DON'T call me a tourist!

It might just be me, but it seems like people have been trying to call me a tourist recently.  Most of my blog posts show pictures of me doing things like hiking or sight seeing in Cape Town, and not working.  The people I've been hanging out with outside of work joke that I know more things to do in the area than they do (and that would be because of all the time I spent reading Lonely Planet).  I'm obviously American, and why do Americans come to South Africa?  As tourists, of course!  So it makes sense that people would assume I'm a tourist.  Even if I'm here for a year, you could still argue that I'm just a long-term tourist.

But I would argue NO!  I am NOT a tourist!  I LIVE in Hawston.  I work here, I eat and sleep here, my car is here, my LIFE is here.  Maybe my life is only here for a year, but while I'm here I'm committed 100%.  A tourist comes to a place to see it, to do things, to consume.  I came to live, to work, to be. So what if I spend my free time exploring the area I'm living?  That's just my nature.  I'm an experience junky.  When I leave South Africa next year, I want to say that I KNOW South Africa, and to me that means seeing and doing as much as I can in the next 10 months (yes, 10 months... 2 months are already gone!  I can hardly believe it!)

So why are all my blog posts showing me doing touristy things?  Well, the main reason for that is I can't post a lot about my job.  There are confidentiality laws in South Africa just like in the US, so I can't tell you anything about my patients.  I have posted some pictures of the care centre, and next week I am going to write a 'day in the life' post so you can see what my typical weekday is like.  But other than that, I can't really show you a lot of pictures of my work, because that would require showing pictures of patients.

I CAN show you what happened just now.  Literally 15 minutes ago, Wendy, one of the 'Boss Ladies' came into my office and said, "You're missing the CANSA event!"  CANSA is the group that we refer cancer patients to.  I'm not sure what it stands for (obviously Cancer something something of South Africa), but they are involved in coordination of care for our cancer patients.  So anyway, I didn't know anything about this event before hand, but apparently October is breast cancer awareness month in South Africa, just like it is in the US.  So, I followed Wendy outside and found a group of pink-clad ladies decorating our yard with pink ribbons, and they were about to release the pink balloons.  I was just in time to catch this!

Our trees are now decorated!

The Pink Ladies get ready with their balloons.

There they go!  Of course, it was windy today.  It's always windy here.  So the balloons ended up in our yard, but that's OK.

Some of the kids had fun chasing the balloons.  They were just making sure we didn't litter.

So yes, there is a post that is not at all about touristy stuff!  See?  I can do it when I want to!