So I went to visit a township. On the drive there, we passed miles – yes, miles! – of rows of single garage-sized dwellings made of tin or scrap wood or cinderblocks with corrugated tin roofs that had big stones or cinderblocks on them to hold the roofs down in the wind. Do I exaggerate when I say “miles”? I don’t think so. From one end to the other, a township could easily stretch out three or four miles. Driving past the townships I realized that I had seen them before. They look exactly as they do in news footage, even down to the laundry hanging on fences and the outhouses and the women walking along carrying babies or bundles on their backs, wearing colorful long skirts and mismatched blouses and ‘towels’ (fabric wrapped around their heads turban style). In some places it seemed the shacks went on for as far as the eye could see. It was astounding, especially if the road drew nearer and you could see the scene in more detail. People actually live here! I thought to myself. Thousands of people!
We made several stops in a very large township that afternoon. The first was at a community center about the size of a small classroom where tables full of craft items were displayed. The people were very sweet, welcoming, not pushy. Also, there were marimbas! We heard them before we saw them. Two young men were playing and I was thrilled. They were laughing and showing off, especially the one playing the lead marimba. With barely any encouragement, he went crazy with his virtuosity, playing intricate patterns very rapidly. It was wonderful…such beautiful, joyous music. Second stop was a center that helps women with HIV-AIDS, a major problem in South Africa. We were able to watch women working on looms making rugs and table runners and other items. I had spent all my Rands and the shop wasn’t set up for credit cards so I was disappointed not to be able to buy anything. At another stop we visited Vickie’s B&B, a two story structure that was somewhat larger and more substantial than the shacks. You can Google Vickie’s. We milled around for a while, chatting with some of the people, the students especially enjoying all the little kids that gathered around us. They love having their pictures taken, but what they really love is TAKING pictures. Such magic to see themselves instantly on the screens. Looking around, I noticed that though there was this terrible situation of shanties and outhouses, I didn’t get the impression of filth or of degradation. Maybe it was my rose colored glasses. We had seen sections of new housing – rows of very small cinderblock houses the size of a single car garage with red tile roofs. All had outhouses, however and electricity hadn’t yet been brought in. I wonder how many of our students realized that the little closet in the yard of every house was actually an outhouse and that there IS NO running water in these people’s homes. I wish I knew the details of how this housing is being made available; by the government, I think, but under what circumstances, I don’t know. At least some people are getting out of the tin shacks. The political situation is surely very complicated and far from completely stable. I wish I understood more about it. I wish I knew more about exactly what apartheid meant to the people. I know they suffered terrible cruelties at the hands of the government, the police, the system and that it all goes back centuries. I was talking to our bus driver. He was a Muslim whose people had come from … nuts! CRS sets in and I can’t remember where this guy’s people were from. Anyway he was very nice, telling me about a singing group he belongs to. He played a DVD showing his group (there was a TV on the bus): all men, singing a capella, familiar tunes to which they added their own lyrics. It was neat. They wore costumes and sang for various festivals, parades and celebrations. He asked me how much it cost for a student to go on Semester at Sea and, when I told him, he said most people he knows won’t make that much money in their entire lives.
I can’t help it but there’s a phrase – from the Bible, I believe, “from those to whom much has been given, much is expected”. In general I’m getting the sense that the students on board are, for the most part, great kids, bright, compassionate, understanding and wanting to contribute. I hope they will.
So many people agreed that they would love to spend more time in South Africa. From the little I saw, it is a beautiful country. Our approach to Cape Town was spectacular and thrilling with the sun rising, Table Mountain in the background and the city nestled at the foot of the mountain and curling around the backside of it.
The harbor, the port where we docked is beautiful, clean, modern with restaurants, shops, music, promenades, coffee shops and a big mall. It had the atmosphere of an upscale shopping center in the States. I guess lots of places in the world have that atmosphere these days. It’s so different from when we were in Europe during the early fifties. Everything then was strange and old and so…different! Grandma and Grandpa somehow made it all very exciting for us. Now when you travel, you see the US at every turn, it seems. Well… I exaggerate. But something in me is disappointed when I see attempts to replicate so many of the commercial aspects of the US. Mac Donald’s on the Champs Elysees is nothing short of mortal sin in my book! Git with it, lady! This is the year 2009 and the US isn’t the only modern country in the world! This is just a quirk of old age, I suppose. Something in me wants every place we visit to be somehow quaint and ‘other’.
Our safari at Kruger National Park was wonderful. We had a two hour flight then an hour drive to the hotel … it looked like something in a movie with round buildings and thatched roofs. It was understated and not too fancy, with primitive African design evident in the décor: paintings, fabrics, furniture, lots of basketry. I love that look so felt very much at home. There was a pool but no time to spend in it and there was a golf course which I thought might take away from the atmosphere but it was OK. So we checked in, dropped our things in our rooms and took off for our first drive in the bush! Can you believe it???
Our guide, Doctor, was great. We had a lot of fun with him and he found some good animals for us to photograph: elephants, gorillas, tons of impalas, zebras, giraffes, crocodiles, beautiful birds, wildebeests, water buffalo, cheetahs. It was amazing to have the safari vehicle – what do you call them? – pull off to the side of the road and to peer into the bush and all of a sudden to be able to spot some animal or other…right there! …well, not too far away just munching away on the bushes or grass or tugging at leaves high up in a tree. You should have seen some of the trees that were lying on the ground with greenery still on them. Doctor told us that the elephants just push the trees over so they and their babies can get to the leaves more easily. Also we saw trees with patches of bark scraped off them. The elephants scratch their itches on the tree bark! Oh I almost forgot the rhinos. We didn’t see them until the third day but there were signs of them all over the place. In fact there were signs of all the animals all over the place. It was amazing the amount of ‘signs’ that were there. Anyway back to the rhinos (reenos, as Doctor pronounced it). They are territorial, VERY territorial! They mark their territory with very large piles of doo-doo and then, with their hind legs they spread it all around and create a hole in the ground about as big around as a bicycle tire and as deep as an end table. They do this all around the perimeter of their territory so the other male rhinos won’t come try to take their mates away. If another males tries to take over the territory, there is a huge battle. Doctor said he’s seen a couple of those battles and that they are awesome. Unfortunately, we didn’t have that kind of luck. Isn’t it interesting that you can travel half way around the world to see a hole in the ground and a pile of rhino doo doo? It was a highlight.
I got to sit in the front seat with Doctor after deciding that to climb the ladder to get into the higher viewing seats would create too much of an unsavory spectacle. It was great because we had the opportunity to chat a little. Here are some of the things I learned from Doctor. In the townships there are different tribes, each with its own king (his word), all living together in peace. A man has to pay for a bride with cows. Most men have at least 3 or 4 wives. Doctor has three families but is divorced from his first wife. I asked him if he ever saw the movie. And I asked him if the wives ever had fights and if they babysat for each other and who does the cooking. It seems I never got to hear the answers because we always came up on another animal and he was distracted. At the end I gave Doctor a little tip and told him to take all 3 of his wives out for a nice dinner. It was all fun…lots of laughs.
The lions were a highlight too. Good ole Doctor spotted three of them, lying in the shade watching…
Hold on. First Doctor saw a large group of impalas, which are such beautiful little animals, all standing still as sticks and all looking in the same direction. That was the clue for Doctor. If the impalas were behaving like that, there had to be predators around. (What’s a predator???) And sure enough Doctor found the lions for us to see. They were just lying there watching the impalas, a couple of them got up and had a better look….but they didn’t charge because they saw us. Some of the kids were hoping to witness a kill but it didn’t happen.
The two mornings at we were Kruger we got up at 4:30 in the morning and met at the vehicles at 5 in the most beautiful pre dawn light you could imagine with birds calling loudly back and forth. I don’t do it very often but when I do get up early, I just love the light and the cool air and the sounds. We’d have coffee in the lobby of the lodge and then we’d grab our box breakfasts and take off. The second morning, after driving around and looking at/for animals, we took our breakfast break at a rest stop with a little restaurant and small cabins they rent out for campers. Yes, they did have RV sights, too!!! So we sat down at picnec tables under huge shade trees – umbrella trees, Doctor called them, and there were monkeys scampering around! I was so surprised. They were so close they seemed tame. So tame that all of a sudden one of those little devils jumped onto a table next to ours and stole a container of yoghurt right from in front of a German lady! He climbed just high enough into the tree that we could all watch him smugly eating the lady’s yoghurt! He’d poke his snout into the container, come out with a pink face and lick his lips as he looked around…bold as brass!
Kruger was great. I’d go back for safari in one of the other parks. I’d go back to South Africa! It was a very interesting and beautiful place…the landscape is gorgeous. We saw some RV’s and I’m thinking it would be fun to rent one and drive all over the place. Beaches. Safaris. Duddn’t dat sound like fun, y’all?
October 10, 2009, Saturday
I’m sitting in the deck 6 dining room – the Garden Room. A little while ago whales were spotted but I was too late getting to the window to see them. There’s a scattering of kids sitting around working, computers and books open. The sea is grey; bits of blue poke through high clouds. The big swells that began before we were out of the Cape Town harbor have calmed a bit. The ship still rocks and I still love it. Thank you, God, Whoever You are, for excusing me from seasickness. What a pain that must be!
We’ve been skirting the shore of the Southern tip of Africa and will make a right turn soon and head for Port Louis, Mauritius, a vacation paradise for Europeans. How beautiful the land is with big white breakers crashing on the shore and green fields sloping up towards mountains.
October 11, 2009, Sunday
I’ve just had a little quiet time doing some ohm-ing, some breathing, some writing in my gratitude notebook. Sometimes, I want so badly to jump back into the bed. I have a slight desire to do that right now, but I also have gratitude that I am up and have had a good morning and that I am writing. It was great chatting with Carla and Charlie Tolbert – he’s the astronomy prof. She’s from Holland and is one of 9 children. Always looks great with a slim figure and beautiful understated clothes. See, I told myself, give it time; connections with people will come your way. It’s ok to spend time alone. You’ve needed this r&r, this time to recoup. Sitting here, one leg crossed over the other with my computer on my lap, sitting in this comfortable, supportive chair, looking out at the up and down of the rail against the horizon, looking at the waves and whitecaps and troughs, at the grayish sky, THIS moment of my life is perfect. Thank you God, for giving it to me., for allowing me to learn how to give it to myself.
I was thinking about taking my ‘family’ to dinner up on the pool deck and letting them order whatever they want. I think I’ll do it…yep, that’ll be it. Should be fun.
Off now, for the bridge tour.
There are so many times when I wish I could have a computer chip in my brain so I could more easily record my thoughts and ideas and plans. I just came from the bridge tour. It was little more than a demonstration of how very much we are linked to and dependent on technology. The ship was/is on auto-pilot. There is a ‘black box’ just like on a plane, recording everything from the amount of waste water that’s being processed to the very words that are spoken on the bridge. I suppose I was hoping for something a little more dramatic like in the movies. By the way, we drink and bathe in sea water! They have a desalination plant on the ship. Grey water is treated and released at sea; black water is ...i'm not sure - treated and released in port.
The clouds are breaking up a little. Patches of blue sky are appearing and the ocean is turning from gun metal to navy blue, no, marine blue. It’s so beautiful. The ocean makes me think of blue dotted swiss …that dress Mary had! Dark blue dotted Swiss with white dots. Oh God, Your ocean is so pretty!!!
I have just returned from watching the movie “Milk” in the Union. There was discussion afterwards. Where else but in a community like this could one attend an event like that with so little hassle? It’s one of the many gifts that come with the SAS experience. Otherwise, you’d first have had to notice that the event was taking place, buy a ticket, then you’d have to drive yourself there, find a parking space. Here it’s out your door up a flight of stairs and you’re there. It was good. I remember how surprised and pleased I was to hear in the 70’s that Harvey Milk had been elected to public office in San Francisco and how shocked and sad I was when I heard he had been murdered. Then that Shepherd boy was killed in Wyoming. When I think of all the suffering that has plagued gay people, I am just so sad. Ignorance and bigotry have to go!
October 16,2009, Friday
Today I almost missed my Blue Safari! I thought tomorrow was Friday. But then, Gloria set me straight and I made it to the bus just in time. What is Blue Safari? It’s a trip in a submarine!!!!!!! First you get on a bus at the ship and drive for almost an hour. Then you come to a very nice little beach town, walk through a park and down a small pier and board a small ferry-boat with a canvas on top to block the sun. The ferry takes you out in the lagoon to a bigger boat (about as big as our life boats) which you board; then you transfer (by jumping!) to the submarine. To get in the sub you have to go through a hatch – like in Lost – climb down a ladder and into the cabin which is too low to stand in and you sit down in little seats, each with a round window. It was very small…very cramped. I hate to tell you all that I can’t make an exciting story out of an adventure that wasn’t much of an adventure. Some people on the right side (I was on the left) saw the octopus but I never saw it. We all saw the Japanese ship that had been sunk on purpose to create a fake reef. Coral was starting to grow on it but I could barely tell what was rust and what was coral. Everything looked the same color: brownish grey. We all saw different fish: a few yellow/white striped ones, a few angel fish with bright blue, some groupers, other little fish that were brown or black. I was lucky because I got to see the pineapple worm: it was brown and looked like a pineapple; it was about as big as a cat; all it did was sit there on the reef like a bumpy rock. One very interesting thing was that things changed color as we went deeper. The girl next to me had on a bright pink blouse with gold threads through it and a bright red skirt with a black design woven in it. (she was visiting our ship from India). Well her blouse turned a brownish purple color and her skirt turned just blackish brown. All the white people in the sub turned kind of greenish color even though no one was sick, thank heaven!
So…..who knows why white skin turns greenish when you go deep in the ocean? How deep
Did we go? I knew you’d ask. I have to find out. I’m back. My certificate says we went down 30 feet.
So can you tell that the Blue Safari wasn’t nearly as exotic as it sounds? Don’t get me wrong: it was fun. I think I just expected more colorful fish like on the National Geographic channel. Actually it was a cool thing to do. I need to go find my excited pills.
This evening – October 17, Saturday, we sail for India. INJAH!!!! If only I can get this thing ‘published’ on the blog.
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