Jan 23rd
I began to feel like my normal self by this morning. Compared with the wine-infused gaiety of yesterday morning, today was a somber and emotional affair. We toured several of the communities on the Cape Flats, including Langa, Guguletu, and Khayelitsha. I was also able to meet a contact from the program who I’m very interested in learning from while here in Cape Town, more on that later. We saw the monuments to the Guguletu Seven and Amy Biehl, both very emotional moments. I have too much to think over and unpack about this day. We were in the city for jazz later.
Jan 24th
This morning was our public transport exercise. Vernon broke us into small groups and assigned us to travel to certain locations using public transportation. My group was told to travel to Wynberg via train, which I was excited for. It was a lengthy walk to the train station, where we waited over 45 minutes for a reverse-peak normal service train to Wynberg. When it did arrive, we were waiting on the wrong end of the platform for 1st class, so we had no choice but to jump in on coach, which was pretty crowded and a little sketchy. Also sketchy was how one had to manually push open the doors in order to exit the train at a station. I can’t help but wonder what happens if you open the doors on the wrong side of the train… I’m sure they’d probably just open.
Jan 25th
Today we went out on excursion to Muizenberg and Kalk Bay, two oceanside towns south of the city. Muizenberg is right on False Bay, with a beautiful beach with really warm water, and it’s just a half hour ride on the Metro from Rondebosch. As soon as we found a spot on the beach, I was off running into the water. It seems so strange to be back in the ocean in January, especially with the water so warm and all.
After some time spent in Muizenberg we traveled down the Cape Peninsula to Kalk Bay, a coastal town with a lot of beaches and tide pools, shops and fish markets. We had lunch at a place called Kalkies right on the water, where I ate my own and half of someone else’s serving of fish and chips. We had time after lunch so I wandered over to a nearby patch of beach between a few dry docks; we had a view of the beach from our lunch place. The jury’s out on whether the families at the beach were very poor or homeless- the homeless question didn’t really register with me, I just saw kids playing at the beach, even if some of them were just in their underwear. I don’t know.
What David Does 