So here I am in Cape Town, South Africa. And here I am to share with all of you my adventures of the next five months. But, I thought I’d start by sharing with all of you a little bit about Cape Town…or what I have learned in the past few days…so you can get the gist of what it is like here.
Let’s start with the most obvious elephant in the room. Apartheid in South Africa ended a little less than 20 years ago. While that is quite a long time for some, not much progress has happened here in terms of living conditions. Most blacks and coloreds (South Africans use color only as a form of identification, and not as a derogatory term) still live in the townships they were forced to live in many years ago, and the houses of whites still stick out like a sore thumb on the hills of Table Mountain. The mix of poverty and wealth mixed together is astounding. Today, on the side of the road I saw a man and woman collecting sticks from brush to make a fire. They were curled up in blankets. It was getting close to dark and at night there is a chill in the air, and clearly the side of the road was their home. In front of them stood a stack of chopped wood. Presumably they made a living by selling this wood on the side of the road. As I was situated a bit up a mountain, passing this couple while on a tour bus, I looked over the couple and into the valley. Across the valley stood another mountain. Scattered all along the lower hills many mansions had been built. Here, with one look, I could see richness and prosperity and extreme poverty and hardship. It’s true what many people say, the mix of rich and poor in this city is truly unsettling.
On to the weather. Technically it is winter here in Cape Town. Winters are mostly full of rain and the temperature can be from 40°C-70°C ballpark (though they measure temperature in Fahrenheit). However, lucky for me, I have yet to spot a drop of rain…knock on wood. Though there has been no rain, the weather here is quite tricky to decipher. I quote my coordinator here at UCT, Ida Cooper, when I say “Cape Town has it’s own microclimate and can have four seasons in one day.” In the mornings and at night it has been relatively cold, and with no heating in the apartment, I have had to bundle up in pants and sweatshirts. But suddenly during the middle of the day, the heat of the African sun becomes unbearable and I find myself in shorts and a t-shirt. Basically, the winters here are extremely unpredictable.
Now of course I couldn’t talk about my life here without discussing food. But, the food so far has been a bit surreal. Cape Town is mainly known for its meats, and odd ones at that such as ostrich, crocodile, and warthog. Without much of a steady cuisine to call its own, Cape Town is filled with restaurants of all types, as is usually expected in big cities. It is a bit weird though that while I’ve been here I’ve eaten Indian food, Italian food, and American food, but not yet any South African food. I have, however, succumbed to the South African ritual of drinking tea instead of coffee. Most of you should know by now that I am a huge coffee drinker, and have at least one cup a day, usually two, sometimes three. Thus it was quite the letdown to find out the coffee drunk here is mostly instant, unless of course you find a fine coffee house. The norm is to drink tea. True is the saying when in South Africa, do as the South Africans, and that is what I will do. Currently I have purchased for myself some green tea. I bought the tea on my first shopping trip as a real person. I suddenly have no meal plan and no parents to cook for me. I have to fend for myself now in the kitchen. So, on my first grocery store run in Cape Town, and my first grocery store run ever done just for me and not my family, I purchased mainly the necessities: milk, orange juice, eggs, cheddar cheese, green apples, carrots, chick peas, bran flake cereal, butter, pasta, wheat bread, and of course green tea. This all came to a total of R150, a little over $20.
Finally, let me describe to you where I am living. I am living in Devonshire Hill Apartments, 13 Grotto Road, Rondebosch. The apartment complex is gated and houses at least three buildings that I know of. Rondebosch is the name of the sort of area I am living in, though it’s still a part of Cape Town. My apartment door is gated and the door itself has two locks, so three locks in total to lock and unlock in order to get in and out of the apartment (But I’m not complaining...make it 20 locks, as long as I don’t get anything stolen, as crime here really is as common as people drinking tea). Before getting into the apartment, if one turns around, there is an amazing view of Rondebosch and the areas beyond until you see another mountain range. Walking into the apartment, there is a stairway on the right, a bathroom and the kitchen to the left, the living room in front of you, and the dining room with a balcony, attached to the living room. Both the living room and dining room boast immaculate views of Table Mountain. Up the stairs is a shower and sink room on the left, a second bathroom with just a toilet, and a single bedroom. To the right is a double room with big windows and a single room with a balcony, both again harboring views of Table Mountain. My room is the single with the balcony. It is small and sparse, but the view is like a dream.
I know I said I was done but there are still a few more subjects to touch on. The Internet. The only free Internet here is in the library at UCT (University of Cape Town). Thus I was unable to let my parents know I was safe until a few days after I had arrived when I was finally able to pay R5 for 15 minutes of internet at an Internet café. There is also a shop down on Main Street that offers wireless if you buy their goods. Here at the apartment, you pay for Internet per megabyte. Unfortunately, pictures that pop up all over any site on the Internet take up a lot of download space, a lot of megabytes. Therefore, I had to unclick a button that automatically downloaded images. When I go to Google the “Google” image no longer comes up and facebook is a bore because I can’t see anyone’s pictures. I am really now only using the Internet for email or to look things up. Now, money. The South African currency is called Rand. There are approximately R7 (seven rand) to a dollar, everything here must be divided by seven to obtain the amount in dollars. Because of this, everything here seems relatively cheap. On a taxi ride one night I ended up only spending R10, a little over $1.
Off to celebrate Nelson Mandela’s Birthday!
(The first picture is of my first shopping trip, the second is the first sunrise I witnessed from the front door of my apartment, and the third is a sampling of what some of the Rand bills look like.)
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