Cape Point and a Tour of the Townships

Sorry for being so behind on this blog, Samantha and I have been super busy these past few weeks, and were mostly out of internet range.  Yesterday we arrived in Istanbul after a long day of travelling, and are really looking forward to this next chapter in the trip.  That being said i wanted to recap our last weeks in Africa.

After our dive with the Sharks we headed back to Cape Town for a few days.  Our first day back, and our last day with the rental car, we took a trip around the Cape, down to the Cape of Good Hope.  Because we have been so busy, we haven't had a chance to go through and edit all of our favorite photos yet, I think since the last post we have upwards of 800 to go through, but they will be up soon.  This was easily one of the most beautiful drives I have been on and can't wait to sure the pictures.

One of the main reasons for our return to Cape Town was to take a tour of the surrounding townships.  These are the very poor shantytowns that were formed during apartheid.  Through many systematic laws passed from the 40's on until the 90's, black citizens of Cape Town were forced to move from their homes and neighborhoods in the city proper to the outskirts.  Samantha and I both thought seeing this was crucial to a trip here, and linked up with a company called Uthando who organized a day trip.  Uthando is a company that partners with people living in these townships in a number of different ways, and they took us on a tour of three projects they have been working on recently.  

The first stop was in Langa Township at a start up called Quirky30.  Started by an ex-con, Quirky30 teaches young people, 18-35 how to program and code.  In a reconverted shipping container, Sihle (the founder) has a completely self-sufficient class room has enough space and equipment to teach about 30 students at a time.  The container is roofed with solar panels and runs totally off the grid.  The curriculum is very intensive, and provides the students with all the knowledge they need to get a job in the tech industry in 6-8 months, compared to the 2-4 years it would take at a university.  He has partnered with a number of local companies that provide internships to the graduates that eventually lead to jobs.  South Africa has tens of thousands of tech jobs available and very few applicants, so nearly all the students are guaranteed a job if they complete the program.

The next two stops were in the township of Khayelitsha.  The first was a preschool / daycare center that cared for 80-100 children (tuition was monthly and there was a pretty large shift month to month).  There is no formal preschools in these townships, and primary school doesn't start until the children are 6 years old.  These means that many mother's with children under 6 cannot work.  The school we visited not only allowed these mothers to hold a job, but also prepared the children for a life in school.  The founder of the school told us that children who had done the preschool program were much more likely than their peers to graduate high school, not a common thing for most kinds living in the townships.  Our last stop was at a women's empowerment organization.  We were welcomed by a choir of high school boys who preformed traditional singing and dancing (think Ladysmith Black Mambazo).  This organization provided a number of services to local women, but primarily focused on teaching them skills and crafts (screen printing, bead work, carving, etc.).  Opportunities for women in the township are extremely limited, but this provides some income and community.  This whole experience was so worthwhile.  Spending time in Cape Town its easy to forget you're in a very much developing country, and easy to ignore the circumstances still lingering from apartheid.  But that isn't the real South African experience.  If you plan on spending any time in Cape Town I couldn't suggest a tour with Uthando more enthusiastically.

From Cape Town we flew to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe to begin a week long safari.  Hopefully this week we will be able to get those photos ready, because we saw some amazing things! More to follow!

UPDATE: Photos are ready!