Thursday, September 6, 2007

Cape Town #2



Billy says:

It was a really nutty flight down to Cape Town from Johannesburg - in cramped seats and full of silly, silly antics between libby and I:


but it was such a good idea to return to Cape Town and spend another chunk of days there. It really helped us both feel grounded in the place, and to enjoy it without (as much) of the crazy white paranoia that we had inherited from white Americans and South Africans upon arrival to Africa. A month in the area had helped us shed some of our unnecessary fear and stiffness.

We attended an AIDS protest put on by the Treatment Action Campaign that was totally uplifting. Lately it has felt like protests are more often depressing or repressing, but this one had a totally different feel. The crowd sang together with a mix of fury and joy that I don't know I've ever seen; it nearly brought me to tears.


The march was delightful, the way that I always hope they'll be. We poured through the streets, running along, singing, screaming, pushing forward. It didn't feel like a stale routine; it felt like a legitimate expression of people who are fed up with horrible conditions in their society and trying to force a new situation. And it is so beautiful to see that the poor people in South Africa are really at the forefront of solving the overwhelming AIDS crisis there.


It was also fabulous to connect more deeply with our friends - particularly Maya and Londi.

Londi, our main host from the first visit, once again generously offered us her space for a bunch of days. It was the perfect location - an easy walk to the train, minibus to UWC, and cheap veggie roti (as big as yer forearm, by the way). Londi is really cool, very giving, and interested in talking and laughing and sharing a good time. She is the child of a Black South African man and an English woman. Her family had to live in England during apartheid because they were officially a "tri-racial" family, and thus not legally allowed to live anywhere. But she has taken on South Africa with excitement, and it clearly suits her as home.

This time around, Maya also hosted us for a couple of days, and we attended some of her classes at UCT, she took us to some cool spots in Observatory, (to get a better sense of where we were staying, and sites nearby, etc. check this map) and even came out to see the UWC campus one day. With family members having worked with the South African Communist Party, it's no surprise that Maya is thoughtful and concerned with politics and economic issues. What's unusual is that she is so well carving out an independent viewpoint, a life outside of both the 'white' and 'communist' moulds that might have forced themselves on her.


It was good to be on the campus of UCT, and to get a sense of just how regal of a place it really is - in comparison to UWC and mostly anywhere else:


They have a lot of resources, and a beautiful campus, and a whole infrastructure to support Americans coming in to study, but I didn't, overall, feel like I would really enjoy UCT more than UWC. UCT is much more of a European oriented school, both in composition and curriculum, and you can feel it as soon as you step foot on campus. Just on the margins of campus is a huge memorial to Cecil John Rhodes:


We had fun with it...

and there's a great view from the memorial...

But Cecil Rhodes is a bastard.

Exhibit A:

“We must find new lands from which we can easily obtain raw materials and at the same time exploit the cheap slave labor that is available from the natives of the colonies. The colonies would also provide a dumping ground for the surplus goods produced in our factories.”

Exhibit B:

“Remember that you are an Englishman, and have consequently won first prize in the lottery of life”

Should I go on? Alright, one more should suffice.

Exhibit C:

"I contend that we are the first race in the world,
and that the more of the world we inhabit
the better it is for the human race"

I'll go with the "University of the Working Class" any day.

***

Libby and I also spent a good deal of time finding fun ways to wander about the city. We walked to De Waal park, in the ritzy Gardens neighborhood:


We took the train down to simon town (about an hour southeast of cape town, along the indian ocean coast).

There we had awesome tea and cake at a Tibetan cafe, and spent a whole lot of time with the Penguins.






On our last day in Cape Town (and in Africa) we decided to drive out towards the wine region around Stellenbosch with our friends Londi and Eric - about 30km outside of Cape Town - and just relax in the mountains and valleys there. We tried for a while to find a friend of Eric's house and have a picnic with him, but we had a hell of a time finding it, so we ended up just pulling off the road and having our picnic in the grass near a vineyard. It was quite a beautiful place to be lost, and we had a blast:


i buried a penny in the sand, near simon town, and made a wish...

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