One last update

I am now in the airport in London.  I felt much better Saturday morning after having slept 10 hours the night before.  The flu like symptoms were entirely gone and all I am left with is a cold.  Such a relief!  Because I was feeling so much better, Erica and I went on a little shopping expedition on Saturday morning purchasing some last minute souvenirs.  We found a great store called "Out of Africa" that had all kinds of African artifacts and supports local artists.  It was then back to the house to finish packing and wait for my drive to the airport. 

The flights to Johannesburg and then to London were uneventful except for a completely frustrating exercise of trying to reclaim the VAT I paid on my purchases.  Everyone told us it was so easy and they they would put the refund on your credit card or give you American cash or whatever but it was totally not worth it.  I had to wait in a long line twice, once to get a check, which was made out in South African rands and once to cash the check.  The fees taken off at both the tax refund place and the cash checking place were pretty huge.  Also, I did not realize there was no refund of VAT for accomodations and that was by far my greatest VAT payment - for the stay in Johannesburg and the Safari.  Anyways, other than that bit of annoyance, everything went fine and I had a pretty good sleep between Johannesburg and London.  Now it is homeward bound!

Last days

Unfortunately I have been felled by a horrible cold/flu!  I cannot believe it.  I was doing everything right in terms of my diet, vitamin pills, sleeping etc.  I am wondering if maybe I am just too old for this type of vacation.

So many of the people at the Old Age Home have been sick lately so I am pretty sure I caught it from one of them.  I did a manicure for this one lady on Tuesday who had a really bad cold, so I have the feeling that is when it started.  On Wednesday, I drank lots and lots of water because I felt it coming on, but it was just too powerful.  Thursday and today (Friday) I have just felt awful - chills, weakness, head fuzziness, coughing, sneezing, blowing the nose - yuk! 

On Thursday at work, the substitute O.T. Michelle was there and she took the lead in the activities but she did get me to help out quite a bit.  She also gave me lots of ideas for Friday and was about to start to give me ideas for next week too when I told her I was leaving.  I guess Lucy is not back for a few more weeks.  Michelle had a totally different attitude than Lucy which was really nice.

After work on Thursday, the entire volunteer group went out for a farewell dinner.  I felt compelled to go but had a hard time hanging on.  It was in an African restaurant with African decorations, food and entertainment but unfortunately I could not really enjoy it.

I woke up today still feeling bad but feeling compelled to work my last day.  I did my yoga/exercise and also put on this WACA WACA song that everyone is crazy about.  It is a song by Shakira and came out during the world cup.  Everyone who can walk totally gets up and dances - it is so funny.  Then I did some word games and memory games that Michelle told me about.  They worked out really well.  After that, it was goodbye to all of the old people, most of whom were very sweet and told me how much they appreciated me being there and how good it was to get to know them.  It was really nice. 

After work, some of the volunteers were taking the train down to a few beach/tourist type towns but I decided to stay home and rest.  Also I am not going out with them tonight as I really want to get lots of sleep for the big plane ride tomorrow.

In reflection, I have had a fabulous time in South Africa.  It has been super interesting and exciting.  I am really glad I did it!

Wednesday September 29

Today was a little different at work because a number of active participants were at the doctor or went to this Seniors' Club in the area.  I still did my yoga/exercise with the people that were there and then we went into the smaller room for word finds!  I thought they would really like them, partly because my mother-in-law Blanche likes them, but it was too hard for most of them.  A few people did really enjoy it and one gentleman who normally does not take part in activities stayed until the very end and then wanted to take it with him to finish it.  So I feel like I might have at least given some people some enjoyment.

After work, we had lunch and then saw a song and dance recital in one of the poorest townships in Cape Town.  This area has an unemployment rate of 78%.  The recital was at a recreation center and consisted of 5 boys and 5 girls.  The first act was traditional tribal music, dancing and singing and the second act was more modern music.  They were all very talented.  Their musical director said that he had a choir of about 45 kids and chose these 10 for the smaller group because he thought they had special talent.

After dinner, a man from an organization called "Healing of Memories" came to talk to us at the volunteer house.  It is an organization that was formed after the apartheid government went out of power to deal with the emotional issues of victims of apartheid.  In the organization's view, victims include people of all races.  He said that many white people suffered during the apartheid era because they were punished if they spoke up against apartheid.  White males had to serve 2 years in the South African army enforcing apartheid and if they refused to serve they could be sent to jail.  I imagine there were a lot of young white men who did not believe in apartheid or the violence that was required to enforce it and yet served their time in the army because they did not want to go to jail.  The guilt and shame they must be suffering because of things they had to do to others is probably pretty overwhelming.  The "Healing of Memories" organization conducts workshops to give people a safe place to talk about their experiences and in that way helps them to begin to heal.

Tuesday September 28

Today the weather in Cape Town is absolutely fabulous - sunny and low 70's.  It feels like summer is on its way!  Work was very similar to yesterday - a smaller group but quite a lot of enthusiasm.  I have no idea when the substitute O.T. is coming.  No one else seems to know.  Some of  nurses were asking me for the key to the O.T. room because they had some belongings in that room.  They thought that Lucy would have given it to me and I actually asked her if she would so that I could use her sporting equipment and games while she was gone but she refused.  I was not surprised but it just meant that I had to create my own supplies and also now obviously means that some of the nurses have to wait until she is back before they can recover their belongings.

After work, the entire volunteer group went to the District 6 museum.  This is a museum dedicated to telling the world what happened in District 6 of Cape Town.  When the Group Areas Act came into being because of apartheid the government designated certain ares of the city as "White Areas".  Many areas of the city had a mixed racial profile at the time and if you were colored or black but living in a "White Area" you had to move.  Your land/house was expropriated and you were relocated.  The government did not move entire neighborhoods to the same area but split up neigborhoods and people were sent to live among others they did not know.  District 6 was a neighborhood close to downtown Cape Town with beautiful views of the ocean and mountains and as such was a desirable place to live, which is why they designated it White.  The government moved 60,000 people from their homes and bulldozed the vast majority of the neighborhood. 

While I was at the museum I started wondering how I would feel if I was kicked out of my home because the government decided I was the wrong color to live there.  It would be pretty devastating and hard to understand how something one has no control of could have such dramatic consequences on one's life.  I also started thinking about our trip to Robben Island yesterday and about what an amazing person Nelson Mandela was and is.  He was treated so poorly for so many years by whites and yet when he was released from prison he insisted that everyone - black, white and colored - be treated fairly and with peace and reconciliation.  His goal was that no one in his country should ever be subject to any kind of oppression again. He is truly a wonderful role model for South Africa and the rest of the world.

Monday September 27

After a fantastic weekend adventure, it was hard to settle into work today.  Also, I was pretty nervous because I was on my own without Lucy.  She is away for the entire week, although for a couple of days this week a substitute Occupational Therapist is coming in.  When I first came to South Africa, to be totally in charge of activities for a group of elderly each morning would have seemed like a great job situation.  But because of the whole dynamic at the Old Age Home ie. Lucy being so hesitant to give me any responsibility and the old people seeming to be so dependant on Lucy each day - I was afraid that they might be super disappointed at my attempts to be on my own and would perhaps walk out or refuse to cooperate.  It did not work out that way.  There were not quite as many participants as when Lucy is there but those that stayed with me were totally into everything I had planned for them and very cooperative and enthusiastic.  I left feeling really good about what I did and hope that they show up again for me tomorrow.

After work, Erica and I went to Robben Island by ferry.  It is an island off the coast of Cape Town that has a huge prison that is now a museum.  It housed political prisoners during the apartheid era.  Nelson Mandela was there for about 25 years.  Basically the government jailed anyone that it felt was a threat to its control.  The fellow that was our guide had been a political prisoner from 1977 to 1982.  He was involved in a school uprising in 1976 and arrested as one of its leaders.  He was 20 years old at the time.  He talked a lot about prison conditions, about other political prisoners and about Nelson Mandela's experience in prison.  It was very interesting. 

After the tour, we met the rest of the group of volunteers at an Italian restaurant on the waterfront and shared a pizza.

The Safari!

On Thursday night, we stayed at a hotel right at the Johannesburg airport.  On Friday morning we woke up and went over to a pick up point to take a shuttle over to a little airport next to the Johannesburg airport.  The flight to the wilderness was supposed to leave at 10 a.m. but did not leave until about 11 a.m.  It was a pretty small plane, seating about 10 people - I think there were 8 on board.  They warned us there were no bathrooms on board but it was not bad as it was only an hour flight.  We were headed to Madigwe National Park which is Northwest of Johannesburg very close to the Botswana border.  The reason we picked this area for a safari was that it was supposed to be one of the largest game parks in South Africa (75,000 hectares) that is malaria free.  Neither of us wanted to be bothered with malaria pills or with worrying about getting malaria.

Anyway, once we landed in Madigwe, we realized we were definitely in the wilderness.  The Madigwe airport consisted of an airstrip - that is it!  A friendly young man in a large open air jeep was there to pick us up.  His name was Neil and he was actually our guide for the entire weekend.  We hopped in the back of the jeep after putting on sun screen and hats and we were off!  It was a lot hotter than Cape Town!  It think the temperatures were in the 90's whereas Cape Town has not gone beyond the 70's most of the trip and is usually in the low to mid 60's.  So a big shock to the system.

It wasn't long before we started spotting animals!  I was so shocked as I thought we would have to be off road before that happened.  Anyway, on the drive from the "airport" to the lodge, we saw zebras, giraffes, elephants, rhinos, zebras, wildebeasts and wart hogs!  It was fabulous.  We actually got our money's worth in the first hour.

When we arrived at the lodge we were greeted by one of the employees and taken across a swinging bridge.  The main area of the lodge consisted of a big, beautiful open air dining area and lobby.  Our accomodation was a separate grass roofed cottage that had a cement floor but was totally open air.  It had two single beds close together and a big bathroom and outdoor shower.  The only thing that we didn't really appreciate was that the toilet had no door.  Kind of awkward!  At night they closed up the front and sides of our cottage with canvas and screens and it was actually air conditioned and had a fan.  All in all it was super comfortable.

Upon arrival we had a delicious lunch and then explored the property.  There were all these signs saying we were doing so at our own risk but we felt pretty safe because there were fences all around the lodge.  There was a sister lodge about a 10 minute walk away that has a watering hole with a lookout post.  We went there and happily watched some elephants drinking and interacting with each other.

At 4 p.m. we left for our first "evening ride" which is a 3 to 4 hour ride around the park searching for wildlife.  Neil ,the guide, has been doing this work for 6 years and is very good at it.  He can spot  tracks and knows what they are from.  He can spot drag marks and usually knows what has killed what.  Also, all of the guides in the park keep in touch with each other constantly by short wave radio.  Everyone cooperates with everyone else for sightings and so on.  It was actually really exciting.  It was like we were on a hunting expedition but we didn't know what we were hunting or where to find it.  But then there would be some exciting chatter on the radio and Neil would be off like a shot to where a sighting was.  He usually didn't tell us until he was sure we were going to see something.  The guides actually talked to each other in code names for the animals as they never wanted us to get too excited.

During the trip we saw many lions, had a close encounter with an elephant and a hyena and saw many other types of antelope and deer etc. etc.  We also saw many more of the giraffes, zebras, rhinos etc. that we saw on the first day.  Our meals back at the lodge were gourmet and were pretty well done but not totally to my liking.  They actually were really into serving us wild game.  I tried to be a sport about it but since my childhood have never liked the taste of wild meat.  I must say though the homemade bread and desserts were excellent.

Each day we were woken at 5:30 a.m. by Neil and had to leave by 6:00.  That was either a 3 or 4 hour drive.  Then in the afternoon we went on the 4:00 p.m. drive.  It was a very busy, but very enjoyable weekend all in all.  Neil told us we will have to come back again as we did not see the wild dogs, leopards or hippos. 

Wednesday the 22nd and Thursday the 23rd

On Wednesday at the Old Age Home a funeral was held for a resident that had died the week before.  I guess it is pretty common to have the entire funeral there but in this case, they just had part of the funeral there and part at a church.  I was able to help get the elderly people who are not very mobile from their regular sitting spots to the area the service was being held.  It was an open casket and I also had to help them walk past the body.  The person who died was a gentleman in his early 70's whose wife is also a resident of the home.  It was a nice service.  The only unusual thing that happened was that the pastor asked the head of nursing to say a few words about the deceased.  She stood near the back of the gathering and began to speak.  The pastor asked her to come up front but she refused saying her culture did not allow her to be close to a dead body.  She is a black African and when I get a chance I am going to ask her more about that.

The rest of the morning consisted of help Lucy, the O.T. keep score during her games and doing a few peoples' nails.

After work we had an African drumming lesson at the house.  It was fun but a little surreal because the drumming teachers were both white South Africans and had not really grown up in the drumming culture.  I was just hoping for a little different experience.  After the drumming lesson, Erica and I were picked at around 3:30 and taken out to Spier's which is a wine estate about 30 minutes outside of Cape Town.  It had been recommended to me by my San Diego South African connection, Suki, and it was well worth the trip.  We first visited the Cheetah recovery area where Cheetahs who are injured or abandoned by their parents are rescued and taken care of.  We learned a lot about Cheetahs.  Then we visited the owl and eagle sanctuary where again the birds are rescued and looked after.  There were some really huge eagles there.  Finally we went to Moyo's Restaurant and had a great dinner.  The entertainment consisted of 3 African musicians and singers who entertained their hearts out.  All in all a fun night!

Thursday at the Old Age Home was similar to the other days except that I did help organize things a little bit for Lucy.  After work the entire volunteer group went to Bo Kaap which is the Cape Malay neighborhood of Cape Town.  It is an area located above the city of Cape Town that was set aside for the slaves of Cape Town after they were freed in the 1830's.  It consists of descendents of slaves from India, Indonesia, Madagascar and West Africa.  The predominant religion in the neighborhood is Muslim and there are 11 Mosques in the area.  Many of the houses are very brightly colored which is a tradition unique to this neighborhood.  Our visit consisted of having a Malay meal which reminded me very much of the food I had in India and then walking around the neighborhood.  Afterwards, we viewed the Slave House museum.  Apparently many slaves that were brought in by the big trading companies were housed there. They worked as slaves during the day and lived in very cramped, unsanitary conditions at night.

We left for Johannesburg at around 7 p.m. for the start of our safari adventure!

Work

On Monday we had our usual day of work, then meetings in the afternoon with the program managers.  In the evening the entire group of 10 volunteers went out for dinner as one of the two men in the program was celebrating his 41st birthday.  The other man is 73.  Today we worked again and then Erica and I went to the Waterfront.  It is a place in downtown Cape Town with specialty shops, shopping malls and restaurants.  We just looked around and I actually bought some long safari type shorts and a safari type hat because we are going on a safari this weekend!  I will write more about that later. 

I am getting to know some of the elderly people at work.  I am finding that even if I have no amazing activities for them, many of them really just like talking to me, telling me about their lives and asking me about mine.  Several of them have some form of dementia so I am never sure if what they are telling me is really true, but it is still very interesting to listen to them.  One of my favorite ladies is one who tells me all the time how beautiful I am and then asks me to have tea with her and her parents!  She is about 75 years old.  Another one today asked me how old I was.  I said "I'm 57."  She said, "Well, you must have been dieting a lot then."???  Another one showed me her book of shorthand.  It was an entire diary filled with short hand type scribbles and she said she is writing a book and just has to type it up.  I am not sure about that but she was very convincing. 

 

The Weekend

Friday night after Table Mountain, the entire volunteer house went out for a farewell dinner as Jade, a young lady from England, was finished her 4 week volunteer stint and leaving the next day.  We went to a really nice restaurant at Camp's Bay, the beach community, and were able to eat on the patio overlooking the ocean.  After dinner a few of the girls, including Erica, decided to take in a bit of the night life of Cape Town.  I was a little worried about her until she got home because Cape Town is definitely not the safest place, but it all worked out as she made it home safe and sound.

On Saturday, Erica and I went on a Winelands tour.  Our guide Dion, was a colored fellow who proceeded to tell us his life story.  His father was white and his mother was colored.  When he was born, the midwife registered his birth and because his mother was colored, he was registered as colored.  Many years later, when his brother was born, his father registered the brother and because the father was white, the brother was registered as white.  That just shows how random the whole classification system was.  This random act had pretty severe consequences for Dion because when he tried to get into a university, he was forbidden because he was colored.  He worked for several years and then was recruited by the U.S. government to work in New York for the Dept. of Standards (some type of international work).  Several white people were in line for the job but were turned away.  The U.S. actually wanted someone of color as a representative of South Africa.  So in that instance his color worked out for him.  He ended up living in Buffalo, New York for about 15 years and went to university while he was there, getting a degree in hospitality.  He went to university at the same time as one of his sons.  He came back to South Africa after the end of apartheid.

The Winelands tour was pretty good.  We went to 3 different types of wineries.  The first was a small, family owned winery.  They gave us a tour of the vineyards and the wine cellars where they stored the wine We then had a wine tasting with about 6 different types of wines and some cheese and crackers.  Next, we went to a huge factory type winery and just had a tasting.  One of my favorite things there was not wine at all but a liquor called "Wild Africa".  We then stopped in a little town where everyone was of Afrikaan descent (Dutch ancestors but developed own language and identity).  The signs were not in English and everyone around us spoke Afrikaanis.  We had lunch there before heading out to the third and final winery.  This was a wine tasting only but it was outside in a very lovely setting.  There was also a very cool little exhibit on the grounds of the winery which talked about the history of South Africa.

We did nothing on Saturday evening because we had to get up bright and early on Sunday to go whale watching!  On the way there, we encountered about 30 baboons running along the side of the road.  Our tour guide stopped so we could get a better look and take some photos.  It was very cool.  Some of the baboons were carrying their little ones either on their backs or under their tummies.  Further on we made another stop to look at a penguin colony.  They were of course South African penquins and were very tiny and cute.  We saw hundreds of them and got pretty close to some.  Our guide warned us not to get too close though because apparently they bite.

When we got to Hermanus, the whale watching site, we had a choice of viewing the whales from the shore or going on a whale watching boat.  Erica and I chose the boat and it was a wild ride!  The waves were at least 15 feet high in spots and several people got really sick.  At first, the commentator was saying things like "whale at 2 o'clock" and "there's another one at 9 o'clock" and we would look and see nothing. (I was thinking "So this is how it is going to be.")  But later on we started actually seeing the whales.  They were humungous!  They are Southern Right Whales and apparently a baby whale when it is first born is as big as an elephant.  We had numerous sightings but unfortunately no photos to prove it.  Erica even had one come along side where she was sitting.  It was so close she could have touched it.  We were hoping one of them would start breaching but it did not happen.  They just kept coming up for air and flipping their tales as they went under.  All in all it was a great day and a great weekend.

Ups and Downs

When I arrived at Oakhaven on Thursday, I asked Lucy, the occupational therapist if we should begin setting up the chairs for yoga.  She said no,  that she was doing the regular exercises with the residents.  I said, "Oh, so when do you want me to do yoga?",  thinking that she would say every other day or something.  She said, "I have to do my exercises with them every day."   I said, "So you never want me to do yoga?"  And she said, "Well, you can do it when I am not here."  She had already told me she would be away the last week of my stay but she also told me it would be absolutely fine to do yoga instead of the regular exercises each day.  So I have no idea what happened, but it was kind of hurtful.

I participated with the exercises and then asked her what I could do to help.  She said nothing really, I could just participate with the sport activity if I wanted.  So I sat in a chair all morning while she went around the room setting up hoops and getting the residents to throw various objects into them.  It took a long time for everyone to have their turn.  I was really quite bored and got a good perspective of how it is for the residents.  The only thing I did in between turns was talk to the residents on either side of me, which was nice.

At the end of the day, I approached Lucy and told her I had a few ideas about how I could help.  I said that perhaps we could break the residents into two groups and I could do activities with one group so that everyone would not have to wait so long for their turn.  She said that they liked waiting for their turn.  I then said another idea I had was that I could take individuals out of the group during the morning and do manicures with them.  I had read some other volunteers' comments about the placement that said the residents loved manicures.  She kind of shrugged and said she didn't think that would work because they might miss their turn.  I then said I would really like to figure out how I could be of assistance to her while I was here.  She said she would think about it.

When I got back to the home base, I told the volunteer coordinator what happened.  I said that I didn't think Lucy was telling me everything.  She said to give it one more day and see what happened.  Today, again we did the exercises and again I asked Lucy how I can help.  She said she was taking just some of the residents into another room for bingo so I could either participate with them or if I wanted to be with the leftover residents I could.  Luckily, I had put some nail polish and files in my bag so I said - "Would it be okay if I did manicures with them?"  She said "Yes".  Phewww!  I am not sure what else I would have done besides chat all morning because I had no activities planned.  Anyways it was loads of fun.  They all wanted their nails either just cut or cut and polished.  Some of them were pretty quiet while I did it but some were talking and talking.  Great fun!  We'll see what next week brings.

To top the day off, after work Erica and I hiked up Table Mountain which is this huge mountain overlooking Cape Town.  The hike consisted of stairs made out of these giant boulders.  The stairs were really steep.  Erica had an easier time of it than I because she is so tall but I was happy for the workout.  It took us 1 1/4 hours.  It was so beautiful at the top!  We had a drink, looked around for a while and then took this amazing cable car down.

Oakhaven Old Age Home

Yesterday was my first day of work at Oakhaven Old Age Home.  It is in a "colored township" of Cape Town which is essentially one of the areas of the city that you were allocated to under apartheid if you were not black, white or Indian.  I finally found out how it was decided whether you were colored or black.  A government official either decided simply by the color or your skin or they did some "tests" on you.  One such scientific test was to poke a pencil in your hair.  If it fell out, you were colored.  If it stuck, it meant your hair was coarse enough to belong to a black person and you were considered black.  Another way was to pinch a person.  If you were pinched you usually yelled out in your native tongue - if it was a tribal language you were considered black.

Anyway, although the old age home is in a colored township, now that apartheid is over, there are actually some black and white people there.  All of them seem very nice and were happy to see a new face.  I will be working with the occupational therapist, Lucy, helping her to implement programs for the old people.  Yesterday, I spent most of my time observing and talking to the old people.  There were some very interesting characters.  Lucy does an exercise class and then some type of activity each morning.  She told me I could do yoga with the residents instead of her exercise class so I did that today.  It was a different experience than I am used to because most of the people are less mobile.  One curious thing that happened is that one of the residents who typically yells out some type of words that no one understands once in a while, decided to do that constantly during my yoga class.  It was like he was competing for attention.  Pretty funny.  After the class was over he became completely quiet.  Anyways, next on the agenda was an energetic game of dice complete with sweets for the winners.

After work today, we went with the other volunteers to an open market and looked at African crafts and then a few of us went to a huge mall, looked around and had a steak dinner.  Lots of fun.

Day 2 - More Orientation

This morning we saw another side of Cape Town, the townships, where, especially in the black townships, people are desperately poor.  Although apartheid is no longer the law in South Africa and there are laws to protect the rights of all South Africans, it is very difficult to implement those laws.  The problems of the blacks and to a lesser extent the colored people, are so overwhelming.  In the afternoon, we had a lecture from the Program Director, on the history of South Africa.  The racial conflicts in this country have been around for centuries so it will take a long time for things to improve.

Day 1 - Orientation

Sunday was our first day of orientation for the Cross Cultural Solutions program.  We spent several hours talking about rules and regulations, including how to stay safe in a city with a pretty high violent crime rate.  The program is very concerned about everyone's safety, which is great.  We had a barbecue in the back yard for lunch and then headed off for a guided city tour.  The city of Cape Town is so beautiful!!  We went up to a place call Signal Hill where we had a panoramic view of the city.  Cape Town is surrounded by mountains or the ocean on all sides. We then drove through downtown and headed for the beach. Many of the beach communities remind me so much of Laguna Beach with their white sand, palm trees, open air restaurants and surfers.  We had a gorgeous day for the tour with the weather reaching the low 70's and not a cloud in the sky.  It was then back to the house for dinner and a movie.  The house has several South African films that we can display through a computer software program onto the wall of the common area.  The one we watched last night was about a black man who grew up in the townships and was a teenager when apartheid ended.  He and his community were very hopeful at first that things would be different.  When they didn't change that much for him, he turned to crime.  It was pretty interesting.

We have arrived!

We are now in Cape Town!  Neither Erica or I slept much on the plane so we are both pretty exhausted.  But it is morning here and just doesn't seem like the time to sleep.  We were picked up at the airport by a Cross Cultural driver.  He was pointing out landmarks all the way from the airport.  The first thing he pointed out was a black township with tiny, crammed housing that seemed to stretch for miles.  He said he lived in that township but farther away from the freeway in a bigger house.  He then pointed out a colored township which consisted of somewhat bigger but still pretty basic houses and said that back in the day, blacks were third class citizens and coloreds were second class citizens (explaining to us why the second neighborhood was nicer).  I am still not sure, even after all of my reading about South Africa, who decides if one is colored or black and how it is decided.  I know when apartheid was the law, your rights were dramatically affected depending upon whether you were black or colored.  So much to learn about this fascinating country.

The volunteer house is in the Rosebank district which is a college community close to the University of Cape Town.  The house is a large, beautiful, older house with a fabulous garden area full of lush vegitation.  Erica and I are sharing a room with two single beds, two stand alone cupboards and actually a bathroom right in the suite.  It is the nicest volunteer house I have been in. 

First leg of my journey

I am now sitting in the London airport.  It is sooo huge with so much shopping/ restaurants etc. that I haven't been able to find my traveling buddy, Erica (my niece) who flew into London from Calgary a few hours before I did.  She was supposed to meet me at my gate but as a connecting passenger there was really no way to do that.  We had to go through security again after arriving here.  I hope Erica is having a good time shopping or whatever.  The flight here was fine but I got very little sleep, mainly because there was so much turbulence - very rocky. One cool thing is that I was able to schedule a 15 minute massage - coming up right now!