Tuesday, March 29th, 2005- Cape Town, South Africa

This morning I planned on going to Simon’s Town to see the penguins at Boulder Beach. I had gathered a group of Amanda, Steve, Chelsea, Kara, and Linda but after we found out that the taxi would be too expensive we all just kind of split up. Amanda and I headed down to Green Market Square to do a little shopping.

In the afternoon I headed out on a Semester at Sea trip to the District Six Museum and Township visit. The first stop was the District Six Museum chronicled the events of the former township called District six which was located in Cape Town. It was quite an interesting museum.

After the museum we headed to the Langa Township about 30 minutes outside of Cape Town. As we went through the streets of the township we finally stopped in front of some communal apartments that can fit up to 16 families in them. As we disembarked the bus we were surrounded by little kids asking what our names were. They didn’t really care what it was because they didn’t wait for an answer and just continued to ask the question over and over again to the next person. The communal apartment we visited was quite small for 4 families to live in. The walls were bare and the conditions not so great. While the guide was telling us about the apartments all these little kids surrounded Josh to rub his shaved head, one kid even rubbed his head against Josh’s.

Back outside, we boarded the bus and headed to the Langa Township Cultural Center (which is kind of like a YMCA) to look at how they had instituted a job training program. The program centered around making handicrafts such as metals, pottery, etc. We looked at the workshops and on the way out saw to kids practicing their dancing.

Our next stop was at another township about 15 minutes away from Langa. It was made up of shack-type houses. We walked around and saw the outdoor outhouses with locks that 3 families would share each. I met a woman named Elizabeth who asked me to take her picture because she had had her picture taken by an English tourist some time ago and he had not sent her a copy of the picture as promised. I took her picture and promised her that I would send it when I got home.

The one thing that hit home with me after 8 years away from I township was that I realized not much had changed. An example of this was when one girl on our bus was made fun of by these kids (probably around ages 10-13) on the street. I felt for this girl because I remember going through the exact same thing on my visit last time.

Other than that one slight mishap, it was an amazing experience that I am sure to remember.