Anyway, I am currently in Windhoek, Namibia about to leave to Swakopmund which lies on the west coast of the country. While I already have quite a bit to write about Namibia, I gots to get back the my South Afrikan experience, and pay homage to the amazing city!
I landed in Capetown in the wee hours of the morning after quite a tiring, obnoxious flight. The pretty german airline checkin lady decided to give me a window seat in a 777 that was almost completey empty. The 5-seat wide mid-section had only 1-person per row from the front of the airplane to the back, which was quickly filled by each person assuming a lateral lounge. I was on the other hand constrained to the 2 seat-wide aisle section, with two german fruits behind me constantly flashing photos and giggling like little school girls. Literally, non-stop. Next to me, spread out in multiple rows in the mid-section, was a group of about 6 whale-sized german Fraus who were going on safari and wouldn't shut the hell up. Two of them occupied the whole row, but were too fat to lie down, so i had to sit there staring at the wasted, unattainable comfort only a few feet away for a solid 10 hours. I joked to myself that I had seen afrika's big five before even landing. Whatever.
Upon landing I was transported to my hostel, CapeTown Backpackers. For the first few weeks of my trip I plan to stay at hostels, and not use my tent. I got there way before checkin time and shot the shit with one of the workers, Manix, who's a 6 foot 6 Congolese emigrant with a speech impediment, who also happens to be built like a basketball star. More about him later. Anyway, that morning I passed out on the couch waiting for checkin time and once that happened I slept another 3 hours. Upon waking, I forgot I was hungry and instead of eating proceded to climb Plattecap Gorge (about 1.5 hours) to the top which gave an amazing view of the city and Camp's Bay behind. I met some canadians and a swede and hung out with them for a bit on top. It was getting dark and we decided to go down, and while the lazy Canucks opted for the cable car, Ullrich the Swede and I decided not to cheat and climb down instead. As most people know though, the sun at extreme latitudes seems not to just set, but to fall instead. To make a long story short, we were caught on the side of the mountain after dark and had to use the moonlight as a guide down. We missed three turns, and somehow managed to transform a 40 min descent into a 1.5 hr one. Fortunately, the wicked nice neighbors to the north had a car and were actually waiting for us two sweaty fools at the bottom (the were already good friends with Ullrich). I was supposed to meet them later that night at a different hostel but that fell through, and my potential ride to Namibia disappeared with it.
The next day I toured Robben Island, the nefarious African equivalent to Alcatraz. That was super interesting and I got to see the cell of Nelson Mandela and other political prisoners that were kept on bogus charges. The cool part of the prison tour was that it was conducted by a former political prisoner, so I was able to ask questions about communication with the outside world and all that kind of stuff. Apparently they used a code that was implemented in the classified section of the newspapers, along with a network of Duth Reformist ministers, lawyers, chefs to communicate among one another. It was alsio interesting to learn the techniques the guards would use to cause rifts among the different imprisoned factions. For instance, one group was allowed larger rations than another. The prisoners got around this by creating a pooling system where they would all contribute to a general collection of food and receive the same amount. The realized the importance of sticking together, even though many of them belonged to political organizations with different interests. For any of you that aren't too familiar with SA history, I recommend a short WIKI-read. I am usually not too ignorant about such historical happenings, but there was too much I didn't know with no justification! I mean, the apartheid was going strong until as recently as 94'! Craziness!
In terms of the apartheid legacy, the societal divisions are still painfully obvious in Cape Town, though beggars are not too aggressive. It only takes one stop to the District Six museum to understand the gravity of the situation people have had to work with, or better yet a visit to the actual 'projects' known as Langa and Gugulettu (spelling may be off).
I was fortunate enough to meet with the director of LEAP, a Science and Maths technical school which opened its first school in Cape Town in 2004. Hugely successful and riding a wave of growing popularity, it has expanded to include 3 schools, one which recently opened in Jo'berg. Anyway, John Gilmour, the director picked me up and 2 other ladies from some Cali School who are sending a bunch students to volunteer for 2 months at the school. I was totally impressed with John and his vision of LEAP as an intervention school designed to instill not only knowledge, but CONFIDENCE, in the students. He stressed the importance of baby steps and the dangers of possessing any too-lofty goals, which too many come in to Afrika with and get burned. We hooked up with one of the school's reps (Boneselli aka Bones) and walked thru the ghettos with some students. The Langa ghettos are only across the street from the much nicer, predominately white middle-class neighborhood of pinelands, but the psychological divide is much greater. Plus there are fences that surround both communities, so it takes 10 minutes to exit from one and enter another, which physically lies across the street! We walked and met the locals which seemed not to mind our presence. I got to hang out with some kids and students and generally had a really good time. Later that night, aftert John left, Bones, Nick, and I headed to the burb of Gugulettu for a traditional BBQ and block party. This was the typical scene that you might imagine street life in Afrika to be like. Tons of activity, loud music, crazy dancing, loud beats, people smoking, no traffic patters, and lots and lots of africans! Lots of people eating and drinking too. The experience was amazing and I have a couple phots that I will uplioad later.
The next day, Nick the volunteer, picked me up and we went to LEAP to see an actual school day. I got to meet more students and listen to the choir sing. I sat in to watch 2 math courses taught, pre-calc and trig, and was again impressed by the teachers' enthusiasm and commitment to the students. The students responded in an equally dedicated manner, and treated the teachers with mucho respect. What a sight! It got me excited about the prospect of teaching, watching this all happen. At the end, I even helped lead the sports class where I oversaw all the girls playing basketball. The girls went all out and it was really fun to watch them. Unlike the little prissy princesses that are all too common in america, the girls ran hard, played physical, and really egged eachother on! I feel like to them a substitute teacher is totally common since they didn't treat me any way different from any of the other teachers. I can't stress how amazing it is to see these kids, who grew up and still live in the complete ghetto, possess such ambition and completely open minds with no negative attitude toward anything.
That night I hung with Nick, Chinuwa, and Max and we hiked up Lion's head peak. We tried taking a hard shortcut and after climbing some interesting faces it started to get dark and we lost our way! This time, I made it down from the bad stuff before the sun was completely down. We then found a nice little nook where we set up shop and chilled watching the sun set and the full moon rise; a tradition shared by many Cape Town citizens. Twas cooooool.
Next day, got on a bus, and drove 20 hrs to Windhoek, Namibia. I had good company and many pretty ladies on board. I am now in swapokmund, the extreme sports capital, and enjoying it! Sandboarding already, and possibly some skydiving over the desert tomorrow? 230 bucks tho! I'll write more on Namibia next entry.
I apologize for the spelling mistakes and bad grammar. I don't have much time to think since internect cafes here are not cheap.
Lastly, just to give u a taste of what I do come across, I got this link from Alex who found it one of my favorite spots, reuters ODDLY ENOUGH! http://www.reuters.com/article
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