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.