Good morning, Cape Town.
New
week and a new continent. The MV Explorer docked in Cape Town March 25
with many of the students getting up early to see sunrise as we
approached land. The captain had remarked that Cape Town was one of his
favorite ports because of the mountains and incredible cityscape, and he
was right–Table Mountain looms as a high plateau over the stretched-out
highrises, office buildings, homes, and townships (more on that later).
Cape Town is beautiful with the landscape and the weather. It's been in the low 70s the entire time with blue skies either cloudless or with fluffy white clouds. There are some complications, though: it's been windy the entire time with some days being extremely gusty (we missed out on a kayaking session the last day because of rough water), the unemployment rate is high, corruption is part of the political scene, and poverty exists juxtaposed with wealth of a modern westernized city.
I mentioned townships earlier: the bigger cities we've seen including CT and Port Elizabeth tend to have a fairly small commercial district branching out to richer neighborhoods and then on the outskirts are townships of small shacks built of corrugated metal, scrap wood, cobbled together as people move in toward cities in search of jobs that don't exist. Our Biomedical Ethics class visited a township on that first day when our original plans to visit the museum devoted to heart transplant fell through (SA has excellent hospitals and pioneered heart transplantation). What we got to experience was an intimate interaction with schoolchildren and soup kitchen volunteers in one of the oldest townships near CT named Khayelitsha. The Biomed Ethics students met up with our tour leader Clement of Operation Hunger to first visit the warehouse facility where soup-kitchen supplies are gathered, right next to a free clinic where folks are treated for tuberculosis, AIDS, and wide-ranging injuries. There's a critical relationship between Operation Hunger's efforts to feed township citizens and the local clinic treating patients because medication is more effective on a full stomach.
The township schoolchildren are ready for their meal at the soup kitchen. The adults ate first.
Our Biomed field lab excursion also visited the "office" of a traditional healer, and we learned that many people first try treatment through traditional faith healers and then seek out clinical care when symptoms don't respond and become more acute. During a Q&A session with one of the free clinic nurses, we learned that even in areas of poverty there is free governmental healthcare; even though it's not efficient and subject to the corruption, cronyism, and uneven distribution of resources within the South African infrastructure. Very enlightening was the nurse's astonishment that, in a county as wealthy and developed as the US, we don't have healthcare for our poorer citizens. After seeing the various settings of medical treatment, we then went to a preschool in the next township of Phillipi and then a soup kitchen where meals were served. Kids were excited to see our class and played with us, riding piggy back and playing catch and teaching us netball. I love that the students are great around kids in the countries we visit.
During the Ramsey travels while abroad on our Semester at Sea trip, we've stayed relatively close to ports, with the exception of traveling inland via bullet train in Japan. In South Africa, we got to travel with Ellen's dad on a three-day safari about 800 kilometers from the ship, a very generous Christmas present from Sandy. The safari involved a short bus ride to the Cape Town CPT airport and then a 2-hour flight to Port Elizabeth PLZ airport and another short bus ride to the Kariega Game Reserve. Ellen signed on as trip leader to account for all of the group of 30: mostly students, Jasper, and three older couples including us. The flight out was uneventful beyond the heavy winds that made for a rough landing and buffeted the bus portion of the trip.
The Kariega safari was... wow. Hard to put into words how spectacular the experience was. We stayed in roomy three bedroom chalets with three baths, clawfoot bathtubs no less. The Ramseys/Catzs even had a small pool around back with cold water which we used for a quick cool-down. Fantastic food, and great guides who drove us around in diesel Land Cruisers. Not only did we see wildlife, we saw lots of wildlife and a huge variety. In the true sense of "wild"life, the animals weren't truly wild since they're acclimated to the safari vehicles and live within the expansive fenced preserve, and the guides could drive close to the animals without spooking them. My expectation on the safari was that we'd drive to a vantage point in the truck, have the guide hand out binoculars, and point to some critters on the next ridgeline. Instead, we saw so many animals up close: giraffe, rhino, hippo, lion, elephant, cape buffalo, wildebeest, impala, kudu, zebra, birds.
Amazing safari. I'll include a bunch of photos below, and I took so many shots. This is one of the best family trips I've done. Sandy and I have grown a lot closer on this trip, and I can't thank him enough for his generosity as well as spending lots of time with Jasper and I. He's also been helping Jasper with some of his school sessions to help with the science coverage that I'm not so good at teaching.
Ah, South Africa, you're a beautiful country, but damn you can be trying at times. We arrived to a gorgeous portscape and then got pummeled by high winds that scrapped our plans to go kayaking. I had a nice relaxing flight to the safari with a glass of red wine, but on the return trip the airline somehow bumped 25 of 30 students on flight number one; then flight number two saw 24 of 25 return to the ship; I took the bullet and stayed behind to catch the next morning's flight so all the students could return with trip leader Ellen. Thank the stars that our tour company guide, also named Scott, stayed with me to press hard on the airline to get me the next flight out and arrange a nice hotel and dinner. It worked out well but I'll be honest and admit I kinda panicked when the airline flights kept arriving, each one overbooked. Yikes.
I think most of the students had fantastic times but Cape Town is one of the world's most crime-ridden cities, and several students were robbed and mugged, fortunately no one was injured. It's a welcoming beautiful city, but much like at home you gotta carry yourself with confidence and not make stupid choices. Live, learn, move on.
Next up is Ghana. Africa, we'll see more of you in a few days.
Cape Town is beautiful with the landscape and the weather. It's been in the low 70s the entire time with blue skies either cloudless or with fluffy white clouds. There are some complications, though: it's been windy the entire time with some days being extremely gusty (we missed out on a kayaking session the last day because of rough water), the unemployment rate is high, corruption is part of the political scene, and poverty exists juxtaposed with wealth of a modern westernized city.
I mentioned townships earlier: the bigger cities we've seen including CT and Port Elizabeth tend to have a fairly small commercial district branching out to richer neighborhoods and then on the outskirts are townships of small shacks built of corrugated metal, scrap wood, cobbled together as people move in toward cities in search of jobs that don't exist. Our Biomedical Ethics class visited a township on that first day when our original plans to visit the museum devoted to heart transplant fell through (SA has excellent hospitals and pioneered heart transplantation). What we got to experience was an intimate interaction with schoolchildren and soup kitchen volunteers in one of the oldest townships near CT named Khayelitsha. The Biomed Ethics students met up with our tour leader Clement of Operation Hunger to first visit the warehouse facility where soup-kitchen supplies are gathered, right next to a free clinic where folks are treated for tuberculosis, AIDS, and wide-ranging injuries. There's a critical relationship between Operation Hunger's efforts to feed township citizens and the local clinic treating patients because medication is more effective on a full stomach.
The township schoolchildren are ready for their meal at the soup kitchen. The adults ate first.
Our Biomed field lab excursion also visited the "office" of a traditional healer, and we learned that many people first try treatment through traditional faith healers and then seek out clinical care when symptoms don't respond and become more acute. During a Q&A session with one of the free clinic nurses, we learned that even in areas of poverty there is free governmental healthcare; even though it's not efficient and subject to the corruption, cronyism, and uneven distribution of resources within the South African infrastructure. Very enlightening was the nurse's astonishment that, in a county as wealthy and developed as the US, we don't have healthcare for our poorer citizens. After seeing the various settings of medical treatment, we then went to a preschool in the next township of Phillipi and then a soup kitchen where meals were served. Kids were excited to see our class and played with us, riding piggy back and playing catch and teaching us netball. I love that the students are great around kids in the countries we visit.
During the Ramsey travels while abroad on our Semester at Sea trip, we've stayed relatively close to ports, with the exception of traveling inland via bullet train in Japan. In South Africa, we got to travel with Ellen's dad on a three-day safari about 800 kilometers from the ship, a very generous Christmas present from Sandy. The safari involved a short bus ride to the Cape Town CPT airport and then a 2-hour flight to Port Elizabeth PLZ airport and another short bus ride to the Kariega Game Reserve. Ellen signed on as trip leader to account for all of the group of 30: mostly students, Jasper, and three older couples including us. The flight out was uneventful beyond the heavy winds that made for a rough landing and buffeted the bus portion of the trip.
The Kariega safari was... wow. Hard to put into words how spectacular the experience was. We stayed in roomy three bedroom chalets with three baths, clawfoot bathtubs no less. The Ramseys/Catzs even had a small pool around back with cold water which we used for a quick cool-down. Fantastic food, and great guides who drove us around in diesel Land Cruisers. Not only did we see wildlife, we saw lots of wildlife and a huge variety. In the true sense of "wild"life, the animals weren't truly wild since they're acclimated to the safari vehicles and live within the expansive fenced preserve, and the guides could drive close to the animals without spooking them. My expectation on the safari was that we'd drive to a vantage point in the truck, have the guide hand out binoculars, and point to some critters on the next ridgeline. Instead, we saw so many animals up close: giraffe, rhino, hippo, lion, elephant, cape buffalo, wildebeest, impala, kudu, zebra, birds.
Amazing safari. I'll include a bunch of photos below, and I took so many shots. This is one of the best family trips I've done. Sandy and I have grown a lot closer on this trip, and I can't thank him enough for his generosity as well as spending lots of time with Jasper and I. He's also been helping Jasper with some of his school sessions to help with the science coverage that I'm not so good at teaching.
Ah, South Africa, you're a beautiful country, but damn you can be trying at times. We arrived to a gorgeous portscape and then got pummeled by high winds that scrapped our plans to go kayaking. I had a nice relaxing flight to the safari with a glass of red wine, but on the return trip the airline somehow bumped 25 of 30 students on flight number one; then flight number two saw 24 of 25 return to the ship; I took the bullet and stayed behind to catch the next morning's flight so all the students could return with trip leader Ellen. Thank the stars that our tour company guide, also named Scott, stayed with me to press hard on the airline to get me the next flight out and arrange a nice hotel and dinner. It worked out well but I'll be honest and admit I kinda panicked when the airline flights kept arriving, each one overbooked. Yikes.
I think most of the students had fantastic times but Cape Town is one of the world's most crime-ridden cities, and several students were robbed and mugged, fortunately no one was injured. It's a welcoming beautiful city, but much like at home you gotta carry yourself with confidence and not make stupid choices. Live, learn, move on.
Next up is Ghana. Africa, we'll see more of you in a few days.
Hello, hippo.
Jason Hiser, this one is for you. Jason nicknamed Jasper "Pufferfish" years ago, so we saw some in the Cape Town Aquarium. I see the resemblance.
Coke crate sculpture on the waterfront.
Jasper got the scholar rate at the botanical gardens. I was suffering through a hilly 8K running race nearby.
There were statues of South African Nobel laureates on the Cape Town Waterfront, including our buddy Archbishop Desmond Tutu when he was a bit younger. Here is Nelson Mandela, and the people love him. I wish him a speedy recovery this Easter season while he's in the hospital.
We were speechless when the four lion cubs emerged from the brush and joined their mother.
Elephant and youngsters.
Okay, so some of the animals were accustomed to people, but we couldn't help but take a family shot with a spectacular background.
Sandy took us to a really nice Belgian restaurant near the waterfront. He had mussels and said they were the best he'd ever had. I'd say they were almost as good as what we had in Belgium years ago. I was stoked to have a few Belgian beers (here's the Kwak Ellen had; not shown is the stirrup glass and holder, which was issued after she paid a ransom of her left shoe).
Mother rhino and very young cub. Horns have been removed from the animals to make them less tempting to poachers.
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