Day 17 - September 15, 2006

Since we are traveling to the University of the Western Cape, we had to leave Ivydene at 7:45am, meaning we all had to wake up at the early time of 6:45am. All of us were on time to the bus at 7:45am, however, the bus was nowhere to be seen. We ended up waiting 40 minutes for the bus, which would have been valuable sleeping time. The bus finally arrived, and we headed to UWC, located in Belleville about 45 minutes away. We were met by Dr. Zelda Groener at UWC, who facilitated the day's events.

First, the Vice-rector of UWC came and gave us a brief history of the university, which was created to serve coloured students. It had a long history of student struggle during apartheid, and now is a top university in Africa. Then, we got back on the bus and headed to the township of Langa for a visit to the Langa High School. However, we had left Rachel and Anacely behind at UWC, so the bus dropped us off and then went to pick them back up. LHS is the oldest high school for blacks in Cape Town. We met with the principal, an Indian man, as well as the teaching staff for the school.

Then, we were taken to a brand new computer lab, donated by some South African technology companies to the school. The computer teacher gave us a presentation on the new computer class offered by the school. After, two well-spoken female students from the 10th grade gave us presentations about their experiences with the program. We presented them and 2 other students with fee bursars, basically paying off their school fees for the year. We took several pictures with them and chatted for a bit. Then, the principal toured us around the school, and we visited a biology class. Finally, around 12:30pm, we left and returned to UWC.

Once we reached the campus, the Centre for Adult Education, where we had class, had lunch ready for us in the form of tuna and cheese sandwiches with fruit and drinks provided. Then, a UWC student gave us a tour around campus. UWC has a fairly nice campus, and the architecture reminded me of LSU. We returned to the Adult Education Centre at 1:45pm. Then, Zelda gave us a lengthy presentation on the state of adult education in South Africa, in which over 10 million people are illiterate. She had many handouts ready for us and was able to talk in depth about ways to increase the adult literacy rate. At 3:30pm, we wrapped up and headed back to Ivydene.

Once we returned, many of us were exhausted and decided to nap. I checked my email and caught up with my wikis. Then at 5pm, the community re-development group (me, Nora, Cammie and Tabari) met to discuss the details of our group presentation. We fleshed the outline out and divided the parts for research. By the time we were done, it was time to get ready for dinner. Joel is treating us to dinner at Mama Africa's on Long Street tonight. Unfortunately, it started raining, but we all dressed up and piled into Steve's van for the drive into town.

Mama Africa's is one of the touristiest restaurants on Long Street and always needs reservations. We made reservations for 18 people, which they separated into 2 tables. Mama Africa's serves typical African food, along with seafood and game meat. The best part was that like Cape Town's many restaurants - they served halal food too! We ordered different dishes and shared food. I tasted crocodile for the first time, as well as kudu. The only downside to the restaurant was that the service took forever. We arrived there at 8pm and did not finish dinner until at least 11pm. Some people went to Marvel, Zululand, and Lepht afterwards, and the rest of us headed home. Tomorrow we don't have class, so we can sleep in!