Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Greetings from Cape Town!

We are in Cape Town now, and it seems we will have no problem with fast Internet or downloading photos (although I'm not sure we'll have time to do it today).

We left Thika Monday afternoon and headed into Nairobi. We were dropped off at a house where other volunteers are staying, and then we took a bus into downtown Nairobi. It was weird to see so much diversity, especially so many white people. We went to the Nairobi Gallery to an exhibit called Kenya Burning. It was a photojournalism exhibit about the clashes last year after elections. We really wanted to see it because we had talked to people who had experienced it, and we had seen burnt out homes and IDP (Internally Displaced People) camps where victims are STILL living in tents because they were chased away from their homes. The exhibit was very graphic and hard to look at, but it was really moving. That night we went back to the house and met some of the other volunteers, including two guys from Kaysville...small world!

Tuesday morning, we caught a taxi at 5 am to the airport. We flew to Johannesburg, then Cape Town. I was pretty sick all day (worst cramps of my life), so it wasn't a fun flying day for me. Once we arrived in Cape Town, we got our rental car (VW Citi), and after a few wrong turns and an hour and a half, we found our hotel (The Fritz Hotel). We definitely miss Thika and Kenya as Cape Town is pretty much like San Francisco, rather than "Africa," but we must admit that it is nice to have a "real" shower, "real" bed, and fast internet. :)

3 comments:

Danette said...

lol - I'm sure it's strange having all the comforts of home again - but enjoy them :) The Kenya Burning thing sounds fascinating. Can't wait to hear more about it and more about your trip when you come visit Minnesota (which has all the comforts of home as well!). So glad you are having a good time!!

Robyn said...

Glad you're both doing well and having a great time - so excited to see some pics!

Enjoy Cape town!!!

Jon and Annalisa said...

That exhibit sounds interesting. I would like to know more. In classes we always talk about how when I guess Tanzania intervened that was the first successful application of R2P – but it wasn’t billed as such when it was taking place, just after the fact. Anyway, sad to see such ridiculous destruction – consequences of western ideologies forced on other peoples. Grrr.

I’m glad you’re back where you can shower regularly! Showers are my favorite!