Day 15 - September 13, 2006

Today I woke up at 7:30am and washed my hair. We weren't in as big a hurry this morning, since we're having class in Ivydene. At 8:30am, we all met in the Mountain flat and had a short discussion about the concept of the "ugly American" and how we perceived ourselves to others, especially when we are in foreign countries. Then, we had a longer discussion on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that came into effect post-apartheid. The purpose of the TRC was to find out the truth about what happened during apartheid times and in exchange, it offered amnesty to those who had committed crimes with political motives.

At 11am we headed to the V&A Waterfront. We were given about 2 hrs for lunch, since we needed to be back at the ferry landing by 1:30pm. Rachel, Summer, and I went to the Fisherman's Market restaurant and had fried snoek and chips for lunch. Snoek is supposed to be the quintessential South African fish, but it was quite bony, and we were not impressed. This was probably because it is early in the snoek season, and this fish was probably imported and frozen. I had a halal fried chicken piece too to supplement by meal. We walked around the shops for a while, and then by 1:30pm, headed to the red clock tower.

Today we are visiting Robben Island, the maximum security prison where Nelson Mandela and other freedom fighters were held. We boarded the ferryand made the 45 min journey over to Robben Island. The seas were quite choppy, so we were hit by mist. When we arrived on the island, we first took a bus tour around, where they showed us the officer barracks, village, primary school and prison of the island. Then, we got down from the bus and were met by an ex-political prisoner who took us around the prison. We saw several jail cells, including the cell of Nelson Mandela. It was pretty informative. At 5:30pm, the boat arrived and took us back to the Waterfront.

Steve was waiting for us by the time we arrived and took us straight to Cafe del Mar at Camps Bay beach. We watched the sunset over drinks at the cafe, which was really beautiful. Tabari and I had halal chicken sandwiches from Nando's next door, and then joined the rest. I drank a yummy hot spiced chai and a tutti frutti. We stayed there for a few hours, just talking and relaxing by the water. Steve came to pick us up again around 9pm, but as we were heading back, the bus ran out of gas. Unfortunately, we were at the top of a hill, and so we had to get out a push the bus. At one point, it was perpendicular to the road and blocked both sides of traffic. Some girls started freaking out in the car, but we managed to get it straight. Since the car was a stick-shift, we could get back to a gas station. Once we filled up, we were on our way back to Ivydene. I was on the computer for a while before heading to sleep.