TIA

Let's see…. Docked in Cape Town, beautiful harbor that's well developed, sweet view of Table Mountain as we were docking. Rich waterfront that's well developed and full of white people and a lack of black people (the ever so present ominous theme of racial tensions in South Africa).

I had an FDP visit with Mitnick on the first day to the Khayelitsha township. If you've seen the movie District 9, the townships for the most part are exactly like the slums the prawns live in. We went on a bus tour for part of the township, went to some place where single mothers made things to sell and I got an overpriced art décor piece from there, but that's alright it was for a good cause. I brought some cotton candy for the kids but I gave it to the guy incharge of the charity place, I sure hope he gave it away to the kids. Drove on the bus some more  to see other parts of town, stopped at a bed and breakfast ran by this nice old lady. She talked about the township and how she started her B&B to help guide visitors safely through townships to explore that side of South African life. There was a bar right across the dirt path that was full of black people drinking early in the morning; I should mentions a lot of townships have very very high unemployment rates 50+%. Hoped back on a bus, went to a weaving place where all female weavers made stuff, everything was horribly overpriced. Played some minor soccer with the neighborhood kids. Then went to another B&B where the lady running it was some sort of scholarship recipient from U of Pittsburgh or something. Told her schpeel, got fed some South Africanish food. Had a walking tour of the township, kind of creepy as it was getting dark and everyone was staring at us. Got back in our bus and left. Some of the girls that were handing out stickers got mobbed by little kids as we were leaving. Note for the townships: even though most houses were built out of sheets of metal and were shantytowns that had public water sprouts and stole electricity, I peered inside a lot of them and everyone had nice furniture, working stoves, and a big TV. More thought on that later.


Also, went to Robben Island where the South African apartheid assholes kept the political prisoner… really interesting stuff about the island itself and our tour guide was a former prisoner, as well as most of the tour guides. I'm not going to spoil their wonderful and tumultuous struggle but it was inspiring to say the least. Go see it or read about it.

I'm going to gloss over South Africa, it just wasn't a memorable port ,everything was too much like America. The underlying racial tensions, however, were sweet and I made friends with a club manager named Sidney at a club that I forget the name of, got his views on South Africa as well as America. The coolest thing I did there was that me and Carter went parasailing off of Lion's Head mountain on the last day and the guys told us it was the most perfect day they had seen in 4 months for parasailing, got great footage from that. Also bought some neat wooden African stuff. Also the main bar street of Capetown, Longstreet had an asston of security guys patrolling the street, but I was told by a local that if you even go a block off of Long Street at night you're at risk of being mugged or kidnapped, no joke. Otherwise….

Conclusion: I don't foresee me coming back to South Africa. And, it's really not safe there, according to SAS, people who live there (white & black), and the overall experience.