Beginning of the end

It’s hard to believe but my internship has ended. Yesterday was my last day of work and to celebrate, we all went out to lunch at one of my favorite neighborhood eateries. I had essentially finished my work last week but have been editing my final report and tying up loose ends. There are going to be two interns working on the pardons project for the next few months so I had to make sure that all the relevant documents and information was organized and understandable. Rebecca, a University of Cape Town graduate student, began her internship this week so we were fortunate enough to actually discuss what has been happening in regards to the project. She’s very bright and passionate which makes me confident that she’ll do a great job picking up where I left off. It’s hard to leave something so unfinished – one of the drawbacks of just being an intern. The day before I left, we finally received a response from the Reference Group regarding our suggestions for victim inclusion: they will not be consulting victims. Obviously, this is a disappointment but was somewhat expected. The fact that they are choosing to do so boggles my mind, both in the moral and legal sense. One of our partners from a different organization is a lawyer and is quite certain that by not including victims, the Reference Group is in direct violation of the Constitution – a sad reality in a country that worked so hard to establish a democratic system. I will continue to keep tabs on CSVR’s involvement, as the next step will probably be to draw national attention to this issue. I loved this internship and have learned so much. My colleagues there are definitely people I look forward to working with again in the future. This whole experience has made me less nervous about the (gulp) job search. I’ll try to keep that confident feeling with me six months from now when I really have to think about that…

So here we are: my last week in Cape Town. But the bright side: Brendon is here! He arrived safe and sound (after a loooooong flight) on Monday evening and spent the past few days resting, poking around my neighborhood, getting to know my friends, and getting over jet lag (ugh). He came to work with me on my last day and got to finally meet my colleagues after having heard about them for the past 2 months. I’m so glad he’s here with me for this last week as we’re enjoying a whirlwind sightseeing tour, hitting all the great spots and essentially enjoying “vacation” together for the first time in our relationship. Today was his first “real” day in Cape Town, which we spent downtown. Our first stop was the District Six Museum, a tribute to the first area in the city where non-whites were forcibly removed from. This museum was pretty much the reason I became interested in South Africa and memorialization in the first place as it is a demonstration of the incredible resilience of the people here and the importance of preserving memories. The building itself is an old church that sits on what was the edge of District Six (renamed Zonnebloem by the apartheid government) and is filled with memorabilia and participatory elements (such as a giant floor map on which former residents could write in where they used to live). The museum originally started with a tower of street signs, which the man in charge of the original demolition saved, despite orders to dump them into the bay. Even though this was my second visit to the museum, it was just as powerful as the first. I have a feeling that it will always remain that way to me.

After the museum, we wandered around city, stopping to see Parliament, Long Street (the main drag with lots of stores), and Bo-kaap (the predominantly Muslim area with beautiful colored houses). Brendon also had his first African market experience as we negotiated the price of two small stone hippos with a merchant at Greenmarket Square (she wanted to sell us a “marriage sculpture” which we politely declined – eesh). We had gorgeous weather and are crossing our fingers that it will hold for the next week.

We have an intense itinerary of events planned over the next week but I’ll try to blog when I can since we’re nearing the end of my time here (and I am constantly reflecting). It’s only 9:30 pm but I swore if I put my head on the pillow I’d fall asleep.

Dreams of Table Mountain await…our first stop for tomorrow!