UW in South Africa. September 9, 2017

Molweni  and Molo to each of you (word for ‘hello’ changes if it is to an individual or a group..)

This will be fairly short as I am determined to get it out on the same day (well sort of — as it’s already early morning – Sunday here – and I’ll be discussing yesterday)

The students are on their own for the weekend, and we are pleased that they all seem to be doing OK – At least we haven’t heard much from them.. Seems like a few went on a hike, others strolled the city, some probably went shopping, some rested. Today, several will hike up Table Mountain. It’s about a 3.5 hour-hike to the top (although there is another path that is only about 2.5 hours.. lots of “steps”… View from top is spectacular, if there aren’t any clouds.. If clouds, you are above them and no view whatsoever. There is a cable car-like vehicle that goes up and down and most people hike up and take it down. A few students plan to take it both ways. I’m totally supportive. Not sure what the others will do today, but we will see them all tonight when we have a surprise birthday cake and champagne (!) for one of the student’s 21^st birthday.

As for me… yesterday was truly a leisure day… work day. I strolled down to Cape Quarter in the morning to get something for breakfast. The B&B brings over muffins and yogurt, but it gets pretty boring. Figured I could use something else. I remembered going to Origin (by the way they have this affinity toward naming commercial establishments with single word names: Origin, Knead, Peace, etc.) to see if they had chai lattes. Sitting in Origin you could close your eyes and you would be in downtown Seattle or in Oakland (yuppie part) or anywhere in an upscale neighborhood. It’s a great space with both large communal wood tables and small private ones. Also a small outdoor area. I settled in and ordered my chai latte and a BAGEL!! They actually make the bagels there. They’re a little different but pretty much a bagel complete with lox and cream cheese.

After my gourmet breakfast, I strolled Cape Quarter a bit. There are some good craft stores and I wanted to check them out before settling in to get much needed project work done for FTA and to try to polish my presentation for Thursday at the University of Cape Town. I had been to some of these craft stores last year and when I attempted a re-visit found that several were now closed. Apparently some developer is building 5 stories of expensive residential atop the shopping and all of the shopkeepers have to vacate. I did talk with two of them – an older white shopkeeper and his “coloured” partner (whose father it turned out grew up in Philippi – Cape Town is actually very small in some ways, despite its population size). They said that they will be relocating across the street, but are concerned about the viability. Then, because the day was so beautiful and I didn’t want to be cooped up ALL day working, I decided to take a long walk through downtown … down Long Street and up to Bree and way down Bree Street… This area has been totally transformed with cafes, galleries, outdoor restaurants, little boutiques.. It’s truly another Cape Town which was fascinating.

I stopped for a great salad at a bakery (where I ordered the cake for the surprise birthday party tonight for one of the students), went into a few craft shops where I picked up a few things.. and then meandered back to the house to settle in to work.. which I did!  Later that night, we met up with the same two friends we had seen last week – this time for a Portuguese tapas dinner – of course starting with pisco sours. Had some wonderful ceviche, little tacos, corn on the cob, chili edamame, etc.  And, it goes without saying, that the wines are spectacular and that dinners – even at the very best places – are, based on our exchange rate, extremely inexpensive. Dinner for two at a really nice restaurant – two cocktails, two appetizers, two main courses, nice bottle of wine, one dessert… is about $60…  (two people at $30 each, including tip).

Signing off,… more tomorrow.

Fern