1/7/11

Today began our first weekend after a long week of volunteering. We started our day off at our work sites for three hours as opposed to the usual six. Our bus picked us up promptly at noon and after a quick lunch on the bus we immediately set off for the Waterfront. The Waterfront is a beautiful touristy shopping center where boats can dock and people can shop and explore Cape Town. This site has also been seen in movies such as Blood Diamond. This is also where the boat for Robben Island picks up passengers. So, after an hour of browsing the shops we all boarded the boat for Robben Island.
Robben Island was originally a prison made famous during the apartheid years for housing freedom fighters. It’s most famous inmate: Nelson Mandela. Now the entire island is considered a museum and the new government has given houses on Robben Island to former inmates. Several inmates work at the museum. During the apartheid Robben Island was overcrowded, overrun with disease and abusive to prisoners. The prison was divided into A, B and C sections depending on the behavior of the inmate. The C section was a group cell where as many as 50 men would share a 50x50 foot cell. The B section was were Nelson Mandela stayed for the majority of his section he was allowed two visits every four months and one letter every month. All personal visits were required to be conducted in English or Afrikaans. We got to explore Mandela’s cell which was quite moving because that is where he wrote the much of the manuscript for The Long Walk to Freedom, which we read prior to class. The trip to Robben Island was both informative and moving. Seeing the cells, the work sites and the prison yards made the apartheid movement more real. Being at the place where many of our modern day heroes suffered for the benefit of others was an amazing experience that will not be taken for granted. The opportunity to stand in Mandela’s former cell and appreciate the time he spent there was truly amazing.

1/8/2011

We started off our Saturday by returning to the African Market to finish buying some souvenirs. The weather was great; it was warm and sunny with a nice breeze. Then, we headed to South Africa’s oldest wine farm, Groot Constantia, created in 1685. The vineyard was beautiful! We took a tour of the inside of the winery to see where the wine is made and stored, and then we were all able to do some wine tasting ourselves. We sampled 5 different wines, and learned about different ways on how to tell the quality of wine. We were able to purchase wines after the tour. After that, we headed over to Spier, another vineyard. We had lunch outside on the grass, and then also did some more wine tasting at this vineyard. Located on the other side of the vineyard is the Cheetah Outreach Reserve Center. Here they have cheetahs that they are trying to protect, and you can choose to go into the cages to the pet the cheetahs. A lot of us chose to pet cheetahs, such as Amy, Ashlyn, and myself, and it was a great experience! We learned that cheetahs in the wild live approx. from 4-8 years, and they can live up to 14 years at the reserve. After that, we went and looked at the grounds of one other vineyard and then headed back to Spier for dinner at Moyo’s. Dinner was amazing! We sat at this table up on a large deck, and they brought us all blankets and painted our faces. There was a huge buffet with many choices, from fish to steak to native African dishes! The restaurant was mainly outside, and there were tables set up under neat little “Moroccan” inspired tents and people were going around to the different areas and performing different dances and songs. We headed home around 10:00 p.m., and had a great day!