Hello from Cape Town!!

I fell asleep last night before I could blog! Sorry family :p

Yesterday morning we went on another safari! It began at 5 am before the sun came up. We drove across dormant volcanoes over a billion years old until 9 am. Watching the sun rise over these vast mountains was so amazing - I bet I could see for a hundred miles.  I felt very much like I had landed in Jurassic park, and I kind of expected to see dinosaurs. We did see three of the "big five" - lions, rhinos, and elephants - but no buffalo or leopards. An elephant stuck its trunk in our jeep though! Yikes. 

The power and absolute rule of nature was very apparent yesterday morning. To know I will likely never see sights like these again made these moments even more powerful. I wanted to be mentally present for all of it. I sat on the porch all morning and watched monkeys and antelopes at the base of the mountain next to me. 

Sunrise 

Kudu - keep that name in mind 

Rhino

Here we have my sister's doppelgänger (the wildebeest)

Good morning 

View from our room

Hey friend!

After we left the lodge, we stopped at a place called Carnivore for lunch.  It was appropriately named, for sure. Servers brought out different slabs of meat on giant skewers and served the types that we requested. I tried venison, kudu (from the pic!), Impala (kind of antelope-y), warthog, and crocodile. Game meats for the win today. 

After lunch we hopped on a plane to Cape Town, and here we are! The weather is perfect here. The sun shines until 9 pm. 

Our first stop today was Robben Island, which held nothing besides a couple thousand political prisoners until 1991. We took a beautiful hour-long ferry ride to the island. I wondered what Nelson Mandela and others thought as they rode that boat to that dreary island to serve out their sentences, watching their homes and lives fade into the mountains behind them. 

Amazing views. 

It was a fitting day to take this tour, as today is a federal holiday in SA. It is Freedom Day, aka Human Rights Day, to commemorate the 69 peaceful protesters killed in Sharpeville in the 1970s (I can't remember the exact year). 

The island was 12 miles around.  Our tour was given by a man who spent 7 years at Robben Island. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison for "terrorism," that is, recruiting protestors of apartheid. He was released in 1991 when apartheid formally ended.  

He described to us how black prisoners were given half the amount of food as Asian, Indian, and "colored" (mixed race) prisoners; white prisoners were kept in prison on the mainland. Black people did not receive shoes or socks, while other prisoners received long pants and shoes. There were no coverings on the windows to keep out the elements. Prisoners who "misbehaved" or "conspired" were subject to beatings, starvation, and solitary confinement. 

We saw Nelson Mandela's cell, a five by six foot box where he spent 18 years. The inside of the prison had been repainted, which I thought was rather disappointing. His original blanket remained in the cell, however. 

As we sailed back to Cape Town, I looked back at the island. This time I wondered what it might have felt like to be freed from prison on a perfect day like today, with the ocean air in my lungs and the sun on my face, and my home within arm's reach. 

By the way, about 200 people live on Robben island now. Many are ex-prisoners and ex-wardens who live on the island in harmony.  I wanted to ask this man why he would ever come back to the place of his prison, but I thought it would be too personal. He answered it for us all anyway.  He says that it is a gesture of goodwill; an acknowledgement that they have reconciled and forgiven.  Again, that sense of "Ubuntu" - the peace and unity that is so foreign to us as Americans. I am so lucky to have witnessed it. 

The rest of today involved lunch at the waterfront and some academic housekeeping. I am so fortunate to be able to have open conversations with my classmates about race and inequality. Something of a taboo subject, isn't it, but the stigmatism is all gone here. 

Freedom for all!!

I'm heading out in a bit for dinner and drinks with my class at the waterfront - it's a beautiful night. Must be this mountain air!