Wet and cold

So far this week there has been a cold front moving through. So almost everyday this week it has rained and been like in the forties. One day it even hailed. That is okay though i have just layered up alot. It is supposed to get better the middle of next week.

Okay so here are some things that I have been meaning to write but have forgot to. So over here they drive on the other side like in London. So that you have to look the other way before crossing the street. So there has been a few instances where I have almost died but not really just didnt look the right way. It has been wierd but i am getting used to it. I still sometimes get freaked out when driving in the car becuase i feel like we are driving on the wrong side. But i have gotten much better with driving the bike on the right side of the road that was interesting too. So dont worry I wont die by gettting hit by a car that would be too boring. If i was going to die in africa then I would want something a little more exciting. Next random thing to mention. Over here plastic bags like when you go grocery shopping cost money. It costs 21 cents for each bag. That was a surprise the first time when i saw them charging me for each bag so now i just use my backpack and save the money. Next thing this is more for dad than for anyone else. So i rented a bike but the handle bars are no even like the breaks dont line up and when i squeeze the breaks my bike shakes. It is not like the nice kept ones at home. I am spoiled. Okay so that was just a random note but kind of a long one. Moving on.

Kayamandi:
So i went to Kayamandi which is an "informal settlement". This is where there is a lot of poverty and it is just a bad situation. We werent allowed to take pictures but this is one from the internet that kind of looks like it:


It was very humbling. When you walked in you could smell the sewage and like the dead animals mixed together. It took sometime to get used to. I guess there is a lot of problems with alcohol. It was crazy 2 families would live in a room with 2 beds and the families usually have 5 kids. There is no privacy at all and they all share sinks and bathrooms outside that you have to walk to kind of like a campground but much worse. There is also a house there that the wine industry owns and there is 10 rooms so 20 families and they all share one bathroom and have a beat up kitchen and common room. This is so frustrating becuase they make alot of money and you think that they would give their workers better conditions. It is wierd that people accept it. That was kind of strange. I am going to be volunteering there with a primary school soccer team. That starts next friday. So that was my humbling moment of the week.

Today I went into Cape Town and saw the District Six Museum which is an area where coloured people and blacks were displaced to a new area and now people are moving back. So here is some pictures of the musuem

here is a mural in the museum


some of the original street signs


here is a poem that one of the displaced people made.
I am Johansburg,
Durban and Cape Town,
I am Laguna, Chatsworth,
and Bonteheuvel.
I am discussion
argument and debate,
I cannot recognize
palm fronds and nights
filled with the throb
of the primitave. I am
buses, trains and taxis.
I am prejudice, bigotry
and discrimination.
Iam urban South
Africa.

a map of the old district six where people who lived there can mark off exactly where they lived and old shops and other things.


After we went to an Indian Resturant and ate the food was delicous and it was all you can eat and free for us. It was in bo kaap where all the houses are painted in pastel colors.



We then went to Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point. It was very very rainy and cold. My pants got wicked wet. But it was still pretty what you could see.

this is me and katy

me at cape of good hope

rodger and katy



So that is all for now. I will give you another update later. Thank you all for reading this.