City Tour

Check out some pics from today:

City Art

The Bus

Clotheslines!

Normal homes in the townships.  Townships are areas in which people were relocated during the Apartheid solely based on the color of their skin.  There were separate areas for black, coloured (mulatto), Chinese, and Indian.

There are lots of strays, and especially a lot of cute stray puppies.

Yes, sadly fast food has inundated the townships, too.  The tour guide told us that a few years ago there were no McDonalds, and then three went up in the matter of a few months.

There are tons of shops and even some homes made out of these shipping containers.  There is a hair dresser about every block whose shop is run out of these.  There are also Spaza shops where someone can make quite a living selling alcohol to pensioners, who are some of the only people in the townships who have a reliable income.

Just like in poorer areas in the States, many still have satellite dishes.  I saw one house with four of them.

I LOVE this pot.  There is a mask with a similar color scheme, and I plan to go back and buy something from this woman.  It is better to buy from Aya (that is her name) than the people who sell on the boardwalk, because she will earn a fair wage for her work, while the others who sell put in long days and get a pittance from their bosses.  So, buying from them is supporting a kind of slavery.

This is the entrance to Aya's shop.

Check out the hen-and-chicks that are growing in the rocks on her head.  this piece is damaged, but there were plenty more like it inside.

This little boy was giving us pretty eyes from the bus.  He is eating a yogurt with his fingers and tongue.

Talk about a cutie!

This is the post that helped him to climb onto the brick wall.

These are the findings from an ingquiry about a massacre that happened in Port Elizabeth during the Apartheid regime.  Many atrocities went unchecked, and those people still walk free.  The tour guide said he even knows some of the policemen who killed and beat people he knew.  How do you have closure when you see the men who barbecued your four children and sent the pictures to you walking free?

A typical sight in the townships.

There is a horseback riding trail and hiking trails close by, and we plan to visit again as a group to enjoy the more undeveloped coastline.

This morning we all piled into a double-decker bus for a city tour.  Unlike a regular tour, our guide Bradley took us on a historical cultural tour of the city and townships to give us insight into the identity of the people of Port Elizabeth.  We saw city art, a statue memorial for war horses, housing development areas, a pottery studio in a township, a museum about the Apartheid called the Red Museum, and a beautiful part of the coastline that we hadn’t seen with campgrounds and hiking trails.  The nature of the tour was cool, because Bradley pointed out important people’s homes, but they did not look like you would think.   The head director of the World Cup lived in a home that was not even as nice as the homes I have lived in growing up.  His name was the most-often mentioned name in the press of ANYONE in the world last year, yet he lives in a house that, albeit has running water and sewage, but sits on a riverbed overgrown with alien plant species in which the grounds outside are covered in trash.  If one wants to have a nice home she/he must ascertain the proper permits to build in certain areas and be able to afford a brick or stone wall with barbed wire on top and a security system.  At some of the historical monuments we went to the people did not even know the value of the sites, and the brass identification plates were stolen because the people could sell the brass for cash.

Some of the more striking things I learned today were that when ordering squid in South Africa I should indicate that I want South African squid, because most of the squid in the restaurants is from Norway because it is more lucrative to export the South African squid.  Along the same lines, I had an apple from Washington today with the sticker to prove it.  Apples aren’t in season, so they are imported from the next best place J 

When we returned from the tour, I cashed out for about an hour before a meeting to decide which service sites we will serve at.  Service starts Monday morning, and we will hear this weekend which site we will get.  We each listed our top two choices and the reasons why we chose them, so whichever site I’m at, I will be happy.  After the meeting Taylor and I took our daily run, and the wind was fierce today, but it was nice and cool. 

This evening we went to a club called Beliza.  It was ladies night, so we did not pay the cover charge to get into the dance area of the club.  We saw some South African friends that we met a few other nights and some of the international students that we met at Bush Camp.  One guy’s shirt was vomited on, and he didn’t even notice until a bartender told him.  The poor guy tried to clean it in the bathroom, but that is not a smell easily eradicated.  I came home in the first set of taxis because the bar/club scene isn’t my most comfortable, and I wanted to blog and read a bit before bed.  We have no obligations until Monday, so I am excited to read a bit, beach a bit, and just relax until then.

Peace and love.