After a fantastic weekend adventure, it was hard to settle into work today. Also, I was pretty nervous because I was on my own without Lucy. She is away for the entire week, although for a couple of days this week a substitute Occupational Therapist is coming in. When I first came to South Africa, to be totally in charge of activities for a group of elderly each morning would have seemed like a great job situation. But because of the whole dynamic at the Old Age Home ie. Lucy being so hesitant to give me any responsibility and the old people seeming to be so dependant on Lucy each day - I was afraid that they might be super disappointed at my attempts to be on my own and would perhaps walk out or refuse to cooperate. It did not work out that way. There were not quite as many participants as when Lucy is there but those that stayed with me were totally into everything I had planned for them and very cooperative and enthusiastic. I left feeling really good about what I did and hope that they show up again for me tomorrow.
After work, Erica and I went to Robben Island by ferry. It is an island off the coast of Cape Town that has a huge prison that is now a museum. It housed political prisoners during the apartheid era. Nelson Mandela was there for about 25 years. Basically the government jailed anyone that it felt was a threat to its control. The fellow that was our guide had been a political prisoner from 1977 to 1982. He was involved in a school uprising in 1976 and arrested as one of its leaders. He was 20 years old at the time. He talked a lot about prison conditions, about other political prisoners and about Nelson Mandela's experience in prison. It was very interesting.
After the tour, we met the rest of the group of volunteers at an Italian restaurant on the waterfront and shared a pizza.
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