Zac goes to Cape Town, South Africa
11 January 2004
Hello!
Now that Sera has gone and left the continent I find that the Namibian email
torch has been passed to me. So I will try to do my best to fill Sera's shoes
and replicate her laser wit, biting sarcasm and insightful humanity. She left
Namibia on the 24th of December and since then I have spent a surprisingly busy
two weeks traveling around Namibia and South Africa. Sera and I hadn't really
planned anything for this holiday and so after she left I was facing a lot of
lazy days around Ekulo with nothing much to do except read and pull up the
seasonal weeds in the yard. I was, however, spared that fate because I was
invited to join some other volunteers from our group who were going down to Cape
Town for a week.
Because I feel like it, I am going to write this in an interview format.
Also, it turns out I have a lot to say so I hope you aren't having a busy day
at work.
HOW WAS TRAVELING DOWN TO SOUTH AFRICA, THAT MUST HAVE BEEN A LONG DRIVE?
On
the way down I took a giant luxury bus on a 20-hour overnight trip from Windhoek
to Cape Town. At this point I was traveling with Seth and Anand, who are both
from my training group. I mentioned above that this was a luxury bus, and it
was, with nice new seats, two levels, tv's, free tea or coffee. The problem was
that the air conditioning was on overdrive the whole time and we three were
woefully underdressed, especially since we were directly under the vent. Anyway,
we left Windhoek at about 6pm and arrived in beautiful Cape Town around 2pm the
next day.
WHAT IS CAPE TOWN LIKE?
Cape Town, in my opinion was a quite nice city. First of all, it was
really pleasant visually. It had clean streets, lots of trees, clear skies, and
most important of all was Table Mountain in the background the whole time. Also,
the weather was excellent, with bright sunny skies, no humidity, and nice
temperatures. On our last day it did rain but even that was pleasant enough. The
city was divided all others, with tall buildings downtown, industrial areas (a
giant port), and residential parts ranging from ultra snazzy waterfront and
mountainside areas to the "locations" where the blacks were forced to
live during apartheid. I
was afraid that crime would be a problem after all the stories about the awful
lawlessness in South Africa but I didn't have any problems. I guess I should
qualify this though, while neither I nor any of the people I was with had any
crime problems (because of our confident demeanor and street smarts, I am forced
to assume), the guys in that room on the ground floor of my hostel who were
robbed at gunpoint in the middle of the night might have a different
perspective. On the whole I would have to say that visiting Cape Town was like
visiting a nice city anywhere else: lots to do, lots to see, and a lot of
interesting people.
WHERE DID YOU STAY?
As I said, I traveled down with and Seth and Anand, and when we got to
Cape Town we met up with Kelly, Janna, and Anne (Kelly's friend from home). We
all stayed in a dorm room in a hostel with four bunk beds. We also shared the
room with an older guy with a shaved head except for a rat-tail sort of thing in
the back. The kitchen was nice enough and there was a pool, a Webber grill, and
satellite TV (which didn't get any news channels). We met some other Americans,
some guys from Sweden, a Canadian and I think there were some Italians, but I'm
not sure. It has occurred to me that not everyone will know what exactly a
"hostel" is, I didn't really know myself until I recently started
staying in different cities on my own dime. The basic idea is that it is a place
to stay for as cheap as possible while sacrificing privacy and a bit of
security. One stays in a room full of beds, which might or might not be
occupied. There is always a bathroom(s) and communal kitchen that might be clean
and a refrigerator stuffed full of the groceries of every person who has stayed
there for the last two to six weeks. These hostels always (in my experience)
being formerly big, old houses, they usually have a makeshift sort of feeling.
Nice ones might have pools, pool tables, bars, tourist information/booking
services, internet access, living rooms, libraries, picnic tables, towels, TV's,
VCR's and clothes washing machines. There is always a safe for really valuable
things but everything else must just sit on or under the bed all day. I have
liked most of the ones I've been to; only a few were a little too dumpy for
comfort. Also, because so much is communal I end up meeting a lot more people
than I otherwise would, which is always good.
WHAT DID YOU DO IN CAPE TOWN?
Since the 30th was Kelly's birthday we went out to a nice dinner at the
waterfront, the restaurant was "dedicated to the preservation of jazz"
and the service was superb. Over the course of our stay we ate our about half
the time and cooked food at the hostel the rest of the time. We did a lot of
braiing, which is identical to barbequing except that the beef and sausage don't
taste quite right. On the 31st we took a wine tasting tour. Since Cape Town has
the right climate and soil it is surrounded by vineyards. Our tour took us to
four different "estates" and we tasted 20 different wines. I learned
[again] that all wines taste basically the same to me, that red wine is red
because it is kept with its skin for a while, that American oak barrels make
wine taste "smoky," that "blended with" is different than
"mixed with," and that sparkling white wine can be opened with a
sword, hey, now is that useful or what!
Our tour guides were interesting guys and one of them invited us to a new
years party that someone he knew was throwing. So that evening we piled into a
taxi and went over to a different area of Cape Town (the ritzy part, we found
out). The party ended up being pretty low key and we slowly mixed in with the
rest of the crowd. I talked to a few [white] South Africans and it was very
interesting to hear what they had to say about life in South Africa and also how
they regarded the US. Of course they thought Bush was a moron but they thought
that Americans were lucky to have their country which was wealthy, stable and in
which jobs comparatively weren't so hard to find. On apartheid, no one I talked
to had anything good to say about it and made quite clear that they weren't
racist. Although, in general they weren't too happy with the way the country was
being run currently. The guy I talked to said that the switch in governments
occurred too quickly and that a lot of unqualified people were now in positions
of power. Also, they didn't like some of the things Mbeki (SA president) had to
say about Robert Mugabe (Zimbabwe "president") and land reform. The
same can be said about the president of Namibia (Sam Nujoma) so I could
understand that sentiment exactly. Namibia has a lot of potential but, in only a
few short missteps it could find itself upside down; from talking to these guys
it seems South Africa is in the same boat. Again, it was interesting talking to
someone who both lived somewhere where Americans aren't a dime a dozen (I tried
to make a good impression) AND that had a clue about world affairs [the typical
rural Owambo isn't quite able to hold a conversation about the politics of the
USA, (which is probably for the better, because they should hate us: the US cost
Namibia about ten years more of South African rule due to Cold War politics)].
For the New Year we were down on the rocky beach with a crowd of people from our
party, it was a lot of fun. We also went to an aquarium, a planetarium, some
bars, and a mall worthy of the name. The most important and exciting part of the
trip was of course seeing The Return of the King, of which I was quite satisfied
with (in contrast to the third installment of the other trilogy of the season. I
also saw Ken Park and In America. Hey, seeing movies is a valid part of any
holiday away from northern Namibia.
Seth, Anand and I also climbed Table Mountain, which I thoroughly enjoyed. It
took us about six hours to get
from where the taxi broke down on the way to the trailhead to where the cable
car could take us down. The hike was fun and the views were expansive. Like any
other good hike, there were times when only one or two wrong steps would have
gotten me to the bottom the fast way. Anyway, we had a nice map and everything
was going fine, except that the trail was not clearly marked. To make a long
story short, we didn't end up on the same trail we started on and when we
rejoined a normal trail we passed a Do Not Enter sign from the back. Also in
Cape Town there was a tour boat to Robbin Island, where Nelson Mandela was kept
prisoner, but we couldn't do that because it was booked full. At the end of a
week Janna left our party to go to some other southern African countries, Kelly
and Anne went to another part of South Africa and Anand, Seth and I decided to
head back to Namibia.
WHAT KIND OF ADVENTURES DID YOU HAVE ON THE WAY HOME?
On
the way back from Cape Town Anand and Seth and I decided not to go strait back
to Windhoek (which would have been WAY to easy and simple). Instead we decided
to tool around a bit in southern Namibia before going the rest of the way up. We
looked into taking the train to Namibia but since there wasn't a direct route we
decided to just take the same bus company that we used coming down (dressing
more warmly this time). However, instead of going all the way up to Windhoek we
planned on disembarking in a town called Keetmanshoop; from there we planned on
going over to Luteritz, which is on the coast. The problem was that this was
another overnight bus (which would be arriving in Winhoek at 6am) and since we
were exiting about two thirds of the way through, we ended up getting off of the
nice comfortable bus in a place none us had ever been to before, in the middle
of the night, with no plan. We had known that this was going to happen but we
had decided to do it anyway; we were resigned to the fact that we would probably
be spending the night under the friendly lights of the PB station until the sun
came up; at which point we would find transport to the coast. (so I guess we did
have a "plan" after all).
Well, it turned out that a German guy named Werner, who had also been on the
bus, had basically the same plan as we did and ended up joining us in the
parking lot there. It also turned out that a minibus had departed from Oshakati
the previous day carrying a troop of Owambos going to find work in Luderitz. Two
and two came together and instead of sitting at the PB for seven hours, it was
less than one and we were on our way again, what luck! The driver of this
minibus was in a bit of a hurry though; we ended up getting to Luderitz at about
4am, which is still just a bit too early to get into a new town. We found a
hostel, went into the courtyard, and loitered in the chill sea breeze until
seven when we called the owner to let us in. Needless to say we didn't get too
much sleep that night.
After breakfast at a café we went to the tourism office and were able to get
transport over to nearby the nearby ghost town of Kolmanskop. There
was a tour, which took about an hour, and then we were set free to wander
amongst these old houses that had been utterly abandoned in the fifties, the
town having been based on diamond mines, which had run dry. What made the town
extra cool was the fact that it was in the middle of a giant windswept desert
and a few of the houses were in the process of being swallowed alive by sand
dunes. Anyway, all the buildings had been looted after they were abandoned so
they were pretty much empty, with the notable exception of the mayor's bathroom,
which, even after several decades open to the world, still had its giant marble
bathtub. After the ghost town we went back to the hostel to take showers (get
the sand out of our ears) and a nap. We wandered around a bit in the town, went
to a museum, and had a fish dinner in a nice restaurant by the harbor with
Werner.
The next day we packed up and took a bus back to Keetmanshoop. We spent a few
hours wandering around town, (which was quite enough) had a long lunch and then
went to catch our train back to Winhoek (the train was a bit more expensive than
a bus but since it was overnight we wouldn't have to spend anything for lodging.
That morning I left Seth and Anand in Windhoek and went to the hitch point to
find a ride back home to Ekulo. I had a little scare trying to find the house
keys, but after the guard came over and wished me a happy new year I was able to
find them. Everyone should be happy to know that all five chickens and their
mother were alive and happy to have a regular meal again. I have now added up
all my expenses for the 10-night trip and, just to give you some perspective, I
will say that I spent just over 3000 Rand/Namibian dollars, or about 450 weak US
dollars, or about two months worth of my Peace Corps "living
allowance."
Disclaimers a) Anand did not actually go on this trip; he was at his site the
whole time building a power plant that runs on sand. b) Seth and I did not go to
Luderitz, in fact, we were only away from site for 8 nights.
DON'T MISS THE NEXT ISSUE WHERE WE ASK ZAC HOW THE NEW SCHOOL YEAR IS SHAPING
UP, HOW HIS DAD'S VISIT IS GOING AND HOW ZAC IS DEALING WITH HAVING HIS WIFE
LIVE IN A DIFFERENT COUNTRY.
Zachary
click here for more photos
of Cape Town
