Everyday is Different

Everyday in the Cape holds new experiences. The people around here are so warm and welcoming with big, open hearts. On Thursday Margaret (the person from whom we are renting our digs) took me into Kayelitsha, one of Cape Town’s black townships. Her sister makes crafts for a craft store in the township that’s run by an NGO. We drove along the very scenic coastal road and I was surprised when we entered the township via a wide multilaned, well maintained road. The area we drove through had nice houses, many of which were council homes built to replace informal shacks. There were lots of shacks between built up neighborhoods, but you can see that they are on a decline. The craftshop had a terrific selection of African themed clothes, artwork, kitchen stuff, and jewelry made mostly by people who are HIV+. After this little township tour, Margaret and I met up with her sister, Anne for coffee at a seaside café in Muizenberg. These two sisters grew up in Zimbabwe when it was Rhodesia. We talked about Alexander Fuller’s books. Turns out Anne’s husband had taught her, and Anne had known her too because she had also taught at the same school. We all agreed that Don’t Let’s Go To The Dogs Tonight was excellent. Margaret and Anne felt Fuller did a great job of capturing the period and place. As for Scribble the Cat, Margaret and I expressed disappointment, but Anne seemed to have enjoyed it. Anne sympathized with the author’s need to connect with someone who had experienced and understood the African bush. I personally thought the guy in the book was a bit too weird, especially his religious zeal. I really enjoyed chatting with Margaret and Anne.
Last Friday evening was Diwali and we were invited to spend the evening with David’s friends. Actually the ‘Auntie’ (German) and ‘Uncle’ (Indian) had been friends of his parents when they all lived in Lesotho when David was a boy. Auntie and Uncle have been in Cape Town (Claremont) for six years now and they’ve ‘adopted’ all these young families who have immigrated here from various parts of the world. So for Diwali these young families were at their place to celebrate. Auntie and Uncle served a nice variety of delicious Indian savories and sweets, and all over the house there were clay lamps so it was all quite atmospheric. With such a global group – Taiwanese, Brazilian, English, American, Italian – you realize what a cosmopolitan city Cape Town is.
On Saturday Rosie, a friend of our London friend, Laura Epstein, came round to see us. Rosie, a doctor at a hospital in Kayelitsha, has lived in Cape Town for about five years now. She’s a gutsy woman intent on spending her life doing good for the world, but at the same time she knows how to enjoy the finer things in life too. She took us to Hout Bay, on the other side of the peninsula from where we are. We went for a long walk on the beach there, and then we went for a drive along Chapman’s Peak Drive. This amazing road is carved along a mountain slope and provides superb views of the coast below. Very reminiscent of Highway 1 near Big Sur in California.
On Sunday we woke up to blue skies and spring weather. Quite a change from the yucky cool, rainy days we’ve been having. Spring here has been a bit of a bust, kinda like England’s summer. The warm weather brought everyone out to the beaches and walking trails. Daryl and I walked along a road called Boyes Drive which goes south toward the bottom of the peninsula. It’s a road that follows the coast, but is high up and so the views are quite breathtaking. Along this road are some seriously grand houses, many of them equipped with small funiculars to take you from the road down to the house. The road took us to the fishing harbor of Kalk Bay, a very lively little place. Fisherman go out with their small boats and bring back bounty from the sea which they sell right off their boats. From the pier at Kalk Bay we could see a whale and a seal. We had a delicious lunch at the extremely popular Olympia Café. I had a pasta dish with fresh funghi porcini, baby tomatoes, and basil. Scrumdidliumptious! Daryl had tomato soup which he claims is the best one he’s had after his that he makes from homegrown tomatoes. On our walk back along Boyes Drive we spoke to the guy at the Shark Spotters. He told us there was a shark sighting (Great Whites in case you didn’t know) earlier and they had to blow the siren and get people out of the water. He also pointed to a whale that was directly across from us. The water was a clear turquoise and very calm. It’s so beautiful here you could forget that you aren’t on vacation.