Hey!!!
Two more days until I am in India!!! This next month is going to go by really fast. Not saying this last month has not went by quick but the next month will move even quicker. For the next month, the majority of the time will be spent in port, with about only six days of class. We are in India for six days (Oct 22 - 27), then a reading day (a day where we are on the ship but have no class whatsoever) and two days of class, then we are in Singapore for two days (Oct 31 - Nov 1), then another reading day and we are in Vietnam for six days (Nov 3 - 8). After Vietnam we have one class day and a reading day then we arrive in China for yet another six days! (Nov 11 - 16 [MY 21st BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!] ) Two more days of class then we are in Japan for five more days (Nov 19 - 23). After Japan we go to sea for nine days then we arrive in Hawaii for four days (Dec 3 - 6). The next month is going to be a busy one so do not be surprised if I do not get some blog posts up. I will attempt my hardest to post. By the way, I am now twelve, 12, hours ahead of San Diego time. I am half a day of ya’ll over there! (When I am in the time zone of New Zealand, I will be 18 hours ahead…woo….)
I thought I would write about the rest of South Africa.
Second Day South Africa:
Today I went on an SAS trip, Full Day Township by Bike and Interactive Soccer. My friend Dennis and I went on this together. We started the day off by meeting at 9 AM. We got on a small bus since there were only about 14 of us. It took us about an hour and a half, after a few stops to get money and use bathroom since in the township there were not great facilities to use the bathroom.
Let me digress and explain what a township is. South Africa experienced an Apartheid regime during the beginnings of the country (slavery) and all the way up to the late 1980s. What the Apartheid regime allowed was the extreme discrimination of Blacks, Indians and colored (half blacks). The whites in power kept these races at the lowest level possible. Archbishop Desmond Tutu talked about what it was like living in the Apartheid regime. He said he had to carry a card on him at all time, even though he was the archbishop. Archbishop Tutu was the very first black archbishop of South Africa in the Anglican Church. Since he was the archbishop for South Africa he had to live in Cape Town but since the Cape Town we visited was reserved for whites, he needed permission to live there so he and his wife were forced to carry around cards with them to live there. Whenever a white police officer asked what he was doing there he was asked to show this card. Another example of how blacks were kept at a low level in society there was a Semester at Sea example. We had an inter-port lecturer who explained what happened when he came on the voyage in the 1980s. They had about 10 black students on the ship. What happened was the South African government declined their entrance into South Africa. They were able to get off in the end after the entire shipboard community decided to not get off the ship if they could not. What happened in order to let the black students off, they had to carry around cards that said “Honorary Whites.”
Probably the worst example of the Apartheid regime was the townships. These townships are examples of the forced removal of blacks from their homes in towns like Cape Town and Johannesburg. When the government decided to make towns such as Cape Town a white only town, they forced the blacks out, not by just going up to their homes and knocking and telling them to move, no. What the government did was they had bulldozers that would drive directly through the blacks’ houses and force them out by utterly destroying their houses. After this, the government forced the blacks in what are called townships. These township are just metal plates put up in the most primitive way. Dirt floors, dirt roads. The houses are crammed together to fit as many as they can into these designated areas. Whole families and communities were displaced and moved to the worst living conditions. They have barely any running water. They have communal bathing sessions in the middle of the streets in buckets of water. They wash their clothes in either the same buckets or in the river that might run through. What the whites also did was install huge lamp posts with flood lights at the top of the pole. I learned that (and they are still there) these lamp posts were turned on in the middle of the night for raids the police would do upon these communities. Horrible conditions the blacks had during these times, and still exists today. These were also the centers for much protest by the black community.
When we visited this township we stopped at a community center. In this community there was a bike shop, an arts and craft center and a playground…all located inside crates (the ones you see on freight ships). These shipping crates were also the locations of many businesses (hair salons, grocery stores). We started the day off by riding bikes all around the township. We visited a local healer who danced for us (if you are thinking why did we go and watch someone dance for amusement, it was not that. The healer dances to get through into the realm of their ancestors. Almost like the dervish who spin around in circles to achieve enlightenment, so does the healer in her dancing) We had little kids from the town follow us the entire time when we were on our bikes. Soon after seeing them follow us, they ended up riding with us on the back of our bikes. So for the entire day, all 14 of us that were on this trip had a little kid on the back of our bike.
After visiting with her we went to a local house and ate lunch there. She was a mother of two but he eldest son had died due to a very complicated illness. We learned a lot about the township here. I learned that the government is trying to introduce apartment complexes into the township communities. However, the downside to these apartments that people of the township communities do not like is you have to pay for them. At the present time, the township people pay about $500 USD to build their ramshackle of a house, wire up their house to the electricity poles illegally, stealing the power. After all this, they do not have to pay anything, no electricity bills, no water bills and no mortgage or rent. So when they go to their job they make 100% of their income, instead of paying for utilities or taxes. Also the problem of the apartment complexes is that when the government builds them is that someone gets to be the landlord. What the landlord does is he sets his price and then goes and lives in his hut next to the apartment complex. Another problem is these complexes ruin local business since most people run their businesses right out their hut. There are a lot of complicated problems in South Africa at the moment. (Side note: as we were driving to the township we passed by what were set as “white communities.” Passing these communities I felt as if I was in a war zone. They had high, possibly 9 feet, cement walls with barbed wire and sometimes electric wires at the top. They also had, each of them, security systems. These communities I learned were sometimes private in that you either had to be a member there or invited in. I learned most of this on the fourth day which I will get to later but thought I would implement it here)
After going around the township on a bike, we ended up a soccer field. This soccer field however was all dirt and rock and for goal posts it was three metal poles welded together and places in the ground. We played the local team that practices and plays all their games here. I took off my camelbak to play and the little kids that were there with the entire day asked for some water. I offered some and soon, EVERY kid that followed us swarmed me asking for some and ended up drinking all my water. I played goalkeeper, no surprise. We played for a good 2 hours. I received some scratches from diving on rock and dirt but nothing too serious. Oh, we ended up winning 4-3. I do not know if they let us win or we just did well. Or maybe we had an amazing goalkeeper.
After finishing up with the game we headed back to the ship. I had plans that night to head out to Stellenbosch and sleep in a hostel with three of my friends (Kevin, Amanda and Jenn). We got back from the Bike and Soccer a little later than I had expected but no sooner had I arrived that we headed out. We got to the train station, Amanda, Kevin and I (Jenn was spending the night on Robben Island. Robben Island was the Alcatraz for South Africa. It was also the home to Nelson Mandela for 27 years. It was also here that the new constitution of South Africa was written. All done in a prison setting) and found out we missed the last train for the day. This was at 4 PM. We found out that trains do not run after dark since it is not very safe. So we decided to just head out early the next day. We got back to ship and headed out to dinner with a few other people and ate at this place called 221.
Good food, good drink. There ends the second day in South Africa.
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