Rachel, Jordan, Michelle, Chelsea, KEVIN, Ben, Steph, Hannah
Internship Day 1: I spent the first day reviewing past annual reports, organization procedures, and research reports to familiarize myself more closely with Cape Nature and its history. It was an awkward day integrating myself into an South African organization because different language and behaviors are used by the workers than what I am used to. My internship time is time when I am away from other U.S. students and am completely immersed in a South African working environment. My interactions at work span further than asking a local for directions or buying something from them because I am working with locals for hours and hours a day. This entails cooperation across cultures and a sensitive understanding that we may not always understand the language, behaviors, and viewpoints of one another because we've grown up around different influences. Respect and common goals enable the cross-cultural work experience to occur when my language, behaviors, and views are different than many of those whom I work with. I see the internship experience as a unique experience that I am grateful of because the skills learned during this time are skills that cannot be easily obtained as a tourist or a traditional study abroad student.
Internship Day 2: Jordan and I spent our second day out on an excursion to one of Cape Nature's reserves in the Southern Cape past the farms of Garbouw. Garbouw is an area where you can see rows and rows of apple trees, pear trees, and grape vines. Trucks drive by you that are stocked to the full of fresh picked fruits. Acres and acres of pine trees are also present in the Garbouw area, but pine trees are a foreign plant species that inhibit water from reaching dams. The removal of pine trees can be seen as you travel through Garbouw, but the process is slow. I'm not too sure about the uses of pine trees either. I'll wikipedia that later. Albi drove us to the reserve. Albi works in the working for water program (more specifically removing invasive alien vegetation so that water can flow to dams more easily). The highlights of day two were hearing Albi's insights about South Africa's current state and traveling a forty minutes up a bumpy road in the back of a pickup truck to check out the condition of a hiking cabin. I was able to listen in on the directors conversation about how they would like to improve the trail and cabin in order to attract more hikers to the trail.
Internship Day 3: I asked Noluthando if she could provide me with any business plans to review. She printed out two for me to review. Both business plans revolve around utilizing and turning cleared invasive alien vegetation into products. The trickledown effect of new small business opportunities for locals that a public institution like Cape Nature is opening up through it's Working For Water program may provide some relief to the 40% unemployment rate in South Africa in a few years time. Some is better than none. Constructing actionable business plans and business training programs for small businesses is something that I will be looking deep into during my time in Cape Town. Entrepreneurship leads to job creation which in turn promotes positive socioeconomic activity. I will be working closely with Noluthando, the entrepreneurs, and visiting various business development organizations and seeing what types of services they offer for prospective entrepreneurs.
