and apart from all that

just some insight into the general treatment of interns at non-profit organisations ;)

some news from the fair trade front

why not put some additions to this sleepy blog? seen that we are over the hump and aire and i have exemplary send our interim report...so a few more weeks to fly by before we will fly home.

we've been rummaging a lot within the fair trade mafia and the confusions of a complicated system throughout the last few weeks. all in the name of the pricing study of course. for some clarification and first hand hard facts we even took a trip to the veld and talked to farmers - an enlightening though (waiting-)time consuming business.


back and armed with lots of insights, it was time to put together the final study, which unfortunately wasn't our task but the one of a well, let's put it that way, extraordinary consultant. result: 'unheard voices' - 50 pages of sheer entertainment and a good script for rooibos - the movie. since our contacts to reputable screen directors were rather scarce, we are now sitting on an abridged version whereas the director's cut is under revision. sounds blurry? it is. but a fabulous experience concerning NGO-work, diplomacy and fundings.

next week, it'll be another trip to Niewoudtville for the highly anticipated home days: 3 days of team building exercises with the EMG staff, one wild flower party in Niewoudtville and the entire staff being exposed to my cooking skills. this gotta be good!!!

to conclude with some more straightforward issues: part of the glen-team has had their own teambuilding exercise last week by climbing THE MOUNTAIN. up and down! no touristy shortcuts via the horrendously expensive cable way! 8 hours of sweat, pain and paths that sometimes had to be identified by stumbling and trying. under the south african sun - the weather update from my side predicts the end of winter has passed and we are heading straight into spring.




one small note to the european audience: check your fair traded rooibos before buying! search for the names of wupperthal or heiveld - this is the only small farmer produced ones - and there is large plantation fair trade rooibos in the market corrupting fair trade principles! if in doubt, consult the resellers website or your local world shop staff.

Terror Penguins

Yesterday I saw the penguins.
I saw this sign and was very sad. I wanted to hug this small nice cute friend.

But then it attacked me. Now me and the penguin are not friends anymore.

Shot! The 2010-Team.

Fellas! 2010-Dreamteam is a little delayed in contributing something to the magnificent GLEN-SA-Blog! So let’s catch up with Anne, Aire and Antonella who already did a good job to inform … mankind about their life and work in wonderful Cape Town.

First three weeks with CoCT (the official abbreviation for City of Cape Town, cool he?) are over and two of them have already been very busy. As we announced back in Europe there were no real projects defined for us before coming here so the first task for Aurore (and also Simon, another Swiss intern who sadly does not enjoy the financial and institutional support of GLEN) was to come up with our own three to four project proposals and present them in a final workshop which has taken place successfullyover one week ago already. But really - a huge task for us and quite a big challenge since we immediately were supposed to get in contact with other people in the administration or further stakeholders who could possibly now something of relevance regarding our ideas. Quite a challenge without really knowing anything about the city!? Anyway we did it and now our projects are fixed.

Aurore is dealing with a school project dealing with False Bay’s Ecological Park. Therefore she luckily can flee the office at least once a week and can spend the day outdoors with pupils. The only problem is the simple transport matter: How to get her there? I’m sure over the next days our boss Stephen and Aurore will find a solution. Today Aurore is enjoying herself at Abalimi's, the NGO Ida, Marika and Matthias are gonna work with.

My own project will deal more or less with the topic that seems to pursue me for the rest of my life. I wrote my BSc about Learning Networks and Energy Efficiency. Since it was quite successful, I suggested to investigate the chances of such a network and trying to built it up in Cape Town, possibly around 2010. Stephen and other people of our Department liked the idea and want me to do this. At the moment it’s really difficult for me since I really lack the necessary knowledge about stakeholders to be involved and similar activities being done already inCape Town and the region. I have to get in contact with “Players” like ESKOM, the South African energy company and therefore I’m struggeling to find someone who could support me a little more in this effort. Anyway – yesterday I had a promising chat with someone of the City’s Energy Department and will get a final answer over the next few days.

I’ve also another project dealing with bicycle traffic within Cape Town. I like it much more but it was decided, that I just spent not more than 25% of my time on this other project I suggested, thus the bigger part will now be done by Abbi, our very nice South African fellow intern here.

So I am quite busy with all my work, but there is still enough time to have talks with the other interns and colleagues. I really enjoy talking about South Africa, whole Africa, Europe … - basically life and the whole world with the other interns, of course especially the South African interns Cindy, Abby, Alric and Akona provide us interesting and most of the time very funny insights in South African life and culture.

So you see, we’re pretty well off here! Looking forward to meeting Matthias, the last GLENnie arriving tonight!

Cheers! martin

black is beautiful

hey guys! molo oosisi, oobhuti! well, its been a month in cape town now and i figured i haven't yet written an entry to the blog. so its about time. things are going pretty smoothly i would say. i feel like i've lived here for long now and every day routines make settling in to new home easier. lot of emotions actually so where should i start from? for matthias, ida and marinka, who should be arriving in cape town within next week, take waterproof shoes and clothes with you! :) thats the most important thing, otherwise you can buy everything here, also nice cheap clothes, so no need to carry huge luggage. cape town is very modern, no doubt about that. so if you come here for 3 months and are eager to see "real" africa quickly, you will be disappointed. just to take it easy and slowly, find your way around. i've been very happy to join in the gym. i so believe that regular physical exercises help to balance your mind also. :) here its very cool, the trainers for every aerobics class are "original", meaning the yoga teacher is hindu, hip-hop teacher black guy, kickboxing teacher from japan etc. very cool and authentic! :) until now the most interesting things and days have been visiting antonella's creche (kindergarden) in the black township philippe, visiting cape town sos children's village, hiking in simon's town and around stellenbosch. :) its definitely hiking season now, weather is perfect for that!

our project though is going very slowly i must say. so not many exciting news from that front. it started up nicely but now we are pretty much waiting for some people to agree upon meetings so we could actually start doing something. lets see! well, warm greetings to everyone! :) see you!
aire (the estonian)

Some pics...

On the plane...flying on the Sahara Desert...destination Cape Town!


At Muzeinberg in my 1st wk!


Muzeinberg from uphill.

My simple, humble, freezing room!

Our meeting place...the kitchen!

June 26, Destination: Cape Town, and I did it!

I've been in Cape Town for 3 weeks already! Time is flying so fast!

I was so much excited to come here to Cape Town! At last I was going to realise the wish I had of doing community work abroad. At the same time I was feeling anxious for various reasons including the fact that I had to plan all the journey almost on my own and that I was going to travel all that long distance all alone. Besides, I knew that I was coming to a foreign place without actually knowing anyone in particular and so I was concerned about the whole journey and experience. However everything went well thanks god!

In order to come here, I had to fly from Malta to Munich, then to Frankfurt, then directly to Cape Town. At least I did not get lost in the airports hehe! Well, the weather was quite fine and all in all I had three amazing flights. I was looking all the time from the little window and saw amazing views from up there. However, the 12hr flight to Cape Town was so much long! I never imagined that it was going to take so long. Luckily I could watch some movies and listen to music on the plane and so it was not that boring. I also chatted with the guy sitting next to me. He was from Spain and was going to Cape Town to study for 2 weeks. I tried to take a nap from time to time but it was not so much comfortable to try to sleep on the plane.

It was still dark when we were approaching Cape Town and it was also raining. I could barely see anything from the window except the street lights. Just before landing, we flew over a township and so I saw the little shacks. It was here that I realised that we had actually arrived at Cape Town. I said to myself, "Here I am, let the adventure begin." We landed at Cape Town International Airport few minutes before 5am. I entered the airport, managed to get the Visa, went for the luggage and found Jerome, the taxi driver, waiting for me at the airport. He took me to the office where I had booked the accomodation but it was closed as it was still early. So I bought a coffee and a sim card in the meantime. Eventually I went to the office when it was opened and I took a nap on the sofa there while I waited to sign the contract :) Well I settled all the papers and they took me to the house in Bedford Rd where I was going to spend the 9 weeks.

I put my stuff, took a shower and went to the SAEP office. I met Jane and Norton, Isabel and all other volunteers. Afterwards I visited the townhip and the creche for the first time. I was somewhat shocking to see the township actually and the people living there. It was raining a lot and so water was dropping from the roofs of the little shacks and there were lots of pools in the streets. There's a big contrast between Observatory and Philippi Townhip, and guess a much bigger contrast from the Centre. I met Phelisa, the manager of the creche, the teacher, and saw some of the kids. They are so adorable! They shouted "abelungu" that is "white people" when we were coming in! Arriving back home, I took a long deserved nap and woke up in the evening and some of the other volunteers had come for dinner, to chat a bit, to play cards and have a laugh together.

Overall the house is suitable though it is simple, a bit dirty and with small cockroaches in the kitchen but I'm getting used to them. The swimming pool is just a couple of metres long and don't think we will use it as it is so cold. However the athmosphere in the house is fantastic! The house mates for the time being are Heloise and Pauline, two French girls who are also volunteers with SAEP - the same organisation I am working with. There is also Eva from Holland who is studying here. The three of them are great! They welcomed me and made everything much easier for me especially in the beginning. There is also Fritz who is studying music here but didn't chat for long with him.

Cape Town is an amazing city surrounded by enormous mountains and next to the ocean at the same time. We live close to Devil's Peak and it's like there is something mysterious about this mountain, really. The weather here is so much cold! I never imagined that it was going to be so cold. I should have packed more heavy clothes however I'll try to buy some. I also need to get used to all this rain and think twice before washing and hanging out my clothes as it's the second time already that my clothes are out in the rain!

Places I've visited so far:
Muzeinberg Bay and Kalk Bay - Sat 28 - with some of the volunteers, then went to a Olimpia Cafe and ate delicious mussles :) Then we went uphill and saw an incredible view of the coast with so many waves.
Boulders Beach - Tue 1 - with Jane, Celeste and Michael, and saw the cute little penguins!
I also went to a chinese restaurant with Eva and Pauline, and to a pub nearby with some of the volunteers.

Diet in SA mainly consisting of:
coffee - one tin in one week!
bread - there is such a big variety here!
pasta - almost in every dinner
exotic fruit - they are so much cheap here esp pinapples
chocolate - the other girls are chocoholic too!

I like dinner time especially when some other volunteers come to our house and we have dinner altogether.

On Mon, Tue and Wed I went to Sachigomso creche. The kids are great indeed! I play with them, dance and sing. I also help out while they have their food. I feel love with the creche, with the kids and with everyone and everywhere! In the coming weeks I'd like to do some activities of my own with the kids as for now I had just integrated in the daily plan. Refurbishment in the roofing of the creche is also planned. I am so much enthusiastic about working in this creche. Then on Thu and Fri I stayed at the office and did some filing, searched for some activities to do with the kids and did some other filing.

Sat 5 we did a farewell party for Eva here in the house. It was nice to meet new people. Anfd I will miss Eva and her joyful character.

This was my 1st week...more info of the 2nd and 3rd week here soon ;)