Capetown

Monday, we visited the local Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) site. We took a walking tour around Khayelitsha township, which was a place located for black redistribution. As we walked, we saw lots of poverty. Also, we visited a children's daycare center- this was SO fun! We couldn't speak their language, but I was overjoyed by their smiles! One little boy sat on my lap almost the entire time, and my heart was so torn when I had to leave him. These children were absolutely adorable! After this, we met up with a spunky older women, Lucy, to go on a slave tour. She showed us around Capetown and emphasized that everyone is connected in the same heritage. She also had some beautiful grey dreds ;) After this, we shopped at the market again. Then a big group of 8 of us girls went to a local restaurant, where they had real ketchup (we haven't had any yet) and they actually called french fries by their real name (as opposed to the English term- chips)! You can imagine our excitement :) Today, we visited Self-Help Manenberg, which is a non-profit organization that helps Manenberg. It was really interesting, but we couldn't take a walking tour of the township because they've had recent violence. We also went to the District 6 Museum, which was powerful. Previously, we had watched the Scifi film, District 9, and discussed the impact of xenophobia. However, we heard personal stories today from people whose familes had been forced to move from District 6 during apartheid, and they really hit home. The apartheid government would bull-doze homes even while familes were still inside... Tonight we have free time to do economics homework and laundry. Tomorrow, we're going to climb Table Mountain and go to a theatre for dinner!