Day 2: I started the day today by going sky diving!! It was such an awesome/terrifying experience! I was actually very calm the whole time until they opened the door. Then I got terrified and wouldn’t swing one of my legs down to go. The guy that was attached to me pushed my leg out and we went! I bought the video and you can watch for yourself when I’m home if you’d like :] After that adrenalin rush we needed a relaxing evening, so we went to the local soccer game. I’m not a huge soccer fan, but it was fun and cool to see where the World Cup was.
Day 3: We started the day with totally different plans than what ended up happing today-for the better! We were supposed to take a tour of the peninsula point all day with a tour, but my friend overslept and we missed it. So we ended up going to the main waterfront area to see what else we could do and I ran into my friend Kari. She was with her roommate from home’s cousin, Adam, and they offered for us to join them in hiking Lion’s Head. I was so excited because that was the one thing I wanted to do while here! It was so much fun! After that we met with Adam’s friend and told them what our original plans were. They offered to drive us around and show us other places that were good to see in the area. We went to some famous beaches and went to the penguin beach. We drove for a few hours just looking at the view and having them point out different buildings and landscapes to us. So today all worked out! We did what we were planning and so much more! I loved this day because I got to hang out with some locals and have some good conversations about history in South Africa, politics, and things like that.
Day 4: Today I started my 2-day group safari/wine tour. Today we went to three different wineries on the way to the safari area. I felt very classy. We got to the hotel in the evening and they did a traditional South African barbeque for us.
Day 5: Today I went on a safari at Aquila Game Reserve. That took pretty much the whole day. Once we got back to the ship me and a friend went to the waterfront for some dinner. We were waiting for the bridge to come down for us to walk across and a bird pooped in my hair! Ugh, only me! My friend and I could not stop laughing and all the tourists were looking at us and laughing. I promised her I would put that story in my blog.
Day 6: Today I had a field trip to the South African Art museum. It was interesting, but a little disappointing. It was a lot of modern pieces and we were expecting more traditional African art. For our last few hours in Cape Town a group of us just explored the downtown area.
Reflection: The topic that stuck out to me the most during this trip was race. When I first got here I was so amazed at how much everyone was treating each other as “one for one.” I knew a little bit about the history about South Africa before arriving here. The Apartheid ended in 1994, so I was expecting to see much more of a divide between races since that piece of their history is so recent. I was happy I got to go to Robben Island the first day I was here so I could use that knowledge of their history while observing the people here. As in any place, not everyone treats people the same way. I did see and hear some racism, but I feel that the majority were “color blind” (I hate that term, but can’t think of a better way to describe it at the moment). Talking and seeing people here definitely gives you a sense of hope. Their civil rights movement was only 20 years ago and you have to remember that while you’re here. They are doing so much better than 20 years ago, but have much more to do. They are going in the right direction and getting their fast. Something like this takes closer to 100 years to unfold rather than 20, but it is still amazing to see how far they have progressed in such a short amount of time. Seeing this made me so ashamed of the United States. We went through this so many years before them and it seems that they have already made more progress than us. When I say this I mean in the average person and their ideals about race, even unconsciously. I am guilty of this as well. I try so hard to not make judgments of a person based on their race, but I do catch myself doing it sometimes. I think it is an issue that is stressed here more so people are more conscious of what they are doing, but it’s definitely an experience to remember and to continue these ideals at home. I will say this applies pretty much only to the urbanized areas. When you leave the city area segregation becomes much more prevalent. In the townships, which are the poor areas, there is still a great divide. Many of these same issues are still seen in the states and all over the world for that matter. I’m not saying this culture is perfect, all cultures are far from, but many people here give a good example of how we all should be treating each other.
I just want to stress that these are my own opinions based off what I have seen in each country for only a few days. These observations may not be fully accurate, but they are how I felt while in the country.
“One who does not look ahead remains behind”. -Brazilian Proverb
Your blogs have been inspirational and informative Linds! From the challenges to the highlights, thank you for continuing to share your feelings and experiences so we can be with you in some ways on this journey.
ReplyDeleteWe miss you!! Love from all of us, Mom