Day 11
December 11, 2008
Today is an exciting day. Well, everyday has been exciting, but today Rey has booked a tour for us to see a township. A township is pretty much the barios of South Africa. The scene is broken down shacks with corrugated iron roofs, trash scattered, and dirt roads. I really don't know what to expect. All I know is what I have seen, I am a bit nervous and scared. Yet, after the scorpion, I am bit more brave. The tour guide, Lisa, comes to pick us up. As we wait outside, the wind is really pounding hard on us. All three of us end up putting on our jackets, that we had just in case packed for later. The wind also reassures us that today would not have been a good day to climb Table Mountain. Lisa is a cute and bubbly tour guide. As she drives us to the District 6 Museum, she gives us bits and pieces of historical facts about Cape Town and South Africa. Also, on our way to the museum, she drives us through Cape Malays, which is very colorful neighborhood. The houses are in vibrant colors and each a different color. By the time we get to the District 6 Museum, she has given us enough background knowledge to understand what we are about to see in the museum. The museum has posters and many actual photographs. These photographs show the painful times of having to have identification for the ethnic group you were part of, the evacuation, and the demolition. We spend an hour walking around looking and reading the captions off of black and white photographs. It definitely makes you think.
The next stop on our tour was the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden. It is beautiful. Rey, Roger and I walked around admiring the amazing flowers, trees, and mountain views. Roger, our professional photographer, went to town and was taking some amazing shots. He went beyond the beautiful flowers and landscapes. He could see beauty within the shadows, sunlight, and all different colors. I won't explain anymore, you can see for yourself. ( i know, i know, add the pictures, be happy i was able to figure out the blogging!) As we were amazed by Mother Nature, the gardens had beautiful, long, green lawns that were definitely inviting for a tired traveler. Rey and Roger sat on a bench and were my guards as I laid my jacket down and took a quick power nap. As I laid down and watched the clouds flow by, I felt nothing, which was amazing. My mind was blank and I was free and on a "holiday"! I took a deep breath and slept. Rey was my alarm clock and said it was time to meet Lisa. Roger, my wingman in the snoring department said that they were able to sell several tickets to watch the amazing snorer. We walk down and meet Lisa, who takes our picture of the entrance and Table Mountain behind us. We are now off to Kayamandi, a township.
The drive is about 45 minutes away. Of course, I fell asleep. I tried to be part of the conversation, but the sandman had my hand and was leading me off and away. When I was woken up by the bumpy terrain, the view is of run down shacks close together, debris, and I even see some chickens walking around. The road is no longer paved and we are driving along a dirt road. Lisa has set it up that one of the women in the township is preparing us lunch in her home. Her name is Mama Esme. She works with the Khulani Homestay program. She provides board for volunteers. Her has a lovely two bedroom home. The floors have ceramic tile. She has a quaint living room with bookshelves that have photographs of her children and grandchildren. On the floor is the set up for lunch. There are two tablecloths, blue and yellow. There are plates, glasses, silverware, and napkins. Mama Esme walks us over to the kitchen, where she wants to show us how she is making morojo, boiled spinach, onions, and potatoes. She goes over the ingredients and chops the spinach while she tells us why she loves cooking authentic meals. You can see in her eyes the love and joy she has for cooking and sharing her wisdom to others of another culture. On the table, she points to part of our meal, which is steamed bread. It looks like a giant biscuit. She tells us that the steam bread stays softer longer than baked bread. As soon as the morojo is done, she motions us to go to the living room. She tells us that she wanted us to sit out in the patio, but it is too windy and we will have to make do in the living room. As we are seated, she brings in the rest of our meal, fried chicken and chakalaka. Lisa pours us freshly squeezed juice and water. We sit on the sofas and take turns filling our plates of everything. It smells lovely. The morojo tastes wonderful, it reminds me of a filipino dish that my grandmother would always make. The chakalaka is a dish that has carrots, onions, and chutney. I think there are other things, but this are the main ingredients that I remember at the moment. It has a sweet flavor and is served warm. The fried chicken tasted like fried chicken. The bread had a unique flavor. It tasted like bread, but it was subtle. As we ate, Mama Esme spoke about past volunteers that had stayed with her and her granddaughter, Lulu who will be in first grade at the end of January. The school year starts in January. As we are finishing up, Mama Esme tells us about a keresch in the township. A keresch is like a preschool. The woman who is running it was stabbed and left to die by her husband, who left to be with a younger woman. She survived and for her to raise her two kids on her own, she decided to open a daycare facility. Mama Esme asks if we would like to visit. We quickly clean up and start walking. As we are walking down the dirt roads, you can hear children laughing and singing. As we walk up the makeshift stairs, which are just cement blocks balanced on top of each other, the kids stand still and stare at us. They are completely quiet. I wonder what they were thinking. I instantly missed Isa and Alex. We meet the woman who is funning the kerasch. Her name is Constance. She is a sweet and humble woman. She then gathers the children in a row and has the children start singing songs and nursery rhymes for us. The children are so cute. She has about 12 kids from the ages of one and a half to four. As they sing, they are still watching our every move. When they are done, they are quiet and well behaved. But, remember they are kids, the started to warm up within the next 3 minutes and before you knew it, I had kids all over me. One girl kept stroking my hair. Constance said it is because I have straight hair and it is different then theirs. (i won't tell them about my straight perm ; >) I also show them the digital camera and the pictures and videos that I took of them. They all giggle when they see themselves on the display screen. I then scroll through the pictures from my safari. When I get to the animals, they all scream and move away from me. The teacher let's me know, that they are scared. We play with the kids for a little bit and then Lisa asks if we want to see their classroom. We walk over next door and Constance has transformed her one bedroom home into a school. She doesn't have a chalkboard, whiteboard, or smartboard. She has handmade papers that are taped to the wall. I thought my school had it rough, but compared to this, we are like a Beverly Hills school (not that I have been to a Beverly Hills school, just for analogy purposes). Constance also shows us her breakfast, lunch, and snack menu, which is also hand written. Mainly, the kids have porridge every morning, fruit and bread for snacks, and the lunch is the only thing that is varied. I ask Constance what the kids favorite meal was and she said chicken and rice, which is served on Mondays. We walk back to the kerasch and say are farewells. The kids are responsive and wave good-bye. As we are walking out, we ask Constance if there is anything that we could do to help. She shakes her head and is very shy. We told her we would like to help and if she made a list of things she needed, that we would try to help. She is still very humble and finally with the help of Mama Esme and Lisa, she comprises a short list. We walk back to Mama Esme's house and thank her for her generosity and wisdom.
As we are driving out of the township, Lisa explains that many of the houses become mini-BBQ's where they sell meat and vegetables for the people coming home from work. We can see many people walking towards their homes, kids are on the street playing, the smoke is becoming dense as we start to see more and more BBQs. This part of the township is a bit more run down then the part that Mama Esme lives. It looks like a scene from a Feed the Children infomercial. It really makes you think and reflect about life. This was definitely an amazing experience. Lisa drives us back to our house and bids us farewell. We all relax and freshen up before we go to dinner at Wakame.
Wakame is the restaurant that Bons (Bonita) manages. It's menu is Asian fusion and sushi. Gareth has provided Moet champagne for his last night here in Cape Town. The restaurant has to two parts. The upstairs is called Wafu and has a beautiful outdoor patio that over looks the ocean. It has a bar and is a bit more casual. The menu served up staris is dim sum. Wakame is downstairs and is for more formal dining. The waiter pours all of us champagne, which we all toast and look at each other in the eye. According to Bons and Gareth, we need to look at each person in the eye when you toast or it is bad luck in the bedroom department??? Either way, we all, Bons, Gareth, Liza (Gareth's cousin), German (trail guide), Duncan (champagne festival), Roger, Rey, and I look each other in the eye and toast. Bons is the manager, so she pretty much leads us on our choices for dinner. It didn't matter, everything was delicious. The sushi was amazing, which I shared some with German. Of course, I also got a main meal, which was the herb crusted and seared tuna. Unbelievable!!! The seafood here is so amazing. And yes, I did order a starter, calamari, which was to die for. After three cosmos later, we were debating about dessert. I was definitely on the verge of being defeated, but I am a fighter and pushed on to order the chocolate banana spring rolls. I had one wonderful spring roll and threw in the towel. Everything was so good. After dinner, we went upstairs to take a few pictures of the view. It is almost a full moon and the reflection off the ocean is amazing. We were joking with Bons that it must be very difficult to come to this location every day for work. We eventually head home and fight the wind, which is howling and go to bed. I attempt to blog, but when I went to my room to get my camera, I sat down and before you know it, I woke up at 4 in the morning in bed? Oh well, the blog will happen, it just isn't as punctual. But, would you expect my blog to be punctual? ; >
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