Cape Town

The past four days in Cape Town have been amazing. The first day, I went on the City Orientation. That evening, I went out to eat at a cool Greek Seafood restaurant with a group of friends. 

Me with a random horse in Cape Town Castle on Wednesday.

Thursday was an awesome day. My friend Brian and I decided we wanted to go climbing in Cape Town. So, we emailed climbing companies and we hired a guide for the day. Our guide, Anthony, picked us up at 7:30 and we spent the whole day, till 3:30 with him. He drove us around Cape Town for a few hours while we waited for the weather to clear up, and the we headed over to Table Mountain, which overlooks Cape Town. We hiked up for about an hour and then started climbing when we reached the crag. We climbed three pitches, with Anthony lead climbing, and then Brian and me cleaning the gear off the rock. When we got to the top, we rappelled off the cliffs. That was the scariest part, as I had never belayed myself off a cliff like that. We had lunch there, up on table mountain and then hiked the rest of the way down. It was just so cool to do something like that. One of my favorite parts of the day was just getting to talk to Anthony and get a South African’s perspective on everything- the upcoming elections, apartheid, sports… you can learn a lot about a country by talking to the locals.

Climbing

Me, Brian, and Anthony, all finished climbing.

 

Yesterday I saw another side of South Africa. I spent the day on a field trip run through Semester at Sea. We first visited the headquarters of the Amy Biehl Foundation, which Amy’s parents started after Amy was murdered in 1993 in the townships of Cape Town. Amy was here as a Fulbright Scholar, working to end Apartheid. The Foundation runs literacy and after school programs in the townships in an effort to improve the lives of the black children living in the townships. Note: one interesting thing about South Africa is that everyone is identified and referred to by their skin color, all the time. People are either black (African), Colored (of mixed Indian/African descent- lighter brown skin) or white.

Anyways, after our visit to the foundation headquarters, we visited several schools in the townships. The poverty was shocking- families live in shacks smaller than horse stalls. But, I loved meeting the kids. They were so friendly and happy. The children at the second school sang, danced, and played drums and xylophones for us. They had such joy for having so few worldly resources. Being in the townships really stuck with me though, as their lives don’t connect at all with our privileged lives in the States. We ate an African lunch at this lady’s house. She has a restaurant in her house, and she cooked for us herself.

At the middle school we visited- all the kids in South Africa wear uniforms to school.

Later that evening, I went to a professional rugby game with a group of friends. It was the Vodacom Stormers (South Africa) verse the Reds (Australia). The Stormers won. I liked watching Rugby but thought it was super rough.

Today was a contrast with yesterday. I did the SAS trip “Cycling in the Winelands” in the Stellenboch wine region.  We mountain biked all morning through mountains and vineyards. The mountains looked like the mountains in The Lord of the Rings movies. We then had lunch and did wine tastings at two different wineries. I tried 13 different wines. My favorite was probably a Rose’. The area with the vineyards was beautiful. The students from California said it looks like the Napa wine region there.

And now, I am using the wireless internet in the mall near my ship. I am sitting with my friend Amanda, who is in my small group Bible study. I have been praying for a Christian friend, and so I am glad I am getting to hang out with Amanda. In just a minute we are going to get hot chocolate at this place, Melissa’s, I went to yesterday. It was so good- they smear the inside of the mugs with Nutella before pouring the hot chocolate. Try that at home!