SOUTH AFRICA!

SOUTH AFRICA

Let me start off by saying having the Archbishop Desmond Tutu and his wife Leah Tutu travel with us from Brazil all the way to Cape Town was an extreme pleasure. Before his arrival I already had the utmost respect for Desmond Tutu, but having met him and witnessed his amazing generosity of spirit and kindness this respect has deepened immensely. For those of you who are unaware of who this person is here’s a brief bio: Desmond Tutu was born in South Africa under the Apartheid government. The Apartheid government, which was abolished in 1994, was a system of govt. where the white minority in South Africa oppressed the black majority. Desmond Tutu, along with former South African president, Nelson Mandela, worked to end Apartheid. The contribution Tutu offered was crucial to ending this oppressive rule, and his contribution after Apartheid with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission has helped South Africa come a long way. I cannot express to you what a privilege it was to have the Archbishop on our ship for 8 days. During these 8 days I had the opportunity to have breakfast with him and his wife. It was an experience I hope to carry with me for the rest of my life. I truly believe that I am a better person for having met him.

Okay, now…

DAY 1

I woke up at 6am, I say woke up, but in truth I had never really went to sleep. From Brazil to South Africa we lost 5 hours, so my biological clock is completely confused and screwed up. Anyways, I got up at 6 and went out to watch the sunrise come up over Cape Town, South Africa. Boy, was it COLD, not to mention windy! It was truly ridiculous. I braved the cold until the sun finally revealed itself from behind Table Mountain. It was amazing and definitely worth the early “wake-up” call. Don’t worry, I have pictures, and I’m sure all of you will see them eventually.

Once the ship was cleared we disembarked and a group of us headed to Table Mountain. Table Mountain is a mountain (obviously) that has a flat peak. It looks strangely like a table top. We took the cable car up to the top and walked around taking lots of pictures before splitting up. Some decided to hike down the mountain, but I had to take the cable car back down because I had a trip to meet for at the ship. Unfortunately, the taxi failed to get me back to the ship on time, and I missed it. So, since I had some free time to kill and I went out and walked around the waterfront. Cape Town’s waterfront is amazing. It’s so different than the other ports. Cape Town reminds me a lot of San Francisco, only much flatter and less dirty.

Did I mention I LOVE SOUTH AFRICA! It’s a good thing too seeing as how we are spending 2 extra days here. Unfortunately Kenya had to be cancelled because of piracy along the East African coast and Al Quaida (sorry, can’t spell) threats against Maritime Vessels. So instead we are spending extra time in South Africa and then heading to the island of Mauritius (east of Madagascar) for 3 days before reaching India. I’m bummed about Kenya, but hopefully Mauritius will prove to be a good back up country. I’m sure it will be.

Tonight we decided to find a seafood restaurant on the waterfront to eat at. I wanted to try the popular South African lobster, but they didn’t have any in the kitchen. Fortunately, the prawns proved to be delicious and pretty inexpensive. After dinner we walked around the mall, yes there’s a mall on the waterfront, before heading back to the ship. Oh and something odd also on the waterfront is this huge, expensive hotel. No, that’s not odd, but the golden statue of a seal is odd b/c on the base of this statue to has the names of people who have visited this hotel. The first name I read was President Nelson Mandela, a very respectable man followed by South African’s current president, Mbeki and Charlize Theron, also understandable because she’s South African. Then I started to read names like Robert deNiro, Danny Glover, Michael Jackson, and Naomi Campbell. I really don’t need to ask you if you agree with me that this is odd. I know it is. It’s actually pretty comical and I just thought I would share it.

Well, I desperately need sleep. So until DAY 2…

DAY 2

Sleeping in this morning was glorious! I no longer feel like a zombie, which is pretty much a good thing. I went out today and really just explored the waterfront. There’s so much going on and so much to do, I easily killed 3 hours. I did some souvenir shopping and still haven’t gotten accustomed to the exchange rate of the rand. I feel like a have a good amount of money, but usually I only have the equivalent of 7 US dollars. I’m debating on whether or not I should just carry around a small calculator (I’m sure my dad would advise this).

I found some really neat craft stores where they make things out of other things. For example, there were bags made out of record vinyl and license plates, lots of things made out of soda cans, etc. I’ll probably end up going back later on in the week. During my time out I noticed that there was a performance about to start in the amphitheatre on the waterfront, so I sat down. Why not, right? Free entertainment. It was a group of high school kids (I’m guessing they were in hs), girls and guys. They had on matching uniforms. I figured they were some type of dance group, and they were, however, I highly overestimated their skill level. I was incredibly disappointed. The choreography reminded me of an amateur teeny pop band. Their movements were not in sync most of the time. As much as I would like to imagine that these kids never practiced at all and this performance just reflected that, I have a sneaky feeling that they probably practice almost everyday and this was their best performance to date. Their uniforms looked too legit to convince me otherwise. So, I applaud their effort and admire their bravery. I made sure to take some video of it, so I’ll get all of your opinions on their performance once I’m home.

DAY 3

Today was a humbling day. I visited the Amy Biehl Foundation Trust and some of the programs that benefits the foundation. For those who do not know about Amy Biehl here’s a quick synopsis of her life. Amy Biehl was an American Fulbright Scholar who came to South Africa to help with the social problems caused by Apartheid. She worked to increase voter participation and women’s rights in South Africa. In 1993, Amy was stoned to death by four black South Africans working under the PAC (Pan African Committee), a group that was becoming more and more militant against white South Africans. Her killers were not aware that she was American. All four of her killers received amnesty under the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and earned the forgiveness of Amy’s parents. Two of her killers currently work for the foundation. Our tour guide was one of them. Pretty amazing story, huh? So like I said, today was a very humbling experience. We visited the primary school that runs the music and peer education programs for the foundation and went to the “driving range for the people” created by the foundation right outside a township. We also visited another township and got to see how the people live there. Let me just say, we are so fortunate. I can send you pictures, but just trust me for right now.

Tonight we went out to a jazz club/restaurant which was a lot of fun and then followed it up with a movie. We saw Crash. If you haven’t seen this movie, go rent it as soon as you can. It’s worth it. Tomorrow comes another exciting very South African day, but to find out about that you’ll just have to read on…

DAY 4

Ok, well I guess I’ve held you in enough suspense so I’ll tell you how Day 4 went. Myself and two other girls decided we’d go horseback riding in the winelands, do some wine tasting, and then spend a night at the opera. Yes, Dahlings, we were very high class today, I must say. Horseback riding was a lot of fun, although my body is paying for it today. I wish saddles had more cushioning. My horse was interesting. Her name was Peggy, and she liked being in the lead and if she wasn’t she pick up her speed to make sure she was. At times I felt like I was riding Seabiscuit. Ok, may not, but you get the point. The wine tasting was fun. I felt like I was in the movie Sideways, but of course I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. I wanted to ship a couple of bottles home, but unfortunately NC requires you to have a permit. I think it should be pretty easy to find the wine in grocery stores at home though.

The opera we went to see was Carmen. It was interesting because it wasn’t an adaptation or anything, but the company is actually 90% black South African and the audience definitely consisted mostly of white South Africans. The performances were really good, and it was actually directed by a former Semester at Sea theatre arts professor.

That was basically Day 4. As usual it was another wonderful day in South Africa. Have I mentioned I really like it here?! On to Day 5…

DAY 5

Today was a pretty chill day. I went with my roommate, Nicole, to St. Elmo’s pizza place for lunch and ran a few errands. For dinner we went to Harrie’s Pancakes. It was delicious! I also managed to go see a couple of movies while I was out. I saw the indy film Mysterious Skin starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt. It was good, but extremely intense. Then I saw The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants for the second time, and it was just as good as the first time I saw it. :o)

Sorry, not that exciting of a day, but I’m sure I’ll have more stuff to write about on Day 6.

DAY 6

During the first part of the day I went to the District Six Museum. District Six is an area of Cape Town that was basically taken over by the Apartheid govt. for exclusive use by white South Africans only. Starting on February 11, 1966 all of the blacks and coloreds (anyone who’s skin looked mixed) were kicked out of their homes and many had to watch their homes get demolished by huge cranes. The irony of the situation? No whites wanted to move to that area, some because they didn’t approve and some because they didn’t want to live somewhere that blacks and coloreds used to live. The museum is dedicated to the memories of former residents. It was founded by a half Indian/half white man who was kicked out in the 1970s. It was very important to read the stories. Coming from a country who has struggled with its own race relations and realizing that these problems exist in other places around the world. It’s even more amazing to think that even though conditions were getting better before, Apartheid wasn’t abolished until 1994. I was 9 years old.

The second half of the day was mainly spent just hanging out of the waterfront. We grabbed a bite to eat and then headed over to a bar called Mitchell’s and talked with some of the locals there. Most were just curious why there were 650 young people hopping of a cruise ship into their country. The people here have been really really great. Everyone is super nice, that is with the exception of the middle-aged drunk man that wouldn’t leave us alone. Eww!

Tomorrow is our last day here. I’m excited to get to our next destination, but I know that I will miss Cape Town, South Africa very much. This week has been pretty amazing, not to mention ridiculous.

DAY 7

We took a ferry over to Robben Island. Robben Island is where former South African President Nelson Mandela spent 18 years of his life. We took a short bus tour around the island. We saw where they would put the prisoner to work at the lime quarry and the community center and school that now teaches around 27 kids from 1^st to 7^th grade. Robben Island only reopened as a museum in 1997. We toured the prison with a former prisoner and saw Nelson Mandela’s cell and other ex-prisoners cells. It was extremely interesting to hear about some of the prisoners stories. After the tour we went to the Penguin Boardwalk where we saw a ton of African Penguins.

After returning from Robben Island we walked around the waterfront a little bit, stopped by Mitchell’s to say bye to Vanda, a really nice bartender we met earlier during the week, and headed back to the ship before having our last meal in South Africa.

There’s a township choir performance on our ship tonight, so I’ll probably check that out, then at 11pm we are off to the island of Mauritius.

I miss you all and hope you enjoyed the extra long email this time around. Oh, and don’t forget to keep the pop culture updates coming. They brighten up my day! Just a quick not even makes my day better!