Table Mountain

Long time, no post. The internet has been out at the lodge (a very contentious issue) so I haven't been able to really blog or go on social media for the past week or so. Any time that we do get internet is from going down to cafes and coffee shops, and with that time being precious it's been spent working on project research.

Our project has been moving along quite quickly, and it's difficult to believe that in just three short days we'll be meeting with the residents of Litha Park for the final time and presenting them with our final ideas and recommendations. There have definitely been some ups and downs to the project. To put it gently, living, working and playing in the same space, with the same people is trying. We all want the best for this community, but disagreements have ensued about what the "best" is and how to go about it. With no separation between work and home, there have been a couple of times where as a group we've needed to decide to take a two hour break where we all go off and do different things in different directions to cool off and recompose ourselves. Definitely not one of our brightest moments as a group, but it happens and we're working through it, getting more and more in sync every day. 

We're finally starting to see some nice weather in Cape Town. As I've probably mentioned earlier, the weather when we got here started off as cold, rainy, and awfully dreadful. With a few isolated exceptions the weather the past week and a half or so has been beautiful- sunny and 75. Today was the hottest it's been since I've been here- 82 degree. I would like to take this time to remind you that it is officially the dead of winter here. That is all. 

Taking advantage of the gorgeous weather and our incredible scenery, the five of us took a day last week to go up on top of Table Mountain. Table Mountain is arguably the most notable landmark in all of Cape Town with its staggering height and flat top. It is one of the New 7 Wonders of Nature. The top of the mountain is a roughly 3 kilometer plateau, and is home to insane amounts of flora, fauna and wildlife. The mountain is nearly 3/4 of a mile tall at its peak and is the tallest of the 4 main mountains in the heart of Cape Town. There are two ways to get up: hike or cable car. We were seriously tempted to hike, but on a time constraint (our housemates hiked it and it took 6 hours), we opted for the cable car. 

The view from the top is absolutely stunning. It's difficult to describe with words, but it's breathtaking. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves, but disclaimer: the pictures in no way capture even a smidgeon of what its actually like on top of the mountain. 

The view of Cape Town from the bottom of the mountain, where you get onto the cable car to go up. 

The view from the cable car, halfway up the mountain. 

A dussie! Dussies are indigenous creatures to Cape Town and the top of Table Mountain. While they look sort of like prairie dogs, in reality their closest related being is the African elephant. They're quite used to people at the mountain and will get really close when offered a snack. 

This mountain is Lion's Head, located immediately adjacent to Table Mountain. We actually hiked up to the tippy top this past Sunday. I'll post more information about that and pictures in my next post. 

The Long Walk to Freedom

The past couple of days have been beautiful here in Cape Town, and we've had a lull in our work where were able to have Sunday, Monday and Tuesday off, so we've been playing tourist and seeing some of the sights. Last week we tried to go to Table Mountain, but for some reason, it was closed, so we decided to wander into a little neighborhood called Bo-Kaap instead. I didn't know what to expect, other than that it is a colorful, picturesque area, but it certainly held up to that reputation. We started with the museum which was absolutely god awful. The only thing I learned from it was that Bo-Kaap is a Muslim area of town. The rest of the museum jumped around between different decades an topics- a wall about slavery in Cape Town, a room full of 18th century pots, and a Carnivale costume? It incredibly was weird, but we enjoyed our stroll through the streets. 

On our off day last Monday we decided to go see one of the top items on my Cape Town to do list: Robben Island. Robben Island is most notoriously known as the location where Nelson Mandela spent the majority of his imprisoned years (18/27 years) during Apartheid. A slightly lesser known fact is that the two presidents after Mandela also served time on Robben Island as political prisoners.

The island is surprisingly large, roughly 5 kilometers square area, and our tour guide described that it would take the average person two hours to walk to perimeter.

Our guide also described the island’s most recent history as a prison to be half Alcatraz (with incredibly dangerous criminal prisoners) and the other to be hostage for political prisoners. Currently, the only tour guides on the island were once political prisoners themselves, so we got to meet and talk with a small piece of history while on our trip. Our tour guide, for example, was arrested as a youth for participating in a protest against the Apartheid regime. Because of his participation, simply standing in a row and chanting, he was arrested on charges of sabotage, terrorism, and incitement of violence. 

One of the Muslim mausoleum from the island's early days.  

The criminal section of the island. 

The leper graveyard. Before the island was home to a series of jails, it was a colony for lepers. They were exiled to the island to slow the spread and were housed in villages with appropriate medical facilities and staff also located on the island. 

The church that the lepers would attend. Medical staff had a separate place for worship as to limit exposure. 

The beautiful, albeit hazy, view of Table Mountain from Robben Island. 

The limestone quarry where Mandela, and other prisoners, worked. 

Located inside of the limestone quarry, this "monument" was laid after the prison had closed down and the island became a museum. Before opening to the public, the museum hosted a series of prisoners to come back, see the exhibits and walk through the halls where they were once imprisoned for things you and I wouldn't dare call a crime. When they got to the quarry, Mandela laid a stone down and others followed, as a memorial to those no longer living who also slaved away in the quarry.  

A baby springbok! They're basically antelope, but the springbok is the national animal of South Africa and it was so exciting to see my first one. It's crazy the amount of wildlife that we would consider exotic that you see roaming free on an almost daily basis.

Believe it or not, up until a few years ago there was a school on the island to serve those who lived on the island. This was the K-7 school where island children attended. A few short years ago it closed down because most of the kids on the island had moved up to secondary school, and with only 5 students registered, it wasn't worth the city's money to keep the school operating. Children must take the ferry to and from the mainland in order to attend school. Our tour guide didn't state this explicitly, but I imagine that many of them are home schooled instead, purely for logistical reasons.  

Mandela's solitary confinement cell. 

The political prison campus. 

Overall, the tour was both a sobering reminder of how very recent the Apartheid regime ruled and their outrageous charges, as well as an incredible interesting look a the 300 year history of this small island 12 kilometers off the coast of Cape Town.  

About Our Project- UT Litha Park

We've finally been making some great progress with our project, and after the first week or so was essentially dead as far as our research goes, it feels great to be making some headway. In order to understand this post a little bit better, I suggest you read by post on informal settlements [here] first to better understand what exactly I'm talking about when I refer to settlements.

So within Khayelitsha, the settlement is broken down into a series of smaller sections, and sometimes, sections broken down even smaller. We've decided to study UT Litha Park- one of the two sections within UT. Here are some quick facts about Litha Park:

• Population: 1,439
• Number of shacks: 432
• Number of taps: 13 [1 tap for every 111 people]
• Number of toilets: 46 [1 toilet for every 31 people]
• Unemployment: 61%

Litha Park is fairly small, much smaller than UT Gardens which makes up the other half of the UT section. My estimation is that Litha Park is probably a 1/4 mile by a 1/4 mile or so, perhaps slightly smaller. I've been forgetting its as small as it is because there are simply so many people living there, and they're living in a maze arraignment, so it takes much longer to get from point A to point B than you'd imagine. 

Litha Park is faced with many of the same problems as nearly all settlements: crime, flooding, fire, unemployment and health epidemics. By settlement standards, Litha Park is pretty advanced. They have water, flush toilets and electricity, which is a world of difference from another settlement we met and considered working with. All the taps and toilets lie among the outside border of the settlement, so to get drinking or washing water, one push go back and forth form the taps with buckets. Another luxury of Litha Park is that it has a community church. The church is probably the size of my bedroom with one lightbulb and a very leaky roof, as we learned this morning, but it steps above what a lot of communities have. My settlements standards, Litha Park is luxurious. By American standards a campground would be a vacation. There is no such thing as heat or air conditioning in the settlements, so no relief from any of the elements. People have equated the weather here to that of San Fransisco, hot in the summers, but very cold and rainy in the winters. I'm actually shocked I haven't gotten sick yet because I've been spending numerous hours a day out in the rain meeting with the community. 

After many days of talking to the community leaders, our group has decided on 4 focus areas: crime, fire, unemployment and child's play. We've been spending our days going out to Litha Park and breaking into small groups with members of the community to hear what they have to say about these issues. We're hoping that our final product can be a list of suggestions for them to address these problems with some solutions that are relatively inexpensive quick fixes and others that are 20 years down the pipeline. We've also been going on a bunch of tours throughout Litha Park to point out various physical and spatial issues. Below are some pictures from one of our tours last week.

Shacks are made from a variety of materials, most commonly corrugated iron and wood. While some are painted for a more cohesive appearance, the majority are a hodge podge of different materials, colors and construction. 

Aside from the three or so main pathways that are much wider, this is about the average width of passageways in Litha Park. 

The rows of toilets on the exterior of the community. It was pointed out to us that the toilets are actually where a significant amount of crime happens because people will wait across the street, watch you go in, and then wait to attack, both personal and property crimes, for you to exit the stall. 

The main corridor three days after a rain storm. 

One of the nicest shacks in Litha Park, in my opinion. 

We've been able to get some really great feedback from residents about these problems. I'm specifically focusing on fire safety, so here are a few tidbits about what we covered in today's session.

• The worst fire in Litha Park was in 2001- 300 houses burned down and 10 were killed in a matter of hours. The fire spread quickly due to the high winds on the Cape Flats, where Khayelitsha is located, and as people were going to help put it out the winds changed and the fire exploded in the opposite direction.
• Most recently, in May 8 homes were burned down. Both of these fires were because a drunk person was cooking and fell asleep. 
• Firetrucks aren't able to fit on the paths in the community, so anytime there is a fire, firefighters must use precious time to lay down pipes to snake through the settlement to reach the fire
• There is no warning system, no smoke detectors, no fire extinguishers. If someone sees smoke, the yell and hope people hear it 
• Most fires happen in December. December is the holidays, and the hottest time of the year, so the combination of dryness and people drinking and celebrating leads to negligence and fires.
• All the taps are outside of the settlement, so if there is a fire, residents must run through a maize to the outside, fill up a bucket, run back, and repeat. The taps also have very low water pressure, which makes filling up a 5 gallon bucket take about 5 minutes.
• Residents estimate that there are 1 to 2 major fires a year. 
• When a fire does happen, often people in nearby houses take as many pieces of their furniture and personal belongings out. With the proximity of these shacks, it's inevitable that if the fire is any closer than 3 or so shacks away that yours will burn down too. As a result, residents scramble to save as much as they can. When this happens most end up losing their belongings anyways because neighboring settlements hear about the fire and come and steal furniture and personal goods. 

Probably the best solution to address all of the varying issues plaguing Litha Park is a process called reblocking. Reblocking is an incredibly complex issue, but in a nutshell it involves coordination between the community and the Cape Town government where shacks will literally be taken apart and rebuilt in a new arrangement that is better for the community. Reblocking generally involves putting shacks on some sort of grid or street system as well as updating the neighborhood. When reblocking happens the city will add water and sewage infrastructure so that each house will get its own tap and toilet inside of the house. Reblocking will also add electricity for those communities who don't have it already. The other huge advantage to reblocking is that the city partners with NGOs in order to get newer, better materials for the shacks. Reconstructed shacks are made out of a corrugated alloy that is much more resistant to fire than the materials being used now. The tricky part of reblocking is taking a very small, cramped space and moving everything around so that streets and courtyards can be created without displacing any residents. Most frequently, this requires shaving small amounts off of each shack in order to contribute to the public space that will be created. Reblocking is a great process, but its still very new, and takes a very long time to organize and carry out. We were lucky enough to be able to visit Flamingo, a settlement that has just started reblocking. We met with the contractor and city planner and actually watched them create the foundation for the first shacks to be rebuilt. Once the planning is done, the actually construction takes very little time as the community members do most of the work, so we'll be stopping by before we go home to see the progress made in Flamingo. 

The Cape Town planner working on the Flamingo settlement reblocking.  

These are the sample shacks built to show the community what a finished shack will look like. They're currently being used to store construction materials until the project is finished, at which point they'll be given to a family. These shacks are 10 square meters- approximately 32 square feet.

This will be the main road/courtyard for Flamingo. As you can see, flooding is a huge issue. Unfortunately most reblocking projects so far don't deal with stormwater or drainage issues, so it's likely that the settlements will still continue to be affected by the storms during rainy season. 

What stands out to me most about the settlements is how much dignity these people have. Their living situation is inadequate by all conventional standards, yet they are going about their lives just as you or I would. Those who aren't employed are usually largely involved in civic life. Litha Park has an elected set of community leaders, as well as numerous committees one can sign up to partake in. All the children are in schools and mothers who stay at home with their young ones are on the lookout to ensure that school aged children are actually going to class each day. Within the settlement there are shops, "bars" and trading spaces. It's really quite amazing how extensive the social organization is within the settlement. Everybody knows everybody, and everyone has one another's backs. They understand that their physical space is challenging, yet make the best out of it and create an incredible sense of community within the settlement. It's so sad to see the reality of their situation (for example, on our tour I saw a marshy area with no homes around it. I asked if people hang out there, as to be it seemed like the perfect place for a patio-like hangout area, but in a tone no different than saying "I want a pb&j" he replied "no, this is where most of the bodies are found" and continued on the tour) but so inspiring to see how they handle it. The whole experience is quite humbling.

The dozen or so residents we're working directly with the most frequently are awesome. There is a fairly large language barrier as they mostly speak Xhosa (one of the tribal "click" language of Africa) but even so, you can just see how happy they are to have us there and how much they want us to understand the reality of their situation. Side note: I learned and can pronounce three of the different clicks the other day, so if you want to know how to pronounce a "q" "ch" or "x" in Xhosa, I can hook you up. Also, today, for the first time, I was able to navigate my way to the community church solo. I had a feeling I could do it, and told one of the leaders, so he ran after me as I skipped away (in my defense, it was pouring) and made it! If I can think of it, I'll try to record the pathway in so you can understand just how big of a victory this is. I also have a temporary mama here. Phezuma has taken me under her wing, calling me "my baby" or "my kate." She's quite territorial, making sure anyone who tries to get too chummy with me knows I'm claimed, but I love it. She's so funny and so very loving. Sorry Ma, that's what you get for sending your kid to Africa, she gets swiped up!

Cape Tour

Today we had probably my favorite day thus far in South Africa, a tour of the cape. For those who aren’t familiar with the geography of Cape Town, here’s a handy map. So Cape Town is up near the top of the map and our tour worked us past Sea Point, along the water to Hout Bay, along the famous Chapman’s Drive scenic roadway past Noordoek to the Indian Ocean side to Simon’s Town and ended down at Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope.

Pictures weren’t taken, and couldn’t justify even if they were, how scenic all the roads we went on were. They were carved into the mountain, right along the sea and had beautiful views of all the bays, beaches and little towns along our tour. Our first stop was in Hout Bay, where we went on a seal cruise. We were the first tour of the day, which was great because we got unparalleled views of the sun still coming up over the mountains- the rays of sun streaming through the 12 Apostles mountain chain was breathtaking. The cruise was fun too. It was brief, 45 minutes or so, but it took us out of the bay and to the island where all the fur seals bask in the sun. My personal favorite part was the tour group of nearly 50 Taiwanese on our cruise. Every stereotype you can imagine I witnessed, but they just got so excited about everything. The water was choppy, so the boat ride slightly resembled a roller coaster and they would scream and get so excited. The also found Johannes, a German from our tour and proceeded to take approximately 40 pictures with him as the Jack to their Rose from Titanic. It was absolutely hilarious, mostly because we knew him and they would all just flock to him and constantly ask for photos. As he put it, “I should get tips for this.”

Homeboy was straight putting a fish in his mouth, leaning over, and a seal would jump out of the water and grab it from his mouth. Our tour guide told us later that he used to get one of the seals to actually come up on the dock and would charge for photos with it, and that they've been trying to get rid of this guy for years but he survived numerous arrests and court visits and still comes right back. 

Next stop was on Chapman’s Drive at a lookout that had a beautiful view of the entire Hout Bay. Our tour guides were so friendly and funny, and had muffins and juice waiting for us for a small picnic while we had a brief photo opportunity. The biggest thing I noticed, which isn’t that obvious in pictures, is how very blue the water is. It’s like the Caribbean, but it’s Africa.

Third stop was over in Simon’s Town to see the African penguin colonies. I can’t even explain how adorable they were. They had everything from the eggs/nests to the furry little babies, to the teenagers with half of their baby fur and half slick feathers to the full-grown adults. Some would play in the sand up shore, others in the water and some in the areas with bushes and vegetation.

After the penguins we headed south to Cape Peninsula National Park. Unbeknownst to us when we got onto the bus this morning, we got dropped off at a spot in the park for a 6km bike ride. The ride was great- mostly flat with scenic views and a very nice break from sitting on the bus. We biked to a visitor center where we had a delicious picnic lunch and stalked an ostrich! My first of many ostrich encounters of the day!

After the bike ride and lunch we hopped back into the bus where we arrived at our final stop, Cape Point. We chose to hike up the mountain to the lighthouse at the top, and then after that hiked west and down to get to the Cape of Good Hope. Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope is the area where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans meet, as well as the most southwest part of the continent. The views were stunning- so much natural beauty and I loved seeing the mountains and oceans. I would highly, highly recommend it to anyone visiting Cape Town. So remember that group of Taiwanese I mentioned from the seal cruise? In an ironic twist, they were at the Cape of Good Hope right when we were coming down the mountain. Johannes literally ran and hid in the bus.

We then boarded the bus for our roughly hour and a half ride back to Cape Town. Along the way we saw wild antelope, most ostriches and finally, after a week’s wait, we saw our first baboon! Baboons be crazy- they absolutely destroy things and are massive. There are signs everywhere in the park warning people about the dangers of baboons and they even have a federal agency who is dedicated to tracking the baboons movements and warning people when they make a sudden directional change. One was walking solo around the road, but then up on the hill we saw a whole clan, from the alpha male to the babies. I don’t know why, but ever since I first learned they have baboons here I’ve wanted to see once and I saw like 15 or so today. Mission: accomplished.