Cape Town

Today we visited Cape Town....finally! We took the train from Stellenbosch into Cape Town very early in the morning. A lot of people say that the trains are not safe, but I did not notice anything that would make me feel the same. The first thing we did in Cape Town was head to the waterfront to board a ferry to Robben Island. Robben Island is an island located in the harbor at Cape Town and this was the place where non white political activists were held prisoner during the apartheid government. This was a very interesting and difficult day to get through because there was so much emotion and despair in the photos and stories. The man giving us the tour was a past prisoner of the facility and the stories that he told will never be forgotton. I could see the emotion in his face and hear in his voice how much being inprisoned on the island was a test of his character and emotional stability. After the tour of Robben Island we went to the District Six Museum. District Six is the place in Cape Town where the "coloured" people were forced out of their houses and then the white government demolished everything in the entire neighborhood accept for three churches. The museum had a mass collection of pictures that were donated by the residents of District Six, so the museum was extremely interesting because it was a collection of the people's history of the neighborhood. It was difficult to see photos taken before houses were demolished and then seeing the same street today where there is nothing but a slight resemblance of a road in a field of grass. Over the past couple of years I learned that some people are beginning to move back to the area if they can prove their residence before the forced departure. I believe that about 10,000 people are preparing to move back into the District over the next few years. This would be an amazing thing for the people who lost their houses and the family history and this would definitely help heal some wounds that still exist between the races in South Africa.