Waterfront, Table Mountain And A Cute South African Boy (Among Other Things)

Well where do I even begin about this wonderful place called Capetown, South Africa? From townships to table mountain, this wonderful city was wonderful to me. Upon arrival I awoke to a bright sunshiny day on the water looking at Table Mountain from the ocean as we began to pull into port. Upon arrival, I was off first thing to attend a famous author’s house, name Deon Meyer. He wrote the novel I read for my Multicultural Detective Fiction class called Dead Before Dying. We were greeted by him and his wife and entered his beautiful home to have snacks and discuss the novel. After a few hours there we headed back to the ship and I ran off the bus onto another one for my Kayaleshita Township visit with my professor for my Interpersonal Communication class. During this visit it was very obvious  to me, that are definitely two different South Africas. There is the beautiful up and coming South Africa we see right off the ship in the V&A Waterfront and then there is the side that is still affected from apartheid. Their homes were made out of scraps of metal, and other sheets that didn’t really make sense to use as a home. We got to go to Vicky’s Bed and Breakfast in the township where you can get a real township experience and stay there, something I would definitely consider doing in the future. We went to one more bed and breakfast where we had snacks and talked with a lady who went to Pitt, and learned to run a business and now helps women start up their own businesses in the townships. We then strolled through the streets of the townships, and picked up many of the children along the way that wanted to hold our hands and walk us down the street. It was definitely an experience I will never forget (clearly since I just left Vietnam, and I am almost to China in less than 48 hours, and barely writing about this experience). The following day I had made plans with my wonderful roomie, and Carter and Minh to go to Robben Island in the early morning on the first ferry out there. I am definitely glad we did so because a lot of students were not able to make it due to weather conditions, and what not. So we head out to Robben Island, and take a tour on a bus first of the whole island, with our really funny tour guide, and other foreigners from all over the world. Once we finished the island we were taken to the prison section where we were then greeted by a former prisoner during the apartheid. I didn’t know until I got there that former prisoner’s were the ones that gave the tours of the prison and told their story along with Nelson Mandela’s story. We were shown around some of the different sectors and taken into a room where there were lockers, stools, and an example of what the bunk beds looked like, that they got after several years had passed and they were forced to do so. Our guide then proceeded to explain to us that they fit 80-100 people on the floor at night, on your own mat that wasn’t very comfortable and with one blanket. He rolled out the mat and lyed on it then showed us how you maneuvered to turn around and the process of everyone turning at the same time. It was weird to hear the way things were put into sentences though, from how they were fortunate enough to study with the books they were given, when most of us think it’s such a hassle and complain about it all the time, to they had the privilege of doing this or that because of good behavior. It was definitely hard to hear some of the torturous things that happened to them, you couldn’t help but get watery-eyed or even cry, or cover your mouth because it’s so out of control. After we did all of this we walked to Nelson Mandela’s section and saw the rock he stored his papers under, and his cell. Something that was more of a tourist attraction than it should have been for some people. Fortunately on my tour we all had our own moment to take a picture of it, and reflect on it. After the tour was over we proceeded to the gift shop where I bought a quote book and Nelson Mandela’s book Long Walk to Freedom, for my Dad. It’s cooler to buy it there because it gets a stamp that says “Bought at Robben Island”. So yay for you dad! We then headed back to the mainland of Capetown and headed to get some food at Mitchell’s (which was the local Pub that all the SASers went to, and has it’s own story that only some of you get to know). Liz and I were playing it by ear on heading up to Table Mountain because the Table Cloth was there for a long time so we ate lunch, with Carter and Minh, it still wasn’t gone so we proceeded to Greenpoint Market, and got some more souvenir and gift type items. After that we headed back to the ship and we decided it was as clear as it was going to get and ran straight for a cab to get to tram. We got up there and had a marvelous view of the waterfront and all of Capetown, but it was freezing and for some reason being from Calfironia and Florida, we wore shorts and took a light jacket…thinking we’d totally be okay though it was freezing at night in Capetown. We stayed up there for about an hour taking lots of photos and having our own photo shoots on the rocks, then headed back down and got back to the ship for a little R&R. If you are wondering if I ever did anything at night for the first two nights…I did, we went to dinner usually and then headed to Mitchell’s as previously stated, but this night at Mitchell’s set the tone for the rest of my trip where I met a wonderful local named Cristian Neagu, who ethnically is Romanian but has lived in Capetown all of his life. We met on his 28th birthday which was this night and hung out every night after that with friends and stuff. I definitely learned a lot from him and really enjoyed his company (family that reads this…please don’t freak out, nothing happened). The third day, after being out relatively late with Cristian and Anna I woke up early for my sandboarding experience with Collin, Mike, Anna, and Chris. Our sandboarding guide greeted us sans shoes so we knew he was going to be an interesting character and he definitely was. After learning about the most poisonous snake in the world that was out where we were and the parasites, and the animals that all were very bad for us we proceeded to slope down the sand dunes, well everyone else did except me I just kind of fell down them. Right around lunch time we headed to get some food and visited a lovely winery where we got some wine, headed to the beach close by where we ate our sandwiches and dessert and had our red wine with sandwiches and desserty wine with dessert. Then we headed back to the dunes and went to the biggest dune and some races down and more conversation with our guide who is definitely a character that I will never forget, in fact his e-mails are quite hilarious. That night when I was back I met up with Juliana for dinner and headed to meet Cristian yet again after he was off of work. The fourth day I had a service project to the Amy Biehl Foundation Trust, something Emily had told me I had to do. I am definitely glad I did it as well. It dealt more with the townships. Amy Biehl was a fullbright scholar who came to do her work in South Africa during the apartheid as she was a believer in Nelson Mandela and wanted to help. Two days before she was supposed to leave back home to the OC in California, she was caught up in a riot in a township and killed by local members of the township because she was white and it was an antiapartheid rally and they automatically put her in with the apartheid people, though she was fighting for them. For once in my life, I finally understand the meaning of reconciliation during Desmond Tutu’s TRC after the end of the apartheid. Amy’s mother and father came out to the trail for the men that murdered their daughter, and granted them reconciliation. They never wanted to speak to them, they just wanted to move on. A few years down the road two of four men that were granted reconciliation; through the use of a mediator contacted the Biehl’s and said that they wanted to meet with them to talk about a program they were starting in the townships in order to help at risk youth. Without hesitation the father said okay, solely because of the way they managed to contact them. With that the Biehl’s became regulars to Capetown helping the two men start up their program and businesses, and thus we have the Foundation Trust. It’s baffling to me that a mother and father could do such a thing, and all the videos we watched of interviews I could see why, and I could see for once, what it looks like for someone when they reconcile with such a terrible event. We got to see what foundation did, and met the two men who murdered Amy Biehl, it was such an amazing experience for me. You can see how much of a difference this foundation is making in these children’s lives that live in the townships. More of them are graduating high school and attending college because of the foundation, they are more educated and their involvement in gangs is becoming less and less. I am definitely excited to keep in contact with this foundation and I hope to be back there to volunteer in the future. The night ended with dinner at Mama Africa with Liz and Denim and another night with Cristian at Mitchell’s. The 5th day in South Africa I was supposed to be shark cage diving but it was cancelled due to weather so I was really bummed so instead I went shopping at the mall and had a relaxing day just shopping and eating at Cristian’s restaurant, then we had a casual dinner at a burger place and Denim went back to the ship because she wasn’t feeling well and Liz and I proceeded to the pirate ship that was next to our ship for the SAS party they held for us. I then later met up with Cristian for our last night our together, which was the best one. We met up and Mitchell’s and then once it started to close he drove us to long street and we went to dubliner’s, then after that closed we went to his friend’s house and hung out there and jumped into the swimming pool and then we headed back to the ship around 6am, and I went to sleep until I woke up the next morning to just enjoy the last bit of my day in South Africa hanging out with him which ended up being more difficult than we expected, but all in all South Africa was a great time, and I am sorry this is so long, it could be longer as South Africa is in the top 3 and it was one of the longer ports.

Again sorry this is pretty much like a month late, but better late than never…
A-Ram