Home in Cape Town

We made it back in one piece!!!!

I guess I'll just pick up where I left off :)

After Cintsa we headed out to Coffee Bay. This was quite the adventure. Pretty much immediately after East London (the big city before Cintsa) you hit the Transkei. This is a land that during Apartheid was a "homeland" or a place where black, Xhosa South African's were exported. It's pretty crazy because it seems like instantly even the landscape changes to savannah-esque "African" landscape. It was a 3 hour drive like none other in my life. The roads were precarious...pot holes, animals, children, overturned trucks, fires...Origionally we had planed to drive out to Coffee Bay in the evening and night, which would have been disasterous. About every hour we would pass through a town. These places were bustling. There were people everywhere selling things and visiting and going about their daily business. It was funny because we were trying to figure out if there was something special going on that day, but it was a Tuesday and the towns were just going on like normal. It was great to be able to catch a glimpse of what this area of South Africa is like. It seems so independent of any outside infulence, which I know is only surface deep and there are probably huge impacts that run very deeply. In between these cities there were expansive rolling hills covered in rural farms. The homes and land out there were beautiful. Colorful cirucular huts...herds of sheep...corn fields...Driving through it seemed so unreal to me. We've seen plays and had lectures about these areas in South Africa, but I could never really place what the life style is like. I still only have a fraction of an idea, an image, but it is far more than I could ever think up on my own. I would be so intrigued to spend even one day in one of these houses. Some of them were burried deep in the valleys, miles from the road...I just wonder what their lives are like. Do they make it out to the cities? do they just have a completely sustainable life on their farm? It's so hard for me to imagine being that disconnected from a bustling, central meeting place. I think that this drive was one of the most valuable experiences that I've had here. It makes a much more well rounded picture of life in this country. It also fortifies the struggles that the country has politically...how does a central government work over places like Cape Town and the Transkei? I'm pretty rivited by this place...

Soooo we got to Coffee Bay...which was distressing...It was a very remote town, beautiful location, but a strange vibe. We were all in kind of tense moods...Travelling for 7 days with the same four people can get a bit strained. So we went to the backpacker and met the owners and got set up...then we went down to the beach. I was walking there by myself and was met by a young boy who was in tattered clothes. He introduced himself and then told me he wanted to sing for me. I didn't really think anything of it and just walked away. He left me alone without any bother. I settled down on the beach apart from everyone else and after fifteen minutes I looked up and a pack of about seven school girls were charging me...I was surrounded by the girls and they were pressuring me for anything they could get their hands on...I gave them a hair tie and they continued to ask if I would support them, or if they could sing for me. I guess I misunderstood something and they all began singing. After they were finnished I got up and walked away and they followed me chanting "NOTHING FOR FREE" as I tried to explain to them that I didn't have any money and that I was sorry for making them sing they got more and more fiesty...then they started telling me they would follow me home. Eventually Scotty intervened and somehow got them to lay off, but it was a pretty intense experience. I was really shaken by it. Basically it shows the corruption that comes from tourism. If there had never been tourists there to give into the demands of these children they wouldn't think it was an ok thing to do. They would find other ways of supporting themselves...I've never really experienced the responsibility ethical tourism. I don't want to be a tourist that breaks a community because of my poor choices to complacently satisfy myself. There are better ways to travel. This was really only one incident in Coffee Bay that led us to question the moral responsibility of tourism...While it was an unfortunate experience, I think it was valuable for perspective. How do we manage ourselves as guests in another country? What are responsible ways of giving into communities that we visit?

Needless to say we got an early start the next morning...Drove back through the Transkei and on to Knysna...It was probably a 12 hour day of driving...Pretty intense. We were all dilusional by the end of the night...which was silly. That night we crashed at a backpackers directly on the beach. It was a pretty beautiful place, just reinforced how amazing Knysna is. The stars were out that night!!! got to see a fair amount of shooting stars and the expansive milky way. That night was one of the most absurd nights here. We were in a dorm room with four Germans...that had the maturity level of probably 14 year old boys...Pretty annoying. There were bodily noises being made for probably an hour after they got in...awesome...

The next day was our final leg of the journey. 5-ish more hours I think. Then home sweet home back to Faldhin's (our landlord) front door :)

What's to come...We have a few more weeks here in Cape Town when hopefully we'll hook up with the people we've been planning to meet doing homeless services in the city. Maybe do another build with Habitat. Then out to Pretoria to meet up with some contacts up there and see what they're doing and then a few more days in Cape Town and home...when laid out like that it feels like this trip will be over in a blink of an eye.

I'm missing you all and looking forward to hearing about the adventures you've been having this summer! Lots of Love.