Switching Hemispheres

Read more blogs written by Rebecca Wales at: rebeccaisabroad.wordpress.com

Hello from Cape Town South Africa! Cape Town is absolutely lovely, but reliable Wi-Fi is a rarity, which explains the lack of recent blog posts. We started our time in Cape Town in an area called Sea Point, which as the name explains, is located on the water. It was shocking how familiar the city felt right away after being in Vietnam. We were warned though, that we shouldn’t let ourselves get too comfortable due to the high rates of crime throughout South Africa. We were lucky enough to stay right on the water by a running trail. Running by the ocean was amazing after dealing with constant smog and unpleasant smells in Hanoi. I also found out that I would be living with Sarah again, which made me even more excited for my time in South Africa!

After two nights in Sea Point, we got on a bus and headed to Salt River, which is another are of Cape Town. We then met our host families, and headed to our home stays. Sarah and I are staying with a brother and sister in their 60s. Neither of them are married, and they have an absolutely hilarious dynamic. They have been extremely welcoming, accommodating, and a fantastic resource for us as we navigate Cape Town.

The community that we are staying in is one of the oldest Muslim communities of Cape Town, and all of the families that we are staying with practice Islam. It has been an eye-opening experience to learn about Islam and the day-to-day life of our host mother who is deeply involved in her religion. Our house is Halaal, which means that there is no pork in the house, meats are butchered in a Halaal style, no alcohol is allowed, and the dog needs to stay outside the house. I am so happy that we were placed with our host mom, Mia, because she is super relaxed, and lets us do whatever we want to do as long as we are safe. I also love living in a house with so many animals. There is a dog named Lucky, eight parakeets, and an African Grey parrot named Sky. Our host family purchased lucky as a guard dog, but he would be more likely to lick somebody to death before he ever did anything aggressive.

In our free time my friends and I have tried our best to explore greater Cape Town as much as we can. We have spent a few afternoons at Camps Bay, which is a beautiful beach with nice restaurants and shops right along the water.

We also took the train to Simon Town, which is knows for South African Penguins. We took the train there, which was a big deal for us because the trains in South Africa are known for being so unsafe. We went in a group of 22 students and sat in the first class car of the train to try to ensure our safety. We were warned by our program coordinator and our host family about how it isn’t uncommon for entire train cars to be mugged in transit. Fortunately, we had a safe ride without any complications. We then explored Simons Town as best as we could with winds gusting over 30 miles per hour. We hung out with penguins, had a nice lunch by the water, and came home with an incredible amount of sand in our hair without even going in the water.

We had the privilege of visiting a progressive mosque in Cape Town called the Claremont Main Road Mosque. The mosque has been very politically active in terms of gender justice, fighting xenophobia, and fighting poverty in the area. We also visited a Kramat on Signal Hill, which is a type of Islamic pilgrimage site. There are multiple Karamts all located at beautiful sites around Cape Town.

This past weekend the majority of our program woke up early on Saturday and hiked Table Mountain. Table Mountain is one of the seven natural wonders of the world, and it definitely deserves that title. The hike was tiring and steep but very rewarding.

Unfortunately it got pretty cloudy once we got to the top, but it was pretty cool to be in the clouds. Due to our legs being so tired and the thick cloud cover we decided to take the cable car down.

During my time here I have found myself thinking a lot about how quickly the social landscape and demographics change as you drive outside of Cape Town. The effects apartheid are still visible throughout South Africa. As you drive outside of the city you can see townships lining the highway and filling every free piece of land available. In just a 20 minute drive you can go from a community with houses costing millions to overcrowded temporary settlements with hundreds of thousands of shack homes. South Africa is also experiencing a very serious drought right now, and the dams are only at 18% of their normal capacity. The government is running campaigns to educate people on how to save water, and there are less than 100 days of drinking water left before the entire city is without safe water. I was incredibly aware of the privilege that comes with living in a place with reliable water resources and enough money for food and water in emergencies.

We took a day trip to a township called Lawndale that originated from migrant worker Hostels. The hostels were made for men only, and they were only allowed to go home and visit their families for 2 weeks out of the year. As a result, many women and their families illegally moved to Lwandle to stay with their husbands. The township has since expanded to over 40,000 people living in temporary shacks with limited sanitation resources. I asked a woman there what she thought would happen when the water ran out due to the drought and she simply stayed that people were going to die.

There is a lot of corruption in the government here, and there is very varied access to resources based on location and the economic class of people. Fires are a huge problem in the townships, as there is very limited access to water to control fires and many structures are a mix of wood and metal with unregulated electric wiring. It can take hours for a fire engine or ambulance to arrive on scene regardless of where you are in Cape Town due to lack of resources for the number of people. It is unclear what will happen when the city runs out of water and where they will allocate the very little water that is left until the city gets a good amount of rain.

I am loving Cape Town, but after getting over my initial awe of the natural beauty surrounding the city, I find myself thinking about how daunting the issues are that are faced by people living here every day. Next week we are headed to Arniston, which is a rural fishing village. I am sad that we are leaving the city, but also excited to meet an new home stay family and see the sights in another amazing community.

#SouthAfrica