people from all over Cape Town. We got to see some members of Bush Tots (6-11 year olds) doing their own radio programme live in the studio when we visited the Saturday morning CREW (Children's Radio Education Workshop) project - truly inspirational!
And I really enjoyed getting to know the young people at the Media Kidocracy Konference, who were a confident and passionate bunch without any arrogance. They struck me as the kind of young people who really want to make a difference to their communities, their country and the world, and they're not going to sit back and wait for it to happen, they came across as being determined to be the people to make it happen!
There was always laughter and smiles at the conference:
In fact, this maybe sounds a bit cheesy, but the smiles of the children and young people just ministered to my soul!
Incidentally there's a good write-up here about MKK with slideshows etc of the work produced by the young people.

Possibly what strikes me most about Cape Town and its people is the colour. Beautiful blue skies every day, the deep blue of the ocean, the way homes were painted a variety of bright colours, the people from all cultures, backgrounds and ethnicities, the colour and vitality present in the townships - stunning! (The New York Shop below can be found in Imizamo Yethu township)

Home!

I arrived home this morning after about 21 or so hours in transit from Cape Town. I'm absolutely FOUNDERED as they say in the country! Definitely having a few difficulties adjusting to NI winter weather, the snow is kind of pretty on the hills but yesterday it was over 29 degrees in Cape Town with wall-to-wall sunshine! I'm missing my shorts & t-shirts attire of the last 2 weeks. All in all it was a great trip, and a real privilege to get the opportunity to work with the young people involved in Bush Radio. I really want to go back to Cape Town some day and also explore more of S Africa. More thoughts, reflections, stories and photos should follow in the next week or so once I've got caught up on myself. Work tomorrow to tidy stuff up for the holidays then I'm on leave until Jan 4th - woo-hoo!

Erwin & Erwin - me with one of the young people whose first name is Erwin!

Greetings from hot & sunny Cape Town

Apologies for the lack of posts here during my time in Cape Town. To be honest I just haven't had a lot of free headspace to write, particularly as for work I've been having to blog most days so you'll get some updates on the 'official' Public Achievement Away from Violence S Africa blog. All in all it's been a really great experience so far, I've been loving the hot weather (I don't know how I'm going to survive in the cold when I get home next week!), and Cape Town is a beautiful city with lots to see and do. The work stuff has been going well and it's been great to meet young people here and learn more about their lives. I'll have lots of photos to post when I get home!

Made it!

Arrived in Cape Town to pouring rain, but the clouds soon parted and the sun blitzed us with rays - straight into the shorts & T-shirts - woo-hoo! We start work with Bush Radio tomorrow first thing - looking forward to getting stuck in. The wireless in the hotel is a wee bit unpredictable so I'm going to make this a short one, there's a bit more detail from the rest of the team on the official blog. But I'll leave you with a photo - one of the things that floated my boat today was being in Nobel Square where there are 4 statues of the 4 S African Nobel Peace Prize Winners - Albert Luthuli, Desmond Tutu, FW de Klerk & Nelson Mandela.

Two more sleeps!

Well the excitement is building because on Sunday I’ll find myself bound for Cape Town, South Africa! It’s a 2-week work-trip and I’m heading out with one of the trainee youth workers whom I line manage plus 2 young people to work with a partner organisation – Bush Radio – a community radio station based in the townships of Cape Town. As well as broadcasting various radio programmes they do some amazing education and community work. They also do some great work with young people – on Saturday mornings their programmes are produced and delivered entirely by young people aged 6-18. We’ll be helping with a conference for young people which they run annually – ‘Media Kidocracy Konference’ – and they’ll also be giving us some training. The project I’m responsible for here in NI is called ‘Away from Violence’ which seeks to address the impact of violence on the lives of young people and Bush Radio staff have started their own Away from Violence projects this year so the theme of the conference is – fittingly – Away from Violence. We’re hoping that we can build links between groups of young people in SA & NI engaging in AFV projects.

I’m excited for several reasons:
1) It’s summer in Cape Town and the temperatures seem to be consistently in around the 25/26/27 degrees mark.
2) I’ve never been to Africa before and have always wanted to go.
3) There’s going to be sunshine and warmth.
4) I’m excited to meet and learn from the people we’ll be working with – I’ve heard a lot about Bush Radio from my boss who developed the partnership 5 years ago, and I think seeing the projects in action is just going to blow me away.
5) I'm going to be able to wear shorts and summer clothing, I could count on the one hand how many times that happened here in NI this year!
5) Cape Town looks like a beautiful place from pictures I’ve seen
6) Did I mention the weather?!!!

It’s been absolutely manic at work trying to get things tidied up so that I can go away with a relatively clear conscience and have the headspace to focus on the trip and all that it brings - I've been doing my usual obsessive list-making to try and feel in control of things! I’m a little nervous with the responsibility of being group leader, but I’ll just do my best to take things in my stride yet stay on the ball. This is an amazing opportunity and I plan to make the most of it! I’m hoping to keep this blog as up-to-date as possible while I’m away and I’ll also be updating a team blog for work here.

Better get on with the packing!