South Africa (continued)

Day 5 – Boulder's Beach and the Langa Township

Despite my exhaustion, I woke up to meet Greg and DJ for breakfast. The previous afternoon, Greg had expressed interest in independently visiting a township, and DJ and I thought it sounded fun. At breakfast we ran into Derek, and he decided to skip his tour of the wine lands to join us.

While eating, we decided to expand the day’s itinerary. Greg had heard that we could take a train to Boulders Beach for cheap, and that the train would be filled with locals. A bunch of penguins live at Boulders Beach, so it’s a tourist attraction. The real draw was the opportunity to swim with the penguins, which we’d heard one could do.

As we were leaving, we ran into Clara and Nate, who asked to tag along to Boulders Beach. So the six of us headed to the train station via taxicab, and got a ticket on the next train to Boulders Beach.

The train ride there to the beach was sweet. Though we did not get to meet any locals, we did get see the beautiful South African coastline. It was on that train when I decided that South Africa has been my favorite port. The country is, simply, strikingly beautiful. And the beaches were filled with locals, all of whom seemed to be having a nice, relaxing time with their friends and families.

Once we reached our stop, we took the ten minute walk to Boulders Beach. Unfortunately, visiting the penguins was underwhelming. I suppose it was pretty cool to see, but it was swarming with tourists. And we were not allowed to enter the area where most of the penguins were hanging out. We were allowed on a nearby beach, but only a few penguins were there. To say one could “swim with penguins” is certainly an exaggeration. And while it was certainly cool to see all the penguins, given our limited time in South Africa, Boulders Beach seemed entirely skipable.

Because we were short on time, we (Greg, DJ, Derek, and I) got a cab back to the train station. Clara and Nate stayed at the beach. We then trained to an area near the Langa township. This train ride was much more along the lines of what we were looking for. There were a lot of locals riding the train, and we interacted with them by performing card tricks.

Once we arrived near Langa, we took a cab into the township. I wanted to buy a soccer ball to bring to the township, but, because it was Easter Sunday, all the sporting good stores were closed. After a ten minute cab ride, our driver dropped us off at the police station, saying “they should know you will be there, just in case something happens.” Boy, people (the SAS administration, fellow SASers, and, now, our cab driver) sure seemed to build up the danger of these townships. Anyway, we arranged to be picked up at 4:45, which gave us about two and a half hours in the township.

So we wandered over to a shanty area, hoping to meet people. We soon met Abel, who showed us around for the remainder of the afternoon. He played up the danger of area, claiming we needed a guide. Because it was broad daylight and we are four decent-sized guys, I really do not think that danger was a serious issue. That said, Abel was a nice enough guy and certainly needed the money, so no one minded having him around.

Abel led us through the shanty area, where we got to see into the small homes people live in. These shanties are self-constructed with any materials one can find, such as scrap wood and sheet metal. The typical shanty home, which houses a family of up to seven or eight people, will have a couple of beds, a table with a small television or radio, and a small cooking area. Really puts life into perspective.

After going through the shanty area, we saw a group of kids playing a large open field. To say that they were excited to see us would be an understatement. One girl ran up and just touched my arm before running back to her friends. My guess is the combo of my white skin and all the arm hair was completely novel. So we played with the kids for a while, playing little games, showing them pictures of themselves, and picking them up by their arms and spinning them around.

After spending 20 minutes or so with the kids, we asked Abel to take us somewhere to eat. So he took us to this local barbeque restaurant, which was amazing. The first room is like a butcher shop, where there are tons of choices of raw meats. In the next room, you give your raw meats to the chef and it is grilled. The food is served communally, on a big plate with delicious sauces.

While we waited for our food, we bought some beers and met locals in the restaurant. I talked to a couple of people before meeting Robert and Jojo, with whom I spent the next hour. Robert and Jojo are two middle-class South Africans, neither of whom actually lived in the Langa township. They both were just there for lunch. But they each spoke English well, and were quite interested to hear my opinions about the American political scene. Each expressed interest in one day visiting America, and I told them I would be happy to be a source of information on American travel, and, provided they visited near me, show them around the country. I thoroughly enjoyed talking with both of them, and before leaving the restaurant we exchanged emails and facebook information (I have since been in email contact with both of them).

I was sad to leave the company of Robert and Jojo, but we had to walk to the police station to meet our cab. On the way to the station, we said our goodbyes to Abel and paid him 100 ZAR for his troubles. I also gave him a box of Hawaiian chocolates.

When we arrived at the police station, however, our cab was nowhere to be found. After waiting ten minutes or so, we began to worry. We had no idea where to hail a cab—we hadn’t seen any during our entire stay at the township. So I went into the station to ask an officer how on earth we’d be able to get back to the boat. Luckily, a kind man named Donald was inside the police station, and he volunteered to drive us back to the boat. Though he did not ask for and initially refused any money, we insisted on paying him. And thanks to Donald’s kindness, we were able to board the ship a half hour before on-ship time, thus successfully avoiding dock time in Ghana.


Reactions to South African Culture

My overwhelming reaction to South Africa was, simply: I DO NOT WANT TO LEAVE THIS PLACE (CAPITALS FOR EMPHASIS! EXTREEEEME!!!). But yeah, I seriously may want to live in South Africa someday (Editor’s Note: I hope this sentence did not give my mother a heart attack). Mainly for the three following reasons.

First, South Africa is, bar none, the most beautiful country I have ever seen. The landscape is simply breathtaking. There are so many colors. Outstanding mountains are everywhere. Beaches with golden sand and sparkling blue water extend along the entire coastline. Unless, of course, the sand is replaced with steep, striking cliffs. One of my favorite professors back at Oxy, Professor Laura Hebert (whom I asked out on a date, which is irrelevant to my point but a fun fact I felt like mentioning), frequently claimed that South Africa is the prettiest place in the world. Now that I’ve been there, I believe her.

Second, people are exceedingly friendly. I met so many locals and they were all very receptive. And it’s not like I’m getting the attention for being white and novel looking; South Africa is a rainbow nation. The people just genuinely responded to conversation. I met locals at bars, on trains, in the township, and at restaurants. Not one was even remotely standoffish; the “coldest” reaction I ever got was shyness.

Finally, the culture is Westernized enough for me to stay a long while. Don't get me wrong, I loved visiting places like Vietnam and India; they were really cool. Teaching English there for six months could be awesome, especially in Vietnam. But the technology and Western comforts to which I have become accustomed are simply not there. South Africa, on the other hand, is quite Westernized (mostly the result of the British occupation and subsequent Afrikaner leadership, as horrendous as both periods of rule were). I could actually see myself living there.

But what I really like about South African culture is that, despite a strong Western influence, there is a real stress on community. One of my biggest gripes about American culture is the fact that so much emphasis is placed on the individual. Not enough is placed on family and community. In South Africa, I felt like much more influence was placed on both of those institutions, which was really cool. The people living there did not seem isolated, as many Americans do.

That’s not to say, by any means, that South Africa is devoid of problems. For starters, it has the greatest wealth disparity in the world. So, while many people, almost all of whom are Afrikaner, have a lot of money, many have virtually none. In the Khayelitsha township, for example, roughly two million people, most of whom are impoverished and living in aforementioned shanties, are crammed into an area that couldn’t be larger than five acres. Driving past the township was mindboggling; there was almost no open space, just shanties crammed right against one another. Many shared walls.

And as you can imagine, there is almost no opportunity for the people living in the townships. In addition to growing up with little too no money, educational opportunities are severely limited. Schools are overcrowded and underfunded. According to people we met in the Langa township, many kids in the townships drop out of school before American children enter high school. The lack of opportunity for the poor blacks in the townships only exacerbates the wealth disparity.

In addition to the wealth disparity and the lack of opportunity for lower-class South Africans, there are still strong racial tensions in the country, particularly in the rural areas. This is likely due to the fact that Apartheid, a system of institutionalized racism, ended only in 1994. So many white adults currently living in South Africa were taught, in the public education system mind you, that they are superior to black people. Thus, they harbor a lot of anger and resentment that blacks are now equal before the law. Blacks, too, were brainwashed under Apartheid, but into thinking that they are inferior to whites. But with the shackles of Apartheid lifted, these black adults have realized just how unfairly they were treated for the majority of their lives. And they’re justifiably angry about it.

In my humble opinion, it will probably take years for these tensions to fade. And though it sounds morbid, I think that those educated under Apartheid have to die off before the situation will really improve. Because the current generation has been taught non-racialism in the public school system. And from the young people I’ve met of many different colors, it seems clear that many do not harbor racist ideals (at least openly).

Well that’s all I gots on South Africa. Thanks for reading.