Luxuriating in the Racial Deliciousness

I arrive in Cape Town and we have to deplane down the airplane's stairs~ I feel the beautiful warm breeze on my face as we step off the plane and I totally feel like a aviator-rocking celebrity coming off their private jet. or Air Force One. or whatever. Anyways, we make our way into the airport, get our baggage and step out where an entire CIEE greeting party is waiting for us. They're a bunch of UCT students holding welcome signs and shouting happily- it's the cutest thing. I come up to them and ask "Are we the first ones??" haha, and they laugh and say NOOOOOO- there is a huge group already waiting for the bus. There are 140 people all together on CIEE's Cape Town program. yup. ONE HUNDRED FORTY! We are a veritable horde of Americans wherever we go. It's fine in the beginning, but then it just starts getting really annoying that we stick out like a sore thumb. While we're waiting to board the bus, I look at my luggage and notice that my duffel bag has a huge rip on the bottom of on of its pockets. All the while I'm saying "please let it be the pocket with the lotion. PLEASEEEEE." and its not. of course not. It's the pocket with all my chargers, my external harddrive, and my guidebook. PERFECT. I have to stay behind to fill out a claim- they give me paperwork to mail in and I have to take my bag to a luggage store to have them assess it. On the plus side, one of the CIEE staff- a beautiful beautiful man named Ramon- is the one staying behind with me. The security man thinks that someone slashed the pocket on purpose to steal its contents. Apparently someone else got their retainer stolen out of their bag... of all things, why take someone's retainer? Lovely- thanks for the beautiful welcome Cape Town. 

We are staying at the Garden Court Hotel for the first three days for CIEE Orientation, its a really beautiful resort-y hotel in Cape Town.I It's a great place with a wonderful continental breakfast spread and two espresso machines, but I can't seem to get my calling card or internet to work so I'm slowly dying on the inside. I'm sharing a room with a Jewish hipster-y girl from Brooklyn named Chelsea who goes to Occidental. She seems pretty unfriendly at first but then we bond and we're tight now. Orientation is pretty annoying in general- very summer campy where we have to play ice breakers, do silly dances, and talk about safety for like a majillion hours. Turns out a CIEE boy last semester died during the midterm break of drowning and two people got in serious accidents and had to be airlifted out of Mozambique. This is pretty scary news, but I plan on being really safe. 

We are also not supposed to walk around by ourselves. EVER. and especially at night. which is going to be really really hard for me considering I'm really used to doing my own thang in the states~ It'll take some major getting used to, but I think I'll be able to adjust. We are also supposed to be really careful about the types of taxis we take. There are van taxis that are crazy and all over the place. They are packed completely full of people and honk wildly at you when they pass you to let you know to hale them~ apparently there's a large chance of having to sit on someone's lap in these taxis but they are only R10 (R10=$1). The meter taxis are much more legit, but more expensive and can also be really unsafe if you are alone. Apparently taxi drivers have been known to assault and sometimes rape women who ride them alone at night. Cape Town's level of crime is definitely my biggest concern while I'm here. I'm planning on getting some pepper spray ASAP- they sell it in all the pharmacies here. We have to lock all our valuables away and have to put padlocks on our room doors. All the windows and doors have bars in front of them~ even during open hours, stores have grills in front of their doors so that you have to be buzzed in in order to enter. All the locks and security has me a little paranoid. I even wake up in the night suddenly sometimes thinking someone is trying to get into my room. This, also, is going to take a lot of getting used to. It just makes me think that Cape Town, even with its relative wealth and first world infrastructure has a LOT of developing left to do. 

The townships scattered throughout South Africa are huge shantytowns of brightly colored tin-roofed shacks. The ironic thing is that many townships are located next to the golf courses and mansions of Cape Town's elite country clubs. The crushing poverty and crime contrasted with the immense imperialist wealth of South Africa is so indicative of SA's history of apartheid and racial hierarchy. This country is teeming with overbrimming racial tensions and I eat this stuff up. Everyone talks about it, the headlines are crawling with it, and you can't talk about education, health or politics without bringing in race. In a country that has just emerged from huge racial segregation in 1994, it makes sense that the scars are still fresh. I feel really lucky to be here in such a transitional time in SA's history. There aren't many countries left where racial hierarchies are so clearly defined and institutionalized. Even at University of Cape Town (UCT), a school that championed racial equality even during apartheid, the racial segregation is shocking. Whites and Blacks and Indians don't really mix at all~ our white student orientation leaders for CIEE (they're called our SOLmates) say that they did not have any black friends until they met the black SOLmates, and vice versa. weird, eh? The different race students even have different areas of the main steps they sit on in front of the University's main hall. I tell them that America still has a long ways to go and its only been about 50 years since we ended our institutionalized racism through the Civil Rights Act. There's always hope, give it time. 

My assigned SOLmate is Blandina who is Tanzanian. She's AWESOME. and has a banging booty. but that's beside the point. When I first met her, I thought she was pretty shy and reserved- I honestly kinda wished I had one of the more outgoing super friendly SOLmates, turns out she's pure platinum. She is so open to talking frankly about anything we want to know about UCT and SA, which I can't say for everyone here considering race is still a pretty touchy and taboo subject. She tells us about the huge socioeconomic differences between white and black UCT students, the racial segregation, interracial dating, xenophobia, etc etc. She's Christian and invites us to go to a black church with her which sounds a lot like black churches in American (gospel music, a lot of soul). I plan on taking her up on this offer. I hope that Cape Town can offer some sort of spiritual knowledge for me too- I feel like I need more God in my life. 

In terms of partying, almost everything happens on Long St. which is where most of Cape Town's clubs and bars are. It's kind of depressing though because poor children will run up to you and ask you for money and you have to be really cold and turn away or else they will hassle you till the morning dawn. People will also come up to you and offer weed and ecstasy- apparently prostitution is pretty common too. I've been to a couple bars and clubs on Long St., they're chill- not too different from the states. Funny enough (and really suckily) a lot of the prostitutes here seem to be asian. I was sitting at dinner the other night and an asian women came up to me and started talking mad fast to me in Chinese. She then propositioned the entire table for massages- I think she was soliciting more than that but whatever... I also saw an Asian woman with a gross white tourist in a club the other night- not sure if she was a prostitute or if her type is just weird white dudes that can't dance, but my spidey senses were definitely tingling and so were my friends'. It's definitely a weird country to be Asian in. Everytime I see an Asian at UCT I clap a little in my head (which isn't that often...). It's gotten to the point where I want to join the Republic of China club just to see some Asians. I don't think I'll be able to fake being a China fan though so I've given up on that notion.  

Have I mentioned how beautiful the people are here? This place was made for me. The style is super beachy beautiful- very California, Australia-esque. The men all have beautiful surfer-y shaggy hair, tans, and dress very casual. The women are really beautiful too- both white and black. I am loving the dress code and weather- my wardrobe was made for this shit. Everyday is about 80 degrees and its gets windier and cooler at night. While its blizzarding in Boston, I can't be happier to be in this warm land of ridiculously gorgeous people.