8 August 2016: Final day, South Africa/Cape Town

Greetings on Monday night (10:00 pm) from Capetown – My last day in Capetown and South Africa (until next summer)…

First some clarification, since some of you have asked about the “players.” I’m here with Chris Knaus who is a colleague (professor of education at UWT and author of a recently published book called “Whiteness is the New South Africa”; Chris is a critical race scholar who spent a year in South Africa – Cape Town – on a Fulbright in 2012–13); hence his knowledge of Cape Town and his many connections. He’s a good friend and we both lectured at the University of Coventry a year or so ago. The third person is Alexis Wheeler who is a coordinator in UWT’s Global Honors Program.

Today, bright and early Chris and I left for Franschhoek – a small town (population about 15,000) located about an hour north of Cape Town. According to our host, the area was settled in the 1600s by French Huguenot refugees… many of whom got land from the Dutch… They named it Olifantshoek (Elephants’ Corner) because elephants crossed the area… Then the name was changed to “The French Corner” and later to Franschhoek (Dutch for “French Quarter”). There’s evidence of the French influence in the names of many of the vineyards. Initially this was a big farming area and now the farms have been transformed into vineyards.

The drive from Cape Town to the area is pleasant and lush with vegetation and vineyards. The town is reminiscent of St. Helena in Napa or maybe one of the wine towns in Sonoma… lots of little stores with expensive items, many wine stores, restaurants galore (including some of South Africa’s best). We were in the town to visit a faculty member at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) who does a lot of work in HIV education, especially in the townships. We wanted to meet to talk about what we might be planning for the program.

We met at his house which is a wonderful large, rambling place… then because he had a meeting mid-day, Chris and I drove up to a great lookout to see the whole valley and then strolled the town for a bit before settling on a place for lunch – Wonderful grilled calamari with tomatoes and garlic and fresh herbs… and a vegetable flatbread, topped off by dessert – some kind of brandied bread pudding with ginger ice cream… and of course the wonderful wines of South Africa. We then went back to the house for lots of conversation about state of health education in South Africa, politics (the recent elections in South Africa and upcoming American fiasco elections), sports and education as tools for peace (his wife’s project). Both are transplants: he is American from New England, but had lived several years in India before coming to Cape Town and she is German, but has lived in South Africa for about 25 years. Two children; one adopted African child.

We talked a bit about the lack of a real philanthropic sector here in ZA – notably in this rather wealthy wine town that has so many successful vineyards (staffed by Blacks living in typical township conditions at the edge of the town). Seems like it would be simple to at least fund a real infrastructure in this one and only township.

We stayed for dinner… Jim made amazing homemade cannelloni… and then we left in an effort to drive back before it was really dark on the windy roads of the countryside (not so successful since we all were talking so much). Made it back to town and now I’m just finishing my packing – a real task… and always dreaded.

Thanks for putting up with my ramblings each day.

See you stateside.

Fern

P.S. Really dreading coming back and facing the work that I didn’t finish while I was here and which I swore I would get done. Oh well.. I do have 35 hours of travel tomorrow.