"Surfing", "Breaking Legs", and Going to "Prison": 9/11 - 10/11

It hasn’t been all work at the Project Centre.  On Tuesday night, eighteen of us went to the Fugard Theatre to see the Rocky Horror Show.  It was a lot of fun.  Since it was an upscale professional playhouse, “Rocky Horror virgins” didn’t have to go through the hazing that sometimes accompanies the show.  We were however still able to buy participation packs to join in with the interactive parts of the show.

Saturday a large group of people was planning to have a surfing lesson.  There was only three of us who were not interested surfing, myself being one them, since my swimming skills leave something to be desired.  I was under the impression that everyone would be coming to the beach so as to not leave anybody behind, and that the non-surfers would just relax, do beachy things, and take pictures of our friends.  I got up Saturday morning, and joined the large group to the train station where I realised that the other two non-surfers had stayed at home after all.  I didn’t want to be the only one sitting on the beach for two hours and I considered turning around and going back to the lodge.  But since I had already gotten up and was about to board the train, I said YOCTO (You Only Cape Town Once – it’s become the motto of our trip) and joined everyone in the surfing lesson.  It was actually a lot of fun! I am absolutely horrible at surfing, but I wasn’t the only one who could barely crouch on my board.  And it turns out you don’t need to be able to swim that well to surf, you just have to be open to the fact that you will be submerged in the ocean unexpectedly by large waves and flipping boards. No injuries occurred.

Cape Town has a lot of really good and cheap theatre!  Saturday night five of us went to the Artscape Theatre to see Guys & Dolls.  It was a really fancy theatre, but we got good seats for about $15.  I had thought I would only go to one or two shows while here, but people keep asking me if there are more shows around, and there are and they’re just as cheap, so it looks like I’ll be having a theatre-filled Cape Town experience.  YOCTO.

Our tour guide for Robben Island

Sunday we went to Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 18 of his 27 year behind bars. It was really quite moving, especially since all the tour guides once were political prisoners like Mandela.  Our tour guide talked about how their letters were censored, and how the guards would demoralise the prisoners by lying to them about their loved ones.  Many of their crimes were for merely rebelling against a racially oppressive government. I was awed by our tour guide because not only did he fight for his cause and serve eight years in prison for it, but because he is still there, reliving his horrors with every tour group that passes through.  He was 25 when he was arrested in 1981.  He has spent most of his life fighting oppression, paying the price for it, and now reliving it.  I wonder why he does it.  Is he really so dedicated to the idea of political freedom that he has committed his life and career to advancing it? Or has he been unable to get a job anywhere else in a country that has a 25% unemployment rate?  In which case, is he free from his prison because he is politically free, or is he still there because he now lacks economic freedom? In a country where class divisions have replaced racial divisions, who is truly free?

Nelson Mandela's Cell

PS Here's a picture of the view of Cape Town from Robben Island.  Of the three mountains visible, the one on the left is Devil's Peak, the one on the right is Lion's Head (with Signal Hill below it.  Every day at noon a cannon is fired at Signal Hill.  Our lodge is very near Signal Hill.  Fun fact, apparently there's an Enviroloo at the top of it.  We might need to go hiking there for research purposes).  And the mountain in the middle with the flat top is Table Mountain.  There is frequently fog rolling off the top, known as the "Table Cloth".  A group of people who weren't interested in Robben Island hiked Table Mountain today.  I hopefully will do the same at some point.  

View of Cape Town from Robben Island

Table Mountain and the "Table Cloth"