Robben Island & Townsihps

April 1, 2010
Day 2 South Africa:

Today was one of my favorite days in South Africa! Chris and I woke up bright and early to tour Robben Island, the maximum-security jail where Nelson Mandela spent time during Apartheid.  The island is just off the coast so we took a 20 min boat ride over and then boarded buses for our tour around the entire island.  There are people living there today and a school for the children. The jail, however, has been turned into a peace museum that spreads awareness about Apartheid.  We saw the limestone quarries where the prisoners were forced to work and even Nelson Mandela’s actual prison cell.  An ex-prisoner toured us around and spoke of his experience from the mid 1970s until he was released in 1991.  After our tour Chris and I stopped at a beautiful restaurant outside at the Waterfront for a nice lunch before our tour of the townships that afternoon.  We ordered calamari and a bottle of South African Chardonnay to start the meal.  It was so much fun sitting in the shade watching the busy waterfront and enjoying our lunch. 

We met Jimmy and Flicker at the hotel next to our ship for our afternoon township tour.  First we went to an Apartheid museum where we learned about the forced separation and movement of the black population to the outskirts of the city.  We visited three different townships today where we got to play with the children, speak to the adults, and support their micro-enterprise initiatives by purchasing souvenirs.  Compared to other countries we’ve visited, South Africa has been the easiest to navigate because English is the primary spoken language.  Naturally, we were able to learn more from these townships because we conversed easily with the locals.  I brought stickers to give out to the kids so we were quite the hit!  We were spinning kids around in the sand, giving piggyback rides to multiple kids at once and seeing who could make the scariest face.  Also, both the adults and children absolutely loved getting their picture taken and viewing it after.  We visited one local brewery inside a shack made of tin and wood scraps and had the chance to try the beer out of a big bucket.  We visited several homes where 5 people would share one bed by sleeping in shifts or having the children sleep outside in the dirt.  We also visited a pool hall where we joined the locals in having a beer and playing a game of pool.  While the guys played their game I chatted with the ladies there and they taught me how to dance ‘African Style’.  Needless to say, it was hard to leave each stop and was an incredibly eye opening day. 

Once back at the ship I met up with Tammy, Margaret, and Mychaela for a quick turn around to go to the town of Constantia for dinner with some of Tammy’s family friends.   We arrived in this absolutely gorgeous neighborhood (such a stark difference from earlier in the day) and were welcomed wholeheartedly.  Their house was nicer than any house I know at home and beautifully decorated.  We sat for hours eating our first home cooked meal in months and enjoying conversation about life in South Africa.  The children were our age so we laughed comparing cultures and telling them about our journey around the world.  Completely exhausted but determined to go out for a little bit we met up with Chris, Jimmy, and Flicker at Mitchell’s Waterfront Brewery to try the famous ‘Milk & Honey Beer’ before calling it a night.