The past week has been a combination of tedious orientation and incredible views, sights and experiences here in Cape Town. We all awoke Monday morning to a full day of orientation. Before we were set free to do what we will with our time in South Africa, there were a series of orientation lectures we needed to hear, regarding safety, culture, how to's and practical tips. We journeyed from Upper Liesbeek Road, where our apartments are to the University. UCT is situated on a hill that leads up to Devil's peak. Our orientations Monday included campus tours and tours of humanities and commerce buildings. While it was not the most enjoyable, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were used to setup bank accounts, cell phones, apartments and make sure we had all the tools we needed to be acclimated in South Africa. The image below, while beautiful, does not even begin to do justice to how gorgeous the campus is.
The picture of UCT upper-campus is taken from the center of the Rugby field. It was not by accident the Rugby field was placed in the center of campus, Rugby is UCT's best and most popular sport.
While our days were full of instruction and hand holding, at night, we were free to journey wherever we pleased. A group of boys who i've become friends with from The Citadel in South Carolina wasted no time in becoming acquainted with the bar and club scene around UCT campus and Cape Town. Pig and Swizzle is among the most popular bars for watching Football and Cricket right in Rondebosch. We became acclimated with many local South Africans at the bars and despite the fact that most UCT students are not back to school yet, a few UCT locals were there to introduce us to UCT.
Thursday was the first day we were able to begin adventuring to destinations that interested us. We spent our morning going to a township on the outskirts of Cape Town. Township is the equivalent term of a ghetto in South Africa. We were surrounded by overwhelming poverty, generations of families stuck in a poverty trap. There was significant animosity among the locals about the South African government. While the South African government is often viewed as a beacon of freedom in the international media, there remains significant corruption within the government and there is belief that while the country is eighteen years removed from racial apartheid, there is still socioeconomic apartheid that cripples much of the population. South Africa has an incredibly polarized population from the super rich to the super poor, and little existence of a middle class. My studies at UCT will focus on the history of South Africa as well as the South African Government system pre- and post-apartheid. The experience we had in Langa, the township we visited, was eye opening to see a first hand example of where the system isn't working.
Robben Island Entrance
After a morning of playing with children and seeing what like in a township is like, we traveled to a more touristy and European area of Cape Town, the waterfront. We enjoyed a delicious lunch at the waterfront, and had time to tour around the shops and area in the beautiful setting. Here we saw the polar opposite of the poverty we experienced in the morning. Gucci, Louis Vutton, and many other famous designers have huge stores catering to the wealthy Europeans who frequent this area of the city. It was amazing to see the discrepancy in lifestyle in just a 15 minute drive. After our lunch we hopped aboard a Ferry to Robben Island. Robben Island was the former prison for political prisoners that is situation about 7km off of the coast of Cape Town. Robben Island is best known for being the place where Nelson Mandela was held for eighteen years of his twenty-seven years in prison after being arrested in 1962 and sentenced to life as a political prisoner. We learned about his history as a fighter
for the Umkhonto we Sizwe, which is the armed wing of the African National Congress. Our tour guide was a former inmate who was a follower of Mandela and the rebellion of the African National Congress against apartheid. The bleak prison walls and cell where Mandela was held was another incredible reminder of all that Nelson Mandela and thousands and thousands of others were willing to sacrifice their lives for. The free South Africa I am experiencing today is far different than the South Africa of just twenty years ago, but as I saw in the morning, there is far more progress that the nation needs to address in terms of inequality.
Thursday was a day where we could do whatever we wished. I went with a few friends, including Laura Belair who attended high school with me, to a beautiful suburb called Camp's Bay to spend a day at the beach and rest from the orientations we had been subjected to over the previous days. Camp's Bay is one of the rare places in the world where oceans and mountains meet. Perhaps the most beautiful place I have seen in South Africa, or the world, thus far, Camp's Bay is an expensive posh town that features many bars, clubs and restaurants.
The sun was incredibly hot, and the water is shockingly cold. A nice contrast that allows you to remain on the beach all day, although the water is so cold that it is almost unbearable to spend more than 3 or 4 minutes in at a time. We had a nice lunch and enjoyed some relaxation and sunlight. Camp's Bay is a place I'm sure we will see a lot of, especially when my Grandmother Sally, and brother and sister come to visit at the end of February. My Grandmother Sally is already known through word of mouth by many of my friends here as I have warned them that I have a grandmother who is impossible to give justice to through description. Many were shocked that my grandmother would be able/willing to make such a journey, to which I responded you clearly don't know my grandmother. I look forward to showing her around Cape Town, especially because despite her many filled passports has never stepped foot on the continent of Africa. To give you an idea of what Camp's Bay looks like, you can see in the panorama I took above theres no direction you can look and not have a view.
