Cape Town

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Cape Town

On the afternoon we arrived in Cape Town, I decided to take a nap and John took a walk. Below is the description in his own words of his walk.

I decided to walk along Long Street, a short distance away from where we were staying. It’s a busy street with plenty of shops, restaurants, backpacker’s hostels, and bars. As I continued down the sidewalk I was stopped by a young lady and asked if I spoke English. She then proceeded to tell me her tale of woe about having her bag stolen and she needed money to call her father in Nigeria. I sized up the situation immediately (Nigerian email scam), and sent her on her way after suggesting she find someone with a cell phone to call for her. I also quickly figured that of all the people in the city she had to choose an obvious tourist - me.

After many street crossings (look right first, then left, cross with the locals if you can), I found myself down near the waterfront area and decided to turn around. I treated myself to a Magnum (ice cream) Bar. Mmmmmm.

Soon after I found myself walking through Green Market Square where the usual African trinkets were being hawked everywhere. A lot of the same wooden souvenirs I remember from a trip to Tanzania 15 years ago could be found here as well. A few times in various places in SA we asked if the seller had made a particular item and the answer was ‘my brother’. I’m beginning to wonder if there’s a factory in China somewhere churning out these things.

After walking through the market I continued to the Company Gardens (botanical gardens dating to the Dutch East India Company), a nice little break from the concrete and pavement of the city, where I noticed lots of chubby North American gray squirrels running around.

I made my way back to Long Street and stopped when a poster advertising a local beer caught my eye. It’s called ‘Boston Lager’ brewed here in the Cape so I went in and ordered one. It wasn’t the worst beer I’ve ever had here. That distinction goes to the skunky, green bottled brew called Windhoek. If you like Molson or Heineken, you’ll like Windhoek.

Cape Town, Townships, and Robben Island

In the 1960’s the Apartheid Regime declared District Six of Cape Town a whites only area. Prior to that it was a vibrant community of many mixed racial backgrounds. It was also, however, a crime-ridden slum. The government forced the removal of all the District Six residents to the Cape Flats Townships and bulldozed the homes and businesses. There was so much protest, however, that the actual re-development has still not occurred.

So we took a tour to the Cape Flats townships where the former District six residents and hundreds of thousands more live. The first one we visited is called Lunga and is the township where our guide lives. We drove around several townships during the course of the day and I was surprised how truly welcoming the people seemed to be. Even adults would smile and wave as we cruised their streets observing the living conditions. We observed the same three levels of housing we saw in Jo’burg: squatters tin shacks, apartheid era homes (being personalized and renovated) and nicer homes for the wealthy blacks. No white people live in the townships.

Our first stop in the township was a daycare center. There were approximately 50 children (ages 1 - 5) with 4 teachers in three small rooms. Children are fed and take naps and play and twice a year they “take the bus” on a field trip somewhere. The lead teacher explained that she uses the threat of “not being allowed to take the bus” to keep the children in line.

The next stop was the shop of a traditional healer. He is licensed in traditional medicine and could handle everything from body ailments to psychiatric problems to looking for a job. He was dressed in western clothes when we arrived but added the hat, scarf and other accoutrements that are the signs of his office. His office was on old shipping container and there was so much stuff there was barely room to stand. There were a lot of animal parts hanging from the ceiling.

Our final stop was at a women’s center called Philani. It started as nutrition education and has added day care and vocational training such as weaving and cloth painting.

We returned to Cape Town and went down to the wharf for the ferry to Robben Island. Robben Island is the notorius prison where, starting in 1966, the Apartheid regime housed its political prrsoners. It is an island in the bay north of Cape Town and it was here that Nelson Mandela was detained for 25 years.

It took an hour on the ferry to make the crossing and the waves were big and fun. On the island we boarded a bus and got a tour of many places of historical interest. We saw the quarry where the slaves of the Dutch mined limestone to build the castle in Cape Town in the 1600’s. We saw the cemetery and the church left over from the leper colony that existed here in the 1800’s. We saw the village where the prison guards (called wardens) lived and now the museum staff lives. We saw four prisons where the prisoners, both political and criminal were held. Finally, we saw the limestone quarry that the political prisoners were forced to labor in seven days a week eight hours per day. At the central prison, where Nelson Mandela was held, our guide was a former political prisoner himself. He explained how the leaders amongst the political prisoners were housed separately from the general populace to keep them from organizing. He showed us the food allotment and how it was written policy that Africans were given less food than Asians, or other coloureds (there were no white prisoners on Robben Island). We learned about a PAC leader who, after finishing his official sentence, was transferred to Robben Island as a ‘guest’ and kept in solitary confinement where even his guards were not allowed to speak to him. He was kept there six years before he started going insane.

Summary

There is no justification for what the Apartheid Regime did to millions of Africans which makes it even more miraculous that Nelson Mandela was able to peacefully lead the country to majority rule. He is an amazing man. He was oppressed by apartheid his entire youth and he was jailed in the most notorious prison for 25 years but he was still able to forgive and unite with his oppressors and, more importantly, to get the nation to live together peacefully. Mandela is justifiably revered as the father of this nation.

The country has made amazing progress in only 16 years but it still has a long way to go. Many adults have no hope of pulling themselves out of poverty due to the education they received (or rather did not receive) under apartheid. In addition, SA is dealing with an immigration problem and debate that sounds very familiar to Americans.

We traveled around the country using a variety of public transport and car rental. It’s very easy to drive in South Africa, and, if you are able to drive a manual transmission, the rates are cheap. While taking public transportation did take more time, and was perhaps limiting in some ways, it did provide us with experiences, good and bad, we wouldn’t have found otherwise. It’s an easy way to meet and observe a very large segment of South African society that would probably have passed by our car window unnoticed.

Anyone following the blog may have noticed we didn’t spend any time in Kruger National Park. It wasn’t a priority for Beth and John has already been on safari before, so we decided to skip the crowds and see what we could see at other places. While we didn’t see the Big 5 here, we were content to view a wide variety of animals, both land and marine throughout this vast country.

So we leave this country with many memories and one key thought; SA is a fantastic country with friendly and diverse people and amazing natural beauty.

Farewell to South Africa

This is our last report from South Africa as we head for Europe. We would like to leave you with some random observations that we made.


* No high fructose corn syrup. Everything is made with real sugar.
* Cars do not yield easily to pedestrians.
* At a restaurant, you ask for the bill, not the check.
* You don’t rent a car, you hire a car.
* South Africans can’t distinguish between an American accent and a British one.
* You don’t make reservations, you make a booking.
* Drive on the left and walk on the left too. And when driving a manual transmission car, you shift with the left hand.
* Cash only for gasoline.
* Most places don’t have central heat. Many have no heat at all.
* A stoplight is called a robot.
* We may all speak English but we speak it very differently.
* South Africans eat hamburgers with a knife and fork. John thinks it’s about as odd as using utensils to eat a candy bar.

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Photos

Cape Town Table Mountain
The cloud formation is called the table cloth

Handsome Boy
He actually reached out to me when I walked in...so friendly.

Daycare at the Township
This is the largest of three rooms that housed the day care for 50+ children.

Healer
African Healer with his badges of office and two "apprentices."

Robben Island Lime Quarry
Here Nelson Mandela and his fellow political prisoners labored.

Comments

[Susan Craig]

I love it!!! Thank you so much for making your trip come alive for those of us still stuck at home. Love you tons. Susan

[Peter Craig]

This has been very fun to read your entries. Jessica and I just returned from camping and exploring Tubal Cain mine in the Olympic Mtns. we also checked out a B-17 that crashed in the mountains in Jan,1952. Most of the plane is still up there 5 of the 8 people on board survived the crash. I was wondering if you did any water activities, like snorkeling or what the water temp was down there this time of year? Stay safe.

[travelingfeet]

Water Temp
The water was pretty warm, especially in the Indian Ocean. The air temperature, however, never got warm enough while we were near water to entice us to swim. We did a lot of beach walking and wading, however, especially at Bulungula.

[Chris Boe]

Congrats!
Congratulations on completing the first leg of your adventure! Ling and I are truly enjoying the blog!!