South Africa - A Magical Complicated Country

The lucky Orris clan returned to picturesque Cape Town, South Africa. Our second visit allowed us to dig deeper and discover a layer of South Africa that we didn’t see in 2009.   We added to our knowledge of South Africa’s history through our classes on the ship and our inter-port lectures, Bob and Alice Evans.  Desmond Tutu was supposed to have joined us on our voyage between Ghana and South Africa, but had to postpone the trip so he could receive some international prize.  The nerve of him! 

 

During our visit we tried to better understand apartheid and South Africa’s progress (or lack thereof) since apartheid’s repeal in 1994.  We struggled to understand how the South Africans could live so peacefully now with so much past oppression and so much current inequality.  If you want to learn more about apartheid and the current situation, you can read our essays in the next post. 

The highlight of our visit to Cape Town was our homestay in Langa Township. The townships are black and colored cities that were created by the Apartheid government to control the population and separate the white population from others.  Langa is the oldest township in Cape Town and has only 50,000 people.  The largest townships in South Africa have more than one million people.

We were apprehensive about staying overnight in the township and did not know what to expect.  Our fears faded quickly when we met our housemother, Mama Rachel and her granddaughter and great grandson.  They had a clean and spacious home and made us feel immediately welcome. 

The township had a huge disparity in income levels with expensive homes right across the street from shanty homes.  We spent the afternoon at Happy Feet, an inspirational afterschool dance project that kept kids off the street.  Read our stories and poems to better understand what we felt and experienced in the township. 

Another highlight in Cape Town was our connection with a group of Aspen Institute Fellows who just happened to be in Cape Town for their global seminar.  We joined old friends and some inspiring new fellows for dinner followed by a discussion on the future of South Africa.  Fellows from South Africa, Egypt and Nicaragua shared their personal experiences and enlightened us on the struggles that exist across the globe.    Our cheetah and bird rescue field trip that day ended with wine tasting that happened to be at the same hotel where the Fellows were staying!

  

In addition to these life-changing experiences, we did some more touristy things in Cape Town too.  We went to Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was held for the majority of his 27 years of prison.  And we followed that with a full day trip with an insightful taxi driver who took us to see penguins and the picturesque Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point, the southernmost places in Africa.  We packed a lot into our 5 days.