Our guest house was in the "city bowl," which is the area in between the giant and majestic Table Mountain, and the ocean. We were about two blocks away from Long Street, the main drag with tons of restaurants, bars, and backpacker's lodges. For the course of the week, we toured with the program most days, but we were also given ample time to explore on our own and slowly adjust to a different pace of life, a pace more similar to our cities back home in the states.
A few highlights of the week included: visiting Robben Island, which is where political prisoners such as Nelson Mandela were housed during apartheid, a trip to Cape Point to see the farthest most south-west tip of the African continent and where the Atlantic and Indian oceans converge, wine-tasting in the fertile Cape winelands, and a brief visit to a penguin colony.
Another fascinating aspect of the week was learning about the "Cape Coloured" identity. When the area was just a colony, the Dutch East India company imported slave labor from the West and East coasts of Africa, as well as Madagascar, India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and other South East Asian countries. After generations of intermarriage and intercultural blending, the result is the "coloured population." During apartheid, they were given slightly more preferential treatment than the black population, but were second class citizens to whites. In the 1970s, the apartheid government razed the neighborhood of "District 6," which was home to working class coloured people, because it was located in the desirable real estate of the city bowl. They moved the displaced population to an area called Manenberg, which was little more than a swamp land on the other side of Table Mountain. The effects of this move caused strain on families. Parents had a longer commute into the city for work and could not keep as close an eye on their children, and children had no safe places to hang out and play and began creating gangs and turning to drugs. We visited an organization that is working to reverse some of the problems facing the community by improving youth employment. While this provides hope for the future, the fact remains that people are still living in squalid conditions and unsafe neighborhoods, and that the poorest demographics are still largely separated by race, despite the end of legal sanctions enforcing racial segregation.
A fun discovery for me was the Eastern Food Bazaar, located on a side ally near Long Street. Essentially, it is a large food court specializing in Middle Eastern and Indian cuisine at rock bottom prices. You order at a central cashier stand, and then wait at the various counters for your food to be prepared. I particularly enjoyed masala dosas, which had been recommended to me by a friend, as well as a medley of curries. Mango lhassies and masala tea were a perfect way to cool down my mouth in between spicy bites. Needless to say, I think I visited this place at least three times during my week in Cape Town.
Overall, Cape Town was an interesting change from our lifestyle in Namibia. Lush parks, a beautiful harbor, fancy restaurants, and an abundance of white people, made us feel like we were perhaps in Montreal or Vancouver, BC. It was also a strange time of feeling as if we were in limbo. We had already had an emotional goodbye to Namibia, and we were carting around all of our possessions and living out of our suitcases. It definitely felt like a time of transition.
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| Table Mountain from the Waterfront |
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| Friends at Cape Point |
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| The Point itself |
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| Penguins! |
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| The colorful Bo-Kaap neighborhood |
