Location, location, location

We've driven past many townships/shanty towns/coloured districts - all these names seem to be contained in the one word - "location". People talk about MeKasi - my location, where I come from. The locations on the outskirts of Cape Town stretch for miles over the Cape Flats & Mitchell's Plain. We have briefly visited 3 of them - Langa, Khayelitsha & Grassy Park (not exactly well named!). Truly we have never seen anything like them & it's been quite a shock to see how many people have to live in this way in South Africa. The contrast between the comfortable wealth of the white population & the utter poverty of the vast majority of the remaining 90% of the population has left us feeling very uncomfortable. The segregation in society is still strikingly obvious. In most of the tourist areas there are rarely black or coloured customers in the shops & restaurants. (Of course, in black & coloured areas there are rarely white people to be seen. We are usually the only white people on the trains & minibus taxis!) We're told that it's a matter of where people feel at home, which we suppose makes sense & there is a 300 year history of racial separation which can't be corrected in a mere decade, but still................. The inequalities are striking. The one place that we've seen a complete cross section is on the beaches (but not in the surrounding cafes, of course). On a beach was also, sadly, the place where we heard the most blatantly racist remark yet from a flabby white man!

Having got to know the Beth Uriel family, we can't see any reason why they shouldn't merit a share of the lifestyle that is automatically ours for the asking because we are white & British.

Not all the homes in the locations are shacks - those who do make money usually choose to build in their home township rather than moving to white suburbs, but the mass of people live in what we have seen described as "informal housing"! i.e. made out of anything they can lay their hands on. Not all homes have electricity - fires frequently break out because of candle & propane gas use. Nor do all homes have internal plumbing - a communal standpipe & shared outside privies are common. It is almost medieval. The shacks are all built cheek-by-jowl. Everything seemed cramped & crowded, stinkingly hot in summer, damp & cold in winter. We have only been invited into one house & it was actually very neat & orderly, despite the dirt floor. There were 4 connected box rooms, separated by curtains, laid out as kitchen, lounge & 2 bedrooms. There was basic shelving for china, pots, pans, clothing, linen & even ornaments. As one cheerful man rightly said to us, "There's no shame in living in a shack", but it is amazing how unenvious most people are. It hardly seems surprising that there is rampant gang crime among the young men & high rates of domestic abuse - what's more surprising is the dignity with which so many accept the way life is.

Cape Town Observatory Buildings

Cape Town City Centre Buildings

Synagogues & Shtetl

Jewish Cape Town

There are about 20,000 Jews in cape Town, the vast majority originating from Lithuania (like Howard's family & many other Glasgow Jews). Certainly the people looked & sounded familiar! We found out about some of their history by visiting the Jewish Museum, part of which is in the 1st synagogue built in the city in the 19th C. An extension was recently added & the new building was opened by Nelson Mandela. A display is dedicated to his links with the Jewish community & to the Jewish involvement in the struggle against apartheid. It's a very attractive, small museum, simply but effectively laid out - it even has a reconstruction of a Lithuanian shtetl set up in the basement. In our expert seen-the-real-thing way, we felt it was a bit too smart, too clean & just too sanitised. We had a kosher lunch in the restaurant at the museum, which is obviously popular with the local community - but it was the worst service we've had in all our time here, sad to report.

Jewish time was also in operation at the cantorial concert that we attended in the Great/Gardens/"mother" synagogue (designed by a Scottish firm) - it started rather late, partly because it was a slow process to get the crowd to their seats. All thoughts of impatience, however, vanished as the singing began. There were 5 cantors taking part & their performances were wonderful. It was a memorable occasion. We were so taken with their neshama (soul) that we went to an orthodox service the following shabbat, at which 2 of the cantors were davening. Truly inspirational.

Amely, Phil & Fiona

Sadly no photos of their 2 dachsunds, Max & Paddy, with whom they are besotted!

It's A Small Jewish World

We attended shabbat services in 3 different shuls in Cape Town - 2 progressive, 1 orthodox. Our 1st visit was to a shul in the nearby suburb of Wynberg where we immediately met Amely Wiseglass, who is a friend of friends in Glasgow (Michael & Adele Conn & Paul Edlin)! She & her husband Phil were extremely hospitable during the course of our stay. They took us out for a sightseeing trip over the Helshoogte Pass, to see more of the beautiful countryside that surrounds Cape Town & we enjoyed lunch together at Hillcrest Berry Orchard, out on a patio with fabulous views.They also invited us for an abundant & delicious Friday night dinner - our 1st shabbat braai! We discovered that a comedian, Nik Rabinowitz, whose stand-up show we had been to see at the Obz Cafe Theatre (one Man, One Goat!) was a close friend of the Wisegalss' son Stuart. When we had spoken to Nik after his show, he had told us that Scots Jews he'd met at a wedding in England (Stuart's wedding, it turned out) wearing kilts & tartan kippot had nearly featured in his act - the Scots Jews in question were, of course, friends of ours! Joel - you were nearly famous in Cape Town!

We also attended a shul in another suburb, Milnerton, where one of the founding members told us that he was expecting friends of Howard's mother (Alice & Albert Tankel) to stay in a few days! The shul's cantor had been married by the father of one of Glasgow's Rabbis (Bokow) & the visiting cantor had been at school with Rabbi Bokow.

Need we say more?

Carnival time

Elephant's Eye Cave - Tokai Forest

A long climb of 3km to the top. It felt as though it was perpendicular!
Great views though ... even a rainbow ....

Sacred Ibis

Cape Town from Robben Island

The Prison

The prison & Nelson Mandela's cell, where he was locked up for 16 hours a day

Robben Island

We were lucky to get to Robben Island - the trips are booked weeks in advance during the holiday period & quite a few of the ferries have been taken out of service due to mechanical & safety concerns. 4 boats were cancelled on the day that we went.

We got wonderful views of the city & the mountains on the boat trip out!

The tour of the island was very interesting if a little rushed. It has not got the happiest of histories! Before it gained notoriety worldwide, it served as a place to dump lepers & lunatics.

All the guides are ex-political prisoners who share both their stories & that of Nelson Mandela. Much emphasis is placed by the guides on the process of reconciliation since apartheid & their gratitude to peoples of other nations who supported them in their struggle to establish democracy.

Mandela spent 18 years here & must have been a tough cookie to have survived such harsh conditions - little clothing, no heating in winter, no air conditioning in summer, no glass in the windows to keep out the rain or the wind, no toilets, concrete floor to sleep on, poor diet, hard labour. Even the prisons were operated along segregated lines during apartheid. Only black & coloured prisoners were held on Robben Island & there were differences in the clothing & diet allocated to these 2 categories. For example, blacks had only shorts & short-sleeved shirts to wear while coloureds were given shoes, socks, jackets, long trousers & long-sleeved shirts.

The focus of the tour was obviously on the prison, but there was also wildlife to be seen. Eland, Springbok & Bontebok live there & there's also a variety of birdlife - African Oyster Catchers, Egyptian Sacred Ibis & African Penguins.

Beasties!

The many cockroaches we've encountered favour toilets & kitchens as their haunts. Some of them have been appallingly large, but we've come to no harm as a result - as far as we know!

We have hardly actually seen any mosquitos but we know that they like to hang out in our bedroom. We've spent many happy hours, as a result, dabbing cream onto the lumps & blotches. Howard is thinking of posing for a particularly complex join-the-dots picture. A mosquito net is now top of our shopping list. It will be a must in the malaria-ridden areas we're heading for soon.

And so ended 2006

Happy New Year

Our final day of 2006 was a long one - up at 5.30am to set up & man the market stall for Beth Uriel, after which we managed a few hours in the stunning Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens at the foot of Table Mountain. Dinner was shared with the BU family although we didn't share their special treat of 2 KFC buckets of chicken - very selfless of us!! Then everyone slobbed in front of "Snakes on a Plane" DVD - don't know what was more amusing - the predictable shenanigans of a comic horror or the reactions of one of the more macho of the guys who twitched on the edge of his seat in a state of terror the entire time. Either way, we all laughed a lot.

Finally, we headed into the city - the young men to go out on the town, the older contingent to sit with our legs dangling over the dockside of the Victoria & Alfred (yes, Alfred!) Waterfront to watch a spectacular fireworks display, welcoming in 2007.

Hope it's a great year - Happy New Year!

Day Trips - 3 - Cape Point & the Cape of Good Hope

YDP offers all its volunteers a day trip of their choice so we picked a Cape Peninsula tour. After weeks of travelling everywhere in the most clapped-out vehicles imaginable, it seemed luxurious to be in a van with comfortable seats, seat belts & air conditioning. The tour was good too!

Our 1st stop was the picturesque Hout Bay, where a boat took us out to Duikers Island to watch hundreds of Cape Fur Seals perform their acrobatics in the sea - any "seal trips" we've taken in the past consisted of looking at sleeping bodies on rocks with the occasional head bobbing about in the water, but these seals were incredibly boisterous. We definitely got our money's worth!

Then we drove on over the Chapman's Peak Road, which has only recently re-opened. It suffers from the wild weather prevalent on the Cape which frequently causes rockfalls. We were lucky that there was hardly a breath of wind. Usually we are constantly buffeted by the south-easterly wind, known as the Cape Doctor on its gentler days. It does help to keep us cool, but sometimes it's been a battle to walk upright in a straight line & our hairstyles have been wilder than usual.

Once we reached False Bay, on the Indian Ocean side of the Cape, we stopped at Boulders to make the acquaintance of the African penguins, otherwise known as Jackass penguins because of the braying call they make. There were hundreds of them! Some were splashing on the water's edge, paddling & swimming. Others stood over a single egg each, laid in shallow dips scraped out of the sand higher up on the open beach or under bushes & trees. It was obviously hot work - they all stood with their heads back, beaks agape, panting in the relentless sun. However, a shift system seemed to be in operation. The males & females take turns standing over the eggs & we saw a "changing of the guard" while we were there.

Our final destination for the day was the Cape of Good Hope National Park. We stopped briefly on the way to watch a troop of baboons meandering along the roadside. One young male was missing one of its front paws - cut off at the wrist by traditional medicine men. A frequent occurrence apparently - sad. When we got to the Park, we left the van to cycle for a few miles to Buffels Bay for a picnic lunch & a quick dip in the sea. Actually, only the Scots ventured into the water (there were 3 of us - John from Larkhall swelled the Scottish contingent for the day). A gentleman from Korea was very taken with Howard's body hair - he kept stroking Howard while exclaiming "It is lovely, so lovely"!! Can't wait till we get to Asia!!

Suitably refreshed, we then slogged up the path to the Cape Point lighthouse where we could look out over the ocean towards the Antartic & be cooled by a very stiff breeze. We had great views, too, of the Cape of Good Hope - & the line of parked cars along the roadside! We had always pictured it as a remote, wild, storm-tossed place. It came as a surprise that it turned out to be a tourist hotspot & that we were there on a perfect summer's day. Maybe we'll come back mid-winter? No. perhaps not!

It was a beautiful spot & we enjoyed the walk out to the tip, along the top of the cliffs. On the way we saw Ostriches, Dassies (Rock Hyrax, closest living relation of elephants) & the rare Cape Zebras, which are more subdued in their colouring than the more common zebras. We were lucky to see them but you'll just have to take our word for it since the photo didn't work out!

Not a white Christmas!

Christmas in Cape Town

The festive season turned out to be pleasantly low key in this part of the world. We have only seen 3 Christmas trees & they didn't appear until a day or two before the 25th. No crowds intent on bankrupting themselves in the shops, no Christmas muzak wherever you go, no tinsel - the monstrous commercialisation is thankfully absent.

Christmas Day itself, though, was a lovely family occasion which we shared with Beth Uriel. Our contribution was to help with the cooking & the mounds of washing up, as well as driving everyone to church (at 8.30 AM!). Before church, we all shared a special breakfast of mango juice, scrambled eggs, bacon(well, we didn't share that bit!), pancakes, bananas & caramel sauce. 364 days a year breakfast is just porridge. Dinner was a feast of stuffed turkey & vast heaps of meat cooked on the braai (barbecue) accompanied by various salads & followed by trayfuls of freshly baked chocolate brownies.

An amply padded Santa (the petite Seanah did the honours even though Howard has just the beard, if not the stomach any more, for the part!) handed out the presents. The guys had all chosen gifts for themselves to the value of 350 rands (26 pounds). Most chose shoes or trousers with the notable exception of Wandicile who is now the proud owner of a yoga exercise ball. In addition they were given a Pick'n'Pay voucher of 100 rands, toiletries & a cap decorated with the MeKasi logo by the Brodie team, taking the chance to demonstrate our artistic skills!? We gave a house present of a new DVD player. We were also given a present - 2 tickets for the cinema. Unexpected but a lovely surprise. We just have to agree on a film & find a way to get there & back.

In amongst all the hustle & bustle, Fiona managed to find time to speak to all of her family in Scotland which was lovely.

Back at our hosts' house there were celebrations too. Charles is the pastor of a church which has 60 members, mostly refugees from places such as Zimbabwe, Rwanda & the Congo. Normally they meet in a room in the city centre, but on Christmas Day everyone was invited out to Os for a service in the house at 9.30 AM followed by a day of food, drink & relaxation. The last stragglers were just leaving as we returned at 9pm. We were sorry to have missed the party & howard was particularly disappointed when he dicovered that there had been a singalong, mostly of Simon & Garfunkel numbers. Fiona did her best to compensate - the day ended with 2 part singing in near harmony! (Really she tried!!)

Happy Christmas to all our readers.............

Creative recycling!
Would that all old plastic bottles looked so beautiful!