Finally I found some time (and a decent internet connection) to write about my first weeks in South Africa! So much happened already that I don’t really know where to starts.
This coming Saturday, it is exactly one month ago that my family brought me to the Düsseldorf International Airport and I boarded the plane to Dubai (great salmon with vegetable risotto, unlimited South African wine and an empty plane so each passenger had several seats to sleep on!!) and further to Cape Town. At the airport I was picked up by a student from Stellenbosch University who drove me to my hostel in Stellenbosch –he didn’t even look puzzled when I naturally walked to the right side front door of his car so I assumed he already picked up quite some internationals! At the hostel iKhaya, where we arrived in the late evening, I met some Europeans and an American girl who just finished their exchange in Pretoria and Durban and spend the last weeks traveling the Western Cape. IKhaya means home and indeed, we shared our hostel room in a way that besides the malfunctioning shower which turned the whole apartment into a lake and all of us freezing tremendously during the night we felt quite homey! During the days and nights I explored Stellenbosch with my roommates and I observed the girls’ behaviour in the streets and during night time. I found their independent confidence, based on half a year South Africa experience they were ahead of me very inspiring. So quickly I felt at ease knowing where to go and how to behave.
After a couple of days Sylvia from Tilburg joined the group and we introduced her to what we discovered about South Africa and Stellenbosch in a nutshell. We tried all kind of different food and wines, meet locals who invited us for rugby games and drove us home by car and found our favourite bar – Bohemia-, visited the University and registered for the Orientation activities .. basically we spend another week in holiday feel!
I think this is a good point to break the storyline and explain some general touristy and informative things about South Africa and Stellenbosch. Well, firstly, for me a as a German it was quite shocking although not surprising to hear people talking about race, whites, blacks and coloureds. We even had to fill in our “Race” on the registration form on the University campus. What is very much a taboo in Europe is an integral part of the daily life and when speaking about for instance the blacks or whites, it is not perceived as offensive or discriminating. I think this is intriguingly interesting! As South Africa is still recovering from the Apartheid, which officially ended only several years ago with the first democratic elections in 1994, great problems are visible especially in the metropolitan areas around the major cities and still inequalities dominate the daily life, the interactions and the landscapes. Under the Apartheid regime, living areas have been assigned according to skin colour which is based on divisions which are still very inherent in the consciousness of many South Africans, judging from my first observations and conservations. The townships and cape flats which have been formed to hold massive numbers of people, especially blacks, still face high criminality rates, gang violence, problems with substance abuse, limited access to education and chances for development. Stellenbosch appears at first sight as a bubble of the white and rich - a student city which neglects the difficulties of their neighbors and which charms its visitors with its beautiful colonial style, the majestic mountains and the various cafes, restaurants and a vivid nightlife. However, after having arrived I think differently. There is no such thing as a “real Africa” or the authentic experience. Here alike any other place in South Africa, life is authentic and the problem are real and visible. It is rather interesting how much historical attachment each place and how many stories and backgrounds form the basis of the ideas people hold and it amazes me how diverse the backgrounds and origins of the people have around here. It is incredible, having seen cultural capitals of Central Europe such a s Berlin, Amsterdam and London, that I have never before spend time in a place which is so little definable and so diverse as South Africa: the 11 official languages, the colonial and immigration history, the colorfulness of Africa as a whole, the richness in differing landscapes, the idea of South Africa as the new America - land of the great possibilities which it seems to represent to many of the surrounding countries -, Jewish and Muslim communities living together in Cape Town, ...
I know! I know!
It sounds like I am writing for a South African Tourism magazine, but seriously:
No exaggerations! Life in South Africa is so active, diverse and interesting,
I can’t wait to explore more of it!
It feels since the moment the plane landed and I set food on South African soil, clocks are ticking differently. I completely emerged into this fascinating continent, which is so free, diverse and contrasting, and enjoy every day of it while trying to absorb as many impressions, ideas, stories knowledge, experience and traveling feeling as possible. I absolutely feel HERE .. I arrived!
Soon you’ll hear more about the Orientation week, the classes and I promise some random insights into the life in Stellenbosch as well as I will spoil you with details about the amazing food we can enjoy every day.
Hope all is well,
Jule
