South African thoughts

Obviously, in a country with the history of apartheid, race and racism are a topic that one thinks of and cannot avoid. We've been lucky to have the chance to talk with people of different backgrounds, and with different opinions. One thing that has made us uncomfortable is some of the terminology used here. The word "colored" is an antiquated term for African-Americans in the US and has a negative connotation. In SA, it is an acceptable term but is used for those from Asia (Malaysia, Indonesia, India) and mixed race. "Black" is the term used for the native Africans. And then there is the word "Afrikaans" (which refers to the descendants of the original Dutch settlers [also known as Boers] and the leaders of the old white apartheid government) but is just a slight pronunciation difference and with totally different meaning than African. Even among the whites, there seems to be a split in at least thought between the British descendants and the Afrikaaners. I have been a little surprised at the amount of integration that we saw, but then that could have been just Cape Town, which is supposedly a bit of a bubble in many respects. At many of the bars and restaurants, there were whites, coloreds and blacks (that terminology still doesn't feel right) hanging out together. We really liked Cape Town. The food was good with lots of variety - we ate Italian, Mozambican, Malaysian, Japanese for dinners, had falafel/shawerma for lunch one day and even went to a Scottish brewpub for beers. On 8/1, We met up with our volunteer coordinator and got on a public intercity bus to Port Elizabeth, which took ~15 hours, over 3 hrs late. There were no chickens or other live animals on the bus, but it was overcrowded (the woman next to us had about 4 bags and a small child but one seat), with poor climate control (usually too hot, even for Betsy,but occasionally too cold), and the occasional insect to freak us out. Part of the route was typical highway but there was some amazing views. Upon the arrival in PE, we were met by a representative of Kwantu, the animal reserve where we were volunteering. We arrived late at night and I was happy to see this sign on the entrance gate (not the one with the phone #). We were given a late dinner and a quick tour of the camp and our dorms. We went to bed tired and excited to start our next adventure. More pictures and stories coming soon!


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