I have been meaning to write this post for quite some time! As such, I am having a bit of trouble remembering my first week here. Nevertheless, I hope this post gives a decent sense of what I was up to here in Cape Town. I'm sorry there weren't many photos from that week - I did not want to look too much like a tourist. :p
Arrival
I arrived in Cape Town at night on Friday, May 27, 2011 nearly a full day after leaving Raleigh. When we landed, the pilot asked us to remain seated so that he could arrest a man who had been smoking in the airplane restroom! Anyway, we eventually got out and rode buses over to border control. When it was my turn for processing, I actually almost did not get a visa to enter! I had not printed out my return ticket, which would have proved that I was going to leave Cape Town in two months. Fortunately, Minda had written me a letter explaining the purpose of my trip and the parts I was carrying with me. Looking over it, the officer decided this would be acceptable proof and gave me the tourist visa. What a start to my trip!
While waiting for my bags, I changed and cleaned up a bit. Some folks from Projects Abroad picked me up and took me to the Bagley house. That night, I watched some television with the guys in the house and unpacked my things. As I recall, I slept quite soundly that night. The next day, the guys went to play paintball with other Projects Abroad volunteers and invited me along, but I decided to spend a relaxed day at home. :) It was nice and Lecia even took me to Wynberg, a nearby town, to withdraw some money and buy a much needed bottle of shampoo.
The next day, I attended the New Apostolic Church with Lecia and Leslie. For dinner, I went with the other volunteers to get some excellent Braai at Mzoli's. At the counter we chose all the meat we wanted to have grilled.
While we waited for our food to be finished, a large group of motorcyclists came through. I think someone said it was for a wedding.
Eventually our food was ready and we got busy eating. It was neat to eat without any utensils or napkins, instead using our hands and bread!
I think going to Mzoli's was also my first time riding a mini-bus. :D
Induction
My volunteer coordinator, Shuan Solomons, arrived on Monday to take me on my induction. He showed me how to ride the mini-bus to Wynberg and the train to Newlands, where Projects Abroad's South Africa office is located. Along the way, we ran into another volunteer Leanna, who was also on her induction.
At the office, he picked up my packet and Projects Abroad T-Shirt. Next, Leanna and I were taken on a short tour of some nearby malls. I bought a cell phone, slippers and exchanged my remaining US Dollars into Rands, the currency of South Africa. We also ate a tasty and, as far as I could tell, healthy lunch at a Osumo in Cavendish Square. Over lunch, Shuan went over Projects Abroad's South Africa Handbook.
Afterwards, we went back to the office, where I showed them some of the Phase 1 robot. Meschak Bugaye, another volunteer coordinator, took me back to Parkwood, where we stopped by the school and I got to meet Mr. Dirk Jurgens and Mr. Zhaun Borcherds for the first time! We chatted briefly and I found out the computer lab was still not set up. We began making some plans and after we were finished, Meschak showed me the way home.
Final Preparations
I must confess that at this point, I begin to be a bit uncertain as to when I did a variety of tasks. I do, however, have many of my receipts and will do my best to remember! On Tuesday I took all the robotics equipment (parts, rechargeable batteries, and battery charger) to school with me. Every day at Hyde Park begins with a teacher meeting at 7:45 AM. Something inspirational or touching is read and Mr. Jurgens addresses the teachers for the remainder of the meeting. After the meeting on Tuesday, Mr. Jurgens invited me into his office and we chatted briefly about my time here, the work I would be doing, and the exhibition they would need to plan.
Zhaun gave me access to the school's internet, which has saved me many trips to an internet cafe. It has been particularly useful for discussing course content with folks back in the United States. The computer lab was still not set up - all the computers had arrived, but we were waiting on a technician to come set them all up. This was unfortunate, but I also had some preparation work to do before our first class. Thus, we only needed to make sure the lab would be ready for the first class. The technician was supposed to arrive the next day, so we decided to wait.
Before we had class, I mainly needed to:
When I mentioned that we needed boxes, Zhaun showed me some cardboard boxes that A4 paper is sold in. As a quick side note, it is neat to see A4 paper used here instead of the "letter" standard that I have grown up with. Anyway, I was hesitant to use the boxes for containers, thinking that something like a toolbox would be more sturdy. I did, however, think that we might be able to use them to make colored boxes for the robot to find.
It seemed like I would need to first search for what was available in the area to use as containers. Looking back, I see now that it would have been wise to ask the Projects Abroad office for help. Unfortunately, this did not occur to me and so I decided to first buy colored paper (for colored boxes), thinking I would look around for toolboxes at the same time. Zhaun directed me to a store called CNA found in Stadium on Main, a mall in Claremont, and explained how to get there via mini-bus.
I headed out and must confess I got lost along the way! Once I got to Wynberg, I realized I had no idea where the mini-buses going to Claremont would be. I asked around and, thanks to the locals, eventually found the right mini-bus. The driver was also incredibly helpful, telling me when it was my time to get off the mini-bus. Since then I have made the same journey many more times. Looking back, it is a bit funny to think that I had so much trouble finding my way there!
It also took me a while to find CNA, but once inside I was able to find the colored paper I had come for. This may seem a bit silly, but I spent a while debating which packs of colored paper to get! I wanted to make sure it had a bold enough color to be easily picked up by the Lego Color Sensor. I also purchased some thick paper, thinking they could be used to make some custom certificates. If my memory serves me, I bought some lunch in another mall and grabbed a mini-bus back to school, where I ate it.
Near the train station in Wynberg there is a small Chinese shop that sells a broad assortment of items. I think I first visited it with my housemates when they were looking for a hat. Anyway, at some point before Thursday I found a small organizer there that seemed to fit the bill. Unfortunately, however, they did not have enough for me to use! So now I was searching for this specific organizer box. I bought one and brought it home to ask Lecia and Leslie where I might find more. They told me to look in the other similar Chinese-owned shops along the main road in Wynberg.
On Wednesday, I went to Wynberg to continue my search and was surprised at just how many Chinese-owned shops I found! However, none of the shops had the organizer and I did not find any acceptable substitutes. I think I bought some tape that day and began working on using the colored paper to make colored boxes out of the A4 paper boxes. I bought six rolls of tape the next day, so I must have run out while working on it.
Thursday was a school holiday for Ascension Day. Stores, however, were still open and so I headed out, expanding my search to grocery stores. At ShopRite I bought the aforementioned six rolls of tape and a glue stick (to repair one of the boxes). I also found some plastic food containers that seemed promising, but we needed something with more compartments to keep the smaller pieces organized. Nevertheless, I went ahead and bought a set of the containers, thinking they may come in handy. The search for the organizer continued, but none of the stores I checked seemed to carry it or any suitable replacement.
I hit my lucky break when I walked into a store (maybe PEP Home) and was looking around. A kind woman working at the store asked me what I was looking for. When I showed her, another person told me to try the Crazy Store. It was right around the corner and when I showed them the organizer, they pointed me to a whole stack of them!
This may seem a bit dramatic, but I was so happy to find these organizers that I just sat on the ground and began looking through them. It was such a relief to finally find a supply of these organizers. The store had several other organizers too and I decided to take one of them back with me as a sample. Looking around the store some more, I also saw a neat craft paper cutter that would help me cut the colored paper in straight lines. I bought the two and headed back. Now I would need to start throwing the parts into the organizers and see if it worked! I think I continued covering the A4 boxes with colored paper that night and nearly finished, finding that I had purchased something like five too many rolls of tape!
On Friday morning, I unpacked all the pieces for the teacher kit and began sorting and organizing them. Now I would start figuring out how to maintain these Lego Robot kits. I tried a variety of things to see how to make it all fit in the organizers in a sensible way.
I was not really able to get everything to fit and so tried a larger tackle box. I don't really remember when I bought it, but I think after that first attempt with the smaller boxes did not work out, I returned to the Chinese store in Wynberg to take another look. The store sold a larger box that I had seen earlier. However, back then I thought it only had small compartments. Turns out, it actually had one large compartment and many small compartments. This made the box a viable option. Bringing it back to school, I was soon able to get everything to fit. All I would need was the large tackle box and a few plastic food containers slightly larger than the previously purchased ones.
With that settled, I headed back to Wynberg and went to ShopRite to buy the plastic food containers. I accidently went to a different ShopRite first, where they didn't have enough of the plastic containers. I couldn't find any way out other than the cashiers and so bought something to eat and drink, just so I could get out! I think I went to the Crazy Store next and picked up four more of the large tackle boxes. Finally, I found the ShopRite from Thursday and the plastic containers I needed. I had hoped to find a pack of four so that I could divide the angled pieces but only found packs of three. After considering a variety of ways to split the parts, I settled on buying the three pack and just combining all the angled pieces in one container. I must confess I felt a bit ridiculous walking into the check-out line with five packs of the food containers!
Now, I had all the organizers I needed. That night, I took all the parts home and unpacked the remaining four kits, sorting and organizing them. It took a while and was quite tiring, but it felt great to finish!
As for getting a toolbox, during my search for organizers I had come across some toolboxes at a grocery store. However, I eventually decided to use the A4 boxes for both the colored boxes and the kit boxes. This led to giving each team a color, so that there would now be red, green, blue, and yellow teams. Black would be used for the teacher kit. This conveniently gave a way to name the teams and also meant that the Phase 1 robot would be looking not only for a colored object, but in fact for its own kit box.
For several days I had struggled to decide what organizer to use, what kit box to use, and what to use for colored objects. Now it seemed that everything had fallen together nicely! As for the Phase 1 robot's program, I completed coding and testing it at home over the course of the week. I'm afraid I don't really remember when in the week I finished. The lab was still not ready on Friday and it seemed like it would not be ready on Monday either. With final preparations for the course finishing up, it seemed like we could not afford to wait any longer. We decided to see if we could set up a few computers ourselves on Monday and begin class.
All in all, it was a somewhat busy week as I adjusted to life here in South Africa and got ready to have class. All the trips to Wynberg made me much more comfortable getting around by mini-bus, and I learned quite a bit about the shops here. :D One part of shopping that surprised me was the parcel counter, where they take your bags before you enter the store. It was neat to see this kind of system - I don't think I have ever encountered anything like it before. Anyway, it was a wonderful first week here and I ended feeling both tired and relieved to be done with the kits.
Arrival
I arrived in Cape Town at night on Friday, May 27, 2011 nearly a full day after leaving Raleigh. When we landed, the pilot asked us to remain seated so that he could arrest a man who had been smoking in the airplane restroom! Anyway, we eventually got out and rode buses over to border control. When it was my turn for processing, I actually almost did not get a visa to enter! I had not printed out my return ticket, which would have proved that I was going to leave Cape Town in two months. Fortunately, Minda had written me a letter explaining the purpose of my trip and the parts I was carrying with me. Looking over it, the officer decided this would be acceptable proof and gave me the tourist visa. What a start to my trip!
While waiting for my bags, I changed and cleaned up a bit. Some folks from Projects Abroad picked me up and took me to the Bagley house. That night, I watched some television with the guys in the house and unpacked my things. As I recall, I slept quite soundly that night. The next day, the guys went to play paintball with other Projects Abroad volunteers and invited me along, but I decided to spend a relaxed day at home. :) It was nice and Lecia even took me to Wynberg, a nearby town, to withdraw some money and buy a much needed bottle of shampoo.
The next day, I attended the New Apostolic Church with Lecia and Leslie. For dinner, I went with the other volunteers to get some excellent Braai at Mzoli's. At the counter we chose all the meat we wanted to have grilled.
While we waited for our food to be finished, a large group of motorcyclists came through. I think someone said it was for a wedding.
Eventually our food was ready and we got busy eating. It was neat to eat without any utensils or napkins, instead using our hands and bread!
I think going to Mzoli's was also my first time riding a mini-bus. :D
Induction
My volunteer coordinator, Shuan Solomons, arrived on Monday to take me on my induction. He showed me how to ride the mini-bus to Wynberg and the train to Newlands, where Projects Abroad's South Africa office is located. Along the way, we ran into another volunteer Leanna, who was also on her induction.
At the office, he picked up my packet and Projects Abroad T-Shirt. Next, Leanna and I were taken on a short tour of some nearby malls. I bought a cell phone, slippers and exchanged my remaining US Dollars into Rands, the currency of South Africa. We also ate a tasty and, as far as I could tell, healthy lunch at a Osumo in Cavendish Square. Over lunch, Shuan went over Projects Abroad's South Africa Handbook.
Afterwards, we went back to the office, where I showed them some of the Phase 1 robot. Meschak Bugaye, another volunteer coordinator, took me back to Parkwood, where we stopped by the school and I got to meet Mr. Dirk Jurgens and Mr. Zhaun Borcherds for the first time! We chatted briefly and I found out the computer lab was still not set up. We began making some plans and after we were finished, Meschak showed me the way home.
Final Preparations
I must confess that at this point, I begin to be a bit uncertain as to when I did a variety of tasks. I do, however, have many of my receipts and will do my best to remember! On Tuesday I took all the robotics equipment (parts, rechargeable batteries, and battery charger) to school with me. Every day at Hyde Park begins with a teacher meeting at 7:45 AM. Something inspirational or touching is read and Mr. Jurgens addresses the teachers for the remainder of the meeting. After the meeting on Tuesday, Mr. Jurgens invited me into his office and we chatted briefly about my time here, the work I would be doing, and the exhibition they would need to plan.
Zhaun gave me access to the school's internet, which has saved me many trips to an internet cafe. It has been particularly useful for discussing course content with folks back in the United States. The computer lab was still not set up - all the computers had arrived, but we were waiting on a technician to come set them all up. This was unfortunate, but I also had some preparation work to do before our first class. Thus, we only needed to make sure the lab would be ready for the first class. The technician was supposed to arrive the next day, so we decided to wait.
Before we had class, I mainly needed to:
- find containers and organizers to store each team's kit.
- find colored objects or some way to make them.
- finish programming the final Phase 1 robot.
When I mentioned that we needed boxes, Zhaun showed me some cardboard boxes that A4 paper is sold in. As a quick side note, it is neat to see A4 paper used here instead of the "letter" standard that I have grown up with. Anyway, I was hesitant to use the boxes for containers, thinking that something like a toolbox would be more sturdy. I did, however, think that we might be able to use them to make colored boxes for the robot to find.
It seemed like I would need to first search for what was available in the area to use as containers. Looking back, I see now that it would have been wise to ask the Projects Abroad office for help. Unfortunately, this did not occur to me and so I decided to first buy colored paper (for colored boxes), thinking I would look around for toolboxes at the same time. Zhaun directed me to a store called CNA found in Stadium on Main, a mall in Claremont, and explained how to get there via mini-bus.
I headed out and must confess I got lost along the way! Once I got to Wynberg, I realized I had no idea where the mini-buses going to Claremont would be. I asked around and, thanks to the locals, eventually found the right mini-bus. The driver was also incredibly helpful, telling me when it was my time to get off the mini-bus. Since then I have made the same journey many more times. Looking back, it is a bit funny to think that I had so much trouble finding my way there!
It also took me a while to find CNA, but once inside I was able to find the colored paper I had come for. This may seem a bit silly, but I spent a while debating which packs of colored paper to get! I wanted to make sure it had a bold enough color to be easily picked up by the Lego Color Sensor. I also purchased some thick paper, thinking they could be used to make some custom certificates. If my memory serves me, I bought some lunch in another mall and grabbed a mini-bus back to school, where I ate it.
Near the train station in Wynberg there is a small Chinese shop that sells a broad assortment of items. I think I first visited it with my housemates when they were looking for a hat. Anyway, at some point before Thursday I found a small organizer there that seemed to fit the bill. Unfortunately, however, they did not have enough for me to use! So now I was searching for this specific organizer box. I bought one and brought it home to ask Lecia and Leslie where I might find more. They told me to look in the other similar Chinese-owned shops along the main road in Wynberg.
On Wednesday, I went to Wynberg to continue my search and was surprised at just how many Chinese-owned shops I found! However, none of the shops had the organizer and I did not find any acceptable substitutes. I think I bought some tape that day and began working on using the colored paper to make colored boxes out of the A4 paper boxes. I bought six rolls of tape the next day, so I must have run out while working on it.
Thursday was a school holiday for Ascension Day. Stores, however, were still open and so I headed out, expanding my search to grocery stores. At ShopRite I bought the aforementioned six rolls of tape and a glue stick (to repair one of the boxes). I also found some plastic food containers that seemed promising, but we needed something with more compartments to keep the smaller pieces organized. Nevertheless, I went ahead and bought a set of the containers, thinking they may come in handy. The search for the organizer continued, but none of the stores I checked seemed to carry it or any suitable replacement.
I hit my lucky break when I walked into a store (maybe PEP Home) and was looking around. A kind woman working at the store asked me what I was looking for. When I showed her, another person told me to try the Crazy Store. It was right around the corner and when I showed them the organizer, they pointed me to a whole stack of them!
This may seem a bit dramatic, but I was so happy to find these organizers that I just sat on the ground and began looking through them. It was such a relief to finally find a supply of these organizers. The store had several other organizers too and I decided to take one of them back with me as a sample. Looking around the store some more, I also saw a neat craft paper cutter that would help me cut the colored paper in straight lines. I bought the two and headed back. Now I would need to start throwing the parts into the organizers and see if it worked! I think I continued covering the A4 boxes with colored paper that night and nearly finished, finding that I had purchased something like five too many rolls of tape!
On Friday morning, I unpacked all the pieces for the teacher kit and began sorting and organizing them. Now I would start figuring out how to maintain these Lego Robot kits. I tried a variety of things to see how to make it all fit in the organizers in a sensible way.
I was not really able to get everything to fit and so tried a larger tackle box. I don't really remember when I bought it, but I think after that first attempt with the smaller boxes did not work out, I returned to the Chinese store in Wynberg to take another look. The store sold a larger box that I had seen earlier. However, back then I thought it only had small compartments. Turns out, it actually had one large compartment and many small compartments. This made the box a viable option. Bringing it back to school, I was soon able to get everything to fit. All I would need was the large tackle box and a few plastic food containers slightly larger than the previously purchased ones.
With that settled, I headed back to Wynberg and went to ShopRite to buy the plastic food containers. I accidently went to a different ShopRite first, where they didn't have enough of the plastic containers. I couldn't find any way out other than the cashiers and so bought something to eat and drink, just so I could get out! I think I went to the Crazy Store next and picked up four more of the large tackle boxes. Finally, I found the ShopRite from Thursday and the plastic containers I needed. I had hoped to find a pack of four so that I could divide the angled pieces but only found packs of three. After considering a variety of ways to split the parts, I settled on buying the three pack and just combining all the angled pieces in one container. I must confess I felt a bit ridiculous walking into the check-out line with five packs of the food containers!
Now, I had all the organizers I needed. That night, I took all the parts home and unpacked the remaining four kits, sorting and organizing them. It took a while and was quite tiring, but it felt great to finish!
As for getting a toolbox, during my search for organizers I had come across some toolboxes at a grocery store. However, I eventually decided to use the A4 boxes for both the colored boxes and the kit boxes. This led to giving each team a color, so that there would now be red, green, blue, and yellow teams. Black would be used for the teacher kit. This conveniently gave a way to name the teams and also meant that the Phase 1 robot would be looking not only for a colored object, but in fact for its own kit box.
For several days I had struggled to decide what organizer to use, what kit box to use, and what to use for colored objects. Now it seemed that everything had fallen together nicely! As for the Phase 1 robot's program, I completed coding and testing it at home over the course of the week. I'm afraid I don't really remember when in the week I finished. The lab was still not ready on Friday and it seemed like it would not be ready on Monday either. With final preparations for the course finishing up, it seemed like we could not afford to wait any longer. We decided to see if we could set up a few computers ourselves on Monday and begin class.
All in all, it was a somewhat busy week as I adjusted to life here in South Africa and got ready to have class. All the trips to Wynberg made me much more comfortable getting around by mini-bus, and I learned quite a bit about the shops here. :D One part of shopping that surprised me was the parcel counter, where they take your bags before you enter the store. It was neat to see this kind of system - I don't think I have ever encountered anything like it before. Anyway, it was a wonderful first week here and I ended feeling both tired and relieved to be done with the kits.
Hey David! I'm glad that your kits have come together. It seems that you're doing a very good job and are definitely putting all your effort into things. I pray that things will continue to go well. Also, that meat looked AWESOME!
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