GO YOUR HOME

Today was a very eye opening day for me. I feel like it could be summed up in one word…ignorance…more to this in a bit. To give our day in a very general nut shell…first we learned about South Africa history from Steve and Zwelethu, got lunch at the student center, and went down to district 6 near downtown Cape Town for the District 6 Museum and for a little exploring on our own. The idea of ignorance to me has always been the neglect of an opportunity to learn or to take advantage of something that you may take for granted. Today during our lecture on South Africa history I have never felt so ignorant in the presence of someone who is not trying to belittle me. After talking about South Africa we shifted more toward things that are happening now and US politics and such. Steve and Zwelethu knew more about US politics than most of us! I really felt disgusted with myself that I didn’t even know what seemed to be common knowledge to them about my own country, and at the same time I knew almost nothing about theirs. I think this is just something I am going to have to work on and get more used to during this trip but has become one of my must do’s for future visits. I was extremely ready to start our more standard class portion of this may session. This is really a 24/7 program in my eyes…I am always learning either about myself or someone else and I have already been able to see my point of view and perception change.
In the afternoon we went down to the District 6 museum.

In a nut shell…this was a place in Cape Town that was the residence to many colored people that came from all around the world to create a very diverse, culturally sensitive, and very accepting area. District 6 was comprised of some very valuable land so the government decided to kick all of the people off and move them many kilometers away. They then destroyed their houses to ensure they wouldn’t be able to come back. The District 6 museum focused on the history of the events and the changes through District 6. I thoroughly enjoyed learning within this museum because of the significance this had in Cape Town.

We then had some time to go off on our own and explore Cape Town! I was really excited to go do a little shopping and just do some people watching to see something that is different from what I am used to. Jesse and I started off looking for a few electronic necessities that we still didn’t have but then ended up just wondering through the markets and a mall in downtown Cape Town. I think we definitely stood out and were different but I really didn’t feel like we were targeted or treated any different…initially that is. One of my favorite parts of this was getting to work on my bartering skills! Since all of the guys in our group are pretty darn amazing we decided to add to that and get all the girls some flowers just because we can. I was pretty excited to buy some flowers at the market and I think we found our perfect seller as well! The lady we went to was a short, stocky lady with a huge smile and a very warm personality. She was quite sassy and I totally ate it up! We ended up agreeing on 50 rand for 17 flowers…3 bucks USD…can’t really complain. I definitely got a few looks carrying all these orange roses around the mall and market but it really didn’t seem that out of the ordinary. After looking at a few more shops we started to head back to get picked up to go back to Mowbray. While Jesse and I were walking back a police truck carrying a bunch of prisoners in the back drove by. As they were driving one of them yelled, “Go Your Home.” This took me back….was that aimed at us? What have we done? I was more offended than afraid but it still made me a little more nervous and aware of my surroundings. As we neared the corner of our pick up I noticed a bunch of police cars, ambulances, and these large police trucks. We were near the court building which was also connected to a building that provides shelter for people without any. When we pulled up to the museum a few hours earlier I noticed all of these people waiting outside of this building but had no idea why until later. As we approached our corner we were told we could not go down the block and had to take a slight detour. As we were standing a block away from what was happening another large police truck with people in the back drove by and the prisoners began banging on the truck and yelling at us and everybody around. At this point I think we all got a little nervous. We soon found out these were people who are too afraid to go to their homes because of all the xenophobia in South Africa right now. As of what happened I still have no idea…but this was hands down my biggest eye opening moment in Cape Town.