Hiking to Kirstenbosch

On Saturday, July 17 we went hiking in the mountains again. Although this time the route was not quite so steep and we hiked around the mountain instead of down it. We hiked through the forest surrounding a peak near Table Mountain called Lion’s Head (named thus because it’s kind of shaped like a lion’s head). The route we took is called the Contour Path and begins about halfway up the mountain, just above UCT. The first half hour or so of the hike was fairly steep and we were all huffing and puffing as we made our way up. Eventually the trail leveled out and stayed that way for the rest of the hike, which was about three hours total.

This hike made me really appreciate just how diverse the plant life is in the cape area. Apparently the Cape region of South Africa has its own floral kingdom and there is more plant and animal life in this tiny region than in the entire United Kingdom (so I hear). As we hiked around the mountain I felt like I was walking from one part of the world to another. For a while we’d be among tall deciduous trees that looked similar to those we’d find in the northern U.S. Then half an hour later we’d be among vines and tropical looking trees. We hiked over all sorts of rocks and across so many little mountain streams that I lost count of them. About half of these stream crossings were at the base of waterfalls as well. The largest waterfall was the first one we came to and most of the group and I climbed right up next to this waterfall to take pictures. It was incredibly beautiful. I had very wet shoes and socks by the end of that hike from how many times I accidentally stepped in the water while trying to cross these streams, but the adventure was worth it. This mountain definitely had some of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen.

The trail eventually led down to the Kirstenbosch Gardens, one of the most famous botanical gardens in the world. We had lunch at a little café next to the garden and then explored for a while. Unfortunately, since it’s winter here the garden wasn’t quite as nice as it would be at other times of the year. Only a few flowers were in bloom and the whole place was very damp from rain earlier in the week. However, there are also lots of interesting sculptures and other structures dotted throughout the garden which we had fun looking at. As you might imagine from a group of 23 American college students, we tend to be very loud and boisterous when we’re all together. I can only imagine what everyone else at Kirstenbosch thought of us making noise and taking all sorts of crazy pictures, probably disturbing the peacefulness of the garden. Oh well. I suppose it can’t be helped. This was also the first time our group had seen each other since we had gone to live with host families. We all had lots of stories to share with each other about our new lives with host families and school placements. This tends to be all we talk about when we get together these days.

The next day (Sunday, July 18), I spent with my host family. Sunet, Rika, and another friend took me to church and then out to lunch in Cape Town at a place called Beluga that has half-price sushi on Sundays. It was a very relaxing day after the rigorous hike of the day before.

Home and School

I’ve been living with my host family and student teaching in the school for a week now, so I thought I would write a little bit about my life in this environment. I live with my mentor teacher Sunet Kellerman, her younger sister Rika, and their friend Janci. All three of them are in their twenties and moved to Cape Town from Pretoria (the capital city of South Africa in the north west part of the country) about two years ago. They moved here basically to get a change of scenery and start careers in a different part of the country than where they grew up. All three of them are white Afrikaners, the cultural group that had very high privilege during apartheid. They have a very nice townhouse in Kenridge, another suburb of Cape Town, near to the city of Durbanville where our guest house was. They’re all very nice and we get along well. They have introduced me to a few of their friends in the Cape Town area also. Everyone I’ve met has been very nice, interested in hearing about life in the U.S., and willing to tell me all sorts of things about South African culture and society. The only slight difficulty is that all of them speak Afrikaans as they’re first language and often speak that language when they talk to each other. Everyone speaks English fluently so they have no problems talking to me, but they sometimes switch to Afrikaans in large group settings and I can’t really participate in the conversations. When that happens I find myself paying attention to changing tone of voice, body language, etc. I can actually guess a lot about emotions or context, even if I can’t understand the words. It’s kind of cool, actually.

They’ve also taken me to church and Bible study since I’ve been here, which I’ve liked a lot. Religion, especially Christianity, has a much stronger role in society here than it does in the U.S. Separation of church and state doesn’t really exist here. For example, every morning at the school we begin with a Bible reading and prayer. It’s also interesting to see young people close to my age speaking very openly about their faith. It’s something that I’ve found to be very rare in the U.S. You really have to know where to look to find people comfortable discussing their faith. People are much more open about it in South Africa. In other ways, living with these women is exactly like living with young professionals in the U.S. We go to the movies, go out to eat with friends, go dancing at clubs on weekends, and sit at home watching TV and talking.

In contrast to my home life, the school is a very different world. I work with Sunet in a 3rd grade class at Eikendal Primary School in the nearby suburb of Kraaifontein. The school has grades 1-7, which is typical for most South African primary schools. (Kindergarten is offered some places in South Africa but it’s not required.) Class sizes are larger here than they are in the U.S. and my class has 34 students in it. In the upper grades, classes can sometimes have more than 40 or 50 students! The students in the class are all coloured and black, as are most of the teachers. My mentor teacher is one of only two white teachers at the school. Most of the students come from poorer families and often come to school with not enough supplies and torn or dirty clothes because the families can’t afford to take care of things as well as they should. All South African schools require students to wear uniforms, but often in the poor schools kids only have one piece of each uniform item. Regardless, the kids are adorable and are truly grateful for everything their teachers do for them. They get so excited at even the smallest praise. They have so much enthusiasm and I love working with them.

The school building itself is also very interesting. It’s constructed kind of like a hotel with outdoor corridors. The classrooms all open to the outside and there are outdoor staircases leading up to the second floor. In front of the classrooms and connecting the different wings on the ground floor is a raised sidewalk called the “stoop.” Between the wings of the school is a large enclosed courtyard area and there are large open spaces in front and behind the school as well. There’s no playground, but during the break periods or “intervals,” the students run around and play in the open places around the school. There is no set lunch period at the school. There are two 15-20 minute intervals during the day that serve as a combined lunch/recess for the kids and staff.

The language difference can make things interesting sometimes when I’m teaching. The class is entirely taught in English, but most students in the class learned Afrikaans or Xhosa as their first language at home and really only started learning English when they came to school for the first time. Most of them speak English well enough to communicate in class, but many struggle to write in English. I always have to remind myself to speak slower and choose my words carefully when explaining things to them. When I talk to them I always have to make sure that I don’t use vocabulary that’s too difficult for them and speak slowly enough so they can understand my accent. Overall, I’m enjoying my home stay and school experience. Things aren’t always easy, especially at school, but I love the opportunity to learn and experience new things.

Township Tour

Last Tuesday (July 13), our group was taken on a walking tour of Langa, one of Cape Town’s townships, or poorest neighborhoods. Langa was built in the early 1900s as a place to live for black men who worked as construction workers on the Cape Flats, or windswept plains outside of Cape Town. These men were housed in crude barracks, many of which are still there today. Later on, other people came to live there as well and actual houses were built. We saw some small houses that were originally built in the 1930s and had been refurbished and added on to many times over the years as they changed owners. During apartheid, the Group Areas Act forced black and coloured people to leave the nicer areas of Cape Town and settle in the Cape Flats. The poorest people, mostly black, ended up in these township areas, where housing was cheapest. The same thing happened all over the country. The previous Friday (July 9), we visited the District 6 museum in Cape Town, which displays artifacts and stories about people who used to live in the District 6 neighborhood before the Group Areas Act dispersed them.

Even though apartheid has been over for 16 years now, thousands of people are still stuck living in these townships, unable to break the cycle of poverty. Many foreign nationals who immigrated to South Africa from countries like Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and Somalia also live in the townships. Some people take buses and taxis out of the townships every day to work menial jobs as servants, laborers, or store clerks, while others set up shops in the township to sell food and other goods to the people living there. Most of the people here speak very little English. English is taught in schools, but most families speak Xhosa or other native African languages at home. In a way, townships like Langa are very self-contained with their own businesses and schools.

Township store

The level of poverty varies in the townships as well. Some people own their own houses and cars, although frequently an entire family – grandparents, children, and grandchildren – live in one house. Others live in the former barracks and have next to nothing. Some of the barracks have been refurbished into slightly decent apartments while others look like no one has touched them in fifty years. In other townships, people have built their own crude shacks from corrugated iron and pieces of wood. The horrible poverty is absolutely heartbreaking. It’s kind of like the equivalent of the inner city in the U.S., but ten times worse. In one barrack unit, there was a tiny kitchen with a bed to the side where one person slept, another small room where 10 people all slept together, a sparse dining area with just one bare light bulb for light, and a small room with just a hole in the ground leading to the drain to serve as a toilet. Seeing these living conditions really makes me appreciate the life I live and everything I have. I should never take anything for granted when so many people live with so little.

"Middle class" township home

Barracks

What touched my heart the most about the township was the children we met there. When our tour guide took us into the barracks a group of five girls about five or six years old saw us coming and shyly made their way over to our group. They took our hands and wanted to swing from our arms and have their pictures taken. They got really excited when we showed them pictures of themselves on our digital cameras. They would reach their arms up to us and want to be picked up and carried too. More children kept appearing and they followed us all through the barracks, clinging on to us the whole time. It’s sad to think that these kids get so little attention at home that they seek it out from visitors. It also possible that kids this young have never left the township and know nothing yet about the world outside. When people like us with white skin and nice clothes come in they are curious and want to find out more about us. They loved examining our cameras and jewelry, playing with our hair, wearing our sunglasses, and touching our faces. One little girl reached out to me to be picked up and while I was holding her she patted my face and said, “White!” They also took us to visit a preschool/day care center in the township where the children sang and danced for us. When we left they swarmed around us, clinging to our legs, and trying to climb on to us. They even clung on to the chain link fence surrounding the day care center yard and reached out for us as we walked away. It was adorable and sad at the same time.

Some of the kids we met

In the preschool

I only saw a small glimpse of what these children see every day. I don’t know what will happen to them or who they’ll grow up to be, but they touched my heart and I’ll always wonder about them. I don’t think I’ll ever forget the things I saw in the township that day.

Pictures

I've added pictures to the previous blog posts. Hopefully this will give you a better idea of where I've been and what I've been doing.

Weekend in Hermanus

This past weekend (Saturday, July 10 to Monday, July 12), we went to the seacoast town of Hermanus, which is about two hours’ drive southeast of Cape Town. After a week and a half of unseasonably good weather, we finally experienced the characteristic rainy weather of Cape Town during the winter. It rained off and on the whole way there, and stayed that way most of the next day too.

On the way we passed a beach near the town of Gordon’s Bay, which Corvell told us was the most dangerous beach in South Africa because the rip currents were so strong. During apartheid this was one of the only beaches that black and colored people could use. Unfortunately many people drowned every year because the water was so dangerous. It breaks my heart to hear these stories about what people had to endure back then and how much things have changed for the better in such a short time.

Hermanus has a large flea market in the center of town with little stalls where different vendors will sell items like painted bowls, wooden carved animals, paintings, handmade jewelry, and other items made in traditional African designs. They were also selling vuvuzelas, scarves, and other World Cup paraphernalia as well. We spent a long time shopping at this market and I bought tons of souvenirs and gifts here, since everything was fairly cheap. You would pay a lot more for this same kind of stuff in the U.S.

On Sunday we drove to the town of Cape Agulhas, which is near the southernmost tip of Africa. We ate lunch in a small restaurant in the Cape Agulhas lighthouse. After lunch we climbed up to the top of the lighthouse, which was actually quite an adventure. To get to the top, we had to climb four, steep, narrow ladders that wound up through the lighthouse tower. I felt kind of like I was living my winterguard show this year, climbing ladders to get out of a small dark place and into the light above. Once we got to the top of the lighthouse, the view was beautiful. I could see the town of Cape Agulhas, the hills and mountains on one side, and the ocean on the other side. The wind was intense up there and it was very cold, but the view was worth all of that and the climb up as well.

View from Cape Agulhas lighthouse

From there we walked down the road that ran along the coast to the southernmost tip. There’s a small stone structure built there that says “Southernmost tip of Africa” and points to the Indian Ocean on the left and the Atlantic Ocean on the right. One girl from the group brought an MSU flag with her and we all took lots of pictures with the flag to commemorate bringing a little of Michigan State to the very south of Africa. It was mind boggling to look out at the ocean and realize just how far south I was. From this point of the land straight out, the next land a person would come to would be Antarctica, thousands of miles away. It really was something.

After this we drove back to Hermanus and ate dinner at a restaurant called Fusion to watch the final match of the World Cup. The next morning, some of the group went shark cage diving in the nearby town of Gansbaai. We had to sign up for this activity several months ago and I decided not to go since I was kind of scared and also didn’t want to spend a lot of money on it. While they went shark diving, the rest of us stayed in Hermanus and found fun things to do. We did a little more shopping and then drove a little way out of town to go wine tasting again at a wine farm called Southern Right (named for the Southern Right whale that inhabits the ocean near Hermanus).

After this we got to see some Southern Right whales ourselves when took a two hour trip on a whale watching boat. We only saw a few whales but it was still a fun trip for the most part. Unfortunately, after about an hour on the boat the rocking of the waves made me feel a little seasick. I never threw up, but my stomach definitely felt queasy. This mostly went away though when we saw a mother and baby whale right before we pulled back into the harbor. The guide on the boat said that the baby was only a few days old. It was very exciting. After the whale watching trip was over we met back up with the shark diving group and headed back to Cape Town for our last night in the guest house before leaving for our host families. More adventures to come very soon.

Speaking South African: Some Notes on the Culture

I thought that I would compile a list of some of the things in South Africa that are different from the U.S. that I found to be particularly interesting. First of all, they have different words for some things than we do in the U.S. Some of these are the same as the U.K. and other European countries, but others are distinctly South African.

• students = learners
• cookies = biscuits
• elevator = lift
• line (as in waiting in line) = queue
• car horn = hooter
• traffic light = robot (Also the lights, or robots, are also on posts on the side of the road at each intersection instead of hanging on wires overhead.)
• carry out (as in restaurants) = take away
• napkin = serviette
• diaper = napkin (This one is pretty funny. If you ask someone for a napkin here you get some pretty weird looks.)
• silverware = cutlery
• gasoline = petrol
• ketchup = tomato sauce
• tennis shoes/sneakers = tekkies
• restroom/bathroom = toilet
• text message = SMS

Some of the most popular foods here are lamb (served on the bone or minced and seasoned), curry (usually either lamb or chicken), squash vegetables (although they tend to call all squashes “pumpkins”), meat pies, calamari, citrus fruits, apples, and fish and chips (the fish is usually snook or hake, indigenous South African coastal fish). Barbecuing is also very popular here and South Africans have their own distinct style of barbecuing called “braai.” Braai is usually done over a wood fire and usually lamb, chicken, or fish is cooked.

Some other things I’ve noticed: Service in restaurants and stores is much slower here than in the U.S. (But then again everything moves quickly in the U.S., so this might just be the normal speed for the rest of the world.) Going to a sit-down restaurant here when you’re ravenously hungry is a bad idea. Also, when ordering water in a restaurant you have to specify “still” water to get normal water. But even then, you’ll get bottled water and have to pay for it. You have to specifically ask for “tap water” if you want water that’s free.

Most people don’t have prepaid or monthly cell phone plans like we do in the U.S. Most phones are pay-as-you-go, and you have to periodically buy more minutes or “airtime” when it runs out. Airtime doesn’t always correspond directly to minutes either. For example, buying airtime for 100 rand will last less than 15 minutes when calling the U.S., but will last at least an hour when calling within South Africa. Airtime can be bought at all cell phone stores and at most gas station stores, drug stores, and grocery stores too.

South African cities have a lot of problems with people breaking in to houses, schools, and businesses so a lot of places have electric fences, barbed wire, spiked fence posts, or some combination of these. It’s a little disturbing sometimes to see schools surrounded by barbed wire or houses with heavy duty electric fences or spikes. Some of the spiked fences are actually very decorative and you don’t realize they’re spikes unless you look closely.

All gas stations have attendants and most public parking lots have attendants too. I’m not sure if these parking lot attendants are hired by companies or if they just come on their own and make all their money from tips. There might be some of both.

Coffee is not brewed in a coffee pot like we’re used to in the U.S. Instead they have powdered or ground instant coffee that you mix into hot water like hot cocoa. Like many other countries they drive on the left side of road and the steering wheel is on the right side of the car. When walking in a hallway, mall, or on the sidewalk you’re also expected to walk on the left side, unlike the U.S. where you pass people on the right. This caused our group a few problems at first, since we would try to walk on the right and end up almost bumping into people. Oops! Also like most other countries, South Africa also uses the metric system for measurement. I’ve had to get used to interpreting things in centimeters, meters, kilometers, kilograms, and liters.

Even though it’s technically winter here it feels like fall in the U.S. However, buildings do not have central heating so it’s just as cold indoors as it is outdoors. If the weather is nice, it can get as warm as 60° outdoors in the middle of the day when the sun is right overhead, but it’ll still be cold indoors. In that case you have to put on a jacket to go inside. (It’s a little backwards, I know.) You would think we’d be used to it since we’ve all put up with the frigid Michigan winters, but you don’t realize just how nice central heating is until you have to go without it in 40° weather.

The Epic Journey of Table Mountain

All last week (Monday, July 5 through Friday, July 9), we spent in seminars at the University of Cape Town (UCT). However, on Thursday we got a day off from class and went to the top of Table Mountain. The mountain gets its name because it’s nearly flat on top (like a table as you might guess.) It’s about 3,255 feet high and is believed to be one of the oldest mountains in the world, formed under the ocean 600 million years ago. To get to the top we took the Table Mountain Cableway, a huge cable car system that can carry 65 people in each car from halfway up the mountain to the top. The floor of the cable car rotates so everyone inside can get a full 360° view of the trip up.

Cable Car

At the top we had an hour or so to explore the top of the mountain and take pictures. The views of the city and the ocean were amazing from here. My friend Danielle and I walked all over the top of the mountain, stepping from rock to rock, until we reached the edge on the other side. It was a little scary but very exciting to look over the edge and realize just how high up we were. After this we had lunch in a little café on top of the mountain and then got ready for the real adventure – hiking down. Table Mountain has several hiking trails leading up and down the mountain and we took the route through the Platteklip Gorge, which winds around the side of the mountain. This is the most well known route, and I’m guessing the safest as well. My friend Sammi commented that the terrain reminded her of the journey to Mordor in The Lord of the Rings, which I thought was pretty funny. It certainly did have that feel, with the rocky pathways and the scrub vegetation. Lots of people climb up the mountain using this path as well. After our trip down I really have to admire these people for climbing up. It’s a steep path and it takes a long time to travel the distance between the ground and the top. It would definitely take some serious strength and stamina. The hardest part about going down is trying to keep your balance and not trip on the rocks. I discovered it took more leg strength than I thought to stay steady while walking down. However, throughout the hike the view was beautiful and I definitely felt a sense of accomplishment at the prospect of hiking down a mountain.

For the first half of the hike everyone was in good spirits, laughing and joking as we walked, stopping to take pictures all the time, and even rousing a cheer of “Go Green! Go White!” every once in a while. We also passed a lot of other hikers, mostly tourists visiting South Africa for the World Cup. We met people from all over the world, including a few others from the U.S. As we got farther down the mountain and especially as we came out of the mountain’s shadow into the sun, the fatigue set in and the hike became much more tiring. My legs really started to hurt after a while from trying to hold my balance on the steep downward slopes. At one point I lost my balance, pitched forward, and took a spill a few feet down the slope. I landed on chest and my left knee slammed into the ground pretty hard. I was a little shaken, but thankfully I only bruised and scraped my knee.

After about two hours we finally got to the bottom and I couldn’t have been happier to be on flat ground again. Despite sore legs (I felt like I had just gone through a day of winterguard camp again.) we all felt very tough and strong for making it all the way down. After everyone reached the bottom we were all very happy to stop for a cocktail. (Haha.) Back at the guest house that night, the owners held a traditional South African barbecue, known as a braai. They cooked a type of fish called snook over a wood fire. It was very delicious. Definitely a great end to the day.

Braai pits

Mountains, Penguins, Wine, and Oceans

On Saturday (July 3), we drove up Paarl Mountain and visited the Taal Afrikaans Language Monument. This monument is a huge stone structure built in the late 1970s to celebrate the history of this language, which was developed by the Dutch colonial settlers that came to South Africa in the 1600 and 1700s. All the different parts of the monument were meant to represent the different languages that influenced Afrikaans – Dutch, Malay, English, and a few indigenous African languages. That day it was also very foggy, the thickest fog I’d ever seen in my life. But we drove so far up the mountain that we eventually came out above the fog. It was a spectacular view of the mountains rising out of fog. It looked almost unreal.
We also visited a wine farm in the town of Franschoek, west of Cape Town. This part of the Western Cape province is known as the Cape Winelands and is well known for vineyards and wine production. The vineyard we visited was called Vrede en Lust and was established by a Frenchman in the 1600s. It’s amazing that it’s been around that long. The farm holds free public wine tasting sessions in the mornings and afternoons. This was the first wine tasting I ever went to. During our session we got to sample 6 or 7 different wines – rose, white, and red wine. It was a really nice place with beautiful furniture and place settings and a view of the vineyards and mountains out the window. They also gave us bread, five types of cheese, three different spreads, and Belgian chocolate in the shape of a soccer ball (hahaha) to go with the wine. The price of the wines was also very affordable (as most things are in South Africa). I bought a nice chardonnay for my parents for 48 rand or about $7. The most expensive wine was an award winning red wine that was 120 rand or only $17!

Vineyard at Vrede en Lust

On Sunday (July 4), while everyone in the U.S. was celebrating Independence Day, we drove all throughout the Cape Peninsula, south of Cape Town. First we drove up Signal Hill, which sits on the edge of Cape Town, adjacent to Table Mountain. From there we were able to see almost the whole city down below, including the stadium built for the World Cup. From there we drove to the town of Hout Bay where we had fish and chips for lunch at a restaurant called Fish on the Rocks. The fish I ate was a native South African salt water fish called a snook. Very delicious. After lunch, we drove up into the mountains again to Chapman’s Peak, which overlooks a city called Simonstown, where South Africa’s central naval base is located.

Cape Town stadium, looking down from Signal Hill

Simonstown

This is also the part of South Africa where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Indian Ocean, so for the rest of this day trip along the coast the ocean we saw was the Indian Ocean. We drove down the mountain and along the way we passed a family of baboons on the side of the road. Apparently baboons are extremely dangerous and have been known to attack people with the intent of stealing food. There were park rangers directing traffic, handing out brochures about baboon dangers, and ordering all cars to close windows and lock doors. It was a little surprising how intense this reaction was, but I suppose it isn’t much different from what happens with bears sometimes in the U.S.

We then visited a park along the coast called Boulders Beach, which is home to a penguin colony. These penguins are a species known as African penguins, which are native to this area. The penguins were so adorable and many of them would roost in their sand-hole nests right next to the boardwalk that led into the park. At the beach there were about a hundred or so penguins all gathered together. The other girls and I were very excited and took pictures of almost every cute penguin we saw. (Yeah, we’re weird. I know.) From here we started to head back towards Cape Town and stopped along the way at the beach in the town of Fish Hoek. Here we got out of the vans and went down to the beach to wade in the water. The Indian Ocean is significantly warmer than the Atlantic Ocean so the water was cool but bearable to stand in, even in South Africa’s winter.

We got back around dinner time and ate at a church in one of Cape Town’s suburbs. Some of the ladies who attend the church, including Corvell’s mother and sister, had a huge homemade South African dinner for us. We ate lamb, chicken, mushroom casserole, vegetables, and caramel cake for dessert. Everything was delicious. This was definitely one of my favorite days so far on this trip and I probably took a couple hundred pictures of the scenery. Every day that I spend in South Africa I am more and more amazed at what a remarkable country this is and all the wonderful things it has to offer. Beautiful sights is just part of it. More to come soon on some of the cultural things I’ve learned.

World Cup Adventures

We spent a lot of the last two days down at the V & A Waterfront in Cape Town where several “fan zones” have been set up for the World Cup. The waterfront area has lots of shops and restaurants, including two malls. (I figured out very quickly just how extensive malls are in South Africa.) The main screen for watching the World Cup is in an amphitheatre outside of one mall and there are other screens in large tents with seating in other parts of the waterfront. On Friday (June 2) we watched the Netherlands vs. Brazil and Uruguay vs. Ghana quarterfinal games in some of these areas. It’s incredible to see how excited and spirited everyone gets during these games. People from all over the world cram into the fan zones, getting there hours early to get a good seat. (We weren’t quite so lucky and found ourselves crowded onto a balcony above.) Others crowd around any TV set they can find in the malls nearby. Everyone dresses up in jerseys, scarves, and face paint in the flag colors and designs of the team they’re supporting, waving flags and blowing vuvuzelas (the long plastic trumpet-like noisemakers that you hear all through the games.) The excitement and energy is everywhere. It’s like game day on MSU’s campus but so much bigger and grander because the whole world is part of it.

Waterfront amphitheatre

On Saturday (June 3), the next quarterfinal game (Argentina vs. Germany) was in Cape Town’s stadium, which meant there were many more people in the city, all trying to crowd into the waterfront. We got down there much later than we did the day before and by the time we reached the entrance to the waterfront the police had blocked off the bridges because there were so many people there already. We ended up wandering around for a while and by that time enough people had left so eventually were able to get through on another bridge. After all of this, we didn’t really get to watch much of the game since the big screen areas were full and huge crowds had even gathered around any TV they could find in the mall stores and restaurants. It was chaotic and very tiring to fight through all those crowds, but experiencing that kind of excitement was really once in a lifetime.

Apart from the waterfront, in the center of Cape Town, a huge flea market was set up with countless stalls selling all sorts of World Cup merchandise and other items as well. Most of the stuff was knock-offs, but since it was cheap and still fairly good quality it was worth it to search for souvenirs there. There were scarves, t-shirts, jerseys, hats, and more all decorated with the names of different teams. There were also the famed vuvuzelas and more general items like jewelry, clothes, and purses. But my favorite part of the World Cup experience was walking down the Grand Parade street in Cape Town, a route that leads from the city center toward the waterfront. The street was packed to the gills with people headed toward the fan zones and it was hard to keep up with our group in the crowd, but it was thrilling just to walk through there with so many people from around the world. All around people were blowing their vuvuzelas and chanting for their favorite teams, and there were also performing groups off to the sides like traditional African dancers and a barbershop quartet. Definitely a celebration for the whole city.

Vuvuzelas

Huge crowd in the fan walk

Robben Island

One of the first places we visited was Robben Island, a small island about 19 miles off the coast of Cape Town. This was where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for decades and many other political activists during apartheid were imprisoned as well. Robben Island has a long history as a place of imprisonment and exile. The Dutch East India Company originally used Robben Island as a trading post during the 1600 and 1700s. Later on, the Dutch and the British exiled convicts and native leaders who opposed them to the island. In the mid-1800s, Robben Island fell out of use as a prison and instead became a place where people in the western cape region suffering from leprosy were sent. This leper colony, as it was called, eventually closed in 1891. Finally during apartheid, convicts and political prisoners were sent there again, including Nelson Mandela. The last prisoners were sent in the 1980s and all political prisoners were finally released in 1990 and 1991. Ever since the late 1990s, Robben Island has been entirely converted to a museum celebrating the peaceful triumph over oppression.

Main prison building

The Robben Island tour includes a ferry ride from the mainland, a walking tour of the prison, and a bus tour around other parts of the island. The prison tours are given by former Robben Island political prisoners. Ours was a man who was sent there in 1983 at the age of 17 for helping to recruit young people to the apartheid resistance movements at the time. He was released with all other political prisoners in 1990. He showed us the courtyards where prisoners were forced to endure hard manual labor and the cells they lived in, including Nelson Mandela’s. He also showed us the communal cell where he lived for seven years with 60 other men. I was so amazed that this man was able to give these tours and talk about the past with such frankness and honesty. One girl from our group asked him how he did this and the man replied that it was hard at first for him to return to Robben Island and see the prison where he once lived, but after enough years had passed he didn’t mind it as much and actually found peace and healing through sharing his story and experiences with others in this way. He spoke of how he and the other ex-prisoners have moved on, forgiven their oppressors, and reconciled themselves with the past. Many of the ex-prisoners and former wardens are even friends now. Hearing these stories was incredibly inspiring. If these people are able to forgive something so huge, then shouldn’t I be able to always forgive those who wrong me as well. Definitely something to take to heart.

Nelson Mandela's cell

On the bus tour they showed us the limestone quarry where Nelson Mandela and other prisoners were forced to dig rocks in the hot sun for hours on end. In the side of the rock face is a cave where the prisoners would go to get some shade and eat their lunch on these long days. Apparently, Mandela and the other leaders imprisoned there would secretly discuss their beliefs and ideas for South Africa and share them with the younger political prisoners. According to the tour guide, it’s believed that some of the foundations of the new South African constitution were discussed in that cave. It’s mind boggling to think about how these political leaders went from discussing their ideas in a limestone cave to eventually running the country and guiding it toward peace. Robben Island itself is such a beautiful place that unfortunately played host to many awful things, but it’s nice to think that the triumphs that occurred there are able to be celebrated.

Limestone quarry

Day 1- First Impressions

I’m finally here. We made it to South Africa yesterday (Wednesday, June 30) around 10:00pm. It was definitely a relief to finally be off an airplane after a total of 18 hours of flying. And spending 11 hours straight in the air is enough to drive anyone a little crazy. In an attempt to stave off boredom, a lot of people (myself included) started pacing the aisles and standing around in the back of the plane by the kitchen around halfway through the flight.

Our homes in South Africa for the first 12 days are a couple bed-and-breakfast places in a suburb northeast of Cape Town called Durbanville. Most of our group is staying in Deo Gratia, the guest house I mentioned in my first post, but there wasn’t room there for all of us, so I and a few other girls are staying in another bed-and-breakfast down the road. We’re staying in a little cabin-like building with a small kitchen, a living room, and a bedroom upstairs in this sort of attic room. The furniture and the feel of the place remind me of being in a cottage up north, except for the fact that the roof is thatched and rounded in the front. It definitely has a uniquely African feel that way. Supposedly in a few days we’ll all be switching rooms so that everyone has a chance to stay at both lodges. Our coordinators like to change things up for us.

This morning (Thursday, July 1) we went to a mall in Durbanville to get things like plug adapters, calling cards, toiletries, and cheap cell phones to use while we’re here. According to Corvell, our coordinator, South Africans love to shop and there are malls like the one we went to all over the metropolitan areas in South Africa. This mall wasn’t much different from a large mall in the U.S., although there were businesses like foreign exchange bureaus, a post office, and a grocery store than you aren’t likely to find in your average U.S. mall. But it’s nice to have a place for one-stop shopping here. We also visited a cheetah conservation center where we were able to go into the cheetah enclosure and pet the cheetahs. (Although only when the cheetah is lying down and the trainer is holding its head.) Overall, it was a very nice, relaxing first day. I also enjoyed riding in the van and just looking out the window at the countryside. It’s exciting to just ride around and see new things everywhere I look.

Petting the cheetah

A little on South African money: The currency here is called the rand and 1 U.S. dollar = about 7 rand. There are 1, 2, and 5 rand coins and 10, 20, 50, 100, and 200 rand bills. I’m definitely getting some useful practice in dividing by 7 to find out how much I’m paying for everything. It’s a little disconcerting for a brief second when I’ve gone to order something like a sandwich that’s labeled 29.95 – until I remember it’s in rand not dollars and I’m really only paying a little over $4.

All in all, after one day I’m definitely enjoying myself. The landscape around here is stunningly beautiful with mountains in the distance and green grass and trees everywhere, even in the middle of winter here. (Average temperatures are in the 50s right now. Winter in South Africa is similar to winter in southern Georgia or Texas in the U.S.) From first impression a lot of things seem similar to the U.S., at least as far as food, lodging, and shopping are concerned. But looking around at the land and the people on the streets, I definitely feel like I’m half a world away from home. It’s a nice change though, especially because most of the people are so friendly and the landscape is so beautiful. I’m definitely glad I came.