Well, it’s been a week and a half now that I’ve been trying to blog. The reasons this just wasn’t happening are:
1. I have been insanely busy with work.
2. I write these blogs in Word and then copy and paste them so as not to waste a lot of internet. But I don’t save them, just leave them open and hibernate my computer when I don’t need it. However, a few times, it would get weird or restart and not come up as a recovered document so the blogs I’ve attempted to write have been lost to cyberland.
3. I have been insanely busy with work.
Allow me to try and sum up the past (almost) 3 weeks…you might want to get some coffee or a snack first…
Since I last wrote the week went by uneventfully, all I had was homework and choir beyond my classes. Saturday the 9th though, we went to Robben Island. Getting there was a trick but suffice it to say that we made it to the boat on time. There is only way to get to the Robben Island and that was via this boat so it’s a good thing we made it. We left on the boat, called Sikhululekile, left from the Nelson Mandela Gateway (of course). The half hour boat ride there was nice; we had a great view of Table Mountain as we left it behind and they had a 20 minute or so documentary to show us that talked about some of the history of the island.
There were 3 buses of people but I (luckily I think) was on one that was only half full. We were able to jump from side to side to get pictures and such as we drove around. Our guide was really informative and knew a lot about the island. I did my best to remember things including taking notes and videos so let’s see how much info I can give you. We first drove past the maximum security prison where political prisoners were kept during Apartheid but we wouldn’t go through there until the end of the tour. One of the places we stopped at was a graveyard where all the lepers who died on the island were buried. Robben Island has been used as a prison (wayyy before Apartheid) for various colonizers but also as a leper colony, thus the graveyard.
Next we drove by the Robert Sobukwe House. On our way to the house we saw a bunch of jackass penguins hiding out under the bushes; Robben Island has the third largest population of jackass penguins btdubs. Anyway, at the house we stopped so they could tell us more about Robert Sobukwe and the significance of the house. Sobukwe founded the Pan African Congress (PAC) which was opposed to the apartheid government. PAC organized a peaceful march in protest to the pass books that blacks were required by law to carry for identification and the books also explicitly stated where they were “allowed” to go. Any person at any time could stop a black person on the street and demand to see their pass book and if they didn’t have it I think they could just be arrested on the spot or something absurd like that. Well, they (understandably) didn’t like this law and Sobukwe marched without the book along with other supporters to a police station in Soweto. There was another protest that day where the police opened fire on the protesters and killed 69 people. Sobukwe was arrested for inciting the “riot” and sentenced to 3 years in jail but even after he’d served his time, the government was afraid to let him out so he was moved to Robben Island and kept in solitary confinement in that house. He eventually was released but forced to live under house arrest the rest of his life.
The next place we stopped was the lime quarry. During apartheid, many political prisoners were sent to the quarry to work every single day, regardless of weather. The sunlight shining off the rock was so strong that after all those years, it did a good deal of damage to their eyes. Originally, they were working at the quarry because the lime was needed to fix up the island but even after they didn’t need anymore, they kept sending people there just for busy work. In a path leading to the quarry there was a huge pile of stones. After the apartheid government ended, many former prisoners returned on the anniversary of their release from prison and met at the quarry talking about their time there. Mandela walked away from the group at one point, picked up a rock and threw it down in the path. Slowly, all the others moved away from the group, picked up a rock and added it to the pile. Since then, the pile has not been touched.
After the quarry we drove through the town. Currently, the only people who live on the island are people who work there, whether it’s as a tour guide or groundskeeper. And just past the end of the town was stopped for a photo shoot with a great view of Table Mountain. Driving around from there we saw some antelope, rabbits, and other animals as well as lots of cool plants and such. Robben Island is well known for having a significant number of species of flora and fauna so we got to see a lot of that. We also saw the remnants of buildings and tanks that had been built on the island during World War II to protect Cape Town if necessary. She said the guns there were accurate for up to something like 30 kilometers…but they were never used. There is a lighthouse on the highest point of the island but it uses a flashing light instead of a revolving one which I thought was cool.
There’s a lot more I could say and I’ve probably already said too much but let’s move on. At the end of the tour we were dropped off in front of the maximum security prison where we were greeted by an ex-prisoner named Kgotso who showed us around. After a quick intro, he took us into section F. In here, he told us about the prison under the apartheid government. Robben Island was used for only male political prisoners who were black, coloured, or Asian. He showed us the food that was given to various prisoners according to their letter. Whites were A, even though there were no whites at the prisoner. Coloureds and Asians were B. And then blacks or as he put it, “indigenous Africans”, were C. We also saw what a typical profile for a prisoner would look like. It included information such as name, “race”, religion, crime, sentence, and date of sentence. They were also given numbers on their profiles; the first number was what number prisoner they were for the year and the second number was the year they were imprisoned. In section F there were just huge rooms that would have 30 bunk beds, 15 on each side, so there were 60 men in this one room. Each man was given 2 mats and 4 blankets. The sections were significant too. Section A was for men who were sentenced to 20 or more years. Section B was for political leaders. Section E was for students. Stuff like that. There were 7 sections in total, A-G.
From here we moved on to Section B. As we walked, Kgotso told us about letters and visits. Prisoners were only allowed 12 letters a year and the same number of visits. There was a word limit on letters and they could not write about politics or anything. Visits were similarly monitored. There was also no contact allowed. They could only speak Afrikaans I think and they could only talk about the family and things like that. No politics. So if they didn’t speak Afrikaans they would just sit and look at each other. He also mentioned that there were 469 deaths total in the prison during Apartheid.
In section B we saw the courtyard area where prisoners who weren’t sent to the lime quarry sat and broke up stones. And after that we went on to see Nelson Mandela’s cell, where he was imprisoned for 18 years. The only problem I had with seeing this block was that it had been painted over and looked pretty nice, it wasn’t exactly like what it had been while the prisoners were kept there. Luckily though, we went on to section A to end the tour which had been left the way it had been during Apartheid and where Kgotso had been kept.
Kgotso’s story. He is from Soweto and was a member of the ANC when he was arrested for conspiracy to overthrow the state by armed means and so bring in an alternative government. On the November 20, 1984 he went to court and was sentenced the following day to 25 years. He was driven from prison to prison to prison before finally arriving in Cape Town where the infamous boat, the Susan Kruger, brought him to Robben Island. He told us this whole story while standing in front of the cell where he was imprisoned for 6 years and 5 months, he was released on April 27, 1991 along with 119 other prisoners. Since June 2003 he has been back on the island as a guide. And in case you didn’t notice, he was sentenced to 25 years in 1984. That means that if the apartheid government was still in control, he would only be getting released November of this year.
So Robben Island, I thought, was incredible. I know some people didn’t like it that much but I learned so much and it was simply amazing to be shown around the prison by someone who had actually been there so we got to hear his story. I guess you could’ve just gone and googled Robben Island for all this info but I figured I’d save you the trouble and share with you what I thought was legit interesting.
Moving on. The next week was my last full week of classes at UCT, crazy I know. Not just that, but it actually was insane because I had so much work to do and I also had rehearsal almost every night because Choir for Africa and the UCT Choir had a joint concert Thursday night! The concert was in Jameson Hall which is right in the middle of Upper Campus. The high domed ceiling meant insane acoustics, not necessarily in a good way. It was super echo-y and I don’t know how it sounded to the audience but we had fun with the whole thing. For our choir, we got shirts to wear for when we were performing with the UCT Choir but when we were performing with just us, the girls had these traditional African costumes to wear and we also painted our faces.
I’m going to leave out how I got there late (long story) but the intro acts were still going on so it wasn’t a big deal. The UCT Choir performed 2 songs first and then we got up and sang “Adam” and “Uyeza Umgwebi” which are both traditional Xhosa songs. The UCT Choir got up again and sang 3 songs, one of which was the same exact arrangement of “And so it Goes” that I sang in Select way back in high school (awww memories). Then it was our turn again. We sang “Ukuthula” which is a traditional Zulu song, “Theledi”, and “Sekirilekel” which is a traditional Sotho song. After a short break, the two choirs sang together. We sang “Marabi”, “Bawo Thixo Somandla”, “Masibuyel’ Ekhaya” which is a traditional Xhosa song, and ended with the South African National Anthem. One thing I love about the anthem is that it is in 4 languages: Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, and English. I think it’s beautiful that they include all of those languages. Granted, it’s a new anthem coming out of Apartheid, but they have it now which is what really matters. So yeah, the concert was a lot of fun and I’m so glad I stuck it out even though it frustrated me at times. I’ve met a lot of really cool people there and we make it fun. A bunch of my housemates and other people I know came to watch and they said it was great! Yay!
The weekend was pretty relaxing; even though I had two presentations and a paper due this week I wanted to take some time for myself since that week was crazy with work and choir. On Sunday I went into Cape Town to Greenmarket Square. Because of the 2010 World Cup coming, they’re re-doing the cobblestones of the square and it was the last day the market would actually be at Greenmarket Square. I heard that it’s now by the Company Gardens so I guess if I ever feel the need to go back I’ll go find it there. We got a bunch of cool stuff; I hadn’t meant to buy too much but they kept giving us such great deals, I couldn’t refuse.
Now the past three days were a bit crazy. All my lectures were based around them telling us what we should do to prepare for the final. I’m kind of terrified but my first one isn’t for a week and then I have another week before the next one and yet another week before the last one which is also the day before I leave. It’s all spread out and such so that’ll be good for helping me have time to study. Not so good for wanting to travel but I think I’m still possibly going somewhere this weekend into the beginning of next week. More on that when things are definite.
Yesterday after my last lecture and handing in my last paper, I went to the tb clinic for possibly the last time. I think they’re going again tomorrow but I don’t know if I can say goodbye to all the kids again. It was really sad leaving. And after all that, CIEE hosted our “final dinner”, basically the last time they’ll pay for 150 Americans to eat together. It was at a winery in Stellenbosch called Spiers and the restaurant was called Moyo. Really nice place with a buffet separated by food, so there was a section for salads, vegetables, meat, chicken, fish, etc. There was also a stage in the middle where they had people dancing and playing the drums and such. Eventually when people had pretty much finished eating we went to the side area where there was room and danced to the music.
So now it’s Thursday. I have no classes, no papers, no presentations, no projects, just 3 finals left. Which obviously means I’ll just have to find things around Cape Town to do, the last things I need to check off my list before leaving. Sorry for being as long-winded as usual. Don’t lie, it’s been 2.5 weeks since my last post and you’ve totally missed my stories. Funny, I won’t have any stories for once I get home because they’ll all be here pretty much.
Later,
Sarah
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
what can you do in 100 days?
Um isn't it crazy that 100 days ago I boarded a plane to come here to South Africa? I can't wrap my head around it...anyway.
So beyond doing a few things during the weekends, the past few weeks have been pretty typical for an end of the semester. I have a lot of papers, projects, and exams in the next two weeks before the end of lectures (finally) and then we have 3 weeks for finals. Some of the work I have left to do has actually been pretty fun since I’m a nerd like that but there has also been work I haven’t been enjoying and those are the things I’ve been putting off, obviously. There’s a lot I could ramble on about in terms of classes and such but rather than do that, I’ll go with the (for you) more preferable route and fill you in on the few interesting things I’ve done although after climbing Table Mountain nothing quite measures up.
The rest of the week was pretty calm; everyone was looking forward to the next week because there were public holidays on both Monday and Friday so we only had 3 days of class. That weekend it rained a lot on Saturday so we stayed in but we woke up Sunday and the sun was shining so most of our house decided to go to the beach. I’ve only been to Muizenberg so far so I wanted to go along as they wanted to check out Clifton Beach 4 and Camps Bay, both I had heard were really nice. Clifton is split into 4 beaches and the one we were going to was the sort of family one, unlike the gay, nude, and preppy other beaches and Camps Bay is the kind of high class one.
We caught a mini bus to Cape Town and then continued on in the same bus toward the beach. As we drove to the other side of Signal Hill though, we could see a layer of fog/mist ahead which was, of course, directly where we were headed. We got out at Clifton and as the bus drove away we all looked around with a bit of trepidation. It had been pretty hot when we left the house but now that we were surrounded by mist and couldn’t see the sun, it was pretty cold. I suggested we go down to the beach where there might not be as much mist and everyone agreed. It was better once we got to the shore level (the road leading there was higher than where the beach was, we had to walk down many steps to get to the sand) but the mist still covered the sun and the source of heat. Still, we sat down where we could somewhat see the water (we had our choice of where to go since nobody else was there) and walked to the edge of the waves to see how cold the water was. Stupid Atlantic, it was freezing of course. We kept pushing the boys to go in and boys being boys they were eventually convinced. Luckily, it wasn’t too long after that when the mist started clearing away and eventually the sun came through and quickly warmed us up and once it was nicer, other people started showing up.
As it started to get a bit later, we made our way back up to the road and walked to Camps Bay which is right next to Clifton just separated by a rocky part of the shore. This area was much busier on the main road which went down to the beach level and had tons of restaurants, stores, and street vendors. We picked out a nice restaurant for dinner and got to enjoy watching the sunset (which was phenomenal considering how the horizon hadn’t existed when we first got to the beach). It was wonderfully relaxing and I’m glad we got to go; with the temperamental weather getting more wintery, there are fewer and fewer beach days. So that was what I did Sunday while berg was at Relay =/ which I was very jealous of. But we raised over $50,000 =) fabulous.
On Monday I wanted to check out some museums because, since it was a holiday, some of them had free admission. I went with one of my housemates into Cape Town and we walked around a lot trying to find some of them. A lot of the museums here are pretty small and they don’t have really obvious signs. Eventually we found the bo-kaap which looks at the history of the Muslim population in South Africa/Cape Town. Interracial dynamics have always fascinated me so it was really interesting to see what life was like for them. The funniest thing though was that as we left, we heard the call to prayer from the mosque down the street. We tried a couple other museums and places but they were closed. So we went to the Castle of Good Hope, an old fortress/castle kinda deal. There was a lot of historical stuff and then even after the exhibits closed, we were still allowed to walk around. We went up to the roof where we could walk around and see the moat and everything around us. It occurred to me that a game of hide-and-go-seek or sardines would be absolutely perfect there so we might have to make that happen before we leave. There are so many little hiding places and such so it would be a lot of fun.
The short week was pretty uneventful. During choir on Wednesday we finally started the songs we’re singing for our joint concert with the UCT Choir in a few weeks so that was fun. Who knows how I’m going to remember all those words in Xhosa, Zulu, and who knows what other languages. I think I’ll have to ask Faith to translate it all for me so at least I’ll know what I’m singing. Anyway, it’s really cool, a very new experience, and I’m glad I did it.
Workers day was the public holiday on Friday so I went into Cape Town again with two people to check out the District Six Museum (finally). When Mel and I had first tried to go, we even asked a few cops and no one knew what we were talking about. It was the strangest thing especially because everyone I’ve spoken to says that if I had to go to one museum in Cape Town it would be District Six. And after going there, I can understand why they all say that.
A quick history. As Cape Town was undergoing colonization, the area was split up into many districts. District Six was pretty close to the dock area of Cape Town, from where the waterfront is now to the base of the mountain. The people there were mostly coloureds and the living conditions weren’t that great with the overpopulation and crime, it was still a close and pretty happy community. During Apartheid though, the government forcibly removed all of its inhabitants from the district to townships organized around the Cape Flats, most of them named for various streets in District Six. Once everyone had been removed, the entire area was bulldozed. Those are the highlights that I can remember but there’s so much more to it so, hang on, ok look here or ooo here for more detail.
In terms of my take on the museum, well there was obviously a LOT of information. It was a bit overwhelming at first because I was just trying to take everything in and understand what had happened since I went in knowing very little about District Six. As I walked around reading all the history, there were a few things that really struck me. Just in terms of the exhibit, one of the best things (for me) were all these sheets they had around the museum. There were sheets designated for ex-residents and sheets for visitors but it were the former that I thought were incredible. Some of them just had the name of a family and an address but others had short stories with memories and thanks for retelling the history of what had happened. I read later on that there is a group of people who spend their free time embroidering what has been written on the sheets so that even when the ink fades, the words won’t. It was so incredible when people said things about their childhood that they remember from the district but even more incredible was how the messages didn’t seem to harbor any kind of resentment; they were simply reminiscent and grateful for the existence of the museum.
Another thing that I found extremely interesting was how the white/non-white relations were so similar to that in the history of America. From benches and stores that were just for whites or non-whites to riots and depriving people of various rights just because of their skin color. It was hard to go through it and not see every little relation that can be compared to what every kid learns in basic grade school history. I almost kept expecting to see a picture of Martin Luther King, Jr. instead I saw ones of Nelson Mandela.
One last thing that I couldn’t help but think about as I walked around was how I was slightly reminded of the Holocaust. From the inferior treatment of the non-whites to the eventual displacement into the townships from their homes where living conditions were absolutely awful, I had little reminders popping up everywhere. Granted, there’s a significant difference between the two situations. During the Holocaust, people were displaced from their homes into ghettos and then removed again to the concentration camps, a death sentence. With District Six, they were only displaced that one time (not to make light of the displacement, it was just as painful, wrong, and unnecessary regardless of how many times it happened) but they were moved into houses with 100 year leases so they’re all still living there now. This world we live in amazes me. There are incredible works of nature like Table Mountain (which I climbed =) just in case you forgot) and amazing people who are working tirelessly to make the world a better place which is amazing. Yet there are also events in history and still going on today that are so inhumane and disgusting that I am amazed too, amazed that things like this can happen. I’m so glad I got to go to the museum, it was definitely worth it.
Moving on. Saturday I went to the mall with Rachael to walk around a bit and get out of the house. On the way back to my house a friend asked me if I wanted to go to a rugby game that night which I jumped at, of course. Who would’ve expected me to like rugby when I don’t really like watching football? Anyway, it was the Stormers vs New Zealand Chiefs. Unfortunately they kicked our butt but it was a great game and I was with a really fun group of people. And it luckily wasn’t really cold either so we were able to really enjoy it. I need to get back to another soccer game now before we leave.
I think that’s about all that’s actually important. I got a hug from Mel yesterday who was really excited that facebook said it was hug a half Asian day which was funny. And yeah, now that’s all that’s important. Oh, last thing, the ANC obviously won the election by a landslide. Zuma’s inauguration is this weekend in Pretoria. Is it ironic that on that same day I’ll be on a tour of Robben Island, where Mandela (SA’s first black president) was imprisoned for 17 years or something?
Much love,
Sarah
So beyond doing a few things during the weekends, the past few weeks have been pretty typical for an end of the semester. I have a lot of papers, projects, and exams in the next two weeks before the end of lectures (finally) and then we have 3 weeks for finals. Some of the work I have left to do has actually been pretty fun since I’m a nerd like that but there has also been work I haven’t been enjoying and those are the things I’ve been putting off, obviously. There’s a lot I could ramble on about in terms of classes and such but rather than do that, I’ll go with the (for you) more preferable route and fill you in on the few interesting things I’ve done although after climbing Table Mountain nothing quite measures up.
The rest of the week was pretty calm; everyone was looking forward to the next week because there were public holidays on both Monday and Friday so we only had 3 days of class. That weekend it rained a lot on Saturday so we stayed in but we woke up Sunday and the sun was shining so most of our house decided to go to the beach. I’ve only been to Muizenberg so far so I wanted to go along as they wanted to check out Clifton Beach 4 and Camps Bay, both I had heard were really nice. Clifton is split into 4 beaches and the one we were going to was the sort of family one, unlike the gay, nude, and preppy other beaches and Camps Bay is the kind of high class one.
We caught a mini bus to Cape Town and then continued on in the same bus toward the beach. As we drove to the other side of Signal Hill though, we could see a layer of fog/mist ahead which was, of course, directly where we were headed. We got out at Clifton and as the bus drove away we all looked around with a bit of trepidation. It had been pretty hot when we left the house but now that we were surrounded by mist and couldn’t see the sun, it was pretty cold. I suggested we go down to the beach where there might not be as much mist and everyone agreed. It was better once we got to the shore level (the road leading there was higher than where the beach was, we had to walk down many steps to get to the sand) but the mist still covered the sun and the source of heat. Still, we sat down where we could somewhat see the water (we had our choice of where to go since nobody else was there) and walked to the edge of the waves to see how cold the water was. Stupid Atlantic, it was freezing of course. We kept pushing the boys to go in and boys being boys they were eventually convinced. Luckily, it wasn’t too long after that when the mist started clearing away and eventually the sun came through and quickly warmed us up and once it was nicer, other people started showing up.
As it started to get a bit later, we made our way back up to the road and walked to Camps Bay which is right next to Clifton just separated by a rocky part of the shore. This area was much busier on the main road which went down to the beach level and had tons of restaurants, stores, and street vendors. We picked out a nice restaurant for dinner and got to enjoy watching the sunset (which was phenomenal considering how the horizon hadn’t existed when we first got to the beach). It was wonderfully relaxing and I’m glad we got to go; with the temperamental weather getting more wintery, there are fewer and fewer beach days. So that was what I did Sunday while berg was at Relay =/ which I was very jealous of. But we raised over $50,000 =) fabulous.
On Monday I wanted to check out some museums because, since it was a holiday, some of them had free admission. I went with one of my housemates into Cape Town and we walked around a lot trying to find some of them. A lot of the museums here are pretty small and they don’t have really obvious signs. Eventually we found the bo-kaap which looks at the history of the Muslim population in South Africa/Cape Town. Interracial dynamics have always fascinated me so it was really interesting to see what life was like for them. The funniest thing though was that as we left, we heard the call to prayer from the mosque down the street. We tried a couple other museums and places but they were closed. So we went to the Castle of Good Hope, an old fortress/castle kinda deal. There was a lot of historical stuff and then even after the exhibits closed, we were still allowed to walk around. We went up to the roof where we could walk around and see the moat and everything around us. It occurred to me that a game of hide-and-go-seek or sardines would be absolutely perfect there so we might have to make that happen before we leave. There are so many little hiding places and such so it would be a lot of fun.
The short week was pretty uneventful. During choir on Wednesday we finally started the songs we’re singing for our joint concert with the UCT Choir in a few weeks so that was fun. Who knows how I’m going to remember all those words in Xhosa, Zulu, and who knows what other languages. I think I’ll have to ask Faith to translate it all for me so at least I’ll know what I’m singing. Anyway, it’s really cool, a very new experience, and I’m glad I did it.
Workers day was the public holiday on Friday so I went into Cape Town again with two people to check out the District Six Museum (finally). When Mel and I had first tried to go, we even asked a few cops and no one knew what we were talking about. It was the strangest thing especially because everyone I’ve spoken to says that if I had to go to one museum in Cape Town it would be District Six. And after going there, I can understand why they all say that.
A quick history. As Cape Town was undergoing colonization, the area was split up into many districts. District Six was pretty close to the dock area of Cape Town, from where the waterfront is now to the base of the mountain. The people there were mostly coloureds and the living conditions weren’t that great with the overpopulation and crime, it was still a close and pretty happy community. During Apartheid though, the government forcibly removed all of its inhabitants from the district to townships organized around the Cape Flats, most of them named for various streets in District Six. Once everyone had been removed, the entire area was bulldozed. Those are the highlights that I can remember but there’s so much more to it so, hang on, ok look here or ooo here for more detail.
In terms of my take on the museum, well there was obviously a LOT of information. It was a bit overwhelming at first because I was just trying to take everything in and understand what had happened since I went in knowing very little about District Six. As I walked around reading all the history, there were a few things that really struck me. Just in terms of the exhibit, one of the best things (for me) were all these sheets they had around the museum. There were sheets designated for ex-residents and sheets for visitors but it were the former that I thought were incredible. Some of them just had the name of a family and an address but others had short stories with memories and thanks for retelling the history of what had happened. I read later on that there is a group of people who spend their free time embroidering what has been written on the sheets so that even when the ink fades, the words won’t. It was so incredible when people said things about their childhood that they remember from the district but even more incredible was how the messages didn’t seem to harbor any kind of resentment; they were simply reminiscent and grateful for the existence of the museum.
Another thing that I found extremely interesting was how the white/non-white relations were so similar to that in the history of America. From benches and stores that were just for whites or non-whites to riots and depriving people of various rights just because of their skin color. It was hard to go through it and not see every little relation that can be compared to what every kid learns in basic grade school history. I almost kept expecting to see a picture of Martin Luther King, Jr. instead I saw ones of Nelson Mandela.
One last thing that I couldn’t help but think about as I walked around was how I was slightly reminded of the Holocaust. From the inferior treatment of the non-whites to the eventual displacement into the townships from their homes where living conditions were absolutely awful, I had little reminders popping up everywhere. Granted, there’s a significant difference between the two situations. During the Holocaust, people were displaced from their homes into ghettos and then removed again to the concentration camps, a death sentence. With District Six, they were only displaced that one time (not to make light of the displacement, it was just as painful, wrong, and unnecessary regardless of how many times it happened) but they were moved into houses with 100 year leases so they’re all still living there now. This world we live in amazes me. There are incredible works of nature like Table Mountain (which I climbed =) just in case you forgot) and amazing people who are working tirelessly to make the world a better place which is amazing. Yet there are also events in history and still going on today that are so inhumane and disgusting that I am amazed too, amazed that things like this can happen. I’m so glad I got to go to the museum, it was definitely worth it.
Moving on. Saturday I went to the mall with Rachael to walk around a bit and get out of the house. On the way back to my house a friend asked me if I wanted to go to a rugby game that night which I jumped at, of course. Who would’ve expected me to like rugby when I don’t really like watching football? Anyway, it was the Stormers vs New Zealand Chiefs. Unfortunately they kicked our butt but it was a great game and I was with a really fun group of people. And it luckily wasn’t really cold either so we were able to really enjoy it. I need to get back to another soccer game now before we leave.
I think that’s about all that’s actually important. I got a hug from Mel yesterday who was really excited that facebook said it was hug a half Asian day which was funny. And yeah, now that’s all that’s important. Oh, last thing, the ANC obviously won the election by a landslide. Zuma’s inauguration is this weekend in Pretoria. Is it ironic that on that same day I’ll be on a tour of Robben Island, where Mandela (SA’s first black president) was imprisoned for 17 years or something?
Much love,
Sarah
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