Cape Town: Part II

Very Late on the posts, but here goes:

After my visit to the hospital, our trip to the Slave Lodge Museum, and the hike up table mountain we traveled to Tambo, a township in Cape Town. Tambo was where we stayed for two nights. The township was much nicer than Missionvale and the other townships surrounding Port Elizabeth. Many of the homes were government built, the roads were paved, and there was running water usually. Our group split into twos and we all went off to different homes in the township with our own "mama." I spent the two nights with Tucker. We were extremely tired after the hike and went to bed after playing cards with our brothers and sisters. Dinner was pretty typical for their household and consisted of samp n' beans, rice, boerwors, and chicken.

Mama Nusinko and family.

The family's home was pretty nice, only compared to my previous idea of what a township looks like. (one room shacks [100 square feet] with dirt floors).The family was actually adding on to their home, to give their children their own rooms. Our beds were pretty nice as well, and we stayed in one of the three rooms in the house. The house as a whole was nice, until we had seen what the kids' room looked like. The four kids were sharing single beds, and were sharing a thin blanket on each. The room was not painted, and was as much of a storage room as it was a bedroom. It was about half the size of the one we were staying in.

     Tucker asked the kids what they wanted to be when they grow up and they all knew right away. Two wanted to be doctors, one a fireman, and another was taking off for NMMU next year and was unsure. I never heard from the eldest son of the family...he  had to leave the home because of his new girlfriend. I was unclear about why until they told me about their family being Mormon. I was shocked to hear that in a random township in Cape Town that there would be a Mormon family. We taught the kids some Spanish and French, while they taught us some Xhosa phrases. We didn't talk to their father until the next day, his job as an undertaker kept him very busy. The mother had started her own business driving kids to and from school in her newly bought (yet pretty old) Volkswagen van.  We had dinner again and we went over across the township to visit another home where some other students were staying. We ended up going to be early again, because the last section of our scheduled tour was the next morning. We were taking the Cape of Good Hope Tour.

A quick stop along the Cape of Good Hope Tour.

The Lion's Head. Taken from the top of Table Mountain
 a few days before.

     After our tour of the Cape of Good Hope, we were released on our own to find our own way back to Port Elizabeth. The majority of us stayed on Long Street in Cape Town. We were mostly split in half between Cat and Moose Backpackers and Long Street Backpackers. We spent a lot of time touring the city and shopping. We also spent a decent amount of time at the bars at night, but it was pretty dodgy. People were asking you if you wanted coke or weed and several of us had phones or credit cards stolen. One night, Bobby, Fuchs and I hiked up the lions head for some awesome panoramic views of Cape Town at sunset. We brought dinner and four beers to crack at sundown. There were a ton of people up there with bottles of wine and nice dinners, but still dressed like big time hikers still sweating from the run up.



One night, about ten of us went to the Eagles concert in Cape Town at the stadium. It was pretty fun.

Eagles concert at Cape Town Stadium.

We ended the trip kind of early due to some reasons out of our control, and we bused back on a Greyhound. It was a 12 hour trip.

Overall, Cape Town will always be remembered as the best few weeks of my life.

Next post soon!

Cheers,
Isaak