If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay home - James Michener

South Africa

          This was really the first country where I explored the city area, and not the country as a whole. And I have to say I loved it. Cape Town is beautiful and there was always something to do.

Day 1:

          The first day I started up planning to make my way to Stellenbosch, a town in the wine area of South Africa. My group ended up signing up for a wine tour in the afternoon and spending the morning wandering around the waterfront. I actually really like the waterfront, it’s touristy and expensive but it’s nice and safe. When the afternoon came around we headed over for the tour. The tour had some other SAS kids in the back, who were drinking beer and made things interesting. There was also a couple from Australia who had just come down from Rwanda. Definitely on the list of places to see now. We went to 2 vineyards, which were just beautiful and the wine was great. We drove around the town for awhile and then headed back to Cape Town. On the way to and from Cape Town are townships, it’s a contrast from the vineyards and one that you might not pay attention too. From there I had to run to get to a theater where I had a ticket for Grease. It was an amazing production, even though I had wanted to see something other than Grease. This was the least exciting of the days, but I still had so much fun.

Day 2:

          Today was my service visit to the Amy Biehl Foundation where we got to play with the kids from the townships. The first stop after the informational section was local restaurant in the township where there was a world cup guy who was going around to different places to build excitement for the world cup. There was a stage and free stuff and it was fun to join in with the locals. After lunch we finally got to meet the kids where the main activity was soccer but for anyone with a camera they didn’t have it for long. A group of kids would just attach to you and the next thing you know you’re in the middle of a soccer game. Most of the day I stayed with Mihlali and Reutile, these two little girls who got a kick out of playing with my hair. The group of us pitched in and got some juice and bread for everyone, so right before we had to leave everyone had something. It was amazing to see the effects that one person made on a community. That night I made my way out to Long Street to a salsa club.  It was actually really cool to learn to salsa in South Africa. I also saw some of the free concert that the Jazz Fest put on before their main event on the weekend. Long Street is downtown and is where a lot of the action is. It’s also where a saw a mugging going on, so I’m really not sure how I feel about this area, especial since all I did was going into another restaurant as quickly as possible. A group of us ended up in this burger place listening to a man vent his frustrations at the inequalities that still existed. How nothing had really changed. And he’s right, a lot hasn’t.

Day 3:

          This was my Table Mountain day. The group of us left at about 8 in the morning and made it to the mountain by 9:45. It then took us about an hour and a half to make it all the way up. This was not an easy hike, I loved it but every minute I would want a break. But we eventually made it up and had about a half hour before the next part of the journey, rappelling down. The guys in charge of the rappelling reminded me a lot of the guys that I skydived with, in that they kept making jokes about all the things you don’t want to think about. I volunteered to be one of the first to go and after you get strapped in the first thing you do is pose with no hands for a camera. Later I found out that its suppose to give you faith in the equipment, but it made a great photo too. The second thing they do is to get you to look directly down, which is kinda insane. Right before we went down they mentioned there would be a surprise for us which we completely forgot about. Getting over the edge is the hardest but after that you just keep going. It’s pretty unreal, and you get this great view. Until you get to the last forth of the rappel and realize that there’s no more mountain, it caves inward and you’re left daggling. It’s something else. Definitely scarier than jumping out of a plane. When you finally get down there was this young black kid who would unattach you and send the stuff back up. We helped him put his stuff in these bags and he said it was the first time anyone ever helped him. I’m not sure if that’s because of his skin color or because of the typical tourist experience when you don’t think about helping but it put a spin on things. After everyone made it down we all hiked back up to use the cable cars to get back down. (We rappelled about 120 meters) which took about a half hour. It was a really long morning. Fun but long. That night a group of us headed out to this jazz bar place on the waterfront. It was pretty cool, after the craziness of the day to just sit and talk about everything. I was beyond impressed with our conversation.

Day 4:

          Today was one of the best I’ve had. Two of us just bought these tourist pass for the southern line, one where you can just jump off and on the train, and just left. We end up getting off at Kalk Bay, which is the beach town that was great to walk around. We found this great lunch place and 3 tries; we weren’t the biggest seafood fans. From there we created the game plan of getting to Simonstown to see the penguins, which lead us to run to a train, which was ours, almost miss our stop at Fish Hook and to grab a bus that ended up sitting there for a half hour. But we made into Simonstown where we learned that it was a pretty far walk to the penguins. But we made it there and back and caught the bus to the train. We then waited on the train for awhile for it to fill up, and the actual ride was an experience. Or so I though until we ended up taking a shared van taxi with a bunch of locals to the waterfront. It coasted about 40 cents US$ and it was a minivan that could fit 14 people. It pulled over before the first stop because people didn’t pay…aka us because we didn’t know when to. They had to push the car to get it to start and it was ridicules. I can’t believe we got to where we wanted to. It helped that the guy I was sitting in back of was wearing a work shirt for the waterfront. Such a day!

Day 5:

          This was the best day. A group of 5 if us just jumped into a cab and asked to be taken to a township. Eventually we ended up at around the same place I was at for the service project, except instead of staying near the main restaurant we went across the street and to this take out place. When we were waiting for our food these two high school guys, Toby and Lumbuti, came up to order soda and we started to talk to them. We asked them to sit down with us and they stayed and talked with us for about 3 hours. It was the best Easter that I could have had. Through them we got to meet more people, and hear more stories. I can’t really describe the conversation but the two of them made my South Africa. It’s just crazy who you can meet and what you learn.  The townships are poor, you can see the disparity very easy. But they are also such a community, there’s a neighborhood feel to them that I hadn’t felt in any other area. It was a weird mix of looking at substandard housing and feeling at home with the people.

 

Cape Town has been one of the best ports. There was so much to experience. Everyone who went on a safari loved them, but I’m so glad I just stayed around Cape Town and got to try and know the place.