the mother city- day #7

i am thoroughly enjoying the fans blowing cool air towards me as i sit in a bright red internet cafe in cape town, the "mother city" of south africa. what a contrast from jo'burg. while the drizzle and grey skies got the best of us in johannesburg, i feel that the city has a much more industrial and downtrodden vibe to it. cape town has been hot (91 degrees) and sunny, as well as more geared towards tourists. our vehicle is even more ridiculous than the first- it's a huge blue charter bus with a driver named "gladman." we are staying at a lovely b&b guesthouse about two blocks from the water (that is, the atlantic ocean warmed from indian ocean currents coming from the east side of the cape) in the suburb of muizenberg. we spent the first afternoon lounging on the beach and, after less than an hour outside, most of us were lobster-red. i've heard that the african sun beats down harder, and that brief foray into cape beach life justified that claim. my feet, ankles, arms, nose, neck and chest are still rosy despite layers of aloe and sunblock.

yesterday we played tourists as we went to table mountain, a huge plateaued peak in the drakensburg (sp?) mountains that overlooks the city of cape town. we took a rather frightening cable car ride up to the top and had two hours to roam around. from there, we could see nearly the entire metropolitan area, including the gleaming harbor, robben island, a cluster of skyscrapers, residential areas, and more mountains. it was awesome. after that we headed to the kirstenbosch botanical gardens, a staple of the former dutch colony. the ethnic make-up of the gardens (as well as cape town and the western cape province as a whole) was noticeably different from the rest of the country- ie. nearly every single person there was white. after taking a stroll around the gardens with some friends, we headed to the ampitheatre nestled between the mountains and the garden to hear the apparently iconic afrikaner punk group "fokofpolisiekar" (if you pronounce this phonetically you will figure out the translation). the audience was extremely subdued- there were plenty of young families picnicing, older couples lounging, and of course a few preteens in nofx t-shirts too. it was probably the least punk punk show i've ever been to. the bass player was wearing a short-sleeved white cardigan, for goodness sakes! but it was lovely and odd.

this morning we met with one of the nation's leading aids researchers, doctor linda-gail bekker of the desmond tutu hiv foundation and the university of cape town medical school. her presentation was very informative and professional, and we were lucky to have this experience! this afternoon we are meeting with the treatment action campaign (tac), one of the most influential activist groups in the world. they have really changed the face of the struggle against hiv/aids.

we are meeting with more ngos later this week, and heading to the eastern cape on thursday. we are moving quickly, learning a ton, having fun with each other, and trying to enjoy our january sunburns...