Capetown Part 1

My seven days in Cape Town can not fully be described in a simple blog, I could write a book about all of my experiences I had in Cape Town. It is going to be hard for me to decide what is important enough to mention here and what I should just keep to myself for story telling when I get home. My words will not give Cape Town the justice it deserves. I fell in love with the people and the surroundings of Cape Town. I plan on coming back in 2010 for the World Cup and staying with my new Afrikan friends. I keep wanting to sit down and finish writing about Cape Town but every time I start writing I feel like I am not expressing myself well enough. This is a warning- anyone who has important things to do, don’t read on, wait until you have time to spend hours thinking about what I am about to write.
Last Friday, September 26th we arrived in port at 8 a.m. and did not have to stay on board for the diplomatic briefing because there was some confusion and so we were allowed to leave the ship right away. I walked around the harbor area, which looked similar to the Baltimore Inner Harbor. Eating outlandish foods was one of my top priorities, so I ate an ostrich wrap for lunch. Then I found a craft market and bought a few trinkets and saw some really creative artwork. This one guy was playing a guitar made out of old oil cans and it sounded really cool, so I bought his CD. In the afternoon I went to the Khayelitsha Township. This is a town where all the blacks live in tin/scrap metal huts. It was really sad to see the awful conditions these people were living in. As we were driving by I thought to myself wow, I can not believe I am seeing this with my own eyes. I’ve always seen and heard about this kind of life from tv and from classes but it never really hit home until I saw it with my own eyes. I was so excited that we were about to get the chance to actually go into this town and talk with the people. So we stopped at a school and got to give the children stickers and pens, which they loved. They seemed so thankful for these simple little gifts. Then we went to two different Bed and Breakfasts’ within the Township. The owners explained how and why they started the business and it was motivating to hear how it all started. So these two women decided they wanted tourists to come into the Township to see how people were actually living and it was a way to bring in profit to the community. This is a great idea, although it is actually keeping the people in poverty because since foreigners like me and the other Semester at Sea participants are coming in and spending money, the people have no reason to go and look for a real job. I think the statistic was like 98% of the people living in the Township were unemployed. The whole visit to the Township was my first culture shock. Until then I had not been exposed to anything radically different from conditions in the United States. Surprisingly all the people we met on the streets of the Township were so happy and full of life. No one seemed depressed or hating life there in the slums. It just goes to show how life can be so simple and still bring joy to the people who live it. There is still more I could write about the Township but I will save it for another blog, when I have had more time for the experience to soak in. Oh one thing that shocked me was when I saw a little girl about 3 years old walking around the streets alone, swinging a used condom around in her hand. I really wanted to take it away from her but at the same time I did not want to touch it and I did not want to upset the girl who seemed so happy to have it... That night I went out for Thai food with a bunch of people and then tried to go to a jazz bar but it was too full, so we walked to another bar and got these huge cylinders of beer. I think they were 3.5 liters and they had a little spout like a keg. Between 6 people we shared two of these things. The bar was boring so we left after the beer was gone.. about 20 minutes after they were ordered. Haha then we just went back to the ship, everyone had a long day.

On Saturday a friend of mine and I hiked Table Top Mountain. It took us about an hour and forty minutes to get to the top which is a pretty decent amount of time, we past quite a few groups of people on the way up. The mountain is 1,086 meters high; the view of Cape Town was breath taking. I am definitely going to have to climb that mountain again. Hiking is one of the most invigorating feelings for me, my whole body aches as I am climbing up and there are times when I just want to stop and say no more. But when I finally reach the top after a lot of hard work it feels amazing. The view is worth all of the pain to get there. Eilis, my friend, and I had an Indian family come up to us and ask us where we were from and I said America. One of the sons got bright eyed and said “you mean the United States of America?” and so I said yes and he wanted to take a picture with us. I’ve never had anyone come up to me and be so excited about my nationality. It felt nice to be appreciated, although I am not sure how this little boy really sees the states... After a warm meal at the top of the mountain Eilis and I headed back down the mountain on a cable car. I felt very accomplished on the taxi ride back to the ship.
That night we ate dinner on the ship to save money and then went to Mitchell's Brewery for drinks. Three of us shared a fish bowl which is a huge bowl filled with blue Curacao, vodka, and sprite. It looked like a lot of alcohol but it didn't really affect any of us so I ordered a few draft beers. I have tasted so many different local beers on my journey, its great.