Stay on the left side of the road and turn at the Robot (traffic light)

I had an eventful weekend, I rented a car with 3 other girls interning in Cape Town, and we made the drive partially up the Garden Route. We got a late start on Thursday, due to some problems Margo was encountering with her passport, but we got on the road at about 10 am. I did the initial driving, which was extremely scary. Driving around Cape Town was mostly a challenge as I was not used to driving on the left side of the road, however, as we got on the highway I experienced a new challenge. For most of our drive we were heading east on the N2, a main highway, which was unlike any other highway I have driven on.
There are some rules for driving here, the main one is: everyone thinks they have the right away, all the time. It doesn’t matter if you have a green light, or the other person has a stop sign, the goal is just to avoid hitting anyone. On two lane highways you indicate that you want to pass someone by simply tailgating them as close as possible, the slower car than is obligated to pull partially on the shoulder, and the faster car can dodge around them whenever. I generally felt like I was driving in Mario Kart at all times.
Thursday we made it to Oudtshoorn, about a 5 hour drive from Cape Town, where we visited an Ostrich farm, the Kango Caves, and stayed at a great little hostel. On Friday morning, we made the drive father east to Plattenberg Bay, where we went on a horse back safari, and stayed in another great hostel. Saturday morning, Caroline and I went Bungee Jumping at Bloukrans Bridge, the largest commercial bungee jump in the world at 216 meters. It was probably the most terrifying and exciting thing I have ever done. I loved it. Caroline and I caught a ride back to Plattenberg Bay while the other two girls visited Monkey Land, and we spent our last night in Wilderness, a beautiful coastal town.
The entire drive on the N2 east is gorgeous, passing through many small unknown towns and continuous beautiful beaches spanning as far as the eye can see. However I was constantly reminded I was in South Africa, as about 5-15 minutes outside of every remotely large town were shanty towns. Those farther east were generally a little nicer than Cape Town shanty towns, however they were still spans of tin shacks with stolen electricity.
It was great to be out of the city though, living in Cape Town takes a lot of energy and it was a relief to have a short break.

A little update...

The view of Cape Town from Table Mountain.

Part of the trail hiking up Lion's Head, this was the "non-recomended" route, but we couldn't find the recomended route.

Hi all.

I am sorry it has taken me too long to post another entry, communication is not my forte. I have been enjoying myself though, working on many things at the School of Public Health, and getting my footing in Cape Town. I have continued to do work with the PURE study. Mostly what I have been doing has been organizing the data we have, to see which participants have completed all surveys and tests, and then returning to their homes and trying to collect the remaining data. It is a continuous challenge and only now am I realizing how hard it is to implement ideals here.

First, it is a challenge to find people, whether to finish gathering data or to recruit new participants. Most do not have cell phones, and if you do find a way to contact them before traveling to Langa, they most likely will not be where they said they would. They are at a friend’s house or late coming home from work. They are also very transient people, and a participant who said would be in Langa at their sister’s house for the next 4 years, actually is in the Eastern Cape indefinitely.

Second, it is hard to run a non-bias survey and worry about details that are discussed in-depth prior to running it. For instance, I have started helping with a study connected to PURE, EPOCH, which looks at environmental factors and their effects on lifestyle and health. So we want to administer a survey or interview people about how much advertising they see, and where their normal grocery store is. So we work a question, “How often do you see nutrition labels on food packaging?” This seems to be non-bias and we will get a perception from all that we interview. But what if people do not know what we mean by nutrition labels? What happens when find that everyone says they never see nutrition labeling, can you say that labels are too small, or was the question simply misunderstood. Therefore each question must be looked at with the eyes of a participant, in order to find how to implement the ideals of science.PURE and all global studies face another layer of challenges in aligning the methods used here to the other study locations. So the questions for interviews must be the same here as in Canada. This is both a challenge with translation and common understanding.
Along with this work, I have been enjoying myself touring around Cape Town as well. A few weekends ago I hiked up Table Mountain and Lions Head, the two main features which both have fantastic views of Cape Town and beyond. The trails are pretty good, but have sections that would not pass in the US.
Last weekend, I went to my first Rugby Tournament, it was a relaxed tournament. Most of the players were retired South African rugby players. It was fun; I met a couple of ex-rugby players who explained the rules, which was great. It is an exciting game to watch, and makes American Football seems a wimpy with all that padding and stop time. We also saw a few famous people who were in Invictus, I did not know who they were, but I saw them.
I went Wine tasting yesterday in Stellenbosch, which was beautiful and a great way to spend the day, sipping wine in the sunshine.
This Thursday I am renting a car with some friends and driving up the Garden Route. There is a lot of pretty cool things to do along the way, there is bungee jumping, zip lining, tons of beaches, some safari places and much more. I will write again once I get back, and let you know how it was.
I hope all of you are well and you had a wonderful Valentine’s Day.
Love,
Chelsea