What an absolute blast of a time it was. We packed as much as we could into the time we had but also had plenty of chill-out! Perfect!
Cape Town is an absolutely beautiful city, everywhere you go you have an awesome view of it...hence this view from a backpackers we paid approx 8GBP for!
I would love to live in Cape Town; it is another, completely different side to South Africa. Far more cosmopolitan; so the city centre is very built up and westernized, the beaches are some of the best I've ever had an opportunity to see (and I saw most of them while it was cloudy and raining!) and the people are friendly and helpful. It's a beautiful mix.
However, I do feel that PMB has a sense of cultural diversity that the centre of Cape Town lacked. The physical space between the poor and the rich was far larger; compared with PMB where the townships are almost a part of the city. In Cape Town you have to travel for a good while outside the city centre to witness the township poverty (we only really saw any of the townships on the way to and from the airport) which increases the feeling of segregation.
Having said all of that it was a strange thing to reconcile in my mind because it was a refreshing break to be away from the townships and the communities where troubles and hardships are rife.
It was also brilliant to be able to walk around freely! I went for a walk by myself for the first time in what feels like forever!! I did get absolutely drenched in the process -but thoroughly enjoyed the experience!
Here's our itinerary (which we made up as we went along pretty much!)
We arrived in Cape Town at close to midnight on Monday 30th....they chucked some people who had decided to take advantage of an unlocked room in the hostel(!) and changed the sheets so we got into bed at about 0130.
Tuesday 01/07
We got up early(ish) and walked for a while along a street - just wondering where to have breakfast/lunch - ended up on the V&A Waterfront (big shopping/eating/walking place with lots of nice buildings and mix of harbour work going on!) which took us about half an hour!
Looked in on the Robben Island tour building (you have to get on a boat to actually get to Robben Island) to discover that the tours were booked until next Tuesday! So we booked that one sharpish!
Had lunch at a really lovely restaurant (the first of many!) where we were allowed to draw on a paper tablecloth (awesome touch!) and I had an ostrich burger! Ostrich is soo good; stronger flavour than beef but no fat on it whatsoever!
We then decided to try and walk up Table Mt because it was such a nice day - and we were warned, very wisely by Dean (our cell group leader who we had the privilege of being able to have around with us) that the weather forecast was not good for the rest of the time we were scheduled to stay in Cape Town so to get up to the top of Table Mt if we could.
We spent some time faffing at the backpackers before working out that we didn't have enough time to walk to the top of Table Mt (I was sort of disappointed by this, but know that if we had have walked it, it would have taken all of us rather a while to recover from!).
So instead of hiking we got the cable car up and were at the top in no time (2 and a half minutes compared to a 3-6hr hike!). The views are unparalleled by anything I've ever seen, I took soo many photos! I could have stayed and looked and taken it all in for hours. We did have a couple of hours in which we; text family and friends (yep, that's right, mobile reception on the top a mountain...what is the world coming to!), ate sandwiches, got blown around a bit, admired views and eventually sunsets.
It was every bit as brilliant as I had imagined and more - something I am going to try and experience several more times if I possibly can!
Wednesday 02/07
We got up relatively early (again I know! We did a lot more sleeping/lying in than we normally have a chance to at Gateway, so when I say relatively early I mean around 9/10ish - which is a lie-in when we're onsite!)
It was Izzy's 19th so we gave her her card, some chocolate and a promise of a present to be revealed (mysterious eh?!) and headed out to Landudno bay. A rather exclusive area of Cape Town with brilliant rocks to try and climb and beautiful sandy beach.It was the kind of day on which you wear as many layers as poss., waterproof jackets, hat, scarf and gloves(!) on the beach - so no-one put so much as a bare toe in the water (which was the Atlantic - so would have been freezing anyway!)
Lots of reading, reflecting, talking, gazing out to sea, rock climbing, eating of lunch. Until we got cold enough and headed back to the backpackers.We managed to catch the replay of the really good match that Murray played before he met Nadal at Wimbledon! Watching Wimbledon made me feel really at home - although slightly jealous of the weather!
Went out that night to a brilliant Portuguese restaurant on the Waterfront....again top, top notch stuff!I believe that was the night that a taxi was ordered for Mike Rotch (taxi still arrived) brilliant, brilliant times!
Thursday 03/07
We scrambled aboard an open top red bus (not too different to the ones in London, in fact, basically identical....!) and got wet.
Much amusement and concern on the part of fellow passengers/staff that we were getting wet!
"Nevermind" we said "we're hardcore" (half an hour later we were desperately looking for ways of seeking shelter! Us optimistic Brits!)
I apparently acquired a new boyfriend (it’s a really pointless story - but it makes us laugh!)and we saw more of Cape Town!
Including:
more cloudy, rainy, beautiful beaches
a market
the outside of several museums and a cathedral
the inside of Cape Town 'castle' which is actually a big, yellow building which could be more accurately described as a fort rather than a castle (trust me the people who call this a castle have never even heard of Windsor :-P) which was rather boring and even wetter - but we enjoyed trying to explore it!
Friday 04/07
Jenny's 19th birthday! We get up relatively early and Jenny gets balloons, a card, a lemon (coz we know how much she lurrrves lemons!), oreos and several other novelty items.
Izzy and Jenny find that their birthday surprise is a girlie half-day at a spa two weekends before we leave in August!! Much jubilation!
We then head to Cape Town aquarium...which was fun - I, once again, got very snap happy and we had lunch and rather large pieces of birthday cake (jenny got sung Happy Birthday in a very busy cafe which was rather fun/embarrassing!)
After the aquarium the other girls headed off shopping while the boys and I went back to the backpackers and chilled/watched tennis/read books.
Another absolutely amazing meal in the evening (only because the exchange rate favours us were we were able to eat like princes/princesses, had it not favoured us it would have been beans on toast every night! Absolutely once in a lifetime as far as I think we were concerned!)
Saturday 05/07
We were going to go to a theme park but it chucked it down with rain - so it was rain checked and we had a chill-out day instead.
It was good apart from some news from home about a childhood friend passing away unexpectedly. That was really, really tough, but I was able to reflect and get my emotions in check rather than being forced to process the information while trying to work.
The team supported me brilliantly and later on we went out to the cinema - a brilliant pick me up - the film had me giggling away, just like I know my friend would have wanted it that way because she and I were forever giggling together.
A day that I'm not going to forget for a while. And a friend that I won't ever forget.
Sunday 06/07
The morning started interestingly with the entrance of a random stranger into the room we were all sharing in the backpackers at about 6 in the morning. Hannah and I both woke up to see him tipping Phil's belongings onto the floor and lying down on the floor (after he wondered around the room a bit! We both assumed that it was one of the boys - but were both too groggy to figure it out and therefore didn't say anything!
An hour later when Deano got up (he's an early riser!) he didn't notice the randomer lying on the floor....he did notice him however when he came back from his shower and found the guy lying in his bed! (I really don't know how earth this guy moved round without any of us sleepyheads noticing him!)
At this point it became clear that the guy was rather wasted and had had an eventful night. Dean cajouled him to get out of bed and into the right room. We found his boxers on the floor where he had previously decided to get some sleep. Dean's face was an absolute picture!
After a few minutes of this guy looking rather dazed and bewildered he managed to get himself out of bed. Deano was busy finding new bed sheets and making comedy remarks such as "jolly good" (i think you kind of had to be there?!) and managed to find a friend of the random stranger.
Said friend came into our room and semi-playfully punched the dude who was getting himself out of Dean's bed and berated him for getting himself lost the night before!
We never really spoke to that guy again - but him coming into our room was the funniest thing of the holiday (I think!) we did, however, make sure that the door to our room was securely locked on the remaining nights!
Following the morning's events we went to church! Deano has friends at a church in Cape Town which is linked to NCF (in PMB) who very kindly offered to give us a ride rather than us having to pay for a taxi to the other side of town.
So two cars rocked up at 0815(I think!) and we sprinted out to the cars - I have not seen rain like this in a long, long time! Just constantly lashing, the streets were streams - the ferocity of the rain was amazing!
The church service was also amazing, the sermon was spot on the mark for pretty much all of us and everyone was so welcoming, I felt comfortable there straight away and was soon nattering away for all I was worth!!
The guys who were giving us lifts eventually got us away! And we headed back for some more chill time!
It was really cold that night - I believe the max in the day was about 7degrees (that's winter for you eh!) - we snuggled down with plenty of blankets and hot water bottles and a few of us watched the 'Good Shepherd' which happened to be on TV (if anyone has seen that film and has any understanding/insight into the story then let me know. I concentrated hard throughout and still had no idea at the end of it all!)
Monday 07/07
We went on a day trip to Cape Point, seeing lots of different things along the way!
We went on a seal boat trip on which Izzy, Hannah, Abby and myself were most definitely holding onto our stomachs as the boat rolled around.
Didn't see many seals because of poor weather conditions (yes it was still raining), crammage of people and my need to hang on for dear life in order to stand up....the seals probably weren't that interesting anyway(!)...
We also visited a penguin sanctuary which was fun to see and smell!
Then it was time for an awesome picnic/ buffet-style lunch (followed by coffee in a desperate bid to warm up extremities!) and a bike ride.
Me being me I didn't participate in said bike ride and Abby kept me company in the front of the bus with our really nice driver/guide who talked to us when we weren't taking pictures of scenery/porcupines/the rest of the Wildcats looking silly while riding their bikes. Or laughing at Phil goofing around to get us to wave at him; resulting in his face narrowly missing a hostile meeting with some tarmac!
We reached Cape Point, many photos taken of random wooden board stating this fact, abit of a let-down, lets be honest. Very windswept! We then went for a hike/climb/scramble from Cape Point across to Cape of Good Hope.
The views were absolutely stunning, despite the weather; I would have loved to admire them for longer than I did but was unfortunately a little pre-occupied with trying to ensure I did not break my neck by tripping over rocks, fall/get blown off the cliff path!
Reached Cape of Good Hope, puffing a little from the splendid walk! and promptly set off on another stony, uphill path to the lighthouse - accompanied by a Portuguese reporter who was on the same mini bus as us.
We had very interesting discussions about our different paths of travel, her job, my future...it was pretty good fun!
We didn't linger long at the top as the chances of being blown away increased tenfold and she was dressed for the kind of weather a normal person would presume of the African continent (i.e. dry and sunny...!).
I, on the other hand was living it up in the waterproof trousers and jacket that my Dad (thankyou!) somehow managed to persuade me to pack!
We returned to the minibus and I saw the rest of the team pointing at something(!)
Turned out they had found a baboon lurking (staying dry) in the bushes, our tour guide came over and yelled/threw things at it (yes I thought that was a sensible idea aswell(!)) until it moved and some people got some shots of a baboon running away.
Then we all scrambled into the bus and returned to the backpackers (with a short stop at a rather boring ostrich reserve).
Tuesday 08/07
We went to Robben Island. We were late to begin with, asked the taxi driver if he could get us there as quick as poss as we had just noticed on the ticket that we were required to be there half an hour before (we had 10-15mins spare!)
So we jumped a few reds and flew through a few orange lights and sprinted from the taxi to the ticket office only to find that we were there with plenty of time to spare (we got some very amused looks from the people we ran past!)
I really enjoyed Robben Island - despite the far from nice boat trip there and back (once again Izzy and I were clutching our stomachs - though this one was more like a rollercoaster than the rolling motion of the boat on the seal trip - which made it a little easier to deal with as I've had plenty of experience dealing with rollercoasters!!)
Spending time on Robben Island made me realise just how far South Africa has come since the end of apartheid (despite there being an awfully long way to go) and just how recently the apartheid ended. It was definitely an eye -opener to see the cell that Mandela lived in (far smaller than ours in case you were wondering....!) and where the prisoners worked.
I thoroughly enjoyed the reflection time that it offered and our trip to Cape Town would have been in the lack without our visit there.
Wednesday 09/07
We were going to do something with the time in between packing up and checking out of our room at 10 and leaving for the airport at 5ish but it bucketed it down with rain (following the theme of all the days bar the first!) so some more chill time :D
Almost missed the check-in for the flight due to bad traffic -- but we didn't in the end(!) so that was OK. Uneventful flight with a beautiful sunset and a rather large appreciation for the warmth of the air in Durban when we landed!
Naomi and Becky kindly gave us a lift to PMB and our holiday (part 1 was over!)
It was sooo weird to be back at Gateway - as the trip had somehow felt soo long (in a good way). I think also because I am used to coming home from a holiday and being at my home in the UK rather than in a prison in PMB!
We all wondered round looking like lost sheep for a little while before heading up to bed.
Thursday 10/07
Lie-in!
Washing
Haircut (finally! I didn't realise how thick it was!)
Lunch in the botanical garden with Hannah Montana (we ordered a taxi under that name in Cape Town aswell but that didn't go as well as the 'Mike Rotch' joke - as the lady started getting pretty hysterical - wondering if it was actually Hanah Montana on the other end of the phone!!)
Admiration of Phil's numerous photos
Lots of eating of English food - sent for Jenny's birthday (complete with party hats and masks!)
Friday 11/07
Got up at 6 to pack for St Lucia.
We all left shortly before 9
Three cars: Naomi with Hannah, Izzy, Kat and Phil
Becky with Jonno, Abby and Jenny
Juls with Gillian and Nicky (three volunteers are here for a month from N.I.)
Got to St Lucia for a late lunch (after a toilet stop for those in N's car!) and a quick dip of feet in the cold pool before heading into the village/town for a little wonder before going on the croc and hippo tour.
Much fun, lots of hippos and crocs, very cold, discovered how large (and heavy) a hippos tooth actually is!
My camera ran out before the stunning sunset :S but a lot of fun.
Naomi cooked for us and Izzy&I sat up watching a ridiculously bad movie which was on TV - don't even remember what it was called - except it has Josh Hartnett and 'Indiana Jones' in it!
Saturday 12/07
Got up early early (we were in thre van and driving by 0600) to go on safari - we had an open-sided van so the hour long drive to the park was hideously cold and windy.
We were spoiled by seeing about 50-odd elephants in a day, along with cheetah, rhino, zebra, giraffe, warthog, gazelle, wilder beast, water buffalo, lions (sort of!) and many other things besides.
We went out for a meal after the drive which was a lot of fun - although Nicky was not feeling at all well and it absolutely bucketed it down on the walk home - bed that night was greatly appreciated!
Sunday 13/07
Relatively early start (back to Cape Town speak now) to pack up the room and get going to St Lucia beach....stunning, stunning beach - loved it!.
Another brilliant time for walking, reflecting, being blown off your feet - the usual!
Some of the braver/crazier of our bunch paddled in the shark-infested waters with strong currents...I took photos!
After lunch we headed back to Gateway - arriving just after nightfall (1630ish here remember!)
Here are the links to the pictures that I’ve managed to upload (after battles with the computer!) to Facebook. There are quite a lot of photos – feel free to browse or not browse as you wish!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=44242&l=c3b95&id=511686961
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=44354&l=df10d&id=511686961
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=44363&l=27bb7&id=511686961
Monday 14/07
Spent the day ‘de-flea-ing’ it’s a long story but essentially me, being the cat lover that I am, spent a significant amount of time befriending and cuddling a cat that was owned by the people who run the Backpackers.
While in Cape Town I noticed I was getting an increasing number of mosquito bites! This was odd as I had been told there were no mozzies in CT and it was so cold anyway I was surprised! By the time that the penny dropped that these were flea bites it was a little late for the ‘wash everything a lot and you’ll be fine’ method. I ended up not doing much about it in CT as I did not have the facilities to.
To cut an even longer ramble short. I took the time out on M0nday to make sure that all the little critters were gone from my clothes and anywhere else they might have dained to take residence.
The morning of hard work to do this was followed by a lunch out with Ru, Jules, Nai and Phil – good company, good food and the sun – perfect!
Tuesday 15/07
Back to work (or so I thought!)
It turns out that the staff at CCP were very busy finishing the assessment work at one of the schools where the absenteeism at the assessment days was huge (and where the language barrier is pretty impossible without translators – who were not available due to community visits- so we were unable to be of much use.)
The rest of the staff were all out doing community visits, which we were not able to be involved in because of shortage of car space and the fact that CCP staff have to be careful which homes we go into because we will be perceived as the ‘rich’ white people who have come to solve all their problems at the drop of a hat – which we haven’t! So that can be tricky for them to involve us.
All three of us who work at CCP are hoping, however, that we will be able to do a few more community visits before the end of our time here.
So yes, on Tuesday we found ourselves doing more of the poster work we started at the beginning – but having got pretty much as far as we can with that given the imminent move of CCP and a meet that we need to have with a staff member about one of the outstanding posters we were frustrated with not having much/anything to do.
We attended the surprise 80th birthday party for Rene who works with her sister Edith (75) running rural house industries (the longest running project of Project Gateway).
A brilliant surprise and time to celebrate a blessed, much loved servant of God.
We were invited out for lunch with Ru (who were also struggling to find a job to do) and Debs. A lot of fun and laughter, before coming back to Gateway.
Later on that evening everyone bar Abby and Phil (who was feeling ill) went out to cell group at a local coffee shop – again brilliant fun and good fellowship. I made the mistake of having an espresso (I think I forgot what time it was!) and was awake for hours!
Wednesday 16/07
Feeding scheme was cancelled so I had a lie-in (relatively speaking for a Wednesday!)
Spent the morning at CCP doing this and that (i.e. unstructured, random tasks!!) and then out to Russell High (all-girls, relatively posh school that CCP work with) to help out with the teaching.
Spent the evening doing a scavenger hunt/random challenges around PMB (set-up for us by Naomi and her flatmate, Melinda) which was hilarious and involved me embarrassing myself in a chemist, eating a lot of ketchup and laughing at other people’s reaction to their challenges!Also, the other team went through a McDonalds drive-thru in a pretend car (i.e. they were walking along pretending to be sat in a car – absolute hilarity!)
Thursday 17/07
After a late night the night before it was difficult to surface the next morning (especially due to the cold temperature of the cell outside my blankets!)
Spent the morning again doing odd-jobs, chatting to Ru for her research for her dissertation and the afternoon helping Mama B (Beatrice - CCP project leader) with some filing and generally having a D&M (deep and meaningful) discussion.
Went out in the evening to see ‘Wanted’ with the rest of the girls (I know, not your normal definition of a chick flick!) I enjoyed the action, guts and gore(!) but the storyline left something to be desired!
Friday 18/07
Chapel – the new volunteers from UCCA (Rochester) working with the fashion school were introduced and given a full-on “African church” experience!
Pastor Jabu was laughing a lot while preaching his message and the service ended with one of the most joyful/jubilant songs known to mankind with lots of rejoicing and dancing and happy times.
I’d like to know what they made of it all. Us lot just laughed, enjoyed and pretty much accepted it. I wonder what it was like from an outsider’s perspective?!
At CCP we did a lot of sorting for the move and then us three went to Edith and Rene’s house. I sorted out computer things, we all got toast and homemade marmalade (with a pot to bring back with us and a promise to be taught how to make!!), lots of stories about growing up in Zambia and training as a nurse in Richmond!....when I found out that Rene has visited Virginia Water I felt so strange to have that same link with her…to think that we share an experience of a place(the lake) despite the incredibly different experiences we’ve both had in life is a little mind-boggling!
The rest of Friday was without incidence and spent some time sitting on the steps of Devon House just taking in some much needed warmth and thought time.We also had team-time in the evening – which consisted of all of us helping to make things for the show – which is part of the family fun day (fundraising for the school next Saturday).
The show has been put together by Izzy and Jenny and we are helping to make props and costumes.
We were up late making lots of headway into our delegated jobs!
Saturday 19/07
I got up early to carry on with making things for the show; as did the boys.
Hannah and Abby went to Howick to buy pretty things and paint and other various things for the show.
The boys and I helped to move a delivery of 300 black plastic chairs from a van down a flight of steps to the church hall – with the help of a contingent of staff from Project Gateway.
Izzy and Jenny were up late and we all continued to make the things needed for the show.
Abby and Hannah came back with some very unhealthy lunch (In the form of McDonalds – yes they did use an actual car to go through the drive-thru this time!)
We all ate and felt full!
Nai came over and helped us with show things and took the girls to a material shop that they needed to go to.
Our original evening plans fell through, so instead everyone went to watch a film and I stayed at PG to write this!!
I hope this isn’t too long (well in fact, I know for a fact it’s too long…..)
So Congratulations if you’ve read this far.
I won’t be too much longer finishing this!
I can’t believe that it is midway through July and we have just over a month left to go….the time has simply disappeared. My mind feels like its playing tricks on me in terms of my time perception.
I really hope and pray that I can get all the things that I want to get done before we have to say our sad goodbyes to this place.
Depending on when you talk to me you’ll hear different takes on whether or not I want to go home! For example, earlier on this evening I would have said that I absolutely cannot wait to be back at home; but right at this moment I never want to leave!
Us humans are weird beings is all I can say! Or maybe it's just me??!
Finally, I would encourage you all to read this blog entry that Phil has written. It’s not his South Africa blog – I read it yesterday and it blew me away. I know you’re bored of reading if you’ve managed to get to the bottom of this spiel – but give this a go – trust me – you won’t regret the it!
http://deussapientia.blogspot.com/2008/07/salvations-path-genesis-37-47.html
With that its time for that age-old saying of mine!
Peace out x
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