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!
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