Gifts

I have now been in Cape Town for just over a week and I am ever so appreciative of all that has been given to me already. There have been so many kind and wonderful people that have helped me out, given me food, rides, time, music, and kindness, all without obligation and without expectations.
In the first week I was here I met a young woman who, within an hour of meeting me, invited me to go to a cottage in the mountains with her and her friends for the weekend. It was a lovely trip, the mountains were beautiful, we made deliciously-entirely-vegetarian food, drank red wine from the Western Cape, and I made friends with strong, adventure-seeking, impassioned women.
This evening, the woman who I'm staying with invited me to the opening of an art exhibition at the Irma Stern Museum (named for the world's best-selling South African artist). The exhibit was of the illustrations of Fiona Moodie, an internationally renowned Children's book illustrator. I couldn't have imagined a better way to spend an evening. I was completely enchanted by her etchings, and wanted, quite literally, to dwell in her paintings, all night.
There have been countless instances of the gifts that people are willing to share with me here, and I am ever so grateful.

Arrival in Cape Town and to HPCA

Hello from Cape Town!
I have arrived, and am quite content in this new, beautiful, vivacious city. I am struck by how fortunate I am to be here for almost a year; I cannot imagine a greater opportunity fresh out of St. Olaf with a bachelors in sociology and anthropology.
I will be in Cape Town through June of 2011, studying gender and sexual health in end-of-life care. I will be working with the Hospice and Palliative Care Association of South Africa (HPCA), and in collaboration with the University of Cape Town School of Public Health and Family Medicine to evaluate recently instated gender guidelines at HPCA.
What does gender have to do with palliative care you might ask? It's a question I've already gotten a lot. HPCA has developed the gender guidelines to highlight the way one's gender affects one's experience with end-of-life care. It is important to realise this is not only a question of promoting awareness of womens' issues, but rather of better understanding of the role gender plays in providing the highest-quality-possible, wholistic, palliative care.
This research project presents me with a steep learning curve: I have already learnt so much about all that HPCA values and how important addressing gender is in end-of-life care, but I have a great deal to learn, and a wonderful opportunity to spend time doing so.

I said who am I
To blow against the wind
I know what I know
I'll sing what I said
We come and we go
That's a thing that I keep
In the back of my head

~ Paul Simon