Me, Dana, Chaele and Samera on top of Table Mountain

Time to rewind a little bit—on Thursday night, Kim took the whole group out to some popular Cape Town clubs, and it was so much fun! There’s a specialty shot in South Africa called the Springbok, and it’s delicious—a mix of Amarula and peppermint liqueur.

Work is going well for the most part. I have my own desk and my own Black Sash e-mail address, so I feel official. I’m slightly frustrated because thus far I’ve been doing primarily clerical work, but hopefully it’ll get better. On the way home from work, Will and I tried to take a public taxi back into the city. Bill drops us off at work every morning but can’t pick us up, so we’re always on our own to try and find transportation back. It was basically a disaster. Hailing the taxi was easy, and then Will and I crowded on to an already cramped van. We definitely stood out and with our nice clothes and my Vera Bradley floral laptop bag, I fear that we’re a target for robbery. However, the experience on the bus pales in comparison to what was to come.

The taxi took us to the hub in downtown Cape Town, but that’s still about a 45 minute walk from our B&B. We were told that there would be another taxi we could take to our neighborhood, Tamboerskloof. The station was teeming with people and we kept drawing unwanted attention. We attempted several times to ask people for assistance in finding our next taxi, but we were unsuccessful. So, we decided to walk instead. Bad idea. We ended up getting pretty lost and we were on the “wrong side” of town for about 30 minutes. Everywhere we go we stand out as foreigners/wealthy people, but this was worse than usual. We had been told by Karlyn and Bill that we should never pass Waal Street because that was an unsafe part of town. Well, after walking for 30 minutes, we then saw a street sign and realized that we were on Waal Street, so we had been walking that whole time in a danger zone. Fortunately we made it home eventually, but never again will we try to walk from the station!

Today we set off to climb Table Mountain as a group around 11am. The climb to the top is a series of handmade stairs (just rocky boulders placed on the ground). It was a strenuous hike, but Karlyn and I motivated each other and made it to the top in about an hour and a half. My thighs are going to be SO sore tomorrow, though. The view from the top was gorgeous, and we were really fortunate to have hiked it on a warm, clear, sunny day. Some opted to hike back down, but I instead took the cable car down because the climb was so vertical that I knew it would be precarious and painful if I climbed down.

For dinner, we ate at Mama Africa, a traditional restaurant with live music and dancing. Dana, Chaele, Ubong and I were breaking it down by the marimbas...we got quite a few stares.