whales for company

Monday night, I have to admit, I was a bit depressed with no Stephanie. No anyone left at the b&b. I even started feeling a little homesick, like I had overstayed my own time.

Today I can’t even imagine how I’m going to leave South Africa and return to not-so-real real life.

Today was probably my last visit to Khayelitsha, mostly taking place at Makatiso’s house for the tri-weekly Monkeybiz market day. I walked around our site and realized that (even though the only physical change we’ve seen on it is that someone recently stole the side door of the existing building) our project has come a long way in the eight weeks since I’ve been here. In the midst of finishing what looks to be the final drawing set for a consultant/contractor meeting on Friday, I see how important it was for us as a group and each individually to allow life here to soak in and affect our entire strategy. I’ll come back and articulate this better when I’m less tired.

I do know that returning to Khayelitsha after our ‘holiday week,’ I have a greater appreciation for its physical and cultural setting within this vast country. Joburg, Cape Aghalus (southern-most point of Africa), Aquila Game Reserve (safari), Stellenbosch (wine country), Cape of Good Hope, Fish Hoek caves behind our house…every place we traveled we were met with an incredible landscape, but moreover a completely different perspective and total way of life. A shabeen in Soweto with laid-back tour guides was more fun than a few bars with a jaded American in Melville; we’re still foreigners and we can still be giddy with other tourists when we see the two oceans meet (wait til you see Steph’s pictures); looking at animals was twenty times better because of how much our ranger loves her job and its location, but it still didn’t compare to sitting in the new Constitutional Court built with the remnants of a former political prison; Stellenbosch really could make you forget that anything else exists outside that little oasis of gorgeous country and beautiful young people; Cape Point reminds you that most tourists really don’t get to see much else outside these lovely bubbles; and—in contrast to all the understanding we’ve gained about the long struggle for equality of opportunity shared by the vast majority of the country—a dinner in Fish Hoek fully opened my eyes to the sudden difficulty, almost terror, people have had with forever losing their old way of life…even if that way of life was dependent on suppressing the basic human rights of other people. As a 21-year-old born and raised in Fish Hoek said, the townships simply didn’t exist in our world.

After breakfast today, before the rest of us headed to Khayelitsha, Barbara asked me as she got out of the car at the clinic if my time here has been a life-changing experience. I’m not sure exactly what I said in response, but I know the end answer was, yes. And I am looking forward to soaking up every last minute, even if and especially when watching the whales play off our shoreline from my desk.