A Piece of Heaven

So here it is quite plain and simply: I LOVE AFRICA. Leaving Africa was just as hard as leaving home, and just as painful to say goodbye to. I am making a vow to myself that I will come back to Cape Town in the next 5 years, and spend a month living there at least. The thing is- once it is in your system, it’s really addictive. The entire ship has a mad love affair with Cape Town. Here is the three step system to falling in love with Africa. Hook. Line. Sinker.

Part 1. Hakuna Matata?

The hook:
We arrived to South Africa to the Victoria Wharf waterfront with the backdrop of Table Mountain. Restaurants and bars with outside patios and strings of lights line one side behind a row of tugboats, and other smaller ships. On the other is an immense mall. A cute yellow hotel with a string of palm trees in front of it is directly in front of our ship. Next to it is Victoria Wharf. There is a four story mall complete with Louis Vuitton to Dior to Build-A-Bear to Pick- n- Pay grocery store. Along the waterfront are more restaurants outside. We headed directly to the airport to head to Durban for our safari. Then we took a three hour bus ride to our game park. Our tents are in the smack dab middle of it. No fence. No guards. Just a line of 5 tents, 3 small huts, and a large deck. Below the deck is a large field with water running through it and eventually a rock that looks a little like Pride Rock (Lion King?). After dinner we were sitting around the campfire and noticed some elephants congregating in that field aforementioned. Well, one mama and two babies turned into, oh, 50 or so. It was great and all until one growled. Haha, when you’re sitting at a campfire in the middle of Animal Planet, and you hear a deep growl coming from what seems two feet behind you, you start to wonder what the hell you thought when you were like ‘Safari, YES PLEASE.’ They piled us all onto the deck and hustled us to bed. The next morning the elephants had plowed down massive trees blocking us in in several places. Very intelligent and powerful creatures. We spent the next day driving, finding animals. An elephant followed us in our car and continued to play next to our car. That night we went out again. A mama rhino and her tw3o month old baby crossed right next to us. The dad was only a couple feet away from us, starting to get mad for shining the light in its eyes. At one point he looked like he was ready to charge. We spent that second night around the campfire with our eggs- don’t ask. Needless to say we almost broke out in a rotten egg fight, but I caught mine. The final day we said goodbye to our campground. On our way out a giraffe- what I wanted to see most- was just moseying in front of our bus. During this entire experience, I couldn’t think anything other than, ‘I am never voluntarily doing this ever again. Ever.’ I mean, at one point my roommate opened our door and a hyena was just looking at her. During take-off, I realized I wasn’t nervous about flying. At all. Things take a little bit more perspective. Maybe I would do a safari again after all.

Part 2. Stop the Police Brutality!

The line:
You know those commercials that have pot-bellied kids staring up at you with wide eyes, asking for money to feed them? Enter Green Park Township preschool children. Through Operation Hunger, we went to a local township where people live in what appears to be forts. Remember when we were kids and we would use blankets and random trinkets for forts? Well, that is what they live in. Some barely have tarp covering them with bricks holding it down. Home sweet home for thousands of people. Our first stop was the preschool. It was a tin hut painted bright yellow with green handprints. There were not windows, but cut outs, and the ceiling was bleak with one doll in the middle of the makeshift rafters. Before we even entered we heard the sound of children singing ever so cute. But when they saw us they became very quiet and some even started crying. Most will only see whites when they are getting their shot, which isn’t done delicately. Point blank: they are terrified of white people. We began to play with the children while others weighed them to see who was malnourished and who was healthy. Play is an overstatement. They stood in a small circle, gripping onto each other avoiding the gringos at all costs. Finally, one child warmed up after 10 helpless minutes and everyone seemed to open up. Before you knew it, kids were swinging on swings, running around, and playing soccer. They came up to you wanting to be held. And pictures. You took a picture and they wanted to see it. They wanted to see what they look like. I have countless pictures of little kids just staring up at me, looking so innocent. While we were leaving, four or five kids who had been sitting in my lap and taking pictures with me all started waving their tiny little hands, and saying ‘bye bye’. Even thinking about it now… Wow. After the preschool, we headed to the high school. They had been preparing for Mr. and Mrs. Valentines Day pageant and we were the lucky ones to go on that particular day. The high school was further into this particular township. On the way there we saw more of the hut-like structures, and one of them stuck out in my mind. Scribbled in paint next to the high school was ‘Stop this police brutality’. The high school was pretty impressive considering. It was maybe the size of your average courtyard with classrooms circling the center. As soon as we entered the gym we were greeted with a mass of loud cheers. I felt like a celebrity. Hell, we were treated like them. We had a special section near the front and everyone was so excited to see us. They had African rap music blasting and students would just jump onto the floor and start dancing. Everyone was singing and dancing in a huge pile next to the stage. There was a minute or two that was slightly awkward. But one person jumped up and started dancing and then everyone did and it was just incredible. They started to cheer and get excited and we all started dancing together. How do you describe a boundary transcended with a gesture so simple? I just remember thinking to myself over and over again- I’m dancing with a bunch of South Africans in a township high school in the middle of South Africa. Like, who the hell gets to do that? So random and yet I don’t remember when I had laughed so hard. After the pageant we headed back to the other side of the township. We had a meeting with the council about the results of the weigh in. You see, a year ago every one of those kids were malnourished. Because of Operation Hunger- and the kind of work we did- only 3 were severely malnourished, while the majority are now normal weight. They were so grateful and tried their best to welcome us warmly. They had made little posters welcoming us and showing our ‘entertainment programme’. The little girls came up and danced for us, a little girl named Isabella sang for us, and they all did another dance. They thanked us immensely and told us how happy they were here. The women in charge told us how she will die there, and that this community means everything to her. After everything was said and done, we gave them boxes of food with bags of apples a couple coloring books and the like. Something to think about the next time we eat out, huh. As we were leaving, some of the girls had brought stickers to give the children. Huge piles of kids crowded the girls and put them on their cheeks and ears and posing for pictures in mass amounts. One mother came up to someone asking her to take a picture with her kids. Two people came up to me asking me to ‘shoot them’. One was surprised when they saw what they looked like and ran away screaming. To peel yourself away from that…As we were walking down the streets people were coming out of their homes waving and smiling. Everywhere. They just emerged with the most heartfelt of smiles just so happy to see us. A row of kids from the preschool were saying goodbye from underneath the tree, waving their little hands. As we got on the bus, they stood around it. One even walked on the bus with his apple, smiling and laughing. These people never asked for anything. They didn’t beg or complain. They were happy, utterly happy with everything as it was. It rubbed off on you. If I should be lucky enough to find success, I know where I want some of that money to go. It was life-changing to meet those people.

Part 3. My Balloon of Happiness is Full.

The sinker:
After my safari, I made it out every night. The first night, after dinner at the wharf, I went to Long Street which is a strip with several bars, clubs, and restaurants. On my way in the taxi, I started to panic that I had been pick-pocketed and removed my camera from my hand. I’m a little bitter about the rest of that story. How about a lot bitter? The second night, after the township, I was feeling exhausted and wanted to go in early. My friends and I still wanted to talk and decided to go to Cantina Tequila which is a Mexican Restaurant and bar next to the ship. On our way out, someone had mentioned the Semester at Sea shirt my friend Mike was wearing. That turned into a whole night affair with 6 South Africans lovingly dubbed Jojo, Babyface, Roachy, B-man, and Buttercup. Don’t ask why I named them that. Anyways, we spent the night talking along the waterfront while other passerbyer’s from SAS would jump in and join us. That’s what I love about us, we’re our own little community here. We planned on meeting them again the next day. After a day of shopping at the Green Market, Valerie and I had lunch at a café on the wharf. A burger! It’s been a while since one of those for me. We went to Cantina Tequila and continued to talk with other SAS people and having drinks. Later, we met up with our friends and had dinner with them. We went to Stones, which is a little club on Long Street. We spent the night on the balcony and dancing inside. South Africans dance very different. Saying goodbye was too hard, so we decided to meet up with them again the next day. Our final day. Buttercup drove us to the flea market where we spent an hour or so. Then we went on Signal Hill which overlooks the city. It was an absolutely perfect day. Then we went to Camps Bay and played in the ocean. We sat and talked on the reefs. Afterwards we went to Cubana, a bar and restaurant, that is gorgeous. If you ever happen to find yourself in South Africa, I highly suggest it. Their sweet chili sauce is bomb. The entire day I couldn’t stop saying how happy I was. If my happiness filled a balloon it would be huge. Haha… Buttercup took us back to the wharf and we spent the rest of the time visiting Roachy, B man, Babyface, and Jojo at work. Saying goodbye to them was so hard. I’m going to miss you guys! But I’ll see you in 5 years. There you have it. Hook, line, and sinker. From the get go I expected Africa to be one of my favorite stops, if not my favorite. The other places have a lot to stand up to. The only complaint I have is that we left too soon. There is so much personality exuding from these people and this place. I still have so much I have to do: shark diving, Robben Island, Boulder Beach, Table Mountain, Stellenbosch, Winelands, etc. I have to say, I think I left a little piece of my heart back in Africa.