On Friday we went for picnic to the Company’s Garden in the heart of the city (which back in the day was a vegetable patch for the Dutch East India Company) and also visited the National Gallery Museum. After that we were supposed to go on a tour of the Houses of Parliament but for some reason instead of that we ended up actually seating in parliament to hear a very heated political debate. It was crazy: people were calling each other monkeys, yelling at each other, joking around, having to leave the House because of their behavior. Definitely an amazing experience but I guess also a eye opening experience in the sense that it shows (to some extent) how politics work – or better said, how politicians work…
These are pictures of the session in parliament (Health Minister Barbara Hogan at the front was the only one I recognized) and of the whole group in front of the Parliament.

This weekend we went to a camp in Worcester, which is about three hours up to the North East of Cape Town. The landscapes were absolutely amazing: mountains, valley, winelands, etc. In spite of being warned about the many mosquitos and snakes we didn't experience much of that (although on our way back we saw some baboons near the highway). We did some interesting team building activities as well as some more intense things such as high ropes and wall climbing. We went over the expectations for the semester, the challenges and the opportunities that we will have as we begin to take classes and especially as we begin to work in the communities. Here is a picture I took from the car on our way to Worcester: