Cape Town, District 9, and soccer game

October 3,4
South Africa Day 1 and 2

We arrived in Cape Town around 8:30 this morning. Earlier (around 6am) I went to the top deck to see the sunrise over the S. African horizon. The first thing you see is a huge mountain silhouette. The mountain is called Table Mountain and Cape Town sits at the base of it between the mountain and the ocean. I had an FDP planned later that day which was to visit some of the townships and go to the District 6 museum. My roommate and I decided to walk around the waterfront area of Cape Town which is extraordinarily like Long Beach and is also reminiscent of Catalina Island. The boat docked right at the local docks and therefore there was no port shuttle we had to deal with (as soon as you get off the ship, there’s a hotel not 20 feet away).
A couple things to know about South Africa is its largest city is Johannesburg and the country has 3 capitals with one branch of govt. at each city: Pretoria (executive), Bloemfontein (judicial), and Cape Town (legislative). 5.7 million people (in 2007) in S. Africa have HIV/AIDS and it is the fourth largest country in terms of prevalence of the disease. Sadly, the government attributes the deaths from AIDS to malnutrition and is in a state of denial about the disease. At one point a diet of garlic, olive oil, and lemon was issued to those with AIDS as a cure by the govt. Sexual assault and murder are also extraordinarily high here (I almost typed “there” instead of “here”). A bewildering statistic I’ve heard frequently is a woman here has a better chance of being raped than becoming literate. A survey in 2000 said 52 people were murdered everyday in SA. In 2010, SA will host the 2010 FIFA World Cup (soccer) and is constructing a stadium (which is about 15 minutes walk from the ship) to house the event. The prison where Nelson Mandela was held is also here.
While walking around we discovered that this was an oasis in Africa. The buildings were nice, new and colorful. There were many African arts/crafts stores as well as waterfront restaurants. There was also a really nice mall called Victoria’s Wharf which had a number of American stores (Levi Jeans, Guess, etc.). My roommate and I met another one of our friends there and we had biltong (meat jerky). We then left the mall and had lunch on the waterfront before I had to go on my field trip.
We went back to the boat (which was about a 3 minute walk) and I got on the bus for my trip. The first stop was the District 6 museum which was located in downtown Cape Town area. I thought it was cool to go to the District 6 museum because of the movie “District 9” (amazing movie) which was about the housing of aliens in slums outside Johannesburg, S. Africa. I just looked on Wikipedia actually for “District 9” and it was the events of District 6 that directly influenced District 9 (I thought it might’ve been another District). The museum remembers the forced moving of thousands of local inhabitants by the government (definitely look this up on Wikipedia!). It had photographs depicting the people who lived there and their families.
After this we then went to the townships which were fascinating. We first stopped off in a neighborhood that could’ve passed as a very, very poor LA neighborhood. There was a cultural center there that we visited and we saw their pottery making facilities. We then proceeded by foot (we were dropped off by the bus and picked up elsewhere throughout the trip) deeper into the townships, which, as we walked, got progressively worse. Compared to Ghana’s slums, they were slightly better (but only by a hair). We went into a small alley with some guys gambling at the entrance. We then entered a small hut that was that was nearly pitch black and smelled like my grandma’s basement. There, the lady who owned it poured some soapy water into a bucket. As it turns out, that soapy water was beer that they brewed in the slums and we all got to try some. My history professor (who is from somewhere in the south), who was our bus leader, chugged a good amount of it. When I tasted it, I found it was actually really sweet and not terrible (but still not great). We left there and walked into an area where there were some houses but were not in great condition. Some of them, however, the interior was really nice and clean and could easily pass as an average American home. We walked a little further and the quality began to decline the further we ventured. People openly smoked weed here and hung out in the streets. It’s crazy because many of the people I saw throughout the townships probably had HIV. It’s a sad reality for many of these people.
We kept going deeper into the township, but I actually felt pretty safe (we had a guide leading us). They eventually became shacks and dirt roads. Bathrooms were buckets in concrete outhouses and homes were made from scrap wood and tarps covering metal roofs. If you saw the movie District 9, this was a lot like that. It’s funny because I can clearly remember (like it was a week ago) talking about South Africa before I left after seeing the movie and joking with my friends I’d see the aliens there. I did see the slums that the aliens lived in during the movie, but the aliens were apparently gone (probably left on their spaceship with Tom Cruise). We boarded the bus and stopped at another location in the township (I think there were actually a couple townships in the area) where we walked down a street to a bed and breakfast called Vicky’s Bed and Breakfast. The owner, Vicky, was very passionate about visitors getting a full experience of the hardships of being in a township. She offers a place to stay for tourists and then gives them a first hand look at the local area. We went back down the street past a bar where there were a ton of locals listening to music and hanging out. We got back on the bus and stopped one more time on a noisy street. We went into a really dark garage-like building and hanging from the low ceiling were animal skeletons and skins. I think it was a voodoo type shop, though they never really told us.
We got back on the bus and went back on the ship. My roommate and I planned on seeing the opera HMS Pinafore through one of the trips offered. His field trip didn’t get back in time so I went by myself. The opera had been adapted to HMS Pinafore: The Musical which had a 50s theme and an updated sense of humor as opposed to Gilbert and Sullivan’s nineteenth century piece. It wasn’t bad but I kind of wanted a more traditional opera.
The next day I was planning on attending a soccer game. Some girls I know had a ticket and asked me if I wanted to go and I said yes. The next morning I met my rugby friend John on the way to breakfast and at the same time the girls came up the stairs. I told him what we were doing that day and he had nothing so he decided to join along. After breakfast the four of us walked through Cape Town heading to some market. We never found the market (a couple people said it wasn’t there anymore and others said they just came from there) but we did find a university that one of the inter-port students was from. We went inside and one of the receptionists gave us a free tour of the building. It was a university of technology (though I don’t think this was part of the main campus) and was located a short distance from the water. We went to the mall and John bought his ticket (the girls preordered ours). We went back to the ship, had lunch, and caught a cab to Green Point Stadium.
I’ve never been to a soccer game in a stadium before. The first indication of what the match would be like occurred as soon as I got out of the car. I heard horns (the plastic ones you by at hockey games when you were a kid) being blown from all over. People were walking to the stadium trumpeting on their horns and using other noisemakers (one sounded like a crying baby). The two teams playing were the Cape Town Ajax and the Kaiser Chiefs (I think based here too). Upon walking in we were greeted by some Kaiser Chiefs fans close by, one of whom was wearing a graduation robe with the Chiefs colors (yellow/black). They told us to watch our pockets because when security pats you down, they sometimes take things. We entered the stadium and got seats mid-front (general admission which ended up being like 2 or 3 USD). We arrived an hour early and got to see all the fans gradually come in. When the game finally started, the fans had already been making a lot of noise and people were wearing modified construction hats and blowing modified horns (I think the crowd/cheering is more fun possibly than watching the game). We were probably the only white people in that section (I didn’t see any the whole time we were there). As more and more people came in, more horns began to play and soon the stadium (though only lower sections were filled) echoed with the noisemakers. Finally when the game began and I was half-deaf, the crowd stood up and cheered wildly for the Chiefs as they entered (no national anthem). After the game started, people sat and would only stand when the ball got close to a goal or a goal was scored. I forgot to mention that we cheered for the Chiefs because we were surrounded by a sea of Chiefs fans (the Ajax were a minority section on the other side). When the first goal was scored by the Chiefs everyone (including myself) stood up and cheered. There was an explosion of cheering and chanting from everywhere. Throughout the game the fans chanted African songs and danced in place. Many people made their own fan merchandise: they taped multiple horns together and used metal, making massive, loud horns and they cut up construction helmets and made crazy, decorated hats (a true testimony to the creativity of these people). In the stands people went around selling biltong, chips, and surprisingly donuts. There were also cigarettes passed around and the distinct smell of marijuana. The Chiefs went on to score 2 more goals and shut out the Ajax. At the end of the game, everyone left the stadiums cheering and parading and blowing their horns. What surprised me was no one really stared at us or made us feel uncomfortable as lone white people. They treated us as fellow fans and welcomed us back anytime to see another victory (I also felt like I was used as a handrail in the stadium by other people but so was everyone else). While waiting to catch a cab back, fans danced around and stood on the sidewalks having miniature tailgate parties. People cheered from passing cars and waved their flags continuously (I hope you’re getting the point that they love soccer- and yes they call it soccer here, not football).
We randomly met a guy from Tucson, Arizona named Jim who was here as part of an MBA program. He was a fire chief in the US and in order to get promoted higher he needed an MBA so he came here as part of a project. We shared a cab with him back to the waterfront (5 of us in the back seat of a Mercedes- girls had to sit on guys laps- no complaints). Once we got back we walked to the ship, passing through a mini-mall and getting dinner on the boat. There is Wifi all over the city and I am planning (if I can find a fast connection) on uploading as many (key) photos as I can. Wish me luck. (again no spell/grammar/continuity check here)