Finally Here
Sunday September 5, 2010
So now that I finally have a chance to breathe, I guess this will be the best time to update my blog. When I first stepped off the plane, I had no idea what to expect. Joburg is pretty cool city, very modern with plenty of tall skyscrapers. A South African friend that I met deemed Joburg the New York City of South Africa because there is a perception that the job market is very strong in Joburg. Because of the hope of jobs, Many Africans try to migrate to Joburg to try and find work and more opportunity.
Our house is actually located in Melville, which is about a 10-minute drive to downtown. Melville is a very cool place with tons of bars and clubs and a few beautiful parks. Melville is also pretty western and seems as though more Europeans and Afrikaans live in this area. Our actual house is a one story four bedroom rancher with 2.5 bedrooms. We have a porch and a solid backyard. The living conditions are pretty sweet and definitely exceed my expectations, especially when I initially thought we would be living in Soweto.
Since I arrived in Joburg on Wednesday morning, I have been completely saturated with information about GRS, Joburg, and HIV/AIDS. Actually as soon as I arrived at the Nike center, Tizzy and I were given the task of entertaining a group of 20 young kids. Having no idea what to do with these kids, we asked them what games they would like to play. Unanimously they all declared that they wanted to play soccer. It was pretty cool to see how much these kids love soccer. So, we initially set up a field for soccer and let them play. However, this quickly got out of hand and with no organization, these kids were running everywhere. So, Tizzy and I reeled the kids back in and decided to play some games with a little more structure.
Here are a few pics…
The next few days at work were very low key. Our site coordinator was in Capetown for the week and therefore, we really did not have much to do. Hopefully next week when Greg, our Site Coordinator, returns I can learn more about GRS structure and my position as programs intern.
A Bro in the Jo ~ Kickin' The Bucket List 
