Cape Town!

Cape Town is probably one of the greatest places I have ever been! The ocean is absolutely beautiful and the water just seems to go on forever. You can see the mountains and the ocean in the one shot and its incredible. The city vibe of Cape Town is very refreshing and I didn’t realize how much I missed the city. It reminds me of San Francisco and Seattle mixed together. 

This week my roommate Bianca and I have been staying with a family in a community called Oceanview. The Daniels family has two daughters, who are 25 and 19 years old. It has been fun getting to know the whole family. They are very generous people and have been taking great care of us! On the first day 

we met Ester and Isaac at a dinner for all the students and our host families and Ester wore a purple shirt and jewelry. This reminded me of my mom, of course, and from here on out I knew everything was going to be okay, because my “mom” for the week was wearing purple. 

Our “parents” took us on a drive the first night to see the lights of the city and we walked by the beach for a few minutes and talked with them a lot. The weekend with them was very relaxing. It’s really fun living in the Oceanview community because 24 other students are also living in the community with their homestay families. I love hearing the stories about my friends’ “families” and what fun, crazy, and interesting things they do with them. There are always people walking around the streets, and there always seems to be loud music bumpin somewhere (usually it feels like the music is coming from next door, although I’m not sure if this is true) in Oceanview. Bianca and I walk to the church where all of us student meet in the morning before we take the vans to the Bible Institute where we have class everyday. Watching everyone arrive at the church in the mornings is probably one of my favorite things. Many of us walk, others get rides from their “parents” , everyone has their backpack on like we are in elementary school again, and we are always so very happy to see each other because we have no cell phones or internet and thus we go through a little bit of separation anxiety because we cannot communicate with each other. 

This week for our History and Culture of South Africa class we went on a couple of excursions. We went to visit the township of Langa, which was the first black township. We also went to Robben Island, which was where Nelson Mandela was in prison for 18 years. I really enjoyed the tour of Robben Island and some of the history we have been learning about for the past couple of months came to life in a new way. On Robben Island many of the prisoners were political prisoners but criminals also spent time there. Robben Island did not house any prisoners after 1996, which really is not that long ago. It is incredible that all of the things we are learning about the apartheid really did not occur very long ago. One of our guides was an older man who was a prisoner on the island. He showed us where he stayed when he was there and gave us a lot of information about life on Robben Island.  

I am very excited to explore more parts of the city of Capetown in the week and a half ahead! I have been looking forward to this part of the trip for a long time, and I cannot believe I am actually here. It is kind of sad that I have less and less things to look forward to in the semester. However, at the same time, I am getting excited to go home and this week I have been the most homesick I have been all semester. Living in a house with a family is a great experience but it makes me miss my family and my home!