Diving into African Culture: 7/12 - 8/12

Photo credit: Face Adrenaline

That picture pretty much sums it up.  Here's the story of what drove me to jump off a bridge.

I wasn't sure when the idea was first proposed.  It seemed like an unnecessary risk.  Whenever we leave Cape Town for weekend plans we need to fill out a travel form for WPI's records. Every year students go bungee jumping, and it's the one activity that WPI doesn't technically know about.  Our advisors were well aware of what we were doing, but turned a blind eye since they couldn't officially endorse this activity.  According the travel forms, we were sightseeing on Eastern Cape.

The company is called Face Adrenaline.  They facilitate bungee jumping off Bloukrans Bridge, which at 216 m is the tallest commercial bungee bridge in the world.  You fall 190 m, which calculates to 4 seconds of free fall and 3 additional seconds of falling as the bungee slows you down.  They have a 100% success rate.  Since the bridge was in Eastern Cape, it was a 7 hour van ride each way.  The bus ride was probably more dangerous than the jump, because Face Adrenaline has many levels of safety procedures.  The van on the other hand was fairly old and made a strange noise most of the way.

Bloukrans Bridge

 So we rode 14 hours for 7 seconds of falling.  It was totally worth it.

We left Friday night and arrived at the overnight lodge next to bridge very late.  Unfortunately that meant that we could not attend the Mandela memorial service that night.  Our jump was scheduled for 10:00 on Saturday morning.  It was a cool day, ideal for jumping. First you are fitted with a harness to bring you back up.  The bungee is then rigged securely around your ankles.  You are supposed to dive off the ledge head first, although the workers assured us that even if you jumped wrong, you would not get hurt, it just would not look as cool.  As the video proves, my jump was far less than graceful.

It's a weird sensation throwing yourself off a bridge.  You're never fully ready for it.  The workers will push you if you don't jump yourself.  The falling is thrilling - it feels just like a roller coaster for a few seconds.  Once the bungee stops your fall, you swing to the other side of the bridge and wait for someone to retrieve you.  This for me was the most terrifying part.  Hanging upside down by my ankles, feeling the ropes stretching and (did I just imagine it slipping slightly?) I craned my neck up and saw the worker being lowered to retrieve me. It only took about a minute for him to reach me, but it felt like ages.  Finally he arrived, told me to relax, and clipped my harness to the rigging.  The ride up gave me time to compose myself and give a brave smile for the final picture, as if I had not been terrified.

Photo Credit: Face Adrenaline

After everyone jumped we ate lunch and hit the road to go home.  We has talked about possibly stopping at Cape Aghules, the southern most point of Africa. I really wanted to go, but it would have been an additional 2 hours of driving, and most people seemed to want to get home.

On Sunday we experienced a different side of African culture.  One of our sponsors Sizwe, who is advising three of our six projects, has been insistent on getting to know us all outside of work.  We've gone for dinner and drinks with him several times.  This weekend he arranged for us to visit his home in a township.

Townships were created during apartheid.  Unlike informal settlements which were established by people building themselves shacks on any land they could find, townships were established by the government on the outskirts of cities for blacks.  You could almost call them "formal settlements".  Conditions are generally nicer and more hygienic than informal settlements.   However the structures in which people live are still referred to as "shacks".

Photo Credit - not me

We ate lunch at a restaurant called Mzolis.  Mzolis is famous for its braai (barbecue) in the Cape Town area, and is not a typical American restaurant.  You order from a selection of meat, and they bring you everyone's meal on a platter. No sides or fixings, just meat.  You take the platter wherever you can find a spot, most likely the street as the surrounding area is packed with people, mostly waiting to order at Mzoli's.  it kind of reminds me of Pat's and Geno's cheesesteaks in Philadelphia, but less formal.  There are no forks or knives, just napkins.  You are also expected to eat everything up to the bone, or else it is a waste of precious meat.

Photo credit - not me (I forget who I stole these from... either Lucine or Ivette I think)

There is music and dancing inside Mzoli's, and there are people selling souvenirs in the street.  the whole atmosphere feels like a block party, and apparently this happens every Sunday. I felt more out of place in the township than I have in the informal settlement where I've been working.  It was interesting, and I'm not entirely sure why.  Perhaps it was because we were 14 white people unsure of what to do, attracting the attention of every merchant in the street.  It was definitely an interesting cultural experience.