This is a map of Cape Town to orient yourselves to where I am. I live in Mowbray (upper right area), and the City Centre if Cape Town is in the dashed box.

So to begin this entry I would like to answer some of the questions in the comments.

The apartheid era began in 1948 and ended in 1994. Tomorrow I am planning on going to the District Six Museum in the City Centre, so I will let you know more about

The picture below shows the Good Food Market at the Old Biscuit Mill in Woodstock. It had a few booths selling local organic produce, but mainly the market sold freshly prepared breads, spreads, and the like. It was definitely not like the farmer’s markets we are used to back home with a wide variety of local farmers goods, but it was the closest thing to it that I have encountered so far. I have definitely noticed a lack of recycling here as well. There are separate cans for paper, plastic, cans, and other garbage on campus, but as far as I can tell, there is no recycling separation required of residents. I am trying to figure out if recycling gets separated at the plant, but I don’t know yet. At the grocery stores here however, if you want a plastic bag to carry your groceries in, you have to pay 25 cents, or you can purchase a reusable bag or bring in your own.

You can do a lot of things at the grocery store. You can purchase rugby, train and bus tickets, and the most useful thing for the people living at my house is that electricity can be purchased there. There is an electricity meter by the front door to our house, and if the units run out, then we are out of power. It ran out once after we had just moved in, and I took the 1800 rand we collected from the housemates to the ShopRite to buy electricity. Then you punch in the code on the receipt, and the electricity comes back on. The landlord told us originally that we should expect to pay 70-80 rand a month, but I have a sinking feeling that it is going to be a lot more than that because the electricity we bought is almost gone already, and it’s hard to avoid using electricity in a house of 20 people who are constantly coming and going

Where I live, in Mowbray, is less of a nice neighborhood than some of the others where students are living, and I kind of like living in a place that feels a little less sheltered, because I get to see more of life of an average Capetonian as opposed to a more upper class one. ShopRite for instance is an inferior grocery store to Woolworth’s or PickNPay, but I get to see more of the products and foods that many people buy regularly. I need to go to PickNPay soon though, because I really want some fruit, and ShopRite does not have a great selection.

Anyway, getting back to the questions. The question of land ownership is an interesting one, and in South Africa it is quite complicated. Originally there were the indigenous KhoiSan people that lived in the Western Cape area, but when the Dutch came, they were literally hunted down like animals. In more recent history, land ownership was limited for “natives” in the Native’s Land Act of 1913, which marked the first major piece of segregation legislation passed by the Union Parliament, and remained active during the apartheid era. During apartheid, people were further segregated by race, and blacks, coloured, and Indian people were driven off the best land (fertile farmland, mountain areas, etc.). A specific example of this in Cape Town is in District Six, which became an official white area during apartheid. All non-whites were allocated to complexes in townships in the Cape Flats area, which is flat, bleak, and sandy as opposed to their previous residence nestled near Table Mountain near the docks. 60,000 were relocated from their homes starting in 1966. This kind of thing is the unfortunate situation to which I was referring. I have been to see the townships a little bit, and even from a brief trip, it is clear that these areas are not choice property. The interesting thing about District 6 also is that since 1994 the African National Congress (the ruling political party in SA) has recognized the claims of some former residents to the area and has pledged support in rebuilding, as many apartments were destroyed. However, this process has not proved to be very smooth, although some residents have returned in recent years. There has been a recent exodus of sorts of white South Africans who are not excited about being asked to return the land they stole years ago, causing some additional resentment from South Africans still in the country, because the people leaving are not helping to heal the country, rather they are hurting it in a way as they usually the educated ones that contribute significantly to the economy.

I am still not an expert on this complicated issue, and I am sure this discussion would benefit from additional research, but I hope it makes my feelings a little more clear. I see on a daily basis the blatant racial inequality. Even when taking the campus shuttle to school I see it. There are mostly black students on the shuttles and few whites because the whites have cars and drive to school.

There are also several wildlife preserves here, so there are not huge concerns in the country just yet about animal protection. Outside of Cape Town there is plenty of open space for animals.

So what else have I been doing here so far... I have been going to the various parts of town that need to be seen mainly I guess. I went to the Victoria and Albert Waterfront for dinner at a restaurant that served traditional South African food. I had the Boerewors platter, which had boerewors (SA sausage), chips (fries) and a piece of SA pumpkin pie (less sweet pumpkin pie filling in a pastry sleeve). One girl from my house ordered a sample platter of the African game meats, including crocodile, kudu (an antelope), springbok (the national animal), warthog, ostrich, and impala. There was so much food that all seven of us at the table were able to try each of them. Kudu was good because it tasted like chicken, and impala was like steak. They were all pretty good, but crocodile was my least favorite.

Alright I will update more later, bye!