The 1st 3rd World

I'll explain the title of this post first: my principal contact here, Bruce, describes Cape Town as "the 1st 3rd World". It's first world in so many ways, but you can't help but notice the third world aspects as well. That description describes my first week here pretty well; I've been amazed at much of the city (beautiful, clean, modern, efficient), but also quite distressed at other parts of the city and surrounding region (like the "informal" communities that house isiXhosa speakers all across the region).

This week, I've been busy at my office at the Cathedral scheduling meetings and figuring out transportation logistics (which are much more complicated here than Kampala, since safety is a bigger concern and the public transportation is not as efficient…gotta love the million minibus taxis on the Kampala Roads). I've also met with several interesting research contacts, but won't spend time talking about that now. As always, contact me if you're interested.

So, on to the big event: On Tuesday, a public holiday, Bruce picked me up in the morning for the drive of a summer! We left from the City Center, where I live, and drove down the Atlantic Seaboard on a road that literally is right on the ocean. Then, we climbed up the mountain, and crossed into an area called Hout Bay. There, we walked among working ships before driving up Chapman's Peak, a road that leads to an overlook of the Bay and Atlantic Ocean. It was beautiful. After that, we drove through the wine country, stopping at Groot Constantia (Great Constantia) to look around. My biggest observation was the similarity to the antebellum plantations in the South, from the tree-lined entrance road to architecture to the building layout. The similarities were uncanny, really. Then, we drove down the peninsula to Simon's Town (the Annapolis, MD of South Africa) to see False Bay. Next, we stopped to look at the penguins on Boulder Beach (don't worry Beth, I have pictures!), before proceeding to drive up the peninsula through towns that remind me of towns in the Outer Banks. Finally, we drove back up the city area and to a place named Bloubergstrand (Afrikaans for Blue Mountain Beach), which must have one of the best views in the world! It looked out across Table Bay to the city center, surrounded by Table Mountain. During this entire trip, we had a great conversation about Anglicanism (among other things). He's a "star" of the liturgical field, having been the chair of the Episcopal Liturgical Committee when he was in the United States (for 20 years) before returning to be the leading liturgist in South Africa. Among other postings, he served as the Canon Precentor at the National Cathedral in DC for ten years.

After the drive, he invited me to his house for dinner and I was treated to a five-star meal of traditional South African foods! He is a fantastic cook as well as a foodie, so I learned a lot about the food I was eating. We had a traditional soup, bobootie with rice and veggies, a traditional salad, and a South African specialty, bush tea (which is made out of a tree). Dessert was a creamy cheese and guava juice mixture that was way better than anything I've ever had in a restaurant.

Needless to say, Tuesday was quite memorable. The drive showed me the entire Cape Peninsula, and Bruce was able to point out the interesting points along the way (though many were disheartening). He also has a tremendous personal story…from the walls of apartheid that surrounded him growing up to his time in the US to his decision to return home.

My computer battery is running down, so I'll give quick highlights of the rest of the week:
○ Wednesday I visited the South African Museum and District 6 Museum (District 6 was a vibrant, artsy, mixed neighborhood that was declared "whites-only" in the 1960s by apartheid officials).
○ Thursday, I spent the day researching at the University of Cape Town, which is beautiful! It's built into the side of the mountain, and the views are stunning.
○ Today, I interview a couple of priests (one of whom is working on the Fikelela AIDS project and had a lot of interesting thoughts about the role of religion in that fight…most essentially, that churches have a building and volunteers in each community, and that those resources must be used)

Sorry to run off! Tomorrow, I'm going to the theatre with Bruce (he's really rolled out the red carpet welcome mat for me), and Sunday I'll be in Langa (the oldest township here) for the day.

Will

PS-Just saw in an email that Chastain beat Windward. Way to go Tidal Waves!