Cultural Exchange Night

Laurel's school (Burke's) has an exchange program with a school here in Cape Town, where every year two Burke's teachers come to South Africa to teach, and two South African teachers visit Burke's.  It just so happened that Laurel's fourth grade teacher Ms. Brooks was here on exchange, and Sue arranged for us to come to a "Cultural Exchange" night at the school.

After getting lost with the cabbie, we finally found the Leap School just outside of Cape Town.  This is a high school, with maybe 40 students, where they learn, and also are trained as teachers.  Most if not all come from the townships.  The goal is for these students to become well educated, and bring their knowledge back to their townships to help others.  They are selected for their intelligence, as well as their leadership ability.

We didn't know exactly what to expect, so we kind of went with the flow.  The students started first, and did some amazing singing and dancing for us.  It's like these kids were professional musicians, singers and dancers, but it obviously came naturally for them.  We were all mesmerized by their talent and spirit.

Next, it was our turn. There were some other Americans besides us, including one man in his thirties that used to teach at my old high school.  One woman named Kay did an impressive spoken word poetry performance. I went next, and showed off some of my poi juggling moves, getting one of the students to drum for me.  Bryce even went up and showed off some moves as well. We got a great ovation - it was obvious these kids had never seen poi before. Afterwards, some of them asked to be taught some moves, and I happily obliged.  They also made us a traditional dinner of a beef stew with some interesting and tasty grains.

Laurel was particularly impressed by Kay's spoken word performance, and she sought out Kay after to ask her more about writing, performing, and how she got over her shyness with sharing her work.

All in all, it was a great evening.

Stellenbosch Wine Country

After our day of experiencing the poverty of the townships, today was a 180 degree contrast.  Our entire crew - now nine adults and nine kids - packed into two vans and headed to South Africa's wine country. In the morning, we went to Meerlust, a winery that was founded in 1689, and is now run by the eighth generation of the owning family.  Afterwards, we walked through the quaint, pretty town of Stellenbosch.  The experience was similar to wine country in California, but a little deeper.  Stellenbosch was extremely clean, with a lot of Dutch architecture, and every building was white.  There were a lot of delicious looking eateries and clothing stores.  Bryce thought it "boring", but I think peaceful is a better way to describe it.

Stellenbosch

For the afternoon, we went to lunch at the most amazing winery I have ever seen: Delaire Graff. Founded by a diamond merchant, they spared no expense in creating a beautiful restaurant and winery on one of the most stunning locations on earth.  We were seated on a deck, surrounded by mountains, with grape vines growing in the valley below. The weather was perfect, and the food and wine were exquisite. Most amazingly, the most expensive entrees were $18.  After lunch, we had a custom wine tasting set up for us, and we were able to purchase some amazing bottles of wine for as little as $6. We wound up staying at Delaire Graff for four hours, since nobody wanted to leave.

The Dining Area at Delaire Graff

Bill with a box of great, cheap wines

The happy, sated family

Lamb's neck appetizer

Seafood entree - whitefish, mussels, mushrooms and more yumminess.

Meanwhile, the kids were taken to another winery and had a Segway (stand uo scooter) tour.  Bryce - being all about anything with wheels - loved it, of course.  We weren't sure how Laurel would enjoy it, but she reported back and said it was a lot of fun.  While they were riding Segways through the winery, they stopped and talked to some of the wine makers to learn a little more about the craft.

Kids on a wine country Segway tour

We returned by nightfall, sated and exhausted, and feeling very fortunate.

Khayaleitsha Township Tour

I've always been curious how the less-privileged live, and when the opportunity to take a tour of one of the local townships presented itself, we jumped at the chance.  Our family, along with Kathryn, her two boys, and Bo (13) went on an escorted tour of Khayelitsha, a township of 2.5 million people about 25 minutes outside of Cape Town.

Our guide was Mzukisi Lembeni ("Mzu" for short), a 30-ish man who grew up in Khayelitsha, and has had the wherewithal to set up his own business giving tours.  Driving into the township, we noticed a sea of shack-like structures with corrugated aluminum walls that stretched as far as the eye could see. We got to visit inside one, and although is was relatively comfortable, the roof had holes in it, and the owner relayed to us that anytime it rains everything gets wet.  The house had a working kitchen, running water, and a kerosene heater, which made it a bit more deluxe than many other places.  This family also had a car.  Mzu said about 35% of the families in the township own cars, and 95% have cell phones. We also saw a lot of satellite dishes. Another area we visited had no running water to the houses, and a row of outhouses for bathrooms.  The human waste winds up in 10 gallon plastic containers, and is removed later. A common water source supplies water to these homes.

Khayaleitsha

Pre-fab corrugated aluminum shacks for sale 

Another great encounter was with the local bike builder.  His mission is to build bikes for the local kids.  For about $0.20, he will build a bike out of spare parts.  He also teaches the kids basic bike building and repair.  He relayed to us that as a kid, he always wanted a bike, and as he got to be a grown man he vowed to make as many bikes as possible for all the other kids.  He had about 10 kids hanging around his shop, and some were helping him.  We left him with a bag of chocolate for his kids, and a small donation.

Outside the Khayaleitsha bike shop

There are power poles throughout the township.  People are supposed to pay for electricity, but many just attach a wire to the nearest pole and then to their home. Mzu called this practice "spiderman".

Some of the houses are built more like real houses.  Mzu told us an Irish man has come to the township and helped build about 20,000 houses over the years.  He also teaches the locals how to build.  The Irish government, as well as the local government sponsor him, and the homes are free for those lucky enough to get them. Most of the people who upgrade from the shacks to these homes are grateful, but Mzu told me some sell their houses and return to another shack instead. Some people also erect a shack outside their new home to handle overflow family members.

About 75% of the population is officially unemployed, but there is an unregulated economy.  Coca Cola signs were everywhere, as some people set up little mini-markets.  Other people cooked chicken and sausage.  Surprisingly, a lot of hair cutters and beauty shops were to be seen.  As a part of our tour, we visited the main supermarket, which was much like a Costco or warehouse store, and bought biscuits and bags of chips for some of the kids we would visit later.

The most fun was our interactions with the local kids.  We visited a preschool, and gave out lollipops, chips, biscuits and pencils. The kids sang us a song, and they were so cute and grateful getting gifts.  Following that, we went to Mzu's neighborhood, and a bunch of local kids were playing in the street.  We had pencils and some snacks for them too.  I noticed some of the kids doing a Gangnam style dance, and coaxed Bryce and Laurel to dance with them, and they were all dancing together. I showed off some poi moves, and tried to teach the kids some basics. It was priceless.

A happy little girl from preschool, with her new pencil

A young boy playing with the poi

Bryce, Laurel and kids doing Gangnam Style dance.

When we returned to our flat, I asked the kids what they thought of the tour. "Better than Disneyland" was how they put it.  And indeed it was.

Update: You can contact Mzu at 021 824 8976 or 073 507 3622 to arrange a tour. Or email him at info@imizamoyethu.co.za

Monkeys, Birds and Buses

Now that we're no longer sleep deprived, and have our bags, we can really start to enjoy Cape Town.  Almost everything here was closed yesterday on Sunday. but Monday brought about Cape Town in all it's promise.

We started by breakfasting at Lola's, a cute little breakfast and lunch spot right up the street. Most notable: I had this amazing Corn Fritter dish with pesto and avocado, and Bryce got a french toast croissant.  Everyone was really happy with their breakfast.

My Corn Fritter from Lola's

Next, we met some of our traveling companions for the first time. Mark, Cindi and Arwyn have moved around from San Miguel, to France, to Orlando.  Arwyn is almost 10, and hit it off with Laurel instantly. Bryce fit right in, and all the parents clicked right away.  We did a hop-on hop-off bus tour of Cape Town.  The tour took us through the city, and then up into the surrounding mountains where we stopped at World of Birds and Monkey Jungle. Laurel is a bird lover, and both kids like animals, we figured it would be a cool stop for them.

World of Birds is a bird sanctuary, which has evolved into a labyrinth of 100 aviaries, with all kinds of exotic birds from all over the world.  In particular, Laurel loves owls, and they had several varieties of them.  We were sometimes just two feet away from them, all of us inside the same aviary cage. The owls, and other birds, were really spectacular.

Colorful birds

Laurel up close with her favorite creature

Sue snapped this great photo

The other cool part of this place was Monkey Jungle.  This is an area that lets you go into an enclosure with about 30 squirrel monkeys, and they climb all over you.  Bryce seemed to be a magnet for the monkeys.

Bryce's Monkey Friends

After a couple of hours with the birds and monkeys, we hopped back on the bus and visited Hout Bay for a late lunch/snack.  Once we arrived, we saw an old fisherman with a sea lion on the pier. Bryce was complaining of being tired, but once he saw this he ran over and forgot about his fatigue.

The fisherman had some bait fish he was feeding to the sea lion, and he let the kids do some feeding as well. Arwyn even enticed the sea lion into a fishy "kiss".

Kissing a sea lion

After a snack, we got back on the bus and headed home.  Ann called us to meet up with her family and the Machetts, and agreed to come to the Africa Cafe, an authentic African dining place.  It was perfect for our group, as we were now 16 people.  The menu was a tasting of 12 different only-in-Africa dishes, including some curried beef, sesame balls, an excellent Lentil soup, and other dishes.  It was all delicious, and tasted really healthy.  If was great to reunite with our old friends.

Cape Town - Getting Better

Still no luggage this morning. South African Airlines said they would try to deliver it by 9 PM last night, but that clearly didn't happen.  Fortunately, they were pretty well able to deal with the situation, as I called their number and they were able to locate our bags and hold them for us while I got a ride to the airport to pick them up.  By 3PM, our bags were sitting happily in our flat, and Daddy was the hero.

With the rest of the afternoon, we decided to walk to the Victoria Wharf area and explore.  We discovered a very good aquarium, with a lot of cool fish and crustaceans that appear only on this side of the globe.  We saw some cool eels, really, really big crabs, and some other interesting fish.  The kids seemed to enjoy themselves.

After, we walked into Victoria Wharf, which is a little like Pier 39, only it feels more real.  We found a pier-side restaurant called Karibu, and settled there for dinner.  The food was South African style: I had a grilled line-caught Kingklip which as really tasty. Laurel had a mussel soup which was also really good.  The desserts were a big hit as well.

Our friends are gathering in town tomorrow, and we hope to meet up and start doing some group adventures. Today was overcast, and tomorrow looks to be the same, but after that we should see mid 70s and higher.

Cape Town is beautiful. Here's the view from our deck:

Table Mountain - from our deck

Slow Start in Cape Town

After a 14 hour flight from New York to Johannesburg, and another 2 hour flight to Cape Town, we finally made it here.  Only our luggage didn't - none of our bags arrived.  I sent the family to go get into our flat, and I waited at the airport for more flights from Johannesburg to see if our luggage was on it.  After 4 flights and 5 hours had gone by with none of our bags appearing, I took a taxi and rejoined the family.

When I arrived, Sue and the kids had already eaten, but I was hungry and a little pissy from my travel ordeal, so Sue was kind enough to join me for a second dinner and a much needed drink.  We found a well-populated burger bar up the street (Royal Burger, or something like that), and I had a really excellent African Wagu beef burger and a delicious local draft.  So the day wasn't a total waste.

Oh. We have no phone or Internet in our flat.  Major bummer. I've been lucky enough to be able to use some of the hotels nearby for Wifi, and they have graciously shared the access codes with me. Sue swears that the flat was supposed to come with Internet.  Kind of hard to believe you could rent with out it.

We're staying in Center City on Long street.  There are quite a few bars around us, and some restaurants.  We have been approached on the street for money every time we go out, but the neon-vested police here do their best to shoo away the unwanted "friend".  There's quite a mix of cultures and races here - including Indians, Chinese, and of course Africans. Cape Town is pretty westernized though, so any of these neighborhoods could be in San Francisco just as easily.

Cape Town shows a lot of promise. Just. Need. Luggage.

Update: As we were leaving Cape Town, we mentioned the luggage fiasco to our driver. It turns out a local radio station caught wind of this particular flight, and had a field day interviewing South African Airways officials about why it took so long for the baggage to arrive.  Apparently a carousel broke in Johannesburg, and instead of delaying the flight and finding another way to get the bags on board, they simply left without most of the baggage.