I swear, I'm not on vacation!

Though I'm partaking in tons of fun touristy activities, as I noted in the second post, I'm actually here in Cape Town for an internship, yes a full time 40 hour job where I don't get paid. Anyways, here's some proof that I'm not just on vacation... ;)

Actually before I go any further, I suppose I should quickly explain why you're viewing pictures of vegetables and gardeners, and not the EE&RE project that I wrote about last.

In a nutshell, I have reduced my 40 hours to two days at the microfinance organization and have started working three days (usually 10 hour days) for an environmental organization, located in townships.

Regarding the microfinance organization I am working for, the people there are great, the organization is very effective and they have lots of consulting expertise, as properly accredited. But, as a technical advisory organization for micro finance institutions (MFIs) the organization is quite removed from the ground, leaving me to feel completely disconnected to the people I am actually working for. This combined with the fact that I room with two Americans (who I love) and live in an area inhabited with wealthy white people, has failed to provide me true access and exposure to the real reasons why I am here.

So, I wanted to find an organization that was more than just sitting in an office, in a white neighborhood, with other foreigners. Something more hands on, in the field, working with the people who's living situations I want to help improve. This led me to Abalmi Bezekahaya: an organization who's dedicating to the alleviation of poverty through sustainable, organic, urban gardening. The organization works with multiple gardens and gardeners in two specific areas, Khayeliysha and Nyanga, and mostly with women who are over the age of 60.







I'm working on conducting Sustainability index's (SI) for each of the 65 community gardens that Abalimi partners with. The SIs usually take around 2.5 hours for each garden, I go with a field worker who speaks Xhosa (pronounced Kosa) and we interview the gardeners and observe the facilities and conduct a report on our discoveries. I'll mostly be assisting another volunteer with many of these garden assessment, but I have also taken it upon myself to create a data base where we can use this information to increase communication between the gardeners, fieldworkers, and the staff. I hope that we will be able to use the SIs as a tool to measure our success as an organization and find out where we can improve and what gardens need additional financial and non-financial support.






While at the microfinance organization, I am still working on the energy-efficiency and renewable energy microfranchising project. Since I'm only there twice a week I am mostly assisting the head of development with writing proposals and grants and researching potential funding opportunities. It's not the most exciting, but I know they are important skills to know and be able to use.