and the fun continues...

So last night I think I saw a man having a spiritual transcendence from playing the drum.  As part of our orientation, UCT brought in a group called Drum Café, which is a group of 7 guys who travel around South Africa playing the drums and teaching people how to play them.  I don’t even think you could call is “playing” it was so amazing.  And they had drums for all the students to play so we were in the huge hall with about 500 other students beating on these drums.  It was incredible!

            Later we went to CyBar, the local student bar, which is about a 10-minute walk from our house.  Definitely thrived…there was a long period of time that I was dancing on a bench in the middle of the bar with my friend Eva.  It was a great time though and fun because we were with a lot of the other study abroad students and some locals.  However, as fun as it is to party with the other people from the States, I really like going out with the locals.  It is just a different experience and I didn’t come to South Africa to party with Americans.  Although, all has been great so far.

            Today, after our very intense HIV/AIDS talk at 9 o’clock in the morning, we took a more in depth tour of the townships.  Ronal’s friend Thabo who runs tours around Cape Town frequently guided us.  It was such a wonderful day. 

            We started off going to the District 6 Museum, which is one of the only buildings left standing from the district that the white people destroyed in 1966.  It was the mixed race district that had about 70,000 people living there.  The whites decided that it was unclean, although it was actually much cleaner than the places they are made to live in now, and so they bulldozed the entire area.  It is actually very sad, but the government is now working to rebuild it, but truthfully it will probably not be finished for many years.

            Then we went to Langa, one of the many townships surrounding the city.  We saw beautiful pottery making that is bringing in good revenue for the people.  We went to the HIV/AIDS support system they have there, which is mostly run by kids our age.  It was so inspiring to see these young people totally taking charge to improves the lives of the younger generation in the township.  I felt so amazed that they were doing it all themselves, but also kind of sad that it seems that in America we do not take charge like that. People have to hold our hand to guide us into serving our community and these kids were choosing to do this at their own will.  It was truly something to learn from.

            Then we walked down the street and saw the lovely sheep’s heads that they sell for about $5 and people cook with.  Not going to lie, it made me a little queasy the way they handle meat here.  We went to a little shack and tried some of the locally brewed beer that is a very social tradition in the township.  Then we went to a traditional healer’s “office” that was filled with handing dried out animal carcasses and bones.  A little creepy but really cool to see.  We then ended the day having a local meal of meat and pop (like grits), which was really good and the best part was we ate it with our hands! I think we should always eat with our hands because it really does make food more entertaining. 

            All in all, more amazing times in Cape Town and I can’t wait for more to come!