Cape Town Highlight Number 1

There is a big party at my guest house (where the cottages are)
and I am not sleeping. I gave up when they started playing "We Will
Rock You". I looked out my window there were half naked men with beers
chillin' in the fountain. It is a fountain, not a hot tub. I think
they are some kind of team. When I was in Oz, I ran into a famous
local rugby team that was staying at my hotel. I ended up in the lift
with them. They were hot, mostly. They were a highlight, these guys
are not.

Highlight number 1: The German couple I was staying with (at their
guest house) took me to black church on sunday. Since I am in Africa,
black church is just where the black people go for services. Black
people are not to be mistaken for colored people, which are people of
mixed race. It was a Catholic Church so everything was very familar
even though most of it is in a local language called a word that
sounds like Kwolzo (with a cluck in the beginning, this language has
clucking sounds). I whipped right into the "Peace Be With You's" on
cue. Even though I haven't been to church since my sister's wedding
last September.

The choir was amazing and there were instruments too. They looked like
xylophones made out of wood (are they made of wood elsewhere?
unfinished wood here). There were also some improvised drums. It
sounded like everyone in the church was singing together. It was
beautiful. My companions thought I was falling asleep when I closed my
eyes, but really I was just trying to feel something. Trying to be
moved. There is movement in that music.

At the end one of the older women got up to speak about AIDS. I only
picked up the few words of english, but you got the message. A couple
of young girls got up to make an announcement about a youth group they
are trying to start. Kids with birthdays got blessed. I took some
photos. Children came up to shake my hand. I had been announced and
asked to stand so I could be introduced as a visitor from the U.S.

The church is in the middle of the Guguletu Township. The townships
are like shanty towns. it's where the black and coloreds live. as far
as you can see there are shacks made out of what looks like corrugated
metal, sometimes painted. There is electricity and phone line. No
indoor plumbing. The people must go to central locations where there
are water facilities. This is a step up from anything I saw in the
DRC.

I am not used to being around Germans. Nine, I don't sprechen deutsch.
I am not used to black, coloreds, nigger, etc. being thrown around in
the way the people I am with here use those words. The tone, the
circumstance, the lack of explanation. I don't think it's a language
gap type problem. Do I understand that I must grab my purse when the
the black people walk by so they don't take it, amazing the hips on
that woman (all those women), those cabs are not for white people.

Cultural exchange is not always soft and pretty.

Fwd: Kneel. Sit. Stand. Repeat if Desired.


Hello, Here I am in South Africa. I got here Friday night and have not
had internet or time for much lately. I spent the weekend in Cape Town
and there were 3 highlights.

but, since i am in the middle of the courtyard where i am staying
(don't worry, guards and gates, etc. it's night) so i can have
internet, i'll have to tell you all about them later. no internet in
my hut/cottage. it has a thatched roof. birds must be nesting in it,
it smells like sewage instead of lovely grass, and people are loud at
this place! there are also a few chow chows that got a shave today and
like to growl at me.

finally had a good meal here, italian.