Howzit: Adventures in Cape Town, South Africa: District Six, Robben Island, and a goat

This weekend has been probably one of the most life changing weekends of my life. I guess I'll start from the beginning on Friday:

On Friday, we finally had the opportunity to leave the four walls of our classroom in Rondebosch! Our journey first took us to downtown Cape Town to the South African Parliament building! The political science major in me was kind of freaking out, to be honest. We saw were the National Council of Provinces has their sitting which is a gorgeous room that was built in 1875. There are nine provinces in South Africa, and each province sends ten delegates. It reminds me a lot of our House of Representatives.

We also saw where the National Assembly holds their sittings as well, and the Assembly reminds me a lot of our Senate as well. It was fascinating to me to see where both houses of their legislature hold meetings and conduct their business. I'm excited to learn more about how the government operates in post-apartheid South Africa.

Posing with Mandela's bust

Outside the Parliament building

Hanging with Walter and Albertina Sisulu

After the Parliament building, we got to go to this museum all about District Six. District Six was more or less a township in the Cape Town area that was eventually destroyed in the 1960s. People who lived there were forced out of their homes and relocated to the Cape Flats suburb, which was a significantly poorer area. I definitely wandered around that museum in complete and utter shock. I could not believe that the government could just force people up and out of their homes and that an entire community could be destroyed overnight. It still shocks me, even thinking about it now.

Giant map of District 6 on the floor

Tile about life in District 6

Love this poem about District Six

Foundation of someone's home in what remains of District 6

Field where District 6 once was

The museum was amazing, but what was even more humbling was going to where District Six once was. It's this giant empty field in the middle of Cape Town, with piles of rubble and foundations of homes and businesses. A few hotels were built on the outskirts of town to sort of hide the embarrassment of the government, but other than that all that remains is an empty field. Walking around on top of what used to be someone's home was an incredibly sobering experience. I wish I could better articulate what I was experiencing at that time, but words fail me. Based on the stories I read in the museum, I gathered that District Six was a lively and entertaining place to live, and many who lived there only have fond memories of their former home.

After that truly humbling and emotionally draining experience, it could be said that I definitely needed some comic relief. Well, I for sure got some when I came back home to Langa. I walked through the front gate after class and there was a goat in the backyard! I was very confused at first; my mama refuses to keep dogs as pets, but now she decided to keep a goat? Oh well, this was fine with me! There were tons of adults over with tons of kids, so I went to hang out with the kiddos. They were completely floored that this white girl knew all the words to the songs "Uptown Funk" and "Drunk In Love." And they about died laughing at my version of "The Wobble." Then I showed them pictures on my phone of where I lived in the States and pictures of my snowy yard. They couldn't believe that people lived in conditions like that, and I agreed with them.

Eventually we were called in for dinner, and a plate of strange-looking meat that smelled different than anything I had ever smelled before. It was served with Xhosa steamed bread which was absolutely delicious. But everyone was eating this meat with their hands, so I tried some. It was incredibly chewy and did not taste like anything I had ever eaten before. My Auntie came over and asked, "So how do you like the goat?"

GOAT?!?! Yes, I was eating the goat I had met earlier that afternoon. Needless to say, I was done eating after that. I just ate a couple more slices of steamed bread and a fat cake and claimed I was full. So now I can say I've eaten goat. What have you done today?

Delicious goat meat with steamed bread

On Saturday we had the amazing experience of going to Robben Island, were many political leaders during apartheid were imprisoned. Famously, Nelson Mandela spent 18 years behind bars on Robben Island. You can only get to the island by boat, so we took a small ferry through majorly high waves to get to the island. One the way there we saw a baby WHALE. That's right, a WHALE. We had the fabulous opportunity to actually go inside the cell were Mandela stayed. It was one of the most incredible experiences I've ever had. One more cool point about Robben Island: all of the tour guides for the prison were former political prisoners. Our tour guide was imprisoned from 1976 until 1981 for being majorly involved in the Soweto student uprisings in June of 1976. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves and wrap up this post. It's my last week in Langa, and I'm not emotionally prepared to leave my amazing host family. Enjoy the pictures, and I'll write more soon!