Cape Town Day 4

A beautiful Cape Town summer day greeted us as we boarded the bus bright and early to be the first in line for the boat to take us to Robben Island. 

We learned interesting history of the island dating back to the 1600s as a refreshment station for the Dutch.  People with leprosy were sent there from 1846-1931. We saw the graveyard of the 1500 who perished there - the black lepers outside the fenced area of the white lepers. We parked beside the quarry where the prisoners, including Nelson Mandela, worked 8 hours a day, tediously moving limestone from point A to point B one day, only to move the same stones from point B to point A the next. With no protection for hands or eyes, Mandela and others literally lost the ability to shed tears as eye ducts clogged with dust. Nelson had his tear glands removed in 1990. 

The second half of our tour was led by Zozo, a political prisoner arrested for protesting as a college student diring the Soweto uprising in 1976. He spent five years there, so spoke from personal experience, of what prison life on the island entailed including the censoring of their letters, different clothing and food based on race to try to pit the prisoners against each other, torture for any straying from the rules, no beds, two showers week while wearing the same dirty clothes for seven, and no contact with the outside world.

We saw the cell that Nelson Mandela spent 18 of his 27 years in prison, the garden where he hid his manuscript, and learned of the tricks they used to communicate with each other, including writing in the sand  in a cave in the quarry that was intended to be used as a latrine. They named the cave, "the University of Life".

Zozo finished his tour welcoming us to thd cell he shared with 19 other inmates and by thanking all is us - the  international community for their sanctions, protests, letters, funds and prayers that made the difference in bringing them freedom and ending racial injustice in this rainbow nation. Several of our students were honored to be invited to have a picture taken with him.

We had a choppy ride back to the waterfront for a late lunch and shopping  in an upscale mall and local shops.

After a processing session late this afternoon we boarded the bus once again heading to Cape Town University for a wonderful vegetarian buffet dinner and a most delightful South African rendition of Scrooge by Lara Foot complete with an all-star cast and a full children's choir.  The performance certainly lived up to its billing: "performed in English and Afrikaans, the story is set in present day (Cape Town) and journeys back to the early 1900s. With music, comedy, drama, magic and a powerful message of the spirit of giving, Scrooge is poised to delight and entertain..."  

Indeed it did! We were so impressed with the beautiful voices of the lead actors and the children. While most of the punch lines delivered in Afrikaans were lost on us with no translation, we still enjoyed the clever re-telling of an ageless story. Scrooge was played by a beloved South African comedian who worked in some clever political jokes and references to the over zealous sign language interpreter and losing South African soccer team much to the amusement of the appreciative audience.

Once again Linda, our amazing program coordinator from the Center for Global Education, outdid herself by providing us with education and cultural opportunities that none of us are likely to forget.