…
It is a little hard to think that
already one week has gone by and that I am inside of three weeks left. I am
actually only here for 3 ½ weeks due to traveling time and I can tell it is
going to go by very quickly. The vibe is very different than Botswana and Cape
Town is also “Party Town” for Projects Abroad volunteers. There are a lot of
volunteers here in Cape Town, I am guessing around 400, and they are mostly 16
to 24 and go out to the bars most every night. I’m a little old for this and
feel like a dad if I do so call me lame but I am not as into the party scene as
they are. As I may have mentioned before, I don’t think they look at me that
way, I’ve noticed from coaching at U Chicago that 20 somethings don’t tend to
think about age as much. It is really the older folks go do this so it is true
that it is all in my head. But my head tells me that I am a bit too old to be
partying every night.
My first day in Cape Town was what
is called “Induction.” This is where I go into the office, get shown a Power
Point on what to do and what not to, they ask me some questions, show me around
a bit and give an overall lay of the land. Mishak picked me up early and took
me to the train that I will be using on a daily basis and I bought a one week
train pass, which I proceeded to loose within 24 hours, so I got to pay double
for it this week. I also went out and got a cheap phone to use. Cheap is the
key word as it was 250 Rand, around $22 and it totally sucks. The phone keys
constantly get pushed in my pocket and when I went to use it I could not
because the minutes were not activated and they did not give me the paper to do
so. So I have not even used the phone yet and all my minutes are gone. So over
the weekend I went and got another phone and this time made sure it worked
before leaving. Everything here is done via social network on Facebook so I
sprung for a more expensive one that I can get on the Internet with. I should
also be able to use this phone in Peru and Europe by changing the SIM card so
it is probably a good buy at 600 Rand / $52 dollars.
The surfing project is run by a
guy named Chrisjan and I took a liking to this guy right off the bat. I am
guessing he is in his late 20’s and he took over the project for PA about 4
months ago and is currently working on a PhD in Psychology. I’m not sure who
found the place we work out of but before they were working out of a trailer
off the beach and now we have a café about 2 blocks from the beach that the
project is run from. Chrisjan brings in multiple groups from Monday through
Thursday to go out surfing and in addition to teaching how to do it, the
program is used as an outreach as well. I only started on Wednesday but he
typically has on average a morning and afternoon group that comes in. The kids
are in school in the morning so the groups are adults that are in drug
rehabilitation or kids who are in a detention center. In the afternoon he
brings in kids from the local high school a couple times a week and some
elementary kids from the local township.
Thus far I have just met the high
school and elementary kids as well as a few of the guys in the adult rehab
program. The high school kids are easy and already know how to surf.
Additionally they have a fitness trainer/coach that comes with them so there is
not much to do other than to supervise and practice surfing, they pretty much
take care of themselves. The adult rehab program seems to be the same but due
to a flu outbreak there were only two guys this week, both in their mid or late
20’s. The little kids take more supervision and I am told they can be a bit
“naughty”. But they were apparently a bit chilled the one day I have worked
with them thus far and other than to count heads and help them catch a wave and
work with them in the surf, it was not that hard.
There was a shark attack on a
professional surfer, Mick Fanning, during a competition in Jeffries Bay the Monday I arrived and the adults and kids this week
were all worried about sharks. It was a great white and the video was kind of
scary, I am not sure how much of it made the news in the States but it got a
lot of buzz here. The guy was fine and all that happened was his leash was bit
in half and the shark got a punch to the head, but otherwise no injuries or
even equipment damage.
I’ve not really been worried about
it however, don’t ask me why perhaps it is just ignorance on my part. But the
guy who got hit was out in deeper water than me and our beach has a shark
spotting program in place, so there are always eyes on the hill looking out
into the water to call in any activity. Also there is a lot of speculation it was not a real attack but the shark was swimming along and the board leash got into it's mouth and it bit down. Attacks usually happen from underneath and this one was all on the surface.
To date I have been surfing three
times now. I seem to be able to get the balance of laying on the board OK but
standing up has proven to be very difficult and I have a hard time getting my
front foot around and planted where I can stand. It is called the pop up but
thus far all I have done is pop off when I try. I have managed to ride the
board on my chest or knees for a bit a few times so I think I will get there. It
is totally cool and I am excited to have another three weeks of doing this and
hope to stand at least once by next week. Friday is our day off so I went over
to Strand Beach with a couple of the volunteers to surf over there.
Strand means beach in Afrikaans,
so we were literally at “Beach” Beach. The area looks a lot like a modern 80’s
version of Miami. So no art deco but a lot of the same pastel colors. I think
most of it was built in the 90’s as Chrisjan told us this area of the coast
used to be a buffer zone between the National Guard base that sits just to the
east and the town of Strand, inland a bit. During the time of Apartide, this
base was the chemical warfare area and run by a guy nick named “Dr. Death.” The
area of the coast was grassland full of cows, the idea being if they saw a
bunch of cows dropping dead they knew they had a leak and needed to evacuate
the nearby town. I don’t know how often this happen but it was crazy to think
that was only around 25-30 years ago. I don’t know a lot about Apartide but
Chrisjan said that South Africa was teetering on full blown civil war and not
far from what Syria has been the past few years. They pulled back at the last
second and avoided it but some of that legacy can still be seen today.
Physically surfing is not as hard
as I thought it would be but my body is getting a bit banged up. Not sure why
but both my feet are swollen and at least one toe on each foot is black and
blue from banging it on the board. The arthritis in my shoulders also aches
with the cold water and more the cold air. Winter surfing here is about being
wet and cold so probably not the best think for that. It has rained here on
Thur and Fri too so it seems like I have been wet for around 48 hours strait.
The weekend was more relaxed
although the other volunteers pack in a lot and it makes me feel like I have
not been taking advantage of Cape Town so far. I just went shopping on Saturday
to buy another pair of pants, long shirt and sox, try to fix my watch band that
broke in Botswana (only worked for 12
hours so it looks like a new watch is in order) and replace the junk phone.
It seemed like that took the better part of the day but I’m not sure why
exactly. In the evening I went into Cape Town to Long Street with Rahul, my
roommate from Amsterdam who arrived about midweek. Long Street is a bar
district that is very reminiscent of Bourbon Street in New Orleans, except a
bit more seedy perhaps.
Sunday we went to a Brai or BBQ at
a place called Mzoli’s, which is in one of the local townships. The place was a
bit of a trip, essentially a shack where they grill up meat and serve it to you
in a huge stainless steel bowl. The township is all around and the place is a
bee hive of activity with cars backed up in all directions. It was a great
place to people watch but the music is so loud one cannot hear themselves
think. And that is not just me being old as other volunteers said the same
thing. It was also an all day affair too, leaving at 9:30 and only getting home
around 5:00.
It was generally easy to pick out
the other PA volunteers, they were usually white, well dressed and looked a bit
pretty and soft. The white South Africans were also dressed a bit preppy but
had scraggy beards or at least a week or two of not shaving and they looked
like they would kick your ass if you pissed them off. People from the township
were often dressed in old pants and t-shirts and often had some of the
sterio-type accessories you would see in movies. One guy had on a ship’s
captain hat, big necklaces, oversized Ray Ban sunglasses and usually scraggly
stubble. Black people from outside the township usually were bigger, in some
cases very muscular, and better dressed. Mind you I did not go up and ask
anybody where they were from to confirm all this as it probably would have been
a good way to get my ass kicked, so you would just have to take my unscientific
word for it. In any case it was a very interesting place to people watch.
The view from my train station in the evening.
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