It was with great reluctance that I pulled my eyes away from the receding skyline of Cape Town as we pulled out of the harbor. It was only 6 days earlier I had stared eagerly at the approaching horizon, a flat-topped mountain and a glistening city at the base of the mountain, full of promises of an exciting upcoming week. The sun rose just as we pulled into the harbor, signaling the start of a new set of adventures.
Cape Town did prove to be full of opportunities for fun, adventure and discoveries. The first day I did my usual tradition of walking around the downtown area with friends in order to acclimate ourselves to the new culture, sights, and smells of our next temporary home. And yet, Cape Town came to become more than just a temporary home for me. I now dream of returning to the beautiful, laidback city on the Cape of Good Hope, if not to live there for awhile then at least to travel around after I graduate. The first day salesmen did not assault us like the previous port and we were able to find an ATM much easier than Ghana so we walked leisurely around the different shops, markets and restaurants down the main thoroughfare. I met a really interesting woman in one of the markets who had come from Zimbabwe to make enough money for her siblings to finish their education. During her time in Cape Town, where she had been for the past 3 years, she had not seen her family at all and was using whatever was left after paying for rent and food to send to her family. She told me that once they had completed school, they would use their surplus money to pay for her education. I tried to sympathize with her about how hard it can be to pay all the bills, but I realized very quickly I don't understand, not even close, the struggles she and her family have compared to me. Not only am I paying for the basics, I am also getting a private school education with enough money to pay to travel around the world on a ship. Although I may think money is tight, I am so wealthy and so lucky compared to this woman. Never again will I complain about school. It is such a gift to receive an education and although middle- and upper-class Americans treat it as a given rite of passage, it is not a given in all of the US, and especially not in the rest of the world. It is a privilege and should be treated as such. Touched by this woman's struggles, I bought a few things from her and thanked her for sharing with me.
I was supposed to go shark cage diving on the second day but my alarm didn't go off so instead I found a few people who wanted to visit the aquarium. I may have missed out on seeing sharks swim feet from a caged lair, but I still got to see them a few feet away through plastic. Good enough. That night I had a really interesting FDP as well. If you don't understand the SAS lingo, an FDP is a trip into the field to actually see what we learned about in class. This trip took me to the home of a vocal artist named Zami, who is currently in the process of trying out for South African Idol. After singing to us a song she had written, a Xhosa song (a click language of Africa) and covers of American artists like Adele, Bill Withers and others, we ate dinner together. I sat near her so I got to hear more about her struggles as an artist living in the post-apartheid townships. Although she had an easier time than musicians who lived during apartheid, she still faced many struggles trying to make enough money to sustain her family and finding places to sing. I found out later from my music teacher that she made it through the trials and will be one of the contestants on the show once they start filming. I wish her the best of luck!
The next day I took a boat across the bay to Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was held for 18 of his 27-year sentence for treason. His cell was relatively unimpressive but the other cells displayed the faces, sentence years, names and stories of the occupants prior to their release. They had some really interesting stories. One man spoke of how he got in a fight over food and was poked in the eye so hard he lost the ability to use it. A few talked about how they tried to escape. It seemed like all of those imprisoned were only fighting for creating an environment based on equality.
Probably the highlight of my time in South Africa was the fourth day when I did a safari and a sunset hike afterwards. Was I glad I signed up for this trip and got in the car I did! Right when we entered the park we could see rhinos and zebras lazily standing around in the still cool air. We were only a couple dozen feet from the rhinos and zebras, who seemed to have no fear of the loud, dusty jeeps that must visit their resting spots on the game reserve quite often. When the photographers had gotten their fill, we drove on to see hippopotami, springbok antelope and elephants! We had a lot of luck with the elephants. When we arrived, two were just breaking up from a fight. One started to walk towards us, and even stuck its trunk in the car before walking away. We drove to catch up and our driver let us out of the jeep and gave us fruit to feed them them! That encounter was enough to make the safari worth it. Once we had exhausted the fruit we drove to the part of the reserve where they keep the lions. I didn't expect to see any and especially not a male since they only had 2, but sure enough, both a lion and a lioness emerged from the shrubs and rocks. The lioness was asleep in the shade of a bush, just feet from our vehicle. The next time I turned to look out the other side of the car, there was a male lion standing proudly on a rock up the cliff, just asking to be photographed. He then slowly made his way down the cliff towards us until he stopped a couple yards away, looked at the jeep, then passed in front of it to lie down next to the lioness. It was pretty incredible. I can only wonder how this even would have transpired had we been in the true wild such as Kruger National Park. I'm definitely going to make a trip up there to where the animals are actually wild next time I come to this country.
As if lions, rhinos and elephants weren't enough, I went with someone I had met on the safari on a sunset hike up to Lion's Head. It was beautiful up there, watching the sun set over the Indian Ocean. All 360 degrees of the view there was something interesting, between Robben Island to the west, the city to the north, the flat-topped mountain called Table Mountain that looms over the city to the east and the sun setting to the southeast. The stars came out soon after the sun had set and we got to enjoy an unspoiled view of the southern hemisphere celestial bodies.
The next day I just happened to find someone who was going to Boulder's Beach where the African penguins reside. I may have missed shark cage diving but I'm so glad I didn't miss this spectacle. I really wish I could have spent the night there since the town was so quaint but I was satisfied with my day there. The penguins were everywhere on the beach, standing around, nipping at passing tourists and generally looking very cute. I was quite satisfied with my last free day in South Africa and I left feeling like I had missed only a few things. When I return in a few years, I'll make sure to visit the apartheid museum; talk to more locals, blacks, whites and coloureds alike, about the days of apartheid, and of course spend a night in Simon's Town. I did have one coloured taxi driver who was very open to sharing with us his experiences during and after apartheid, which I really appreciated, but I still want to hear more stories. In every port, the locals are the best part of visiting these countries. I can see all the sights in pictures, but only by going to these places can I meet people. Possibly my biggest regret was not making a bigger effort to form friendships with the locals. Not only does it make the trip more interesting, but I also get to share American life and culture with them. Plus I get the added bonus of having a place to stay next time I'm around, and I can open my home up to them if they ever visit California. But maybe next time I'm around, I'll be the "local" opening up my home to visitors of Cape Town.
Daanke and molo!
