Yesterday and today! - Cape Town, South Africa
Cape Town, South Africa
Yesterday: Yesterday morning we started with the District 6 museum. District six was an old township that was home to all different types of people (except whites). During apartheid, the white government decided that should be a white area instead. All of the coloureds and blacks got kicked out of their houses and the whole township was bulldozed to make space for the whites. Because everyone was sarated by their respective races, the entire collective culture was lost. Because apartheid soon ended the empty space was never developed, so people can go and see fields where their house once was. In the afternoon we packed overnight bags and headed to the outskirts of the city to Khaylitshia, a huge township. We went to the kopanong bed and breakfast in a nicer part of the township. Kopanong means "where the world meets." The owner of the bed and breakfast was mama Thope. She previously worked for an NGO that helped raise awareness of human rights in the surrounding townships. She realized that so many tourists were coming into the townships and not even getting off their tour buses. Mama Thope decided to make a b&b to welcome tourists into the township to show them how life is there. She has a philosophy that when visitors come to her home/b&b she gets a cake and everyone gets a piece of the cake. Like the store that sells her veggies gets a piece and the taxi driver gets another piece and the families whose houses we stay in get another piece. By going to her b&b we helped the rest of the township. Once we got there, po, mama thopes daughter, showed us around the township. At first we weren't sure how we would be perceived as a large group of white, American, tourists. As po was showing us around we started taking pictures of the mountains in the backgrounds. The kids in the township noticed us taking pictures and started posing! They were all so happy to see us and pose. It was amazing how happy everyone was despite their unfortunate living situation. After a dinner of traditional South African food like split pea soup, roast chicken, beans and hominy, sweet potatoes, and cabbage we went to where we were sleeping. We slept In a house down the street from the b&b. It was one of the nicest house in the township, yet it didn't have any heat or plentiful hot water. Before bed I decided to take a shower. The shower head wasn't mounted to the wall and the water was lukewarm. I kneeled in the tub just to be able to wash and rinse my hair. It was definitely an experience to make me grateful for my luxurious showers. The bathroom also didn't have a sink, so I brushed my teeth at the tub. For bed I snuggled under all the covers, because believe it or not, Africa gets cold! Today: After breakfast we left mama Thope and the amazing township and headed to robben island, where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned. While there we toured the prison and got to speak to a man who was a prisoner there. It was amazing to hear what he had experience there as a political prisoner. He was there for 5 years for conspiring against the government. After he was released with everyone in 1990, it was almost impossible for him to get a job after. In the prison the different political groups organized and communicated to plan the future government. Right before we left, we went to the lime quarry where Mandela and other prisoners worked. When Mandela went back to the prison for a reunion a year later, he started a pile of rocks that the others contributed to. This pile served as a memorial to the time that the net there and hardships that they underwent. After our ferry ride back to mainland, we met up with Chris Ahrends again. He worked closely with Desmond tutu and was an advocate for the end of apartheid. We sort of de-briefed with him and talked about our experience in Africa thus far. After our visit to Khaylitshia we all had lots of questions, as well as things we were surprised about, confused about, or found significant. We talked about how far the South African government still has to go, as well as how far it has come. We went to inner with Chris and his wife after that and had a giant, although not really South African, meal. Tomorrow we go up to the top of table mountain.