At Last

Loud and busy are the first words that I can say so far about Cape Town. It’s the second day of my stay here and after many hours of sleep last night I am finally refreshed and excited to go see the city. It’s a beautiful and sunny today which means that Claudine might be taking us to the waterfront. Yesterday was interesting. It was our first day at the forensic pathology unit. We got a folder full of paper on rape homicide and Dr. Martin’s thesis which is around 100 pgs… I started reading it and so far it seems to be a sad, interesting, and scary piece. Hopefully I get to finish it today. So far I love the white taxis and how they don’t even stop moving when people get on and off… I also love the way people yell out the destination of the taxis. I guess it kind of reminds of Iran. We were told not to get in them but hopefully one of these days Omar or June will take us. Oh I didn’t say anything about Omar or June. They are Dr. Martin’s assistants and super nice. They told us a million times that we will be ok and that they are here in whatever we need them for. They do their best so that we don’t feel out of place and at least from my part so far I can say that I don’t feel like a foreigner. Well I did get the “are you American line?” a couple of times but I think they only recognize the accent and the fact that I was learning the money bills as I was paying for things. I had the best samosa yesterday! Indian food is really popular here due to the large population of Indians. The Indian food here is a lot better than what I have had in the States (I also had meat curry and beryani for lunch yesterday.) I am hoping to get out and try some authentic South African food soon. Maybe it’ll happen today… We haven’t really started work since Dr. Martin is going to back on Monday. So far we are just reading and sleeping, both necessary for the intense research awaiting us.