friends in the strangest places

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friends in the strangest places

 Africa » South Africa » Cape Town By fun adventure
June 1st 2007 When our daughter was younger, a young woman from Cape Town watched her and her friends after shool. We finally met her family during our stay in Cape Town. Depsite some uncertainty on both parts about bridging the cultural gaps (income, racial labels, government) it worked out fabulously. Everywhere in Cape Town we saw the legacies of apartheid. We hesitantly took a township tour, where we met some incredible people doing amazing things to help themselves, their community and the "new South Africa." Most impressive: a home converted to 2-room bed & breakfast built from scrap metal and lumber, and an "informal township" (read slum) charter school that teaches the children of migrant workers from rural areas and helps them get documented.

Beyond the developed Cape Town area, we met our first baboons. A monkey ran right across my shoulders and stole my hair tie in the process. I finally saw penquins, an entire noisy colony of them! And of course, the coast...I can't go anywhere in the world near water without smelling the salt air, and the Cape ecosystem is unique in the world, an entire plant kingdom of its own.

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Photos

legacy of apartheid
street signs from a displaced neighborhood of Cape Town; most were sent to a black township

just a tea lady
our friend's mom with a painting we brought her; she works as a tea lady for a Cape Town company

love those waves
still looks like Maine!

southernmost tip of Africa
a small, old and traditional fishing village near the tip

childrens choir
the principal leads a group at the charter school

jackass penquins
so called because of the noise they make

shipping containers
almost everything in S Africa gets used and reused, in this case old containers are now stores

life is good
this township woman built a sewing school and dress business in her home, one used machine at a time

poor but proud
typical township housing

informal townships
from the main highway