South Africa Rundown

Well, as of yesterday there is exactly one month left of the semester. It is crazy that in the past two and a half months I have traveled around Asia and have spent my last two weeks in Africa. Eight countries down, two to go. It is really, really difficult to process.

So, South Africa… not what I expected. We were docked in the waterfront area which is an extremely touristy section of Cape Town with expensive restaurants and shops and basically only tourists walking around. If I took a picture of the mall that was in the center and asked you if it was a mall in Africa or the United States, I can guarantee that you would say the United States. Maybe it would be because there was a Martha’s Vineyard store, maybe not. I think that I had this expectation of arriving in Africa and being hit head on with poverty and remnants of apartheid and a strong African culture, but all of that is subtly evident on the surface of Cape Town. As the five days went on and I interacted with more people and traveled around the area, I discovered where to find what in my head is Africa. South Africa is a complicated country, with a lot of issues still being worked out following the abolishment of apartheid. What I discovered quickly, is that the abolishment of apartheid and the policies the country had in place that segregated blacks, coloreds (some white blood and Muslims), and whites were politically abolished, but not in the minds of the people in South Africa and the way that people still lived their lives. One easy way to tell that there are still segregation issues is by driving around and noticing the housing that people live in. For the most part, whites live in nice housing, many times in gated neighborhoods. Black people tend to live in townships, most of which consists of thousands of shacks on top of one another made out of tin and cloth and cardboard. Colored people live in housing that is somewhere in between the two. Their houses tend to be more structurally intact and stable. Anyway, that’s just a little taste of what I noticed and found interesting and I will definitely be expanding on all of that when I talk about my time there.

Before I spend some time writing out all that I did in Cape Town, here is a summary:

Day 1: Walked around the V & A Waterfront, toured Robben Island, went out to a kosher for Passover restaurant for dinner

Day 2: Amy Biehl Foundation- supports township programs for children, got to eat lunch at a famous township restaurant and help children prepare for a soccer tournament, went to a salsa club at night

Day 3: Table Mountain, Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, hiked Lion’s Head

Day 4: Saw PENGUINS at Boulder Beach, Cape Point/Cape of Good Hope, Simon’s Town, casino

Day 5: Toured some townships with a South African and an American who has lived here for three years (AMAZING)

Surprise! Day 6: Finally left Cape Town, after sitting with it outside the window unable to get off the ship for 20 extra hours due to high winds

More to come soonish…