Cape Town Day 1!

Whew! Alrighty, so I woke up around 6:00 on the 31^st and ran up to the 7^th deck well before the sun found her way above the horizon. To my left were the dim lights of Cape Town and to my far right was the light house on the Cape of Good Hope, cruising over hundreds of ship wrecks that have been there since before Europeans came to North America. There weren’t too many of us up yet, but after about 20 minutes, when the first rays of fire were coming up behind Table Mountain, the starboard side decks were full of photographers and eager faces. There was no need for coffee to wake anyone up this morning.

We eventually docked around 8:00 or so and instead of having a diplomatic briefing by US officers from the State Department, Amy Biehl’s mother spoke to us for almost an hour. If any of you do not know Amy Biehl’s story, please look it up. She was a white American student working in South Africa on a Fulbright to help end Apartheid and on her way home from giving some of her black friends a ride in August of 1993 she was stabbed to death by an angry mob of black youth. In the international news she had a face and a name while her murderers had neither, only numbers. Amy’s mom said that this is exactly what Amy didn’t want, that she had always said that if something ever happened to her that she wanted to be a number and not a white face, because that is how it was always portrayed for blacks that died. 4 men were convicted of her murder, and in 19997 at the TRC Amy’s parents heard their story and met the men and their families and asked for two of the four to be given amnesty. Now those two are high up in the Amy Biehl Foundation hierarchy. Amy’s mom sees these two men, now with children of their own, as sons; their children as grandchildren. It was amazing to hear her story and how she coped with her daughter’s death. Also look up the book Mother to Mother; it is a book written by one of the young men’s mothers to Amy’s mother. This was my introduction to South Africa: the murders of apartheid and the miraculous organizations and relationships that resulted from them.

I had a short trip to a maritime museum for class, and then after some delicious lunch we rounded up and headed to the District 6 Museum. District 6 was a vibrant community of people of color and blacks that was deemed a White Only area by the Apartheid regime. Everyone was forcibly moved out, the houses and building bulldozed, and all the history of generations of people destroyed. One of our cab drivers said he used to live in District 6 and one day when he came home his house was gone. The museum commemorated the traditions and culture of the people there, as well as had many personal stories and a map of what the neighborhood used to look like. There were also places where people wrote their feelings and memories of what happened, and one quote was, “Apartheid regime is like Nazi-regime without final solution.” We learn so much about the Holocaust and so little about the genocides and racism that are still killing people today. The Jews got Israel, but what do the black South Africans get? District 6 is now acres of empty lots. The whites didn’t use it, they just couldn’t let people of color or blacks use the land. Why did I not learn about this earlier? Where was this in history class?

After leaving the museum we went to the Cast of Good Hope, which was built in the 1650s by the Dutch to fight the British. We couldn’t go inside because it was already closed but we got some pretty fun pictures outside. The whole time we were talking around Table Mountain was above us, covered with the famous Table Cloth, which is when clouds settle on the top and slowly roll off the sides. It was so freaking gorgeous! Eventually we headed back to the ship, but instead of taking 2 cabs we got one, so it was six of us plus the driver jammed into a taxi meant for 4 passengers. It was a fun ride. Our driver was from Zimbabwe and came to Cape Town to work because he couldn’t buy food back home. He’s been dating the same woman for 7 years and is saving up the money and courage to ask her to marry him. I was really happy that we gave him our business.

We got back to the waterfront just before 6:00 and Molly, Emily, and I took off running to catch a sunset pirate boat cruise. There were about 10 or so SAS people on it, some of which I had never met before, and the crew was a blast. We grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrred! for 2 hours together! We also met this sister, brother, and uncle from Malawi that now lived in Cape Town. Chicodi was 20 I think, Innocence (yes, that was his name!) was 21, and their uncle was Richard. And guess when Inno’s birthday was? April 13^th! Craziness. It was so much fun to just talk about whatever with people from around the world. That is what this entire semester is all about; the people. We also met a group of people from Iran and the woman and I talked politics for a while. She said that Iranians love Americans, hate their president, couldn’t stand Bush, and adore Obama. It is just amazing to discover more about my major from people from other countries.

After ‘Land Ho!’ we got some dinner and headed to Long Street, which is the main night life place. Molly, Emily, and I went to this place called The Waiting Room to try and meet up with Brandon Wolding, but we must have missed each other. It was a good night though, as Mollsy turned 21 at midnight! Oh, to turn 21 in a country where the drinking age is 18…. J Eventually we headed back to the ship and ran into some of the crew who were headed out, all snazzed up for the night. What a first day in what I hope to eventually be my home.