February 18th- February 22, 2011
So for the past 24 hours (today is Feb. 18th), our ship has been floating outside of Cape Town, South Africa as we have been going in circles outside of our port because its been too windy; therefore making the waves to dangerous for our ship to sail in to the harbor. The ship has been sailing aimlessly outside of Cape Town and it has been frustrating as we can see the amazing coastline with its mountains from our ship. Luckily I decided not to go on a Safari because there have been so many people who have missed their trips and their flights out of Cape Town because our ship hasn't been able to reach our dock. I was scheduled to volunteer today with Operation Hunger at 9:00 am and hopefully its still taking place since it is 9:40 am. right now.
Friday Feb. 18th (one day after our original arrival time according to our itinerary)
Good news! The pilot was finally able to direct our ship into port and I was fortunate that my trip with Operation Hunger was just delayed a few hours. Volunteering with Operation Hunger allowed me to see a brief glimpse of the issues that have caused such controversy not only in Cape Town, but also in many parts of South Africa over the years.
The following is a brief history lesson to help you understand what a “township” is.
Back in the 1950’s, in the eighty-seven percent of the land proclaimed, "White areas," whites lived in town centers and near suburbs, while black workers were housed in more distant "townships" to serve the white economy. The current government does not have the resources to transform this pattern, but economic freedom and opportunity has slowly begun to enable citizens to create a more integrated built environment. In the meantime, the old townships remain with their black population, as miles of new shack settlements continue to increase. These “townships” are overflowing with impoverished rural migrants hoping for a better life in the environmentally overstressed urban areas.
While working with Operation Hunger, I got to play with several kids as our group volunteered at a Soup kitchen located in one of the “townships.” Here we helped record each child’s weight before any of them received food from the Soup kitchen. They need this data in order to determine which children are considered malnourished and might need medical attention. This was a fun afternoon, but it was sad to see how many children were in the line to receive food. For many of these children this was their 1st and last meal of the day. It was interesting, and also sad as the lady in charge of the soup kitchen informed us that she had to approach the government in order to receive aid. The really sad part is that the government still barely provides any aid for them. I’ve seen poverty at its worst during my junior and senior year of high school when visiting India, but here in Cape Town it was mind boggling to see the inequality that exists between the rich and the poor and how close in proximity they live to each other, yet how completely separated they are from each other. The people I met in the townships are living in the same world as the wealthy people on the waterfront, but at the same time these two groups of people are living in two completely different worlds.
The waterfront, which is where our ship was located, is like I said before, an entirely different world! From the ship, the stadium where the Semi-Finals of the World Cup took place was within a 15-20 minute walk. A mall, tons of restaurants, bars, clubs, and more were located within a distance ranging from a few yards of stepping off of the ship to a 5-10 minute drive in a taxi, and the closest beach even though the water was quite cold wasn’t far away at all! Cape Town has definitely been the most affluent place we've visited so far, but the masses of people living in poverty were located only 20 minutes outside the city! On the waterfront it felt like I was in San Diego. An Aston Martin dealership was on one corner, a BMW motorcycle dealership was on another, and there were multiple stores in between. It's crazy to think that the amazing people that I met in the townships while volunteering with Operation Hunger, who only live a few miles outside of town, may not ever get to see the waterfront.
Before I tell you more about the next 4 days in Cape Town, I want to make sure my adventures aren’t starting to sound like this entire trip is just for fun and games because its not. Even though Cape Town was one of the most amazing places I’ve ever been, it is also one of the most tragic places I’ve been. I guess I use the word tragic because of all of the sad realities that exist such as: racism, inequality, HIV AIDS etc. To elaborate on this note, the established black townships are plagued by unemployment, crime, and insecurity, including drug dealings, alcoholism, rape, domestic violence, and child abuse. Unemployment is high and rapidly increasing, with the economy losing over a million jobs since 1994. Accompanying this situation are some of the highest crime rates in the world. The education and health care systems are failing in economically depressed communities. (However, due to aid of non-profit organizations and minor changes to the education systems, slowly, but surely improvements are being made in this area). South Africa has one of the highest HIV infection rates in the world, and if successful strategies for AIDS prevention and care are not implemented, twenty-five percent of the country's young women will die before age thirty (this statistic may not be up to date but its still a large percent of women).
You get the picture! After facing this reality, but spending a week in a place that is filled with such beautiful scenery and getting to visit so many incredible “tourist hot spots”, I had a really hard time processing my thoughts and emotions after it was all said and done. However, it is still one of my favorite countries we’ve visited so far!
While I was in Cape Town I went to the top of Table Mountain. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to hike it, but at least I made it to the top to see the incredibly gorgeous view of the city below with the ocean in the background. Another day three of my friends and I took a taxi to go see penguins in Simonstown where you could find them either chilling on the boulders near the water or walking on the beach. Hint the name of the beach, Boulder Beach. Clever isn’t it! The day I spent walking up and down the beach looking for sea shells as the powerful wind blew my dress and the sand hit my skin, or the day I shopped on the waterfront and talked with the locals can’t compare to the Sunday I spent in Cape Town.
The Sunday I was in Cape Town me and 3 of my friends went to Hillsong Church, which was only a 15-20 minute drive from the waterfront. For those who don’t know who Hillsong is, Hillsong is the name of a Christian Worship Band that leads worship at Hillsong Church in Sydney, Australia. Hillsong Churches are now located all around the world and as far as I know they all have worship teams similar to the one that originated in Sydney. In summary most people know of Hillsong through the Christian music they record and produce. This was such a blessing filled day! Not only was the time of worship something that I had been craving, but also looking back I feel like God had been waiting for me to experience this time of worship in order to pour his love over me and remind me of the kind of God I serve. Everything happening on the ship, all of the people I’ve met in all of these countries, the experiences I’ve had, seeing the rich vs. poor, all of these things were running through my mind as I entered the worship service; and by the time the worship service ended all the emotions, thoughts, worries, and concerns that existed at the beginning of the service were emotionally cleansed out of my system. This day was a day I pray I’ll never forget. The other half of my experience at Hillsong involved walking around and talking to some of the locals, which was another blessing in itself and provided me an opportunity to learn more about South Africa’s history and more about Hillsong Church. I talked to a couple who was introduced at the end of the service and the wife ended up being from Texas so I went and talked with her after the service ended which was really neat. She actually ended up being from Ft. Worth! It’s amazing how small the world actually is!
We attended the first service and stayed and talked with people while the second service was going on so by the time the second service let out we were beginning to get hungry. After the second service let out my friend Kenji ended up meeting 4 German guys who looked nice so we all started talking. They told us that they were members of an organization called the Royal Rangers, which is like a Christian version of Boy Scouts. Through Royal Rangers these 4 college age guys, Markus, Michael, Stephen, and Micha chose to leave Germany and committed 6 months of their lives to serving a community in a foreign country. They were at church that morning, but worked with children living in the townships throughout the week. They’ve taken kids to the beach, they’ve taken kids camping, hiking, etc. It sounded like they were all having a great time. We ended up going to lunch with them so there were a total of 8 people, 6 guys and 2 girls. After a few hours of getting to know them, we parted ways and traded information with the possibility that we may never see them again. However, little did I know that I would be hanging out with all 4 of them again on Tuesday. Sure enough the plan was made that the 4 of them were going to pick up Kenji and I, who I had already made plans with for Monday. So come Tuesday morning, we walked to the meeting place and within the next 10-15 minutes we piled in the back of their car and were on our way to Cape Point Peninsula to see the Cape of Good Hope. We stopped at a grocery store to pick up lunch and then drove along the beautiful coast until we reached Cape of Good Hope/ Table Mountain National Park. We had a blast as we hiked to the top of Cape of Good Hope and ate our lunch. While eating we made a new friend as a little creature appeared suddenly from underneath a rock. Don’t worry, it wasn’t a snake, it was an animal called a rock hyrax or lassie (which is a type of rodent). It had smelt our food and the cute creature was determined to get an afternoon snack. The rock that it had popped out from under was only about 3 feet away from me and it soon made its way closer and closer. My new friend got so close that if I had reached out I could have pet it. However, I wasn’t about to get bit so I eventually had to get up and move because the animal had its mind set on stealing my peach tea. The creature that had once looked cute now looked sneaky and evil as we eventually gathered our belonging and left. On our drive out of the National park we saw 2 wild ostrich and 2-3 wild eland (the world's largest antelope). We spent all day walking around and hanging out before they had to finally drive us back to the ship. This was our last day so we couldn’t be late getting back to the ship! I had so much fun with Markus, Michael, Stephen, and Micha! I find it so amazing that as I was visiting South Africa I became friends with four really cool, smart, adventurous men who love God and are from Germany! I mentioned before how small the world is, but in this case the world seems so big knowing that I am now friends with four awesome guys that are from a country that I’ve never been to before, yet I spent a day and a half with them in Cape Town, South Africa. Weird huh!?! Now I have an excuse to go see friends in Germany and I can’t wait until that day comes! I mean I haven’t ever been to Europe so I have to go eventually right!?! :)
