Hello Cape Town!

Greetings from Cape Town, South Africa! I've been here for almost 24 hours now, but I definitely still haven't adjusted to my new environment. I was prepared for culture shock going from the States to Uganda, but I'm not sure I was prepared to come here. This place is very, very different than Uganda, and much more difficult in many ways (the racial issue still looms very, very large, and I know less about the area and about the subject of my research…which is becoming liturgy here). With that said, my research here will be good (I'm actually in way over my head in terms of who I'm going to be speaking with…all three Bishops in the area want to meet with me).

Here's the play-by-play:

Saturday morning, I left Entebbe at 7 AM bound for Johannesburg. I was really looking forward to the flight, since it was dark when I flew in three weeks ago, and I wasn't disappointed. The views of Lake Victoria were great upon departure (it is really, really large!), and the rural countryside of Tanzania and Zimbabwe was also very interesting. Once crossing into South Africa, the infrastructure changes are immediate. For the first time, I saw highways and towns. Approaching Johannesburg, you really couldn't tell the difference between South Africa and the US from the air.

In Johannesburg, I was cleared through immigration with no trouble at all and proceeded to Cape Town. The flight to Cape Town was above cloud cover, so I didn’t see much. I assume, though, that the view from the air is similar…much like the US.

The view from the ground, though, is a bit different; coming from the airport, you pass Guguletu, one of the most infamous townships in this area. Then, though, you're greeted with views of million-dollar homes on the slopes of Table Mountain. The contrast was quite stark.

I'm staying just a little bit away from the city center, so I've been able to explore a bit. The public transportation here is not as good in Kampala; the minibus taxis are far less frequent, and the trains only go certain places. I'll have to use them, though, to get to some of the parishes and townships where I'll be researching. I'm more than a bit nervous about conducting so much of my research in the township of Langa (Cape Town's oldest black township) and Retreat (a lower-middle-class "coloured" township), but it will also be an amazing opportunity to really learn about the life there and in Cape Town.

This morning, I went to the service at the headquarters church of the Diocese, St. George's Cathedral in the City Center. This is the church where Archbishop Tutu declared "we are the rainbow people of God," and it played a fundamental role in ending the apartheid struggle by harboring those who were being persecuted, organizing marches, and hosting Mandela for several events immediately upon his release. The Cathedral's leaders advertise their congregation as "the most diverse church in the worldwide Anglican Communion," and, from my brief experience, that might really be true. The service was incredibly different than anything in Uganda; here, the liturgy of worship is fundamental (and that's what everyone thinks I'm studying). In Uganda, liturgy was definitely second to praise and worship.

My contact there, Bruce, is fantastic! He's offered to help arrange meetings with all sorts of people, and will help me deal with the transportation issues to the townships of Langa and Retreat as best as possible. Although I wanted to cut down my research a bit, it looks like I'll be doing just as much if not more than I did in Uganda. That's not a bad thing, though.

Finally, it's a little bit of a downtime in the country right now. It's the school holiday season, and Tuesday is an official national holiday. Thus, many people are taking a four or five day weekend. Because of that, my research during the week won't start until Wednesday, though I'll meet much of the Cathedral staff on Monday, so Bruce offered to drive me on the road to the Cape Point and Cape of Good Hope Tuesday, which should be awesome. It's especially cool because public transportation doesn't run to that area during the winter (we're in Southern Hemisphere, so it's winter now), so I'll get a chance to see the stunning views.

On the subject of winter: it is chilly here! When I arrived, it was 45 degrees Fahrenheit and raining. Today, it's in the 50s and overcast. The people here are confident the sun will come out, but it's a definite change from the heat of Kampala.

Here are some bullet point observations I took on my first walk through Cape Town last night:
○ Infrastructure is great…roads, signs, streetlights, etc.
○ Dress is definitely more "European" than "African"; everybody (not just tourists) wear lots of tight jeans, etc.; My conservative clothing from my time in Uganda doesn't really fit in.
○ Doing money conversions in my head will take some getting used to…dividing by 8 is much harder than dividing by 2000.
○ There isn't really a local cuisine or food here, but rather a lot of fast food restaurants and places that serve food from other parts of Africa or the world. This assertion is echoed in a Guide Book I read….very interesting to me, but I guess it's the result of a long history of tight Dutch and British occupation and influence.
○ The city is much closer together than Kampala…which is a good thing! Kampala sprawled, and it took a long time to walk around. Here, the farthest walks are only 30 minutes or so.

Well, now it's time to return to St. George's for their Evensong and to meet the Dean and Sub-Dean. Then, Bruce gave me about 200 pages of reading to do, so I'll tackle that tonight!