Today was Heritage Day here in South Africa, celebrating South Africa's history and all its people. It's also known as "braai" day here in Cape Town, which means something similar to a barbeque. It is a national holiday, and because of that most everyone was out and about rather than at work. All museums in Cape Town are free, and there are large street festivals and markets throughout the city. It was a beautiful day here (the first warm day since I've arrived!), so my roommates and I decided to take advantage of that and get out to explore.
One of my roommates teaches dance in a township near Cape Town, and for Heritage Day her students put on a performance down at the Community Gardens this afternoon. The Community Gardens are a number of green spaces and walkways near downtown that are covered with gardens, koi ponds, picnic areas and cafes. It's a really nice area to sit and enjoy a sunny day.
There were four other groups in addition to my roommate Leah's students, and all the performances were pretty amazing. I tried to upload a clip of one of the dancers, but it takes way too long with my internet connection here, so I will stick to posting some pictures of the performaces on facebook and just a select few here:
Leah's group did hip hop, which was very cute, since they are all late elementary to early middle school age. The performance lasted for about an hour, and then we headed to the nearby South African museum, which featured exhibits on different South African groups and their traditions, including the various languages spoken throughout the country, the different artifacts found in each region, and the differing rock art found in each area. There was also an enormous exhibit on marine life of South Africa, so of course this was my favorite part. There was a large shark exhibit put on by Save Our Seas, where I will be interning, so I spent the better part of two hours strolling through that. Very, very cool.
We then headed to the V&A Waterfront to do some sightseeing and a little shopping (essentials: laundry basket, sheets, etc. Almost went nuts buying trinkets and clothes for Will and Worden, but was able to resist for the time being). The waterfront area is beautiful due to its backdrop of Table Mountain and Lion's Head, and also just because of the amount of African art and hand-made items being sold on the street. We strolled through the massive mall there for about an hour, picked up a few things, and then took a taxi home (my first South African taxi ride.. quite interesting). All in all it was a very good day, and I am glad we got out to see everyone enjoying Heritage Day.
The last few days have been quite hectic with a number of dive and snorkel trips. On Tuesday I headed over to Steve's (Animal Ocean owner) to help him with some research for his website, and around 11 am he got a call from a good friend of his who was excited about the Yellowtail near Robben Island, so we spontaneously packed up his boat and headed out to the shores off Robben Island with a few of his fisherman friends to do some spearfishing. I mostly dove in and snorkeled around, hoping no White sharks would appear, and watched the guys chase the fish. One of Steve's friends, an avid fisherman who owns his own fish shop in Constantia, told me a few stories about his White shark encounters. He and a friend were flipped out of the water by a five meter shark one time while spearfishing (the shark came up underneath at a high speed in order to breach while hunting them, like they do to seals near Seal Island). They managed to put a spear in it's eye so that it swam away. Another time he came face to face with a six meter White shark while diving in a kelp bed, and the shark tried to come close enough to bite him but ended up getting scared of the kelp and swam away. CRAZY, I tell you.
Anyway, it was a beautiful day, but the water was still pretty frigid (for me, at least)! We spent about five hours out that day, and in the end we took home six good sized Yellowtail. Watching those guys fish is amazing... they are so enthusiastic about it and so skilled. The next day we took some clients seal diving in Hout Bay, and unfortunately it turned out to be quite windy and overcast for most of the morning, so the three eleven-year-olds were not too excited about getting in the water. But, once they got in and saw the seals all around them they were pretty amped up and could ignore the cold for a few minutes. Everyone ended up having a great time (except for one dad who was seasick and throwing up off the side of the boat- not good), and they took me and Steve out to lunch after the trip. Here is a picture of a shipwreck in Hout Bay that is really beautiful (at least I think so):
This weekend Steve headed up the coast to do some spearfishing with friends at a "holiday house" (what we would call a cabin), and although he invited me to come along I decided to stay in Cape Town to celebrate Heritage Day and have a few days to spend with my roommates, since I haven't had time to get to know them very well yet. It is nice to have a few days out of the water, since I feel like my body has taken quite a beating over the last week and a half! Not sure if I'm cut out for this cold water diving every day :)
SO that's mostly what I have been up to- there are a lot of minor details that I have forgotten for the moment, but hopefully seeing pictures on facebook will fill in the blanks. Missing everyone at home, but enjoying my surroundings in Cape Town! I will try to keep this up once a week- especially once my internship starts on October 1st. Love you all!
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