The Cape of Good Hope
Monday, July, 31 |
| When last I wrote I was sitting in an Internet cafe in Capetown and now I am finally, in Lagunya Finishing School in the "township." Township is the historical word for the ghetto -- the limited areas where, during Apartheid, blacks who were allowed in urban areas were forced to lived. They were not homelands, and family members without work permits were not allowed there. Today there are many new families coming from the homelands into the townships as squatters, adding pressure to the community problems, as everyone hopes to find a path toward the promised prosperity. |
| It is this school to which I was invited to come and which I have been anticipating with fascination and a tremendous sense of mystery. But to back up for a minute, I will keep my perspective in order by describing first my weekend with the Roux. They are a delightful, generously friendly couple, Mike and Frances, who are the parents of my friend Alan in New York. They kindly picked me up on Friday afternoon and took me to their home in Pinelands, a typical "white" suburb which ironically and conveniently borders Lagna. In the new South Africa it is not longer exclusively white, but reminds me so much of Chatham, New Jersey, the all-white town in NJ where I used to teach. |
| Our first outing was to an evening fundraiser called "Christmas in July" which raises money for a program to help boys in trouble. Part of the work involves a residential home, but what interested me is that the larger part of the work now involves efforts to work with families and keep troubled boys in their homes. It was a hilarious evening complete with turkey dinner (provided by the local supermarket, paper party hats and noise makers, and various kinds of entertainment including off-color jokes, a paper airplane contest, a contest to see how many words you could make from the letters in "happy christmas" and a lottery with various prizes. I totally humiliated myself in the paper airplane contest, but went all out with Frances in a combined effort on the word game. Frances is a secretary at the local elementary school in Pinelands and many of her friends were at our table, so it was a jolly time. Only those from the Poly community can appreciate my amusement when each table was assigned a different phrase for a competitive singing of the "Twelve Days of Christmas." |
| Saturday we drove to Capetown University set just above the site on the side of Table Mountain and took in the view from the monument to Cecil Rhodes. I commented that it might be more appropriate for the city taxi drivers to shoot at the monument than to shoot at the local buses, but alas frustration and violence are so often hopelessly misdirected. On this morning's news I heard the local bishop speak about the recent bus violence and talk about a peace parade next weekend. It seems unlikely that a parade will have any effect when the local drivers don't see the police as taking much action to defend the buses. |
| We then continued on to the most fabulous botanical garden with more extraordinary views of the "flat area" that lies between the two bays. It is this area that includes all the famous townships and of course, up close they do not look or feel as beautiful. We continued on to Hout Bay where we bought some fish on the pier and headed back around to Capetown and home, where I had offered to make dinner. |
| Sunday we went all the way down to the point at the Cape of Good Hope and Frances and I walked out as far as you could go -- the first point that Diaz, and then DaGama reached on those famous trips that I have taught about for so many years. It is not, in fact, the most southerly point of Africa, but it was thought so at the time, and it does have the dramatic effect that you could easily imagine two oceans coming together then. Our day included various boks (though not the famous springboks which I had seen on Robben Island), Ostriches enjoying the safety of national park surroundings, and mischievous baboons who stole sandwiches from unsuspecting picnic outings. |
| Last night we ate in Pinelands and the local equivalent of Sizzler. I do feel a bit like a rich uncle here, treating all of us to dinner for a total price, including dessert, of sixteen dollars for the three of us. And for that, I might add, I had four grilled lamb chops! |
| I am eager to tell you about my day at the school, but fear that I am be abusing the school's hospitality by staying on line so long, so that will have to wait. More soon. |
Below, the Rhodes Memorial
