First Day here!

Finallly, I'm in South Africa..Cape Town to be exact. About 35 of us from our group flew to London from Atlanta and that was a 7 1/2 hour plane flight. We had a layover in London for nine hours, and THEN flew 12 hours to Cape Town. It was really long, but we got to explore London a bit. We took the train into the city from Heathrow Airport, and then ate at a little deli/pub. Everyone there was really warm and friendly! London is really quaint, yet exquisite. It was a beautiful, breezy day there. 

NOW, about Cape Town. As we were riding from the airport to our apartments, we saw the extreme poverty that plagues most of Africa. Slums, homelessness, etc. While we may be living in very nice apartments, equipped with kitchens, king sized beds, etc, we have to remember that extreme poverty and disease is the majority in this country, continent even. On Friday, we will be given a tour of the townships, a formal name for slums. Today, we took a 20 min walk from our apartments to the V&A waterfront and ate lunch, bought groceries, and explored. We had a welcome dinner tonight to kind of break the ice with our group, and everyone is exhausted from the two days of traveling. Tomorrow we will be conversing with a cultural diversity panel and also we will be given a tour of the city. So far, I love it. It's overwhelming because there is so much to do. Stay tuned!