Day 9: Township Tour & Beach
Well, in contrast to days seven and eight, we spent day nine of our vacation touring a shanty town. South Africa is a developing country in the fact that they have extreme wealth and extreme poverty. Millions of black and colored people live in African Townships. I don't know exactly how to describe a township to you, so take a look at this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Township_(South_Africa). Basically, a shanty is a very rough structure made up of scraps of metal, wood or whatever else the family could find for free. The townships have electricity, water (one tap for hundreds of people), and port-a-potties --- all provided by the government. So essentially, the people who live in townships, live there for free. It's a difficult situation for the country to be in, split between the 'haves' and the 'have-not's'. The people we met in the township were very friendly and seemed to be quite happy. There is an extremely high level of unemployment in townships and a large number of little kids. The tour that we went on benefits the townships by providing some jobs as well as money for the families who live there. It's interesting that as bad as the outside structures look, some of them were actually quite nice inside -- equipped with TVs.
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| Sheep heads. The smell almost made me vomit. |
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| Bathrooms |
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| These kids were so sweet and sang songs to us. I do wish I could have helped the little kids to grow up in a better environment. |
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| There were lots of kids surfing and this naked little boy! The water was freezing, he's crazy! |
Day 10: Market, Museums and Airport
The last day of our trip we left 'unplanned' and ended up spending time walking around downtown to the market, visited a castle, and also went to a few museums. It was a nice and relaxing way to spend the last day there. We headed to the airport late afternoon for our long trip home. I'll spare you the details of the return trip, but to give you an idea of the general theme of our traverse home, imagine two crazed and sweaty Americans with big backpacks running through the airport yelling and pushing people out of the way. That pretty much sums it up. Through no fault of our own, we missed a flight, well two technically, because our first flight was so delayed. Once we finally made it to our first connection in London, wiped ourselves off with baby wipes, took a sleeping pill and had a drink in hand, all was well. When my friend, Gwen, picked me up at the DFW airport (with home-made 'Melanie Eidson' sign) I don't think I could have looked any more jet-lagged or smelled any worse. She was so sweet and had prepared me a delicious meal, all recipes by my fav Ina G. Thank you again, Gwen --- you are wonderful!
*I am sure that I have left out some of the details of our trip but hopefully you were able to get a nice snapshot of Cape Town and the Cape Peninsula. If you are interested in knowing more about our travels or seeing additional photos, please leave a comment below.
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| Castle of Good Hope |
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| Inside the castle - nice backdrop. |
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| From on top of the castle wall. Downtown Cape Town in the background. |
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| African dancers at the market. |
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| Me in giant whale bones. *Side note - I had this outfit on for almost three days and ran about three miles in it. |
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| Sign from my 'driver' -- Gwen! |
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