Khayelitsha

Good morning from Cape Town!

We arrived here yesterday around 0530 and had to get to work at getting everyone through customs and immigration. Not too many problems, although the non-US and non-Europeans had some visa issues. We have an excellent purser, though, who had some tricks up his sleeve. I'm not sure how it all ended.

After that was all done, we had our diplomatic briefing. I can't wait to tell you all about this briefing, but I will wait until we've left South Africa. Jodi and I play a game in our staff meetings where every time someone says something frustratingly vague, we eat a grape (usually pretend, because we don't usually have grapes). So, go ahead and eat a grape. There will be another one for you to eat by the time I'm done.

Anyway, I didn't really sleep Saturday night, so after the briefing I went to nap for a couple hours (which actually didn't happen). I ate a quick lunch and went outside to lead my first SAS trip.

The trip I was leading was a trip to Khayelitsha, one of the biggest townships in Cape Town. The townships grew out of the era of apartheid when 80% of the population (the black people) were forced to live in about 15% of the land available (those are Desmond Tutu's numbers, so if they're not right, YOU go and tell him). They are very depressed, impoverished areas where tons and tons of people (Khayelitsha has over one million) live in small shacks with "the bucket system" for bathrooms. Many are unemployed. The townships keep growing, though, because people looking for work in Cape Town move down here but then there is no work, so they live in the township.

Our guide, Sviwe, was amazing and we visited several successful businesses in Khayelitsha. We talked with a lot of the residents, we played with the kids, and we walked around the township. We stopped at a bed and breakfast (where the above picture is from) to have tea and the woman who runs and owns the business actually went to school at the University of Pittsburgh when they were the academic sponsor of Semester at Sea. Small world (seriously).

We got back to the ship after 6pm and I went out to dinner with Tara on the waterfront. We walked around the waterfront area for awhile and ran into most of our friends. It's very easy to do - if you just stand in one place for a bit, you'll see someone you know. We saw 3 friends, and then 2 more, and then another, and then a student, and then 2 more, and then 4 more. It's kind of nice, because you don't always need a plan - just hang out for a bit and something will come along.

Well, I'd realize this has been pretty surface level blogging today, but I have to go and get ready for my all-day activity. More on that when I return.... (eat a grape!)