Day 1 in Cape Town

On our first full day in Cape Town, we woke to very windy weather with the prospect of rain. Unfortunately, due to the weather the ferry going out to Robben Island was cancelled, so our wonderful delegation manager, Linda, made some quick changes to our itinerary.

We headed out on the bus for a city tour. We hardly got under way when the Springbok Experience museum (the Rugby museum). The students learned about the history of rugby in South Africa and how the rugby stars are a close equivalent to our football players. They had a chance to learn the basics of how to play the game and the different positions. There were even some hands on, interactive areas to actually give it a try.

From there, we headed to Langa Township where we had lunch at the Eziko Cooking School. The head chef there explained to us before the meal the purpose of the school to teach local youth a trade - as sort of an apprenticeship. After some time at the school, they go on to local restaurants and hotels to work as cooks. They made us a traditional African meal which the students seemed to really seemed to enjoy it.

After lunch we headed to Gugat'shebe (tourism information/information bureau). We split our delegation into 2 groups - one group went to a drumming class while the other did a walking tour of Langa Township with a guide. In the drumming class, the students learned a couple of different songs, both drumming and signing. Our instructors were quite enthusiastic and everyone had a good time. On the walking tour, we learned the history of Langa Township, which is the oldest black township in Cape Town. The township really built up as the men came there to work and live in the "hostels" and since the women could not live with them, they move on the outskirts to be near their men. When the men came to the township, they were first "cleansed" in a type of a bath or hosing down with unknown chemicals in order to get rid of diseases (they white people blamed the blacks for the bubonic plague) and then were sent to the home affair office to get their Dompass (stupid pass) which were papers that blacks had to carry to show that were permitted to be traveling in the area they were (usually just to and from work). These were similar to the free passes that gave slaves in the US.

We also walked through the township where we welcomed into a few homes to see how they live - some of the homes were converted shipping containers split in half to house 2 families. Basically all they had room for was a bed and maybe a stand to hold clothes and such. As soon as our buses arrived, of course, all the children came to meet us and wanted us hold them, walk with them holding hands, give them hugs and attention. As always, our students obliged and welcomed the interaction.
From Langa Township we headed to dinner at BlowFish - a nice restaurant overlooking the Atlantic sea border where the some of the kids tried sushi and then enjoyed the sunset while having dinner.
Finally it was back to the hotel and bed getting ready for our day at school.