South Africa: Cape Town, Part II - New Beginnings and New Countdowns

10.12.2103

• Wake up - breakfast in the hostel and a hot shower
• Walked to grocery store to try to get tickets to memorial concert for Nelson Mandela to no avail
• Walked downtown through the St. George Mall to the Grand Parade and City Hall - video screens set up to broadcast the memorial for Madiba in Johannesburg attended by a long list of international dignitaries and celebrities along with 80,000 celebratory mourners - Human Rights Day - crowds singing in procession and then in dancing rounds - watched through the opening prayers and then needed to escape the sun for a bit and grabbed lunch at the Eastern Food Bazar 
• Walked to Civic Center to view an exhibit on Nelson Mandela focusing on his work after his release from prison in 1990 - feeling of emptiness and loneliness - beautiful quotes - wrote in a Madiba memory book - woman passing by: "When you look at his photos, you can really feel the pain." - maintenance worker playing piano - softly weeping 
• Went to Shoprite 
• Slave lodge - flag, etc
• National Gallery - Kevin Atkinson and other artists - Mary Sibande - realize I have gotten very critical of museum cureation 
• Ricks Cafe around the corner from home to sit and eat and read Tin Drum - Mediterranean salad and potato tapas - people fighting in corner - amazing staff who talked with me

11.12.2012

• starting to catch up on emails and blog - 
• email from Kathy about disappearing tribal groups: http://pelfusion.com/portraits-of-disappearing-tribal-groups/
• Good some errands done and booked a tour for tomorrow
• Walk to Studio91, an art gallery on Kloof st featuring the show "Home is where you are" - found an art piece I love and might be buying
• South African Jewish Museum - discovery of new author to read - artist Samuel Bak - Lithuanian village - Holocaust Center
• Parliament celebration of Mandela's life - memorial flame - packet of information about Madiba - memorial wall 
• Dinner at Doppio Zero - lovely staff and good food - talked with waiter who talked about being a rioter during apartheid - owed his life to Madiba - creating peace and reconcilliation 
• Went to St. George Cathedral where Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu preached during apartheid to hear the ____ perform advent and Christmas carols by candlelight - intermission at the Taj - cried during silent night
• quiet walk home up busy Long St. - book on computer which was locked up in the office so I sorted through the bookcase in the hostel - found Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned by Wells Tower - started it and got through the first two stories - to bed - early wake-up

12.12.2013

• Woke up at 5am to get ready - pick up at 5:30am - long van ride out to ____ over the hills while the sun rose - one of the most beautiful scenes I have seen on this entire trip - two hours to read my new book
• Arrived at our destination - ______ - today, I am going cage diving with great white sharks - started with breakfast and paperwork (I promise not to sue if sharks eat me) - went down to the boat launch and shopped a small market that sold shells and shark teeth 
• boarded the boat and launched - limitations on when and where shark diving can happen - dock near islands where seals live but sharks don't hunt cause only the seal pups are easy enough to catch to make it worth it - 
• anchored on a beautiful day and dropped large tuna heads into the water to attract our shark friends - also regulated how much they can feed and for how long - sharks arrived and we got our first views from the deck on the top of the boat - amazing and huge - now it was time to get our wet suits on - first time I was really worried, not for the sharks, but of being emerged in 10 degree (___ degree Fahrenheit) sea water - watched others go first - sharks lurching out of the water trying to catch our bait
• Time to get in - cold but a good suit so only my feet were really cold with less than ideal booties - shark against the cage - stayed in longer than others - was in for an hour - last approach was shark catching the tuna and eating it in a vertical position next to the boat, literally 2 feet from my face in the cage
• Got out and rode back to shore with a smile on my face in the sunshine - had lunch and watched the video footage that was shot during the day which, of course, I bought 
• Long van ride back with more reading - only two stories left by the time I got home - sent a few emails and showered - tired but not wiped out - had a big night of plans
• walked with just enough time to a bookstore to buy a copy of _____, a book by _____ who I learned about at the Jewish Museum - also got companion book about its banning
• walk down to Alexander Bar and Cafe - tickets to see Theatre of Death - got tickets and sat for a quick salad before the show - show: reading of Socrates monologue after being sentenced to death in Plato's republic; Puppeto, the dancing puppet of death; stand up comedy act; - thoughts on show
• Walk up Long St and grabbed some Indian food at Asian Foods - dahl and papadam and galub jamoon - miss India and it's food
• Walked to the Intimate Theatre at the University of Cape Town for my second show of the night, Urban Death South Africa - met Franz and chatted before the show on the patio - very hot outside and hotter inside - went in and sat - lights out - discuss play: models, strobe lights, child molestation, mental health, playful and serious, necklaces (tires) - 
• Said goodbye to Fritz - there was something happening in the Little Theatre building next door - walked in - Jackson Katz's TedX talk called Violence Against Women: It's a Men's Issue - group talked about it after - asked me to join - issues of language, branding of public figures, who leads the agenda and the fight of an issues - a group of theater students - talked with many and made a few new friends - their first salon style event for discussion around art and social justice - PERFECT - invited me to join via Skype if I was not in town for next meeting
• Walk home and read - finished my book in just over 24 hours - a big deal for this non-reader - went to bed after midnight - such a long, long day - good to keep myself busy as I am still missing my man. Sigh.

13.12.2013

• Slept in - caught up on some emails - replied to a woman in London who wants to use some of the footage from my blog for their documentary - signed releases and tried to schedule a Skype conversation - wrote a friend of Christina's who lives in town and I hope to connect with - bought bus ticket out of town - will travel the coast for two weeks up to Jo'burg - picked up art that I purchased at Sudio91 - had a leisurely day
• Got myself together to walk to local trains - metro - caught a train to Rondebosch - hard to figure out stops - went too far - came back one stop - walked to find my destination and then had dinner at Cocos Wah Wah - great salad and smoothie with grandilla and ginger
• Walk back to Baxter Theater - first show: My World
• When show was over the lobby was full of people waiting for the next show - I was curious and had read reviews for the pending performance so I bought a ticket - only when I was waiting to enter did I realize that most of the people in lobby with me were not speaking English in conversation and thought that, perhaps, this play would not be in English either - Play: Wrongly Accused - amazing energy, flirting with me
• Cab ride home with very sweet guy - read my new book for a while: Burger's Daughter - bed

14.12.2013

• Spent the morning, again, catching up on emails - talked with Alex for a while, guy from the US who is here to learn how to sail... my gears are turning
• Walked down to Grand Parade where they were projecting the vigil service for Madiba - walked through the flowers and messages left for the departed leader
• Caught a bus to the waterfront - met a man named Sharfik who was going to meet his wife for a date night - long bike ride 
• Bought a ticket for Madiba: Long Walk to Freedom film and found a place for dinner - sat at Servuga which is a sister restaurant to Beluga where Kevin and I went with friends more than a week ago - had risotto balls with motzerella and truffle aoili, callemari in pesto cream sauce, paired with a nice Shiraz, and washed down with a lemon merenguie tart - read more of the book as the sun set on the harbour
• Watched film - good with reservations - cab home 

15.12.2013

• Watched Madiba's funeral over breakfast
• Walked down to the Unitarian fellowship on Hout St, apparently the only established fellowship in South Africa (the others being less formal gatherings in communities across the country) - worship service in remembrance of Nelson Mandela - one of the speakers was _____, member of the congregation and former Mayor of Cape Town when Mandela was released from prison in 1990 - spoke about greeting him at Town Hall when he first addressed the nation after his release - spoke after with a woman who was in exile because of her husband's involvement in the anti-apartheid struggle and lived in Tanzania and Botswana for years before returning to Cape Town after Madiba's release - talked to another man from Angola who is studying theology in a correspondance course with a school in the UK - wonderful to be surrounded by the music and images and ideologies of my faith tradition for the first time since I left home
• Got a quick snack of idli at an Indian restaurant near the fellowship and then walked to catch a bus to Green Point Park for the Festival of Chariots - Hare Krishna celebration that _______ - free food provided by Food For Life, an organization that provides meals to people without food security in Cape Town - delicious meal including rava kesari for dessert - talked to a couple in line who had gone to India, Dubai, and Nepal and even stayed at the hotel where I had Thanksgiving dinner! Small world for me anymore - was there for the presentation about the chariot festival and then the gathered crowd pulled the giant chariot with a figure of ______ on the front out of the park and down along the streets on the waterfront 
• I didn't keep with the procession deciding instead to stop at Neptune where Kevin and I had dinner our first full day in this city where I bought another loaf of the 100% rye bread I had purchased before - got on the bus and headed back to town reading my book along the way - so relaxing
• Arrived in downtown and walked up to de Waterkaant and found my way to St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church for a Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols which included biblical readings for the birth of Jesus with some holiday favourite hymns - feels good to sing some familiar music and feel holiday cheers - love a day when I attend religious ceremonies for three different faith traditions - very Cape Town
• Home - After talking with my hostel-mate, Alex, yesterday, the guy who is here to learn to sail, I may have sent an email to a sailing company to which I have now accepted a slot in a week long course for basic crew certification which starts tomorrow - this also extended my time in Cape Town until at least the 21st which meant that I would be so close to the Christmas holiday that I might as well just extend my time at my hostel until the 26th - I have already been in Cape Town longer than any other city on my trip thus far. Now I will have been here nearly a month by the time I leave.
• Talked with Aaron online, another Bonderman fellow - we have been giving each other emotional support for this head-trip since we met at orientation - talked with Kevin - all signs point to Michael wants to go home