Drawn to help, help to draw - Postcard from Mona in South Africa

I'm so excited because today I'm sending you my first update from Cape Town. I arrived here last Friday and a lot has happened since then! 🙂

On Saturday morning, I created a graphic recording for a South African non-profit organization during a meeting in Salt River.

As you may know, I've traveled to five countries on three continents over the past two weeks for work. I find it fascinating that everyone there shares the same vision and faces similar challenges. Even the questions asked are very similar. South Africa is no exception!

The topics discussed primarily aimed to clarify perspectives within a complex world, including being part of a larger ecosystem, managing conflicts, and gaining clarity about roles within an organization.

On Saturday, our "elephants in the room" became clearly visible. Some great processes will begin based on this. Incidentally, I actually drew an elephant for the first time as part of my work.

Since this organization is very committed to recycling resources, I decided to record the second session on Neuland packaging material.

On Sunday I was with the circus crew in Langa on the Cape Flats, where we participated in an Open Streets event.

This event aims to inspire people to use public spaces in new ways.

Of course, I brought paper and Neuland markers, and I really enjoyed drawing with the children and teenagers there. I asked them the question: "What is your dream?"
Just like in many other places, they wanted to be, for example, a mermaid, a doctor, an astronaut, a soccer player, or a pilot. Surprisingly, many wanted to become teachers!

We didn't just meet friends in Cape Town to enjoy the sun on the beach together. We also used the time to strengthen our group dynamic.

We'll be living and working closely together for the next few weeks, so some coordination and planning are necessary. I've used some of the large shipping boxes to create a comprehensive Kanban board and a calendar for the next three months. This will make it easier for us to keep track of everything.

Now we have everything very clearly organized and mobile. We can also track what's been done. Today we bought groceries in bulk at one of the large markets where shops and supermarkets buy their supplies. We do this to save money and still get healthy, good food. For example, we bought four medium-sized watermelons for €2.30.

I've also started working with the circus to get in shape for the AfrikaBurn performance. I'm very excited to see what tricks I'll learn this year and how strengthening my physical body will affect my wall writing practice.

I'm sending you lots of sunshine and gratitude from the city between the mountains and the sea!

PS If you would like to support Mona in this project, you can find all the information here .