Cape Town: Part Two
Robben Island has a rich history that I was not aware of. It has been used since the early Dutch explorers came to Cape Town. Then, it was used as a leper colony from the mid-1800s until the 1930s. During World War II it was used (even though the guns were never fired) as a military post in case Cape Town needed to be defended. Then, from 1961 to 1991 it was used as a prison for anti-apartheid political figures –the most famous of whom is Nelson Mandela. Over three thousand political prisoners were held there.
You have to take a ferry out to the island, which is a pretty good ways away from the shore (Wikipedia says 7 km), so they play a little introductory video while you’re riding on this two-decker boat. (The upstairs is outside.) The waves got pretty choppy and I know some people got sick on the way back, but I’m an old pro at the seasickness thing now. Psssht, a 20-minute ferry ride...ooo, I’m scared. Haha. Anyway, you get off the ferry and you can see the entrance to the prison, as well as a bunch of buses parked nearby that will take you on a tour of the entire island. Well, even though we were still on a SAS trip me, my friend Emily and a few other SASers clamored onto a bus to make sure we didn’t miss it. Here, it turns out that we weren’t supposed to get on that bus. I tried to get off with Emily, but it was kind of crowded and we had to sit back down. So, we figured this had to work out OK, we just knew we couldn’t miss the ferry at 6 p.m. Haha. I believe the tour ended up being the same. There’s a memorial to an imam that died on the island, a lighthouse and a few churches. One of the churches, the Anglican church, has been there since the days of the leper colony –it was the only building used by the lepers that was not torn down because technically it was owned privately rather than by the government.
The maximum security prison, where Mandela was held, was built in 1959. We went inside and toured the place with a former political prison. He showed us the B section, where Mandela’s cell is. You can tell which one is his because they have a few things like a bed roll and a bucket set up in what was his cell. (I don't think those things are authentic, but it's better than taking a picture of an empty cell, I guess.) I got a picture taken of me near it, but it is rather unremarkable to look at. The fact he lived there for so long -- 18 years -- just amazes me. These were individual cells, but our guide took us to another section of the jail where they had bigger communal rooms. Our guide showed us the separation between the races, even down to the menu, but he said that the prisoners themselves gathered up everything from the store with the weekly ration of money they received and divided that among everyone equally.
There are a few of the leper graves left on the island, compared to the actual number that were actually buried there. A small town has also sprung up for people living on the island who now give tours and all that, which was originally built for those tending to the lepers and the prison guards. There’s even a school that about 20 kids attend. A surprisingly large number of animals live on the island as well, including a large amount of birds, penguins (that I got to see for a little bit!), ostriches (I saw one of those too!) and rabbits (which were introduced as a food source by the Dutch). A light house was built after 11 shipwrecks because of the rough waters near the island, but after it was built there were like 18 more...not the best feat of engineering, I guess.
The political prisoners were released in 1980, but Nelson Mandela stayed until 1984 when he was transferred to another prison until his release in 1990. He was then made president of South Africa after the end of the apartheid regime in 1994. The island was used as a criminal prison until 1996 and after that was used, as it is now, as a museum to commemorate the cultural significance of apartheid -- and it's a World Heritage site.
It’s such a tribute to the social significance that comes from this terrible era of racial segregation in South Africa. The trouble is it seems like after Nelson Mandela was no longer president, the country has been sunk into corruption and perceived loyalty with its current administration, headed by Thabo Mbecki. The country is set to elect a new president in April, but it seems like many people are still divided by racial party lines –however, much of the information I learned while there was about South Africa’s history and now I am interested in its current events –which I think is one of the main benefits of this entire voyage. I now have a personal connection to South Africa that won't leave me anytime soon.
That night, I found a group of people to go out to dinner with. We actually went to Long Street, the party street in Cape Town, kind of like E. Carson St. in Pittsburgh or Bourbon St. in New Orleans or South St. in Philly (if that’s a party street –I was there during the day). Anyhow, instead of traditional African food, which is kind of what I wanted to get (and because the wait for the African restaurant was really long), we went and ate sushi instead. It was really good because I was really hungry. Then we decided to try and go to a few of the bars on Long St. one of my friends, Jane, was given a suggestion the night before and walked a block or so to the Waiting Room. It’s kind of cool and indie-feeling, since there really was no sign for the place except on the back of the entrance door. The bar was upstairs, so there’s literally like a small stairwell with those collapsible stairs up to the bar. It was so cool! The DJ was really good (and reminded me of someone from school, actually) and they had lots of comfortable couches to sit around and talk, a balcony across the front with small tables, then if you went up some more stairs there was another sitting area, then, up the final set of stairs was the rooftop! It had a really good vibe, but for some reason, the group I was with didn’t just want to sit and chat and drink, they wanted to barhop, so we tried two more places –one was a pool hall called “Stones”which had really loud music, but not that many people. The rest of the group played pool while I watched because I didn’t want to embarrass myself. Then we went to another bar with lots of people dancing and just danced along for a little while. Finally, we actually went back to the Waiting Room, but again only stayed there about 45 minutes, which was sad. I could’ve spent the whole night there. The bar was so cool that I wished it was in Pittsburgh so that all my friends could hang out there. Then we took a taxi back to the ship. It was a fun night.
The next morning I made arrangements to eat breakfast with a girl named Emily that was on my Robben Island trip the day before. We had some time in the morning and decided to go to Table Mountain together. Lots of people actually hiked up the mountain, but there is also a cable car that runs up the side of it that only takes about 5 minutes, instead of hiking for an hour and a half, so I was game for the cable car. Haha. It was actually really clear Friday, which I was kind of surprised about –all the other days had been kind of cloudy and when clouds cover the top of the mountain they call it the “tablecloth.”Clever, eh? So, when you’re on top of the mountain, which is oddly flat and square, you can see a pretty good view of all of the surroundings, including downtown Cape Town. It’s pretty strange to see the huge mountain in the background of this thriving city. It was beautiful!! (You’re just gonna have to wait for all the pretty pictures). We also saw some lizards and these cute little mountain rodents called Dassies, which are somehow the closet relative of the elephant…don’t ask me how. They’re these cute little beaver-looking animals that are apparently very well adapted to the mountain climbing and everything –we saw some hanging out on some rock outcroppings on the side of the mountain. (There were really cute stuffed dassies in the gift shop –I stopped myself before I bought one. As we were getting off the cable car at about 11 o’clock, we realized that there was a huge line of people waiting to get tickets for the cable car and we were thankful that we had made the decision to come as early as we did. We then took a van taxi down from the mountain. It was a nice beautiful day, weather-wise and we met two girl from England and a couple on their honeymoon, so that was fun.
We ate lunch together at a little bay side restaurant there in the waterfront and I left my souvenirs with Emily so that I could meet for my next SAS trip, which was actually going back to the township we were in the day before.
Even though I was in the same township again, I still went on the trip because I knew we might have some more time there and it would be a different experience. First, we went to another crafts center, similar to the first one, but a little bit smaller. I bought a beaded pin with an AIDS ribbon and South African flag and promptly attached to my bag. They had some really cool jewelry that I was going to pick up for Amy, but I didn’t have enough cash on me. Anyway, then we were allowed to go across the street to the school/church where the kids had finished for the day and were waiting to be picked up, mostly by their older siblings. I sat down with two other girls who were on a blanket on the floor interacting with four little kids –three boys and one girl. One of the other girls had given out some stickers and the little girl was having fun sticking it in different places. Then, we tried to clap hands with them and play some games that didn’t really involve rhymes or anything –which was tough, because not only did they not speak English, they also were young kids who were kind of shy to boot. But, we did manage just to play paddy cake with the little girl using the number one to ten. It was really cute. One of the little boys had a Spiderman book bag and we were playing with him. The church was an Anglican church, St. Michael's Church &All Angels School. There was an almost life-size Jesus hanging on the wall behind the modest altar and –he was black! It was awesome. There was also a banner on the wall about AIDS that said “If you’re not infected, you’re definitely affected”which I thought was very eye-opening.
Then we visited another bed and breakfast –Kopanong B&B –run by a woman named Thope. She introduced herself and told us a little bit about the business that she had started. She actually had received a fellowship with Pitt!! She studied business there then came back and started the bed and breakfast and is also working on other projects with other members of community to start a “green”taxi service with cars that run on natural gas. She mentioned that her philosophy was getting everyone involved and giving them a “slice,"or an opportunity, for themselves. I told her I was from Pittsburgh and got a picture with her afterward –it was crazy! Someone with a connection to Pittsburgh halfway around the world!
After we made our way back to the ship, I had to go right away with another group that was taking a taxi to the Newlands Stadium for the RUGBY GAME! It was pretty cool –there were a ton of people there. Our seats weren’t that great –I was up in the very top few rows of the first tier, so I was under the shadow of the second tier and it was a little darker and hotter there than it was down closer to the field, but it was still really cool. The people around me weren’t quite as rowdy as I’d have liked them to be, but I cheered on the Stormers as much as I could. Rugby’s such a hard game to watch in a stadium, because no sooner are you settled in your seats when the game starts, then it’s halftime. The game goes so fast –it started at 7:10 p.m. and was over by 9 p.m. But lots of people had their flags waving when the team scored and speakers played a little bit of music during a few dull points and every once and a while it would start the familiar, “Clap, clap, clapclap, clap, Let’s go Stormers, clap, clap, clapclap, clap”or “Stooooorrrr-merssss”it was great. The Stormers, which are the team that represents Cape Town in the “Super 14”league, played the Reds from Queensland, Australia. And the Stormers ended up winning! The score was 27-24. It was a great time. I got a big free cardboard sign with a newspaper page on it that has some of the players and says “I Am A Stormer”in Afrikaans.
I caught a taxi with some other people and met up with a few people at a bar in the bay. It was really nice. We sat outside and talked for a little bit and I still hadn’t eaten dinner, so I ordered some food. I had intended to use the internet because the place had free wi-fi, but was informed that it’s shut off after 10 p.m. The food was good, I guess, so it didn’t matter. On to Saturday - perhaps in the next part –this one’s getting kind of long.
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