The South Africa Chronicles

We’ve come to the end of Africa, the very edge of a continent I have always felt oddly connected to. The constant repeat of Shakira’s Waka Waka has played its final note (her hips haven’t stopped lying, though), the Atlantic Ocean is behind us, and a whole new set of countries in Asia awaits. I will warn you up front, this entry is going to be long. South Africa did not have the same kind of progression or straightforwardness as Canada, Morocco, or Ghana. That’s not to say that those countries were simple, of course, but South Africa was a six day non-stop thrill ride of beautiful sights, complex feelings about myself and my surroundings, and late nights out with my friends. I’m going to split this entry up by each day, mostly because every day was extremely unique, also a differing feature of our time spent in Cape Town. Be prepared for a number of “best of’s.” So, here we go. I hope I don’t miss anything, but I probably will. I have in my other entries, but I’ll never really admit to that…even though I just did. Damn. Also, be aware that I’m going to be talking about alcohol, because it certainly made up a portion of my time in South Africa. Whatever, I’m legal here, so sorry for all you stingy prudes. Future employers, please still hire me, thanks. Mom and Dad, I’m still a good little boy, I swear. Everyone else…yeah, I got nothing. Let’s begin!


Day One, Friday, September 23rd, 2011: Sunrise Over the Table, FDPalooza, and Long Street Lounging


The general consensus around the ship for the couple of days leading up to South Africa was that the sunrise was something everyone should definitely wake up for, especially after the disappointment of the entry into Ghana. To be completely honest, in all its simple beauty and anxious nerves as we made our way up to the port, it was one of the best mornings of my life. Finally seeing mountains again, especially one as impressive as Table Mountain, was comforting and humbling. Plus, in Colorado, it’s just mountains, no ocean. Reflections on the water with the purpley-pinkish red sky left me utterly speechless and extremely overwhelmed with excitement and eagerness. After circling around for a bit, we pulled into the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront, a positively posh place with stores, restaurants, and tourists and locals mixing and mingling. It was a welcomed change from the less-than-ideal ports in Casablanca and Tema. The rest of the day was spent doing FDP’s, SAS-sponsored trips that we have to do for class. My frist one was on the ship in a classroom, so many of my friends got off the ship before I did. That being said, I’m completely okay with that because my FDP, Authors in Cape Town, was very inspiring and encouraging. We had three writers come and talk to us about, you guessed it, my favorite thing, writing. They were all very warm and open and gave great advice about the world of professional writing. Afterwards we had the chance to talk to them one-on-one and they all told me to go for it and to not listen to the people that tell me otherwise. So, all you haters out there, step off! Just saying. Anyway, my second FDP was a visit to the Gender Equity Unit of Parliament. We hopped on a bus to the building in downtown Cape Town. The city is modern and beautiful, a bit of a reminder of America and its cities. When we made it to the office, we listened to the man in charge (I can’t remember his name—oops) of the organization about South Africa’s efforts to bring equality to the genders and those that identify within the LGBTI community. Just like the authorts, he was really inspirational—he does amazing work for the disenfranchised people of the country. Afterwards, we went to Parliament itself and got to go inside the chambers. South Africa has 11 official languages, so they have 11 translators sitting in the booths above that translate for all the members. They also serve 5 year terms. Otherwise, it’s a pretty similar system to ours: its bicameral, members run and get voted on, and there are two other branches, which are located in Bloemfontein and Pretoria. My final FDP of the day was a night out at the theatre to receive a backstage tour, drink wine and eat cheese and other appetizers, and see Fiddeler on the Roof in order to write a review on it for class. Paging London, anybody? The night was wonderful, the show was fantastic (killer design and acting!), and the wine was, obviously, delicious. When the show was over, Gabriela and I decided to hit up Long Street to check out the bar scene. Though it was overrun by SAS students, it was a fun area with lots of lights and music. We met up with Brooke and Dip and tried to find this club they wanted to go to called 31/Atmosphere/nobody-really-knew, but we ended up at KFC instead. We then hopped in a cab and took that to two different gay clubs called Bronx and Crew. An evening to (mostly) remember, we were out until a solid 3:15 in the morning dancing with mostly locals who were completely awesome. And this was only the first day!


Day Two, Saturday, September 24th, 2011: Bikes, Wine, Cheetahs, Brandy, it Must be Stellenbosch!


Following a bitterly short sleep of somewhere in the neighborhood of four hours, I awoke in my bed, still a little drunk, and hobbled upstairs to Tymitz Sqaure to meet Ionna, Ali, and a handful of other people for a combination bike tour with wine and brandy tasting in Stellenbosch. Sounds a little dangerous, doesn’t it? We took a taxi to Long Street, met a guide, hopped on a train, and took it to Stellenbosch, an outer suburb of Cape Town in wine country. South Africa has the perfect climate for wine making, so there are a lot of vineyards and wine farms. When we got to Stellenbosch, we got on our bikes and set out. After a few minutes, we made it to our first wine tasting. Though we weren’t exactly dressed nice, after a couple glasses of wine, we were all feeling pretty nice. A solid buzz made our rides all the more enjoyable, though. Before making our way to the next tasting, we stopped at a cheetah sanctuary. After a small entry fee, WE GOT TO PET THEM. I PET A CHEETAH. HIS NAME WAS ENIGMA. HE WAS SLEEPING AND PURRING, WHICH WAS KIND OF BORING, BUT I GOT TO PET A CHEETAH. As you can see, it was pretty exciting. After my enigmatic cheetah experience with Enigma, we went to a brandy distillery. Ever tried brandy? Well, if you have, you’re probably a rich old billionaire. I’ve never met anybody who has actually tried it, and the stereotype is that it’s a snobby rich person drink, so we were all interested in tasting it. After a brief lecture on how to drink it (yes, there’s even a proper method of brandy consumption—you have to sniff it before you drink it, apparently), we all said bottoms up and downed our drinks. Okay, that’s not true. If you chugged brandy, you would most likely throw up, unless you have a stomach of steel. It is STRONG. The alcohol content was somewhere around 38%, so two tiny glasses that weren’t even half full was plenty to make us all feel pretty loopy. The next leg of our bike journey was the most wobbly. We stopped at a restaurant for lunch and had the most delicious meal outside, after which was followed by our final wine tasting. After all this alcohol, it was nice to have a very short ride back to the train station. When the train arrived, we all promptly passed out in our seats and arrived back in Cape Town in a foggy hangover haze. Later on, I discovered that there was free Wifi throughout the waterfront, so I skyped with a few people and caught up on Facebook and the like. Lots of SAS kids were utilizing it throughout our stay, and it didn’t seem like anybody was judging. Our next chance at free internet won’t be until at least India. The rest of the night was spent drinking in Mitchell’s, a local pub on the waterfront that was full of us students. It really was nice having a solid meeting place near the ship that brought so many people together. I certainly got to talk to a lot of different people each night we were there. Many of us SAS-ers also ended up at a club called Voom Voom for some awesome second-floor dancing.


Day Three, Sunday, September 25th, 2011: Not a Safari, Not Skydiving, a Township


After another long night with little sleep (this was a common theme on the ship for a lot of people in Cape Town), I was supposed to go on a safari for the day. I slept past our meeting time. My next option was skydiving. When I woke up for that, the thought of throwing myself out of a plane made me want to vomit, so I slept through that as well. Thinking my day was shot and my plans were all gone, I found a large group of people going to a township for a party. The idea intrigued me, especially because we were encouraged to visit a township at least once while in South Africa. We piled into a van, turned up the tunes, and jammed our way outside the city to the township. For those of you less in the know about South African social, political, and legal structure, townships were segregated towns for non-white people only during the age of Apartheid. Since white supremacy was the law of the land, townships received extremely poor government support. The townships were shanty towns of rows of shacks, essentially. I shouldn’t say “were,” though, because they still are poor, desolate towns of utter squalor. Driving through them was pretty depressing, but when we got to the party, the people were so happy, much like the Ghanaians. It was at a restaurant called “Mzoli’s Meat,” in which the meat was served in giant buckets full of different animals. I’m not entirely sure what I ate, or how much, but it was way too delicious. Messy, too, because there were no utensils or napkins involved. Nobody really cared, though, because once again, drinks were involved. If I’m sounding like an alcoholic at this point, I swear I’m not. Remember the previous countries? I barely drank. After the township party, we returned to Cape Town and I joined up with a bunch of people for Bailey’s birthday. We went to a restaurant right on the water. I didn’t eat much since I had already eaten on the ship, but I went for the experience. We were sang to by a South African band, including Shosholoza and their version of happy birthday. It was really entertaining and I’m very annoyed my camera died. Then, I went out again to Bronx and Crew. This time I went with Briana, Alden, Kevin, and quite a few other people that I don’t remember. It was fun going back with a different crowd, especially since there were a few other guys.  We left quite late once again. However, I didn’t go right to bed when we got back. Kevin, Alden, and I (but really just Alden and I) went and tried to play with the giant seals hanging out right outside of our ship on the dock. They were not happy, especially when we approached them. We ran off after they flashed their giant fangs. I then hung out with Alden for a bit and went and visited his sister who is also on the ship. We all stayed up pretty late just talking and chilling, but most of the details are a bit fuzzy. I think I went to bed around 5 in the morning?


Day Four, Monday, September 26th, 2011: The Peninsula


You guessed it—I woke up after only a little bit of sleep. Instead of blowing off my plans and figuring out things later like I did the day beforehand, I rallied myself and got up to visit Cape Point and the rest of the peninsula. From the moment I sat down in the van until our first stop at Camp’s Bay, I was passed out, which was somewhat worrying because I didn’t want to miss anything. However, when I opened my eyes when we arrived, I was blown away and promptly stayed awake for the rest of the day. There’s not too much to say other than that all of our stops (Camp’s Bay, Hout’s Bay, Long Beach, Cape Point, and Simon’s Town and Boulder’s Beach) were gorgeous. Hout’s Bay was one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. The mountains and cliffs rose perfectly from the crystal blue-green water and pleasantly touched the sky. Cape Point was really unique, too, because it is the most southwestern point of the African continent. We were literally at the edge of the world. They had a sign post with mileages of other major cities, so that certainly put it into a larger context. Also, just before we arrived there, we saw ostriches and baboons. Yeah, just chilling on the side of a road in a farm. Whatever. No big deal, right? Ostrich farms are real things in South Africa. Boulder’s Beach was fun since there were lots of cute little penguins. It’s currently their mating season, though, so we didn’t get to get up close and personal. However, since it’s their mating season, I’m relatively sure I heard two penguins getting up close and personal with each other. There were some pretty satisfied shrieks coming from behind the foliage as I was rounding one corner. That’s a noise I won’t be forgetting anytime soon. As the day was winding down, I thought about how lucky I am to be able to see such beauty all around the world. Then, that night, I went out again to a club with a bunch of other students on the other side of the city called Mercury and stayed out far too late again. Great success.


Day Five, Tuesday, September 27th, 2011: Robben Island, Table Mountain, and Dinner in the Trees


Robben Island is much like Alcatraz—it’s a former prison on a small island off the coast of the mainland. Nelson Mandela was imprisoned there for 18 of his 27 year imprisonment. 27 years is not even my entire life yet; I’d still have seven years to go before being released. Scary thought. Anyway, my favorite thing about the morning was that I got to for free. You heard it here first, folks, I weasled my way in without dropping a single South African Rand. It wasn’t easy, though, especially considering the ferry was sold out. I treid talking to the ticket office, but they were pretty unhelpful. As a final resort, I went and asked the people collecting the tickets. They had three extra. I asked how much one cost, but they said I could just take it and get on. The Jew in me was pleased. The ferry to the island was even choppier than the MV Explorer, but that’s mostly because it was much smaller. Even still, it was a fun reminder of rough seas and what we can expect between South Africa and Mauritius. When we got to the island, we were directed to a bus with a tour guide to take us around. To be perfectly honest, I found the tour to be a little lackluster. It was hard to understand our guide and too much of it was spent on the bus. It was interesting seeing Mandela’s jail cell and hearing our guides personal narrative—he was an ex political prisoner on the island. Since they rely so much on that, they don’t have placards or signs, so that makes it hard to follow along. Despite all this, it was still a pretty moving morning. It served as a reminder of humanity’s power to both destroy and forgive—although we can do horribly painful things to one another, we have it within us to look past that and move on sometimes. I really don’t have much room to complain anyway since I got there for free. After a small meal on the ship and changing into different clothes, a group of about eight girls and myself (piiiiiiiimp) took a taxi to Table Mountain, the magnificent constant backdrop of Cape Town. Standing at 1,084.6 meters above sea level, it’s that high in comparison to the mountains in Colorado, but it is a damn steep climb. For all you hipster/bro-y/hippie/Block Plan loving Colorado College folk out there, the hike up is a lot like the Manitou Incline. I huffed and puffed my way up while thinking about everything and made it up in about one hour and 45 minutes. Speaking of CC, while I was at the summit, Marek and I took pictures with my Colorado state flag. We know how to rep! In the middle of our improptu photoshoot, a couple came up to us and asked if we were from Colorado. We obviously said yes, to which they said that they were as well! We asked where they were from and they said Colorado Springs! I then said I go to CC and it turns out the woman used to work in the Res Life office! We rattled off a few names to each other and I knew a good handful of them. It really is a small world. The whole moment reminded that I do still have a life back in Colorado. I may not be there, and things may still be going on, but it’s comforting to know I have that a world to return to and not something totally unfamiliar and scary. The top was absolutely spectacular. 360 degree views of the water, the harbor, Cape Town, and the South African landscape. We spent about an hour and a half walking around up there and taking pictures and watching the sunset and just taking it all in. Other SAS students were up there, too. Some of them climbed, some of them took the cable car, but we were all glad we did it. For me, I wouldn’t have been able to leave Cape Town without having hiked up Table Mountain. Since the sun was nearly set by the time we were leaving, we took the cable car down. It was really scary actually because it rotated 360 degrees and dropped at a very steep angle. We made it, though! Unfortunately, we returned back to the ship later than we expected, so we had very little time to shower and get ready for our dinner at a treetop restaurant in Stellenbosch. Maria, Gabriela, Alden, Adrienne, Brian, Marek, Jordan, Connie, and myself all piled into our van and trekked it out there. The restaurant was right by one of the wineries I went to on the second day, so it was vaguely familiar. It was built into the trees, so we had to climb a staircase into the canopy of flora to our table. We placed our drink orders and then meandered downstairs to the buffet, a giant cafeteria-style line with giant plates of all different foods. I filled my plate up with meats, veggies, and so much food that it would make a fat kid at fat camp cry. I took the longest to eat, but that may have something to do with that I’m a slow eater. We also got serenaded by an a cappella group. They sang Shosholoza and a rock song. Dinner theatre, anybody? A woman also painted our faces with white paint, so we all felt pretty bad ass when we returned to the ship with our faces covered.  It was an excellent meal, shared with some truly wonderful company who made the experience that much better. After we payed the bill, Alden, Adrienne, and I wondered downstairs before everyone else and warmed up next to a fire. Some locals were there and they taught us a few words in their language of Xhosha. Total pronunciation fail, but whatever, it was fun. All of us left and then returned back to the ship. I spent some time with Gabriela. Then Alden joined us. Then Maria. Then Alden and I left and wandered around for a bit on the ship, greeting everyone as they returned from their nights out. It was my only night not really going out and getting silly from drinking, and I am okay with that.


Day Six, Wedenesday, September 28th, 2011: Saying Goodbye to Cape Town


I spent my final day with the Amy Biehl Foundation Trust. Amy Biehl was an anti-apartheid activist who was stoned and stabbed to death at 26 by the very people she was trying to help. Her parents then founded the non-profit in order to keep her memory alive and aid the poor townships of South Africa. Sad and moving, her story is ultimately a tale of triumph and the power of forgiveness in the context of post-apartheid South Africa, a place still plagued with inequality, racism, and many other disparities and problems. I urge everyone to read up on her story more and support the organization. We watched a video at their office before actually heading into the townships and visiting their schools. Disappointingly, the kids weren’t as excited to see as the Ghanians were, but they may have been because they are more used to white people. Again, it was all very depressing seeing all these houses that are no bigger than the room that I sleep in at home. I felt pretty helpless, but when you are only in a place for such a short amount of time, there isn’t much you can do. The most exciting part of the day was when we visited the final school. The kids there were in an after school arts program, so they put on a music, dance, and theatre performance for all of us. These kids are TALENTED. They have got some serious dance moves and vocal cords and acting chops. It very obviously made them happy, too, so it looks like the ABFT is doing its job well. Upon returning to the ship, everyone filed into the Union to hear the Archbishop Desmund Tutu address us. Yes, that’s right, Nobel Peace Prize Desmund Tutu. That guy. He gave the most powerful and uplifting speech, talking about how we have to keep dreaming and remaining idealistic in the face of adversity. He also talked about the story of Adam and Eve and how that is a great lesson in the interconnectedness of humanity and our constant desire for companionship. I was reminded of Adam Braun at a few points because he talked about how when we return to America, people won’t recognize us. People will wonder who we are because we will be so moved by injustice and not be able to be indifferent anymore. I’m feeling that already. He was quite the kooky old man, telling a lot of jokes and always smiling and giggling. He ended his speech by saying that God looks at Semester at Sea and cheers. He then called all of us awesome and ended it. Afterwards, he allowed us to take pictures with him. I got a great one of me cheesing like a complete goon, but whatever; how often do you get to meet Desmund Tutu and shake his hand? Not very often, if ever. I ate dinner and then watched the ship leave port, which I had yet to do. I stayed up at the front, which ended up clearing out pretty quickly. It was cool, though, mostly because I got to be by myself and reflect on not only South Africa, but the entire past month on this amazing, inspiring, and life-changing continent that is so vastly misunderstood, portrayed incorrectly, and wonderfully complex that I can’t imagine not returning.


And that, my friends, was Cape Town, South Africa, in the best possible way I could describe. I have so much more to say about it, and just Africa in general, but it’s 1 in the morning and I’m exhaused. Goodnight, Moon.