City Tour

 City Tour!

Well, this is a post that should have happened quite a while ago. I have been told by many people that my blog is very old and it is in serious need of updating. So I’ll start with the city tour post. Then I’ll put a few shorter posts on things I did in Cape Town.

We went on a city tour at the start of our stay here. Bradley, our tour guide, took us to view the city on a Hakuna Matata Bus =].

We saw lots of historical monuments. Below is the Public Library that’s in the middle of the City. The architecture in Port Elizabeth is quite varied- there’s Dutch, there’s British…all sorts of stuff. In front of the library, there is a statue of Queen Victoria. We came across something very interesting there. The woman you see standing in front of the statue was dressed in traditional ware and was giving a long speech to the Queen. I only listened to her for a few minutes but she said quite a few though provoking things. She discussed with the queen how Africa has been ravaged and plundered by the whites and how there needs to be a new African age reigned in. She said that Africa’s children are scattered all throughout the world and need to be brought back, and how the children need to be taught about the golden days so they too can rise up and shine to the world.

I’m not sure if this woman was in her right mind but perhaps there is some truth to what she says.  History hasn’t been kind to many people but I believe that Africa has been treated the worst: colonization ripped apart indigenous cultures and slavery tore apart families and scattered Africans throughout the world. Our modern world isn’t much better: the thirst for resources has created wars all over the continent in which millions have been massacred. However, despite the desolate situation, Africans all over the continent are fighting to make her vision come true: they’re trying to build up their economies, have a more influential voice in international affairs, and are trying to protect their indigenous cultures and people. I certainly hope that her vision for Africa becomes reality in the future.  

There is also a lot of historical and contemporary artwork throughout the city. Below are a couple of pics. 

The first is of some taxis parked on the wall. The taxis here are huge vans that go through the city yelling “Tahwn, Tahwn” (Town). You can get on any of them and you tell them your destination. The fare is always 7 rand (a little less than a dollar).  I have met some of the most interesting people on the taxis- however, most of them also don’t wear deodorant. The taxis are fast and convenient. However, they are also notorious for accidents and tight driving…as this picture of the taxis on the walls show.

Next are pictures of a memorial to the apartheid struggle. It’s very colorful and done mostly by school children in the area- the designers of the memorial wanted the local children to have a connection to the apartheid struggle even though they were born in the post-apartheid era.

Finally we went through some of the worst township areas in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. Below are some pictures.

My camera simply cannot capture all that I saw. There are miles upon miles of tin shacks and broken down houses. Electricity is a scarce resource in the townships and every pole has multiple illegal wires hooked on to the poles. There is rarely any running water and the conditions are absolutely filthy. It is similar to the poverty I have seen in Sri Lanka but the poverty I saw in these townships was on a much bigger scale: it shocked me.

Despite the abject poverty and dismal conditions, I also saw hope around me. We passed a school yard with kids who were laughing and waving at our big tour bus. We also stopped at a newly started hostel. There are a few older women who are running it and trying to make it successful. The women here are called ‘Mama’- it’s similar to the way I call a Sri Lankan woman ‘Auntie’.  They are a wonderful example of women in a developing country taking a leadership initiative to make themselves financially independent through sustainable means.

I’ll leave off on a lighter hearted note: I got my first marriage proposal here!  The Mama on the right of me wanted me to marry her son- her son likes the Indian looking women and she thought I’d be a good wife. I was told that I am worth at least ten cows but they would only afford one.  I didn’t know what to say! I ended up using the ring my Mom gave me: I told her it was an engagement ring and that I was already going to be married.