Friday, May 22, 2009

Today was our free day. We were supposed to hike table mountain, which is a flat mountain right beside Cape Town, but it was too cloudy in the morning so we would not have been able to see much.

Instead, we went to the “District 6 Museum” and then were free to do what we wanted. On the way to the district six museum, we stopped at what you could call their white house. Near this was a big garden that we walked through. It was full of pigeons (literally, there were hundreds) and we all touched a good luck tree! The tree must have been 10 feet wide at least. The museum was really cool. It was all about apartheid, which is the period of segregation here. It was a horrible time that crated such a diverse society with a huge upper class and lower class but virtually no middle class. Apartheid ended in about 1994 so it’s only been 15 years since the country was given equal rights. The people here say their country is only 15 years old. You can very visibly see the remaining scars it has placed on the people however huge leaps and bounds have been made. Its become a much better place but there is a lot of work left to be done.

After the museum we went for a little walk (got a tiny bit lost) and ended up going to a pizza place for lunch. The pizza here is really good. Its not greasy (I know, unheard of) and the crust is really thin. Oh I also had coffee from this place called Sundance, which is like a version of Starbucks. It’s pretty good. After lunch I got my bartering skills on. I’m HORRIBLE. I feel bad lowering the price too much because I feel like its insulting to them. However, I got a lot better towards the end and I got some pretty cool things ☺

We had until six when we had a meeting so we went back and took a nap. The houses we are staying in are on super lockdown. There is a gate outside the door then there is also a gate outside the porch. And these gates aren’t just like any gate. They are floor to ceiling iron bars (just for safety). We wanted to leave but another girl had accidentally taken our keys when she let herself out so we were literally stuck in this house! It was horrible. It’s a long story but we eventually got out!! We had dinner at a thai restaurant which is surprisingly good for South Africa.

When we got back we just sat around and talked for a while… a very long while. That’s about it for Friday! Pretty relaxing day.