Die Berg

 

Wanneer'n mens 'n berg van beskou

Dan is hy lelik; al sy foute staar

Jou naaktelik in die oë, hy is baar

En plantloos, ru en klipperig en grou.

En ook -jou denkbeeld is geheel ontrou,

Want jy verlies die grote in die klein;

Jy sien 'n stukkie, die geheel verdwyn;

En op'n deel wil jy die hele bou.

 

So is die mens: beskou hom van te na

En al sy foute steek jou in die oog.

Maar soos die berg daar in die verte skyn,

Jy sien die grootste oor die klein verhoog:

So sal die mens'n ander kenmerk dra

In lig deur ruime perspektief verfyn.

 /Bosman - Die Berg  - collection of Gerrit Komrij/

 

 

My arrival

On Saturday we arrived to Amsterdam around half past eleven. In the morning on the plane we had a pancake and some yoghurt and fruit as breakfast with some juice, which was nice after a long movie night. After we got our luggage, we went to the arrival hall. When we walked in there, my best friends came running to me. My parents, brother, my three best friends, boyfriend, grandmother and uncle were all there, waiting for me with lots of balloons and flowers. It was such a big surprise and I was so happy to go home with everyone I love! At home a huge cake with a picture of the view from Lion’s Head was waiting for me, plus two other cakes and lots of delicious snacks. After a little while three more of my friends came, and a little after that quite some family friends arrived and even my neighbours came over. I handed out all the souvenirs I got for my friends, family and boyfriend and some of them even had presents for me as a ‘welcome back’. There was so much laughter, telling stories, having fun, eating and so on! It was an awesome surprise from my mom, and I’m so thankful that everyone that is important to me could be there that day, the day that my most amazing adventure ever ended!

 Warm welcome at Schiphol Airport

 

 Welcome home

 

 We are back home

 

 Big surprise at home

Again a big thanks to my exchange sister, my host family, Ms Stein (the exchange coordinator at Herschel,  Mr Court (the exchange coordinator Bishops), Mr Schreurs ( the exchange coordinator at Rijnlands) and my own family for making my trip the best experience ever, and thanks to all my friends and everyone who supported me on my wonderful trip to South Africa.

Fly away

At 21:00 p.m  we are all at Airport of Cape Town.  It is time to say Good bye! We get our last wishes on our flags.  We gave big hugs to each other... tears in our eyes... taking some last pictures ....  It is an emotional moment. It is much more difficult to leave than I have ever thought.


Writting on the flags

Good bye!

 

Holland is calling!

Now I am on the plane together with Maxime, Cemmie, Kian and Maarten. We had a warm special welcome on the KLM plane, because Maxime's mother is a stewardess during our flight. Probably we will be spoiled . We are going home after ten fantastic weeks in South Africa. We are said to leave behind our new friends but we are also quite excited to see our families and friends in The Netherlands.

 

Cemmie and me

Kian, Maxime and Maarten

My brother follows our flight on the internet.

Good bye South Africa! Holland is calling!
 

Tonight I  am going to fly back to the Netherlands after 10 wonderful weeks in South Africa. I was so fortunate to stay  ten weeks for an exchange in Cape Town, which is one of the most beautiful cities in a world. It has a fantastic location next to the Table mountain and  with amazing views looking over the Ocean. I lived with Steff's  family in Constantia.  It was a great experience to adapt to their life style. I know how important the braai is in South Africa,  because it is a social occasion where families and friends like to be together.

I am very happy that I studied at Herschel and I am proud that I could swim in their competition group and I could play flute in the assemble. I like the team spirit very much, how the whole school supports its teams. I did not mind that we had to wear a uniform, because that way everybody is equal, it does not matter where you come from.

I learned a lot about the rich history of South Africa. I visited the Vrijgrond Townships in Cape Town and Soweto in Johannesburg. Soweto is well known around the world as a symbol of the brutal apartheid. I cycled through the street where two Nobel Prize winners used to live: Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu. I got a real feeling in the Apartheid museum of the meaning to be NON WHITE. After the tour in Robben Island I understood completely why Nelson Mandela is one of the most respected men in the world. It was an unique experience and not only learning history but to see the promise of South Africa's future. Everything is developing rapidly and there is a hope for a better future.

South Africa has a beautiful nature. During our Excursion in Cederberg I saw the most spectacular rock formations with an unforgettable sunset with a brilliant colour combination of blue, pink, purple and orange. I will never forget the moment when I swam through the waterfall on Elandspad and I looked up: I could see breathtaking sunrays through the water drops. We also visited Cape Point, the extreme southern tip of Africa where the view was incredible. I found that the Ocean is amazingly beautiful and  magnificent. When I surfed I could feel  its power and it remains a special moment for me to be on the top of the world.

The wildlife experience during the Garden Tour was fantastic with an elephant ride, croco cage diving, stroking different animals, bungee jumping and a safari tour.

The best aspects of this exchange was meeting new people and starting new friendships.  It is a nice feeling to meet local people and get to know them and their reasons for loving South Africa as much as they do. They have a big hart and a warm hospitality. My exchange was an amazing adventure and it is an experience for a lifetime. Now I can also thank for it in Afrikaans:

"Dankie aan almal vir hierdie wonderlike avontuur, vir hierdie fantastiese reis van 'n leefty"

Good bye South Africa!

The tenth week
 

After a lovely weekend together with my host family in Hermanus, my last week of exchange started on Monday. It was very quiet in school, because grade 8 and 9 students were on camp and for grade 10 a 6 days long outing was organized by Herschel. Actually we were invited to do it, but we did not join because we would have to be back on Thursday evening and we would only have Friday to pack our bags and say good bye to everybody. Our schedule was also different because some of the teachers were not in school and grade 11 students were busy starting to plan their big research essay. It is similar to a “profiel werkstuk” in Holland. So this Monday we had a great time together and we realized that the time of going back is getting closer and closer. We talked a lot about the last weeks, about the nice memories and we wrote good wishes on each other's flags.Tuesday after our normal school day I went to Cavendish with Tabs. I bought my last souvenirs there and we ate something together. This shopping centre became one of our favourite places, because it’s just a few minutes walking from school. Tuesday evening we had a nice supper at home and we chatted a lot. It was our last evening together, because Jeff was going on rugby tour and Paulie had a camp from Wednesday till Friday. Luckily Paulie is back before I am flying back to Holland. Wednesday we were ready around 12 o'clock in school and we went to the Waterfront together with Cemmie and Trini. This time Maxime could not join us because her mom arrived in Cape Town and they just wanted to do something together. I like that place so much! There are many little shops and restaurants with a beautiful view. We took a nice picture at the frame in the Waterfront.

 At the frame in the Waterfront with Cemmie and Trini.

 Beautiful vieuw at Waterfront

Thursday after school I went to Constantia Village and Montebello with Elise and Steff to buy  some nice handmade souvenirs. This lovely place is only a few minutes from our house.In the evening I packed my suitcases and printed out my boarding pass. I could hardly believe that Friday I am going home. Friday was our last school day at Herschel. We had to keep a speech in front of the whole school about our experience of our exchange. We also thanked everyone for our beautiful programs. After school we went to our favourite sushi box near our school with a whole group of friends. It was so nice to be together one last time, but it was also sad because I had to say good bye to them in the end. When we were all at home I gave my host family a photo book as a present and a thank-you for my exchange. They were really happy with it, looking at all the memories of last year. We went out for dinner to a cute little restaurant and got some frozen yoghurt after that before we drove to the airport.  



 With Steff and Paulie in the restaurant





The tenth weekend

This last weekend we went to Hermanus, a beautiful little town 2 hours driving from Cape Town! We stayed in Andries’ mom’s  house, which is on walking distance from the beach. I went together with Steff, Julien (Steff’s boyfriend), Paulie and Andries. As soon as we arrived we went to the beach for a swim. Hermanus is so gorgeous, such a pretty place! After our swim we went out for dinner in a nice little restaurant, where Phi’s dad, Gus, joined us. Back in the house we chatted for a while, but then we went to bed; Steff and I slept in bunk beds. The next morning we went to the beach again and had a good cold swim. After that Steff and Julien showed me the other beaches. When we got back to the house,  we quickly packed our stuff, looked around the town centre, had an ice cream and a drink and left to see Jeff’s rugby match. Rugby is a really cool sport to watch, but I’d definitely not want to participate! However, Jeff’s team played really well, they won the match! In the afternoon we went back to Cape Town to go to Matt’s (Steff’s friend) get together. Here I got the opportunity to say good bye to everyone who I wouldn’t see anymore during the week.

Weekend in Hermanus

On the beach in Hermanus

Beautiful beach of Hermanus
 

On Sunday Elise took me to Kalk Bay.  It is essentially a fishing village. It has still a lively working harbour and one of the best place to buy fish straight off the boat. We looked  around and we visited lots of shops to buy souvenirs for my family and friends. There were so many cool ‘Africa shops’! We also went to a little cafe for a coffee and a piece of cake. Kalk Bay beautiful harbour where we took some pictures. It is almost impossible to take a bad picture here.

Kalk Bay

 

The ninth week

On Monday I did not go to school because I got an invitation from Eugene's host Mom to climb Lion's  Head. It is a mountain in Cape Town between Table Mountain and Signal Hill. Lion's Head peaks at 669 metres above sea level.  It got his name because the pick looks like a proud lion looking at the city. It was quite heavy to climb up.  It was a little bit foggy but anyway the view from the top of Lion's Head was spectacular and I took great photo's of the Cape Peninsula and Robben Island.  At that moment on the top I thought this is the best view what I have ever seen in my life. I am very thankful for this unique excursion.

On top of the Lion's Head

In the evening we had tickets for a Show at Bishops Memorial Theater.  Bishops presented Herman Charles Bosman's play "Cold Stone Jung", directed by Wayne Tucker. It was a historical performance played in The Pretoria Central Prison.  Mitchel Christy, the exchange partner of Kian played the main role - the young teacher who is sentenced to death for murder. He played so extremely good that we had a feeling that we were with him at the prison.  Elise's nephew, James also played very well. It was an unforgettable show and incredibly high standard for a boys high school. This show will be played at the Festival in Edinburgh in August. On Tuesday Trini's host Mom organized a wonderful outing to Stellenbosch  and to Franschhoek. We visited at first The Stellenbosch Village Museum, where we could look around in four different houses: The Schreuderhuis / 1709/, Blettermanhuis / 1750/, Grosvenor House /1782/ and Omi Berghouse / 1850/. Each of these houses represents a different historical period of  Stellenbosch.  These houses have been restored and furnished and decorated to illustrate the style of the certain historical period.  We found a pleasant cafe next to the museum for a cold drank.

Fun together in Stellenbosch

Then we went to the Rupert Museum  which has a beautiful  location in the middle of a picturesque vineyards and next to the bank of Eersterivier.  It is a fine art gallery with paintings of the best South African artists such as: Maggie Laubser, Irma Stern, Walter Battiss. I liked these paintings very much. Some of the statues were also very interesting. Our next stop was in Franschhoek which is known as the most beautiful wine valley in the world.  It is a lovely place surrounded by mountains . It was settled by French refugees in 1688. They settled their farms  there and started wineries. The name "Franschhoek"  comes from the Dutch phrase "Fransche Hoek". The Dutch referred to the area as the "French corner" because of the significant number of French nationals living there. We passed by The Huguenot Monument which is situated  at the top end of Franschhoek. The memorial monument honours the history of the first settlers. It is also in a scenic setting with mountains in the background and gardens to the front. Beautiful and peaceful place. We had a nice lunch in this lovely village.  After lunch we walked around and we bought some little presents.

The Huguenot Monument

Wednesday I had a regular school day. In the evening we went to see the musical "Love Across the Universe". The music of the Beatles and the Vietnam War form the backdrop for the romance between an upper class American girl and a poor artist from Liverpool. This was a fantastic show!So much talent in Hershel!
Thursday I stayed all day at home because I had to catch up with RLW homeworks. Friday early morning Andries and Jeff left to Hermanus, beacuse Jeff had a rugby tournament there. I went to school with Steff but straight after school we headed to Hermanus. I was excited about this weekend, because this is my last weekend together with my host family.

The ninth weekend

 

After a very busy week finally I had a relaxed weekend. On Saturday I stayed in bed quite long, and when I woke up  already Elise's sister was here for lunch. It was again pleasant to chat with her. Then I watched a movie with Jeff and Steff.  In the evening Elise and Andries went to a birthday party. Steff had a party with her waterpolo team. All evening I was at home with Jeff and Paulie. So we watched a movie again. On Sunday we had a family lunch, so Elise’s parents and her brother came with his family. Again we had a nice braai and it was really nice to see everyone one last time, because I wouldn’t see them anymore before I’m going back. In the evening we went to a concert at Kirstenbosch. Short Straw, a band that quite a lot of people know here. They played a lot of amazing songs and with their simple melodies and catchy rhythms get the people to dance. We even went up to the front to dance there! One last time at Kirstenbosch, and it was wonderful. I am going to miss this fantastic atmosphere.

Short Straw at Kirsenbosch

 





Short Straw

 

 

 



Rain Spider

Rain Spider

We came home in the evening and we saw a huge spider above our head on the ceiling of the living room. I am generally scared of spiders and it happened earlier during my stay that a rain spider was in my bathroom but at that time Jeff was so kind to remove it. But this one was even bigger, at least 15 cm big. It was quite scary and nobody did anything. Jeff said very relaxed if it is tomorrow morning still there I remove it. Everybody was just sitting and chatting in the living room and they were not interested in this spider. But I was a little bit scared and everytime I looked where it is. If  it is not there tomorrow where it will be. In my room?

 

In South Africa it is called rain spider because these spiders come in out of the rain. The rain spider is dark brown and their bodies are smooth and plump. Their legs can span more than 7 cm and are hairy to boot. It is not poisonous and not dangerous at all but it can bite. The females can get aggressive while defending their eggs. In South Africa it is common to have these spiders move into your home just before the summer rains.  My advice is if you are scared of spiders please be prepared because it could give you a heart attack when you see them at first. But they are really harmless.

Afrikaans - the youngest language

My study book

 

I have a nice acquaintance, Marcel Bas. He studied linguistics in Leiden and his passion is Afrikaans, he even started his own website " De Roepstem".  Before my exchange he explained a few things about this language and it was very interesting. I was happy that In Herschel I could follow Afrikaans language lessons.

It is a daughter language of Dutch, but anyway different.  Afrikaans also known as the Cape Dutch and it belongs to the West Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family. It is spoken by 5 million people as a first language and by 10 million as a second language in South Africa. It is also spoken in Botswana , Lesotho, Namibia and Zambia.The name "Afrikaans" means African in Dutch. It was originally used by the Dutch settlers.  This language was considered a Dutch dialect until the beginning of 20th century. In 1925 was officially recognized to be a distinct language from Dutch. It has a rich vowel system with short and long vowels . The basic vocabulary of Afrikaans is Dutch in origin, but you can recognize the English and German effects. There are some Afrikaan words which sound very funny for us. When somebody looks a little bit gray in his face and says "Ik ben aardig", he doesn't want to express he is kind, but that he feels sick.  You could react by saying that he has to take a "blaaskans", which means he has to take some time to recover. You can travel in Africa by "Duimgooien", which means hitchhiking. But you also can hire your own "motorkar", but be careful for a "papwiel", which is a flat tire.     

It is quite interesting that " Afrikaans Language Monument" is built on a hill in Paarl, Western Cape Province. The structure is impressive and this is the only language monument in the world.   It shows  all languages that influenced Afrikaans. It is a great symbolism of growth and development of the Afrikaans language. People are very proud of it.

 

Afrikaans Language Monument

 

Eating and drinking in South Africa

The beer is the national drink

 South Africa is one of the world's top ten winemaking countries by volume but beer is the national drink. "Casle Lager" is the most popular beer and it produced by SABMiller. This is the largest brewing company of the world. Hansa Pilsner is one of South Africa's oldest popular beer brand. During my stay I heard more about the wines than beers, because our house is in Constantia. "Groot Constantia" is South Africa's oldest wine producing estate and it is world famous because of its top wines. The farm of "Constantia" was established in 1685 by Simon van der Stel. He was the first governor of Cape. In the 18-th century the sweet wines of Constantia received international acclaim for their superior quality. Almost all of South Africa's vineyards are located in the province of the Western Cape. The climate and the soil is perfect for the vineyards. The best white vines are: Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc, Sauvignon  Blanc and the best red vines are: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Pinot Noir. In the XX-th century the vine industry had some difficulties, because of the Apartheid Regime. During this regime were boycotts of South African products in protest against the Apartheid system. When the Apartheid was ended the world's export market opened to South Africa.

Top wines

The African kitchen is quite diverse with many of influences from all over the world. But the  "braai" is tipical South African and the Afrikaans folk are very proud of it.  The word "braai" is Afrikaans for "barbecue" or "roast". The traditions of the braai is different from the barbeque, however the method of the food preparation is very similar.  A braai is a social occasion that has specific traditions and social norms. Families and friends like to be together outside. The standard braai meats include sosaties /kebabs/, chops, sausage /boereworst/, steaks and chicken pieces. It is really amazing how many different nice quality meat are prepared. It is common for the man to braai the food, while standing around the fire with cold beers. The women prepares salads, breads. If the food is ready the people can serve themselves. It is a buffet style. It has a special atmosphere. People come together to talk, to dance, to chill, to have fun. If you are in South Africa you definitely should try it to understand a part of their culture.

Traditional braai in South Africa

The eighth week

 

Monday  was a different school day because we went to Bishops boys school for a day. The official name of the school is Bishops Diocesan College and it was established in 1849 by the Bishop of Cape Town. It is located in Rondebosch  and the school territory is extremely large, with many different sport fields, swimming pools, beautiful buildings and boarding houses.  First we went to a chapel service, which was almost an hour. It was amusing when hundreds of boys are singing. The organ was quite loud, their voices were deep and  I enjoyed listening to them.  After chapel Mr Court paired me with one of the boys from grade 11 - Sean.  We visited some lessons and I found it quite interesting. We had lunch at the boarding house. It was really cool. I wish that we had something like that in the Netherlands. We walked around the campus and I was amazed how many different sport fields they have and how beautiful the park is around the school. It was interesting to experience a complete different school as we are used to. 


Bishops Chapel

 

Rugby field

 

Tuesday I just had my normal school day. During consumer studies we learned how to make a bread. I am sure that I’ll make this at home for my family. Of course I also had "Afrikaans". I love these language lessons so much.

On Wednesday all exchange students from Herschel went off to explore some more of Cape Town on a "Hop On, Hop Off" bus. We started our tour at the Waterfront. It was funny to see the city from a little higher point of view. We were on the top of a double decker open bus. First we visited the District Six Museum which shows the history of this area of Cape Town. After WW II this region was a cosmopolitan district. On 11 February 1966, the government declared District Six a "WHITE ONLY" area. More than 60000 people were removed from their homes. It is an interactive museum where you really get the feeling that you live in that area. It was sad to face the damage of the Apartheid Regime. After that we visited the oldest building of South Africa - The Castle of Good Hope.  This star shaped fort was built in the 17th century by Jan van Riebeeck and the Dutch East India Company.  The five bastions of the Castle are named after Dutch Royals: Orange, Nassau, Catzenellenbogen, Leerdam and Buuren. The main function of this fort was to support and protect the Dutch spice trade with the East Indies.

District Six Museum

The Castle of Good Hope

After this tour we had lunch at Camps Bay. It was so nice to be there with all the exchange girls. Around half past two we had to be back at Herschel, because we went to support the waterpolo teams at “Waller Cup” at the Newlands Pool. The Waller Cup is an annual waterpolo event where all the best school teams in the Western Cape compete against each other. It was fantastic that a part of the school was there to support its teams.

On Thursday I did not go to school, because surfing at Muizenberg beach was organized for all exchange students of Herschel and Bishops. This was actually the last program together, because Sunday half of the Chilean students were going home. I loved this program so much. There were amazing waves and I could stand up on the surfboard quite a few times. It is such an awesome feeling to be on top of the waves. Once everyone was tired we had a nice lunch on the beach.

In the evening we had a "winter program" in the hottest summer in Cape Town. Maarten invited all exchanges for an hour of ice skating at an indoor rink at the + 66 Grand West Casino. The place looked exactly like the indoor ice skate rink at Polus Center in Budapest. It was fun but we were not very well prepared. No gloves! It was disco ice skating, so there were coloured lights everywhere.

Friday morning we had a normal school day but everybody was very excited because of the Matric Dance. This Matric Farewell is one of the most exciting events in the high school students life. A fantastic dinner and dance party is organized for the 12 grades students. I signed up together with the other girls to waitress at this dance. All afternoon we were busy with a waitressing training. We had to take our job seriously to make it an amazing night. It was even not allowed for us to dance or even to speak with the 12 grades students or their dates, though it happened anyway, because they started talking to us. We were wearing black clothes and we had flower crowns in our hair. It was quite tiring but I enjoyed it very much.
Especially the beginning was so special, when the girls arrived in their beautiful dresses and with their dates. One couple arrived in a red Ferrari, while others came in a tuk-tuk or a couch or even an ice cream car! They were beautiful and looked so happy. This was a "once in life time" event for the 12 grades students. It was a wonderful experience for me to be there .

Matric Dance

 

 

 

The eighth weekend

Naked Bike Ride

 

After Vicente’s party I slept till eleven o'clock in the morning. When I awoke I heard that I missed The Cape Town Naked Bike Ride. I thought this was a joke, but it wasn’t. Every year this event is organised in Cape Town. The message is that cycling should be safer and people should use it as an alternative transport for a cleaner air. Some people are completely naked, some of them has something on and some of them paint their bodies. They used not only bicycles but also skateboards. This way they want to get attention for environment issues. I really respect them! After my late breakfast Cemmie came to pick me up and we went to the Hout Bay Market together with Agnes, Anto, Pia and Trini. You can buy anything in Hout Bay. I believe that more than 150 traders are there with their products. Plus everything is much cheaper than in the Netherlands. We walked around and ate something. It was a great afternoon with nice weather and a beautiful view in the harbour.

On Saturday evening all Dutch exchange students were invited by Ziyaad, Maarten's exchange partner. He just moved into a new house and the view from there was fantastic.  We had a traditional braai. It was a lot and extremely delicious. We had fun together!

 

On Sunday the biggest city road race in the world was organised in Cape Town. More than 35000 cyclist joined the race. This year the race was announced as the "Show You Care Solidarity Ride" in honour of the fire fighters.  It would have been nice to see this but we had guests. Elise's parents arrived from Johannesburg and her sister’s family came. We went to Cape Point Vineyard together for a picnic.  This beautiful vineyard is situated on the slopes of the Noordhoek Amphitheather. We had a relaxed picnic with a lot of fun and the view was absolutely breathtaking!  When we drove home we also could see how big damage the fire had made in a beautiful nature area.

Cape Point Vineyard

 

The seventh week

 

After my fantastic weekend with white sharks,  Monday I went to school and I followed my regular lessons. In the afternoon I had music assemble. I was happy that I could finally play on my flute. I miss my Dutch orchestra a lot. Yesterday a wildfire started  at the mountains and at Hout bay.  There are quite some fires, because the fynbos vegetation  requires regular burning for  its persistence. But it seems  this fire is more extreme than usual. When we went home we could see the fire is spreading across the mountains and everywhere were large grey smoke clouds.  You could hear continuously helicopters which are carrying water bombs.  In the evening the wind direction changed and all the smoke came over Constantia, where we live. It was a very strong smoke, you could even smell it inside the house.
 

Cape Point

 Tuesday we went on an excursion with grade 9 of Bishops (Jeff’s grade). We visited Cape point. Our bus drove through the area of the wildfire. It was scary to experience this huge fire from so close. Cape Point is the southmost point of Africa and it was about one hour drive from Cape Town.  I heard  that this is the point where the cold Atlantic Ocean and the warm Indian Ocean meet.  This theory not exactly correct, because the geographic meeting point of the two oceans is 150 km further to the South-East, but that doesn’t really matter. The Cape Point has a spectacular view! Geographically it is an interesting point and it has a colourful history.  There are different kinds of rocks  as Bellows Rock and Albatross Rock. It is fantastic to see but it is very dangerous for  boats. That is the reason that the light of the lighthouse of Cape Town  is the most powerful . Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias was the first to round the Cape Peninsula in 1488. He called this place: “Cape of Storms” because of strange, rapidly changing weather.  But later this name was changed to “ Cape of Good Hope”. Vasco da Gama navigated his sailing boat along the coast of Africa and he opened a new trading route for Europe with the Far East.  We could see its beautiful beach, where was not possible to swim because the water was extremely cold  and apparently it was really dangerous. It was a very interesting and beautiful day, but we were completely exhausted, because it was 43 degrees. Cape Town was the hottest city in the world that day!


Beautiful beach at Cape Point

Luckily on Wednesday it was much cooler, but 35 degree was still a hot summer temperature.  The fire-fighters were still working on the fire day and night. Some area’s around Hout bay had been evacuated. A girl from school had to leave her house in the middle of the night. 

Thursday after school we went home and we had an early supper.  At 9 pm we went to the “Moonlight Mass Night Cycle”.  This was organised at full moon and the aim is to raise awareness for cycling in Cape Town as alternative transport and to reduce air pollution. We cycled about 12 km in an hour. It was a great experience to do it together for cleaner air in town. Steff, Julien, Agnes, Anto, Pia, Vicente and Theuns were also there. It was a lot of fun together.

“Moonlight Mass Night Cycle”. 

Friday after school I had a nice afternoon with Maxime in Cavendish. We did some shopping and we ate something there.  Friday evening we were invited by Julien . He organized a farewell party for his exchange student, Vicente, but it was also a goodbye to Anto and Pia. It was a great party with some pizza and we had fun together. We could hardly believe that time flies so fast. Most of the Chilean exchange students were busy packing their bags .  We promised each other to keep a touch by facebook, whatsapp etc.  We had eight fantastic weeks together and probably this is a start for new friendships for a lifetime.     

Nelson Mandela - one of the most respected person in the world

I know that my blog is not a history book but the last few weeks I visited different Townships. I was in Johannesburg where Nelson Mandela lived. I got an impression what does it mean to be NON WHITE during my visit in the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg. I saw the prison on Robben Island where our tour guide was a former prisoner. He gave us a real picture about political prisoners life during Apartheid Regime. I enjoyed my stay in the beautiful Stellenbosch, which has an ugly historical background because it is the birthplace of the segregation as known APARTHEID. It is very interesting and very sad part of the history of South Africa. After this experience I look at the life through different eyes and I feel like that I have to share this interesting historical part on my blog.

Apart areas

Hendrik Verwoerd was born in Amsterdam en grew up in South Africa. He was an excellent student and he became a professor of psychology at University of Stellenbosch. He is also called as the "Architect of Apartheid". He had the main role defining the apartheid policy. Apartheid is an "Afrikaan" word which means "apartness". The whole world took over this word without translation for the ideology of racial segregation. In South Africa it became government policy in 1948. It separates white from natives, coloureds and Asians, in every area of life.

Anti Apartheid Movements

After World War II the National Party got an important role in the Government between 1948 and 1994.Townships were created around big cities by the Apartheid Government. These are separated residential aresa for non-white people who were not permitted to live in the centre. From 1960 to 1983 3,5 million non white South Africans were removed from their homes and forced into segregated neighbourhoods. The townships were very poor where people built houses from garbage of piles. The people live here without the proper services such as sewage, clean water, electricity and good roads. The government made plenty of roles against human rights: prohibition of mix marriages, municipal grounds were reserved for the white people. They had different beaches, public transport, other entrances etc.

 

Bus stop for NON WHITES

Nelson Mandela was born 1918 in South Africa. His birth name was Rolihlahla. Nelson is his nickname which he got from a teacher in school. He studied in the University of Witwatersrand and he got his law degree. He became a leader in the African National Congress. He planned to bomb certain buildings, but only buildings. He did not want to hurt anyone, he only wanted to get attention. He was classified as a terrorist by the South African Government and sent to prison. He spent 18 years from the 27 in Robben Island. Because of Mandela's prison sentence, the anti-apartheid movement got a lot of international visibility. Mandela never gave up his ideology and he became the most famous prisoner of the world. Even the prison guards admired and respected him. He was released through international pressure in 1990. He continued his campaign to end apartheid, to achieve human rights and a better future for everyone in South Africa. He worked very hard for freedom. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for peace in 1993. When all races were allowed to vote first time in the 1994 election, Mandela won the election and became president of South Africa. Nelson Mandela is one of the most respected people in the world for his courage and wisdom in bringing people together to live in peace. He was during all his life fighting against apartheid and he became a symbol of the injustice of apartheid. When he was president he focused on building peace and unity in South Africa. I most like this quote of Nelson Mandela because he never gave up his dreams and ideology:

"During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die. "

Nelson Mandela