Storm of the decade!

Today would have been a marvellous day....hale watching at Hermanus, horseback riding, a long walk down the beach at Cape Agulhas (the southernmost pointof Africa).Would have been...but the storm of the decade rolled in with 65 km an hour winds, rain, and snow. SNOW! I left Canadian summer to come to Africa for snow. I have been wearing the same outfit for days, adding layers as I go. In any case, I saw some lovely views from the bus, had a nice toasted cheese sandwich, and am now hanging out in a lovely Backpackers where tonight will be movie night! And there are dogs! And soon, wine for me! Hooray! I am nothing if not a salvager of days.

I have found it harder to blog here in Africa than in Thailand. Mainly because I've been busy all day, at the conference and sightseeing, also because the computer at the hotel was quite slow, and because it isn't really safe to just walk around and find an internet cafe. In fact, it isn't really safe to walk around. As such, I've been feeling very lazy and,along with the weather, a bit trapped in. Hopefully we'll be able to do horseback riding and whale watching tomorrow, weather willing.

So, last time I posted, I spent some time describing the beginning of my trip to the townships withmy conference gang. Our first stop after the district 6 museum was a creche in the township of Kayalitcha. The little ones were clearly anticipating our arrival with eagerness, and immediately broke out into a series of songs about the locations of their heads and feet, etc. A couple of the kids seemed to be gatekeepers, holding their arms out to prevent the rest rushing forward....all of a sudden, one, two, three...and they all rushed over to us, arms up, hugging waists, climbing up legs, yelling and shouting. The littlest ones simply held there arms up for a cuddle. One kid really seemed to take a shine to me and pretty much held onto my leg for the entire time I was there. A few of the women on my trip had been clever enough to pack some little surprises, like colouring books and toys and pencils...which they gave to the teachers to give out to the kids. It was quite a show for the kids to see their new playthings, and quite fun for us to watch them gettting more and more excited as each surprise emerged from the bag. It also gave us a little break from carrying the kids around...some of us had two or three, one on each arm! It seemed a bit weird that the kids were sort of indiscriminately affectionate, and I wondered if it was wise to teach these little ones to hug random white strangers, but someone told me that it's just a more affectionate culture. I don't know. But they were lovely little kids and, truly, the lucky ones. Education isn't free in South Africa, and many kids in the townships simply can't afford to go to school.

After our visit to the creche, we went to a neat bed and breakfast in the middle of the townships run by a woman named Vicky. She openly welcomes foreigners to experience a true sense of the townships by staying with her over night. Had I known about this place, I would have most certainly made an effort to stay there. She enlists community support by using her income to support christmas parties for the kids and allowing artists to sell their crafts outside her door. Check out Vicky's here: http://www.nomvuyos-tours.co.za/vickys.shtml

After that, we visited an incomprehensible medicine man, and made our way over to Eziko's restaurant in Langa. This restaurant serves delish samp n' beans and curries (and "delectable" tripe, no thanks) made my young men from the townships who he trains to become cooks. Super cool. They also teach foreigners African cooking: http://www.ezikorestaurant.com/index.html

After a brief trip to a "shebeem" to drink african beer got us smelling like woodsmoke, we headed over to the conference centre with no time to get changed into non stinky clothes. An interesting plenary and a opening reception later, and we were at Mama Africa's, a totally touristy restaurant where the food is crap but the atmosphere is excellent. Too bad I was so tired.

More later...my fingers are tired!