South Africa

South Africa.

"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us."
Ralph Waldo Emerson


We had an amazing trip to South Africa. The first day we arrived we walked around the V&A waterfront and explored the area around the ship. The V&A waterfront is unlike the rest of Capetown with its expensive car dealers and shopping mall and fine dining. The thing that shocks you the most about Cape Town is the inequality of wealth. The rich are extremely rich and the poor are extremely poor. Middle class barely seems in existence. Being my second time in South Africa I already felt I knew what to expect but over the last five years since I have been there last it seems to have gotten worse. The segregation of class and race is hard to ignore.

The world cup still had a strong influence on the country and we walked around the new stadium that had brand new Mcdonalds at the gate which was packed with people even though the stadium was baren.

That evening we went to a thearte performance in district six. Best known for the forced removal of over 60,000 of its inhabitants during the 1970s by the apartheid regime. On 11 February 1966, the government declared District Six a whites-only area under the Group Areas Act, with removals starting in 1968. By 1982, more than 60,000 people had been relocated to the sandy, bleak Cape Flats township complex some 25 kilometers away. The old houses were bulldozed. The only buildings left standing were places of worship. Which is exactly where the theater house was. An old church turned into a theater to help tell the story of the people and culture of Cape Town. The show WOZA! Cape Town was a wonderful low budget performance about the experience of three Capetoianian boys. It was a great night filled with song and dance in the heart of Cape Town.

The next day we hiked Table Mountain. One of my favorite hikes ever. We took the cable car up the mountain and walked all around the table then began the hike down. It took about two hours to get down. The weather was perfect and you could see forever. We topped the day off with a cold one at Mitchell's Irish Pub. The following day we rented a car with another couple and went down the coast to Cape Point. Words can't describe the beauty we saw. The ride down to the cape we drove along the coast and saw whales right off shore. We pulled over walked down the rocky shore to see right whales 20 feet away from us. There were about 4 of them playing in the water right in front of us. It was the most amazing day I can remember. Once we finally able to pull ourselves away and continue down the coast we headed towards Cape Point. Along the way we stopped off at an ostrich farm and a little coffee shop. When we reached the national park we stopped off at the Cape of Good Hope and where at the Southwest most tip of Africa. The view was unreal. We spent the rest of the day driving along the coast to Simon's Town and Boulder Beach. We saw Africa Penguins in the wild on the seashore sunning themselves on the warm sandy beaches. Our final stop was along the coast to the colorful Victorian beach houses. There were surfers in the Giant White waters where the shark warning for the day was too rough to tell if there were sharks and a shark had been seen the day before.

The next day we spent the morning on a trip to a primary school. For the Pensisula school Feeding program that helps feed school children. We learned about the primary school and some of the politics of the school system and then helped serve lunch. We walked around the school and spent time in a fourth grade class. It was wonderful to spend time with the children and understand how the learn.

The final day we hiked table mountain again and walked around the waterfront. It was hard to leave such an amazing city. On to Mauritius!