South Africa

Welcome to Africa

I had high hopes for South Africa, as it is considered a beacon for the rest of the continent during this time of "African Renaissance." If you contrast the reaction and development of South Africa (SA) to the disaster in neighboring Zimbabwe, you can see that terrific progress they have made.

My opportunity to see this first hand was thrilling. Not to mention I was finally starting my 9 month journey! And my first impressions were all positive. Upon arrival, I easily found a friendly, fair taxi driver who knew exactly where my hostel was and took me straight there. A good start and something that make arriving in a new country so much better. This service mostly continued wherever Tom and I went in the country.

Let me first apologize for not having any pictures here. The internet connections we've had have been either too unreliable or just too slow for me to make that happen. I will definitely try to catch up when things improve.

My current internet issues aside (I'm in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania now), many people point to "infrastructure" in developing countries to see if the next level of progress is possible. India, for example, has lovely people who work very hard, but fairly mediocre roads, trains, electricity service, etc. This will continue to hamper progress there for years to come.

I found things in SA to be much better than I expected - but not without some surprises. All major roads were excellent, with only a few sops for construction during our several day drive. A couple of those stops, however, lasted for 20-30 minutes. But there was at least a sign telling us that it would! Once you were outside the city and off the main road, things obviously weren't so ideal. But it's a good start!

The three airports we went to (Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, and Johannesburg) were modern and fairly efficient. Even getting out of Cape Town was incredibly simple, as we just hoped on the M2 from the street next to the car rental place and were outside the city limits in about 5 minutes! Of course, all this is viewed through the lens of low tourist season, I'm not sure what it would be like in the summer.

There are, of course, some negatives. Cape Town public transport is only buses, and tourists generally didn't seem to want to use them, which isn't the best approach for a city that looks set to grow significantly over then next 20 years. The power was out for almost a day in the sleepy coastal town of Storms River, but it came back on just after we arrived. (coincidence?!?) We heard reports on the local radio of four cows blocking a main intersection in Port Elizabeth, but never actually were caught in that particular jam. The improvements are getting noticed, however, as Cape Town was just ranked the best city to live in the Middle East and Africa by the Mercer World Wide Quality of Living survey.

Apartheid Recovery

The other important thing I wanted to understand was how South Africans have recovered from the horrors of apartheid. I feel like they are trying to do the same sort of race reconciliation in 20 years that American has been doing for 100 years. From what I can tell, it seems to be going well.

South Africans seem to be having an honest and open discussion about the rights and wrongs of different approaches, and are trying hard to make real strides. While I was there, Chinese South Africans were granted full equality with blacks "for the purpose of the employment equity and broad-based black economic empowerment legislation" (says the local newspaper) - this is basically South Africa's version of affirmative action. Why would they do this? Because the Chinese were also considered "colored" by the white rulers during apartheid, and oppressed almost as much as blacks (who were an additional degree of repressed, I learned later). It took years of lobbying for the Chinese South Africans to get this fairly obvious inclusion, but it is happening and there was no major public outcry from it. The "xenophobic" riots we feared and watched from 6,000 miles away were not to be found - in fact, we had a taxi driver proudly announce to us that he was from Zimbabwe, something I wouldn't have expected as the locals were openly targeting foreigners from nearby countries who are "stealing their jobs."

Better still, within this country that represents a beacon for all of Africa, there exists two beacons for SA - Nelson Mandela and Robben Island, the prison where he was held for much of his 17 year incarceration. Most people will know about South Africa's first democratically elected president, but I don't think as many know about Robben Island. It is an incredible symbol of the reconciliation being attempted in SA. When we arrived across the choppy seas on the ferry with every ticket sold at least a day in advance, we were giving a tour of the prison by a former inmate. Imagine spending many torturous year's of your life there, and then returning and reliving it several times a day for all the world. And it really was all the world - Tom and I heard about 12 far-flung countries announced when our guide asked the group (including Texas).

But what really struck me was that both former inmates AND guards live and work together on Robben Island. It's basically a small town that acts as a living, breathing example of how both sides can put aside past differences for a better future. I can't imagine a more inspiring example for young South Africans as they live through their own day-to-day struggle. It will also continue on beyond Nelson Mandela, something people are concerned about since he is such a strong and peaceful person. This is a way for the message of their struggle to live on.

The Garden Route

Of course, it wasn't all politics for me and Tom. We had a blast exploring the southern coast East of Cape Town, affectionately called the Garden Route. I've only been to a few wine regions in my travels so far, but I thought Stellenbosch and Franschhoek were terrific. The setting of Maui-like mountains in the background, with the price and friendly people made for an extremely enjoyable day.

After the wine regions, the highlights for us were a few chilled out backpacker hostels (especially in very mellow Swellendam), a terrific seafood platter lunch in Mosel Bay, and the thrill of the world's highest bungy jump at Bloukrans bridge. Without a doubt the scariest thing I've ever done - at 216 meters, this is the highest bridge in the southern hemisphere and the third highest in the world. It's really, really, really high. And, as you might expect, instead of the beautiful swan dive you are supposed to do, I basically crumbled at the knees with a feeling of impending doom. But my form kept as I fell, despite the less than brilliant start, and the DVD shows an exhilarated face summing up my feelings for South Africa - "That was f***ing amazing!!!"