We drove around with the LEAP bus drive named Dickey and a LEAP graduate, Andisani, to give us a tour of Langa. This is the township that LEAP 1 serves. LEAP 2 serves a different, yet similar township. Langa reminded me a lot of Alexandra in a sense. It was a township that housed very poor individuals and families, yet there was a side that served doctors and lawyers as well. It was an interesting dichotomy to see. Langa was built in the beginning of Apartheid. Across the street is a very wealth neighborhood call Pinelands. The Pinelands has concrete walls and barbed wire fencing around it. Langa has only 2 entrance ways into it, both very far away for Pinelands. This was done on purpose during Apartheid to clearly separate what and black neighborhoods.
You see this all over South Africa. Johannesburg has it as well…clear walls and roads built to specifically separate by race. It’s sad to see really. We are in 2010 and many whites still see themselves as more powerful, and others powerless. It is truly sad.
While in Langa, Dickey was talking to us about all the Zimbabweans in SA. They are having a hard time here due to a lot of xenophobia. In 2008, there were xenophobia attacks against Zimbabweans. One man was lit on fire alive at a bus stop. There are talks of other attacks soon. The interesting thing is that these xenophobic attacks are not geared towards all foreigners, but mainly people from Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe refugees tend to work for a cheaper wage so they are having better success at getting more jobs than black South Africans. Does this sound familiar? Hi Arizona! How are you? Very similar feelings are in the air in the US towards refugees from Mexico. No bust stop burnings yet, but we aren’t too far off.
Another interesting fact I learned is that there is a clear difference between blacks and coloreds. Well, there are the whites who are white. There are the blacks who typically are from Africa, and then there are the coloreds. If you are not white or black, you are colored. Indians, Asians, etc. I also learned that there are a lot of colored townships out there and white townships are starting to pop up too.
Continuing on our tour of Langa, we stopped off to have some delicious township food called Smiley. In Alex it’s called Scope. Basically it the discarded head of a goat or sheep. It is quite interesting to see and ever more interesting to eat. It’s a bit of a process to prepare so good thing I didn’t have to, I was able to watch.
Step 1: Shave of all the hair
Step 2: Use a red hot iron and burn off the rest of the hair
Step 3: Stick a hook through the nostrils and dip it in boiling water to cook the meat and brains.
Step 4: Pull it out and using an ax, chop the skull in half.
Step 5: Toss it in a pile of coals to smoke for a while.
Step 6: Season and rip the meat off the face and eat.
Now, I stayed away from the brains and the eyes, but the cheek meat was delicious and the tongue was great too. John ate some of the ear and said it was tasty until he hit the crunch ear canal…is anyone hungry yet?
After eating Smiley, we headed back to school for some observing and teaching. I was able to jump into a 1th grade class and teach some Present and Future annuities. I then taught a bit (John did mainly, I was just there to help) in a 10th grade about slope of a line…good times. I finally sat in on an LO class. If you read an earlier blog of mine I talked about the loving and nurturing nature of the LO here created by Trevor and Tabia. It’s a bit different in the other LEAP schools. It’s more “In your face” conversations and calling people out. Students are almost forced to talk. Several teachers (not LO teachers) said that they heard students saying that they simply make up things to say to that they don’t get in trouble when they get called on. Is this the best way to create a safe and comforting space? I like the way things work here at LEAP 3.
After our day there we went back to the lodge to nap and rest up before we went out to experience downtown Cape Town.
Going out in Cape Town is a great experience. First, I know nothing of the town so an adventure waits around every corner. Second, it’s very different than what I have done in Jo’burg. Cape Town is very divided…still. Yes, there is some mixing of colors when you go out (not like in Jo’burg where there is a lot of racial mixing), but neighborhoods are black, whites, or colored. We went out and hung out with a lot of white people. Not that there is anything wrong with white people, but here there is a stigma that you carry on your shoulders being white, so I like to surround myself with the black South Africans who are nicer and more welcoming anyway. All in all, I have fun anywhere I go and with whom ever I am with, so I had a blast on Long Street
The next day we went downtown again by train and headed to the Green Square Market where there are booths set up to buy “authentic handmade South African products.” This is not true at all. Most of the things each vendor claims to have is made by them, by hand, yet the next vendor has the exact same product with the exact same carving and prints. I learned later that most of the things come from Kenya, Zimbabwe, or Botswana and are not authentic at all. Yet still I find myself compelled to buy nick nacks everywhere I go. Bargaining makes it more fun and challenging too.
We went to Simon’s Town too. This is home of the penguins who created their homes among the people who inhabited the area first. Yes, people were there first, and then the penguins took over. It was great to see them so close. We were able to see a mating ritual too of the male walking circles around the female. Another make came to challenge him and they got into it a bit. It was really neat to see that.
The next day we climbed Table Mountain. It’s beautiful up there. There is an 8 hour hike up the mountain or there is a gondola ride up as well. We opted for the gondola ride up to save time (and laziness). You can really see the entire cape from the top. You can see the point where the Indian and Atlantic meet. A very powerful thought (for me at least.) The area is enormous. We hiked around for about 5 hours and were able to hit all edges of the table top. What is amazing to me is being able to see the racial separation of neighborhoods. You can see the definite divide between the poorer townships and the next door middle class white neighborhoods. There are very very few racially mixed neighborhoods.
Other than the train, I have learned (and maybe I’m late with this), but befriend a taxi driver and solely use them during the stay. Since most taxis are not metered here, you can really bargain for your ride. Booking the same driver day to day they are sure to hook you up with a good deal every time.
We finally packed up and were off to the airport. I packed my LEAP cell phone in my bag and for some stupid reason checked it…why? I don’t know….nonetheless, when I got my bag back, it was unzipped and no cell phone. I reported it to the police and the airline and they basically laughed at me for being a dummy and putting the cell phone in my backpack. A learning experience to say the least.
Home to sleep!
