We started the day off at the University of Cape Town (UCT) for a orientation/introduction/contextual seminar with SHAWCO, the organization that is organizing our trip. It was a great start to the day, and was actually very informative. Jacky was in charge of our contextual seminar, and what she was saying made a lot of sense to me. She threw in questions that we should be asking ourselves these days, questions such as "how are you going to adapt and contribute to an ever increasingly globalizing world?". She also said some other things that really stood out to me:
1) "The only source of knowledge is experience"
2) "We're [South Africa] are only 20 years into our new found democracy. We're still a baby. But all the issues we chose to ignore back then are boiling to the surface now. And it's up to your generation to deal with them"
3) "How do you reshape the world? Former major structures such as Capitalism and Communism have collapsed. Democracy could soon follow. Oh, what a joy to be able to reshape the world to fix all the inequalities. Communities are no longer based on living experiences and location, but rather on interests and common themes in a globalizing world. It's everyone's responsibility."
4) "Democracy was gained through active citizenship"
5) "Our Constitution, regarded as one of the best for the promotion of human rights, focuses on equality and not equity"
6) "This Rainbow Nation is the Sweetheart Nation to the Western World"
Makes you think about things in a more world-view, huh?
Oh, also finally figured out my service placement. 5 (including me) of us are working with Athlone Advice Offices, an Non-profit organisation (NPO) that provides free legal advice and assistance to the poor, disadvantaged and marginalized groups in the community. I'm not 100% sure of what it all entitles, but it sounds like a helluva time.
We made our way around noon to Langa Township. What I wrote about previously turned out to just be the worst part of the township, which you would call a shanty town. But more on that in a minute.
We started going down Harlem (or Haarlem in Afrikaans), Street and to be completely honest, the houses were (for the most part) not that bad. But, this Township was built (created?) during Apartheid, so it's taken a generation or two to "better it up". We learned about Project Playground and the growing arts movement in the Township, as well as experienced native foods, music, and living conditions.
Don't get me wrong, some of these houses were not in the best condition. But for the most part, it wasn't as bad as I expected. Maybe that's my American Materialistic thinking coming out, but these people were happy.
The highlight of the day was, by far, playing with the kids on the tour. We were just walking and all of a sudden, a herd of children appeared and started climbing on us, holding our hands, talking to us. It was such a fun time, and they just came and went throughout the tour.
Through the course of the tour we had two "African Foods"-Sheep Head and Magwenya. Magwenya is Xhosa (pronounced Kosa. It's the language with the clicking.) for "fat cakes". It's a deep fried dough ball that we filled with ham and cheese. It was delicious. And sheep head, well....you have to try it.
We ended the tour at Mzansi Restaurant. Mzansi is Xhosa for "South". It was really good food and there were a couple musicians playing drums and marimba while we ate. We even learned one of the dances and got to play the instruments, so all in all, it was a great time.
So, for the whole two days I've been here, I have been staring at Table Mountain/Devil's Peak, and all I want to do is climb the damn thing. Of course, we've been busy and it is probably a really bad idea to do in the dark. So Nick, En'Ante, and Myself decided to take a walk up towards it, so when we would have a chance to actually climb it, we'd know where we were going. Well, we didn't get to the base, but we found UCT Upper Campus, so that's a plus.
We did, however stop behind this bus stop up by the UCT Upper Campus Sports Centre. There was a little pond that was surrounded by trees to our left (There might have been baboons in there. Or really loud birds. We're not sure). To our right, the view was b-e-a-utiful. Below us, in the opening of the trees, was the city illuminated by the night lights, backed by a mountain.
And I thought Northern Ireland had great scenery.....
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| Magwenya |
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| Silo! |
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| Apartheid Era Street Lights |
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| Where the Sheep Head was cooked |
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| #BWDM |
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