Week 4: Lots to do before the week is out

This was our final week in Cape Town and a little gloom over us as we loved Cape Town and its energy and beauty. But, at the same time personally there is both excitement and apprehension about Marrakesh and Morocco, because it will be so different from what we have experienced before.

All in all Cape Town and South Africa has been a fantastic place to live the last month and look forward to being back there again soon.

Week 4 at a glance:
  • Cross-continent Behavioral Grooves: One of the areas that I am a big fan of is behavioral science. Before traveling I had met with Tim Houlihan and Kurt Nelson who founded the Behavioral Grooves MeetUp and we talked about doing a joint event between Cape Town and Twin Cities. One of the big reasons for doing this was for Kurt and Tim's Behavioral Grooves podcast their third most downloaded episodes came from South Africa. Well we ended up pulling a cross-continent Behavioral Grooves MeetUp off this week with about 15 people in Minneapolis and about 13 people in Cape Town joined together with the beauty of technology. Each city had a speaker that presented to the entire group. Mark Pearson presented in Minneapolis on game mechanics and Mario Lanzarotti presented in Cape Town on language. Overall the event was a good success and glad we could do the first cross-continent Behavioral Grooves MeetUp.  

First cross-continent Behavioral Grooves MeetUp - view from Cape Town. Photo credit Kristin Chan.
  • Let’s do some good: This week we had two positive impact projects that our group was doing. Personally I participated in the StreetScapes program geared at providing a hand up and not a handout to the toughest cases of homelessness and poverty in Cape Town. They have created community gardens where these people will work and get paid along with educational opportunities. Our role in helping this program was installing two composting toilets and structures to house them. They do not have toilets currently in the gardens we put one so it just provides another sense of humanity for people.   
Working on getting toilet up and running - I am in backdrop with toilet. Photo credit Josh Swart.
  • Lunch with Nolu: A group of us had the opportunity to have lunch with Nolu of Seven Colours Eatery at her home in Pinelands as she educated us on how to make Chakalaka and her life growing up in South Africa. Then, we had a fantastic lunch of various South African favorites in what is called a 7 Colours feast that would happen on Sundays for many in South Africa. 

Learning about cooking Chakalaka from Nolu. Photo credit Dave Mathias.
  • What do you have in a two bedroom: I have been considering investing in some international real estate and after being really impressed by Cape Town it made me think this is a place that I wanted to explore and spend more time. My Cape Town flatmate Jae also had the same idea. Jae had reached out to a real estate agency that helps not only in purchasing but also in renting property out and maintaining property. Saw some cool places but still early in this process and look forward to checking out real estate in Portugal and Spain when in those countries also.  
  • Two shot morning - Lean (Startup) Coffee MeetUp and Data Able taping: Jeff Sloan had let me know about the Lean (Startup) Coffee MeetUp in Cape Town and it was fantastic. This form of MeetUp actually started in Seattle but the general format is bringing people together and putting in small groups and letting the groups put together topics they want to talk about and then time box the topics and have wonderful conversations. There were probably about 25 people there the week I went which surprised me because not that many people had signed up. Anyway there were a lot of interesting discussions I had before, during, and after the event and just another reminder that no matter where you are in the world people are not that different. After the MeetUp, I had the opportunity to interview Jeff Sloan for Data Able podcast and harness his insights from being a data product manager and also a global traveler.  
Quick selfie at Lean (Coffee) Startup in Cape Town. Photo credit Dave Mathias.
  • OpenUp says me: I took one last opportunity to engage with the team at OpenUp and have breakfast again together. After breakfast I even had the opportunity to do a taping of Data Able podcast with Lailah Ryklief and Julia Renouprez both of OpenUp. Trust me this will be one of our best episodes so far when it comes out so look for it.  

Taking a group selfie post-Data Able recording of Lailah and Julia. Photo credit Lailah Ryklief.
  • Going away party for a good cause: The last night we were in Cape Town we had a going away party that helped raise ~$3,000 for two South African charities. At same time we had a beautiful view of the ocean and mountains surrounding Cape Town.  


Waking up Saturday was the dreaded pack and travel day. Before traveling though we had a little lawn bowling and braai prior to heading off to Cape Town airport for our flight to Dubai. I was not excited about the travel but I was excited we were flying Emirates and I was certainly not disappointed with Emirates. Plus with such a big group of us on the plane we had fun and some more than others. 


Silent disco on Emirates by Greta, Lauren, and Hallie. Video credit Dave Mathias.

After a 9+ hour flight we arrived in Dubai and while we didn’t have time to visit the city we did get to see the airport a little and what a spectacular airport it is. Dubai is the most impressive airport I have been in with spectacular experience design throughout. After a short layover in Dubai we were off again to Casablanca, Morocco. 

Our destination was Marrakesh so after landing in Casablanca we had to bus it down to Marrakesh. On the way from Casablanca to Marrakesh at first it seemed like I was back in rural Midwest as slight rolling fields with cows sparse population. As we got closer to Marrakesh the terrain started to change and became less grassy and more hilly. When we hit Marrakesh it was full on a different experience. 

I will save any further discussion of Marrakesh to the next week. For now I hope you are also having some memorable experiences wherever you are. 
Location: Cape Town, South Africa

Popular posts from this blog

Week 2: When surreal fades but also grows

Image
Getting to know Khayelitsha. Photo credit Dave Mathias. Writing this after an action packed week 2. It still is surreal that I am here in Cape Town but at same time it is becoming normal which is surreal in itself. Getting around gets easier. Looking right before crossing the streets is becoming second nature. Getting more balanced with getting work done and enjoying experiences. All in all becoming home away from home. Recap of some of week 2's events: Learning the language: Ok, learning the language is way overstating it but this week we had a Xhosa session with Ayanda and Buntu. Xhosa is one of the 11 official South African languages and is spoken by about 8.3M people or 16% of population in South Africa . We learned phrases like “molo bhuti” (hello brother) and “molo sisi” (hello sister) and more. Then, we did a poor rendition of the Click Song by Miriam Makeba . Xhosa definitely forces your tongue to work but also is interesting to observe. Bo-Kaap and lunch ...
Read more

Week 1: In the Mother City

Image
Kuungana Crew   Photo credit Jason Piersialla. Writing this a week from taking off from Twin Cities, Minnesota. After a 36+ hour travel experience, I arrived to beautiful Cape Town, South Africa. It has been a great first week that is somewhat surreal as I write this looking out onto beautiful Table Mountain with clouds creeping over it. Table Mountain from my Cape Town flat. Photo credit Dave Mathias. Before getting more into the first week though a little background is in order. For those that I haven’t talked with about this or even met, I am on a travel experience with a program called Remote Year . It is an opportunity to live in four different countries (South Africa, Morocco, Portugal, and Spain) for a month each with 53 other amazing people. Our Remote Year group name is Kuungana which means connect in Swahili . Most of the people are from the United States with a handful of others joining us from countries including Singapore, Canada, China...
Read more

Week 3: Time is going too fast

Image
This week was invigorating but also reminds me how little time I have left in Cape Town this trip. At the same time I know I will return to Cape Town and that makes me happy.  Week 3 at a glance: Parliament almost in session: We had a special behind the scenes visit to Parliament of South Africa by MP Steve Swart . MP stands for Member of Parliament and this is similar to our U.S. Senator or Representative. Certainly experiencing Parliament itself was amazing but the most interesting part were the stories and history provided by MP Swart who is not only a 20 year MP but also was involved with creating the South African Constitution in the 1990’s prior to being asked to run for Parliament. MP Swart is a member of the African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) party which is one of the roughly 14 parties in Parliament. Despite the ACDP being a party with only ~1% of the vote, MP Swart has been heavily involved with shining light and resolving government corruption in conjun...
Read more