Alright it’s been awhile! I kind of forgot to record anything of interest about South Africa and my parents bugged me about it, so here I will give a little summary of my favorite doings in SA:

In terms of education: Avery and I went to Robben Island. This is the site of the maximum security prison and where all political prisoners including Nelson Mandela were detained. The ferry ride over was about a half hour during which Avery and I both fell asleep on account of our booking the earliest possible tour at 9 am (I know my parents are laughing, HHAHA, you think 9 is EARLY…whatever). Once there we had a bus tour around the island. The tour guide pointed out some cannons from WWII that were on the island, a little town, a solitary confinement area, and the quarries where prisoner were forced to work. We were allowed to get out and take some pictures at the beach. After the bus tour we took a tour of the maximum security prison. Our tour guide was an ex-inmate and he described for us the daily lives of prisoners. The most horrifying part was the psychological torture that the inmates endured. Their letters were censored and prisoners were allowed no visitors.

In addition to Robben Island I saw the District 6 Museum which commemorated the District 6 neighborhood which was evacuated during apartheid because it was a neighborhood in which all races were living together peacefully. The museum seemed more like a memorial or remembrance than an informational museum as it contained art by former residents, family photos, a large map on which former residents could put their name by their former houses, and large sheets of cloth where people wrote their memories. The man who introduced the museum was a former District 6 resident and seemed very proud of its legacy. He said it was a place in which races and all religions had lived in harmony, and although he is Muslim, he celebrated Christmas and accompanied his Jewish friends to the synagogue.

After that I saw the Slave Lodge. It is a big old building that used to house slaves, mostly from India and Asia. The slavery part of the museum was very interesting as I don’t know too much about slavery except slavery in the U.S. After that there was an exhibit on Steve Biko to commemorate the 30th anniversary of his death. It was very touching and mostly included Biko’s story and all sorts of commentary about his life and death from influential people. The upstairs of the Slave Lodge was very puzzling as it contained a shabby Ancient Egypt exhibit and an exhibit of European toys…I later learned that the slave lodge used to be the national cultural museum and so these must have been remnants of that, but it was kind of odd.

Other than educational stuff, I tried to go to the top of Table Mountain, but the cable cars were not operating due to the wind. However, a taxi got me most of the way to the top and I got some great pictures of the view and did some people watching of joggers and taxi drivers and tourists. Avery, Sabrina (a Swiss girl from the hostel) and I also went to a planetarium show which was really ridiculous because it had pointless cartoons and patronizing narrations, but was also interesting because it showed some southern hemisphere constellations that we never see in the north as they rotate around the south celestial pole (consequently they were also named much later as the Ancient Greeks couldn’t see them so the names are a little less fantastical and mythical, one constellations is actually called “Triangle”). I also found out how to find south, and it’s trickier because in the South there is no convenient star like Polaris guiding the way. It was also really weird because they have Orion in summer and we have it in autumn, and all of their constellations are upside down. However, after I got back to Botswana I was happy I went to the planetarium because I was able to locate Orion, the little dipper, the Pleiades, and Taurus, all upside down, in the sky. For some reason I can’t seem to find the Big Dipper though…

Other than that we did a lot of good eating. They have amazing food in Cape Town. Being in Gabs I forgot that good food can also be healthy, because everything that tastes good in Bots is swimming in grease (gravy, fat cakes, chips, chicken). I had good olives, good feta, pesto, and HUMMUS for the first time since coming to Africa. The cheese in Gabs is sorely lacking and in Cape Town I was so happy about the mozzarella and feta and many others! There was also a vegetarian restaurant called Lola’s that had such creative combinations and herbs – things that would never exist in Gabs. My favorite restaurant I went to was called the Café Royale. They had cocktails for like 3 dollars – mine was fresh raspberry, raspberry liqueur and rosemary infused vodka and very delicious. I also had a brownie shake a big burger (with CHEESE) and a luscious salad.

We also went shopping to a lot of souvenir shops, but I didn’t buy anything. One of the shops was very interesting, though. I can’t remember the name, but instead of just like traditional art (baskets and statues and masks) they had modern African art, like t shirt designs and batiks and crafts made out of milk cartons and stuff. I did buy a shirt from Mungo and Jemima, which was a little boutique that carried clothes from local South African designers and had a million things that I wanted.

Also Avery and I went to high tea at this one hotel. It was probably the nicest hotel I have ever seen. The bathrooms had individual cloth towels that you used and then put in a hamper, there was a live lounge pianist, and each person got their own pot of tea with real leaves and flowers floating in it. It even had curtains gently floating in the breeze and wicker. I thought I was in a Samantha book from the American Girls collection. They served scones, clotted cream, little sandwiches, mini quiches, and all sorts of chocolates, cakes and jams (I feel like I am reading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe “and then Lucy helped herself to sardines and toast and all sorts of wonderful jam with scones and cream, marmalade and Turkish delight… and Mr. Tumnus watched her with a diabolical gleam in his eye, waiting to lull her to sleep with his crazy-ass faun-alicious double pipe instrument of death”) (I wish Mike were reading this as no one else will get it…except maybe Britta). High tea was wondrous but a little too luxurious. I seriously kept looking around me a wondering how much money these people were paying a night for their rooms. Probably close to the amount I spent on my entire trip to South Africa.

That’s about it on the Cape Town experience. Other than that I just lounged around our hostel and read/went down to the waterfront by the posh mall. Oh, I did get pooped on by a bird at a nasty little fish and chips restaurant and was not happy about it. That has never happened to me before, luckily it didn’t get in my hair.

All in all it was nice to be by the water for a few days because from here on out it is inland for me!

Last night I came back into Gabs and suffered more humiliation at the border. This time I had my waiver, but the lady said it was invalid because it wasn’t stamped. She yelled at me and scared me by saying it was improper and I was illegal and stuff and I almost started to cry and kept telling her that the university gave it to me. But she just told me that it wasn’t the university that was responsible and the waiver had to do with the legality of me personally. Finally she wrote me a little sheet that said I had to go to the immigration office this morning at 8 am in order “present myself in person.” I talked to Charity, the international office guru, and she said not to worry about and that she would sort it out. It all turned out being fine. But I really don’t understand why they made such a big deal of it at the border. The lady scowled at me and got another lady, then she disappeared, then another lady ran and told the bus to wait for me, then a police officer came. Charity told me they must have been bored, or else someone was in a bad mood…I don’t know.

Today I went to the SOS Children’s Village for the first time and it was wonderful. As soon as I entered the room three little children with snot covered faces ran up and banged their heads against my knees reaching up to me a shrieking “teacher, teacher!!!” with a bunch of other requests in Setswana that I didn’t understand. I wish there had been five of me because each kid just wanted so much attention. Seriously, on the playground I had to watch a million (no Graham exaggeration here, I’m being entirely serious) at once and one would start to cry every 5 minutes. Then I would have to go over and pick them up until they stopped. I honestly started to wonder if they were actually being hurt or if they just started crying so they could get some physical attention from someone. I wouldn’t be surprised, these kids were only 2 or 3 years old and probably need more adult affection in their lives. I’ll write more about the village later, but now I am sleepy and want to read more Dracula (another amazing book).