Robben: Jan 21st & 22nd

Jan 21^st

Today we woke up early to head to Robben Island, the small island off the coast of Cape Town where Nelson Mandela was spent 18 of his 27 years of imprisonment. This island was also prison to thousands of others, for hundreds of years before Mandela. We took a high-speed ferry named the Sikhululekile from the V&A Waterfront to Robben Island, and it was a stunning ride. I was up on the roof and couldn’t help but sing under my breath.Amusingly, the Mali soccer team was also on board, and when they came into contact with the dozen or so female UConn students riding on the roof with me, I witnessed the most prolonged and enthusiastic photo shoot of my life. Every soccer played wanted one or ten photos with a cadre of woman, and each woman wanted at least a few with the soccer players. Needless to say, we made quite a few friends, despite a total language barrier. See? We’re not that different after all.

 

Prayers and Proteas: Jan 19th & 20th

Jan 19^th

On Sunday morning we attended mass at a Baptist church in the black township of Guguletu. Needless to say, this was a big turnaround from the previous night. The “Township Faith Experience” really lived up to its name. We were provided with the words to most of the songs, all of which were sung in Xhosa, like much of the sermon. As many of you may know, I like to sing, and soon I began to sing, with the words and then without. In an entirely unexpected move, the preacher singled Drew and myself out after one song break and thanked us for singing along with his congregation, even though we clearly did not speak a word of Xhosa. That was really cool. I sang and danced my way through that whole mass, and ultimately ended up doing so in the aisle, after being invited to join the rejoicers in the center of the church.