For starters, those are my roommates top left. Ian and Matt respectively. That's just after climbing Table. Top right is my room in 10 Kendal. Bland, I know. But I love it. Bottom left are Fran, myself, Olivia, and Brittany at a club called Tiger Tiger. The wonderful Sophie took the picture. Bottom right is a pickup soccer match in Ocean View, a township about an hour's drive from Cape Town. I just really like that picture. I think this kind of shows you the diverse things we've been able to do here; hiking, going out, and learning about the people of this country. This past weekend we did this really awesome tour called Striking Common Chords, where we visited two townships, one coloured (this is where I explain that coloured is not a derogatory term here, but in fact what ethnically mixed- race people are called. They are also called Cape Malays, and many descend from slaves that were brought to South Africa during the Dutch slave trade) and one black. Apartheid was screwed up for a lot of reasons, not the least of which was the segregation of different races into what are called townships. Like with like, if you get the idea. Many people were forcibly removed from their homes and onto small, poorly resourced tracks of land. Coloured townships were given slightly better treatment than black townships, and the effects of this appalling system are still all too apparent. It's weird to think that the fancy, upscale mall down the road from me was build on top of people's bulldozed homes. The coloured township we visited was Q-town, in an area called Bonteheuwel. We were brought to a relatively large schoolroom where a group of older men sat on chairs before us and told us about the music that defined their culture- Goemba. It's music that's very specific to Cape Town, and has a big creole influence. Imagine guitars, banjos, drums, and a chorus of young men singing old slave hymns- the songs of their forefathers, as they called them. It was incredible. Anyone who knows me knows how much I love music, so having the chance to hear and then participate in making this music was incredibly fun for me. We sang a song about the Alibama, a slave ship, in Afrikaans. After some time in Q-town, we headed over to the black township Langa, where a man named Dizu welcomed us into his home. He's a really successful musician who has made a career out of performing the traditional African instruments and preserving the traditions of his ancestors. We got to play drums and listen to some of the coolest, most interesting music I have ever heard. Dizu's mother played two really interesting ancient string instruments, one of which is supposed to be played naked. They also sang in Xhosa, a beautiful language that is spoken widely over the Western Cape. It's a language that's really musical, and full of clicks. My favorite instrument that Dizu and his group played was the Mbira, a tiny little iron instrument from Zimbabwe that has little keys like a piano. I would love to learn how to play it. After spending the afternoon with Dizu and eating a delicious dinner cooked by his extremely pregnant wife, we went back over to Q-town for a parade around the streets. I could have honestly done without it, but it was really evident that a lot of the kids of the neighborhood were having a really good time, and really liked to ask us for our umbrellas that we were given to parade with. I gave mine away to a couple of adorable little children, who I hope have enjoyed it.
Some things I've noticed:
- It's really common not to wear shoes here.
- Civil rights issues are still and will continue to be a big issue. For those who have read about the events in the University of the Free State, you know that race relations are not yet
mended.
- Common ways to greet a person are "Howzit?" and "Is it?"
- Springbok, Kudu, and I assume other kinds of antelope, are delicious. Same goes for ostrich.
Feta cheese is hugely popular, not quite sure why.
- Construction, roadwork, and really anything else gets done really slowly. Cape Town is
infamous for its laid-back attitude.
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