I have about two days left here in Cape Town and decided that this would be an appropriate time to reflect on what has been a great experience. I came here with the intention of finishing off one paper, and starting the second. As was the case with my last trip here, I leave the region with some great experiences and some new puzzles to ponder. Here are a collection of random thoughts I have (too tired to string these together in the usual thematic piece). Enjoy.
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On the plane ride over, I saw this great movie called The Visitor. It's about a tenured widower academic (a development economist!) who is going through the motions in life, until he meets an illegal immigrant who he eventually shares his apartment with and starts learning the African drums from. The immigrant chap is eventually arrested and detained, and the academic works hard to get him out, forming life changing relationships with the drummer and the drummer's wife and mother in the process. It is an uplifting, sad and thoughtful movie, all at once, and perhaps one of the best movies I've seen in the last few months. Furthermore, Richard Jenkins, who plays the academic, gives an incredible performance and should win awards for this.
Highly recommended.
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I absolutely love the University of Cape Town. Aside being located on the side of Table Mountain (and thus offering incredible views of both the mountain side and the city below), UCT is one of the best academic institutions on the continent, and the research that is going on here is really interesting. You often get a good grip on the quality of the research in an institution from the comments you get during a seminar. At my seminar, the feedback was ridiculously sharp and useful - definitely one of the best academic experiences of my young research career.
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Speaking of UCT, I got a chance to revisit the owner of the Chinese food stall here, who made an appearance in one of my earlier posts on incentives to induce environmentally friendly behavior. The gentleman is still offering his R0.50 discount to those who bring their own plates or containers for food, though, he noted sadly, few people take him up on that these days. He seemed quite distraught to keep having to dole out styrofoam containers. I told him that it might be time to up the incentive, to which he laughed in response.
I don't think he is going to take me up on this.
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One of the best ways to spend a day in Cape Town is to hike up Table Mountain and/or Lion's Head. Both offer stunning vistas of the city and surrounding suburbs. My body continues to revolt after the two hikes I've done here, but spending a day out in the sun, walking and climbing on paths surrounded by spring colors and geckos was pretty mind blowing.
Also mind blowing are Chandini restaurant in Woodstock (amazing Indian food), the Royale Eatery (at least 15 options for vegetarian burgers) and the High Life (Hare Krishna) food stall at UCT.
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Of course, the trip wasn't all fun and games - at least in the recreational sense. My colleague and I spent most of our time working (fun and games, though of a different sort, in my book), and are onto some new research questions. In particular, we are going to look at links between economic vulnerability and shocks and risky sexual behaviors. More on that in a later post...
All in all, this has been a great trip: productive, fun, and thought-provoking. And it's been great also to create partnerships that could spur projects and travel opportunities in the future.
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