Cape Town

No, the picture isn't fake. That's me about to embark on one of my more stupid projects: my first ever abseil, over 100m of trouser soiling descent on a vertical rock face, more than a kilometre over Cape Town (at least the view was nice). I think I would have really enjoyed it, if I felt I knew what I was doing, or had some faith in the person holding my safety rope - and life - in his hands. But the people at the top were a bit too casual and 'whatever' for my liking. They gave me about 1 minute's instruction at the top, then said "you'll be fine" quite unconvincingly, and sent me over the top. I know I'm sounding like an old man, but is it really a good idea for the guy giving the demo to pretend his safety rope has failed (he thought it was hilarious)? Then, once I was over the side, I couldn't see either the person at the top or bottom any more - I just had to trust them. The least fun part was getting my foot stuck in a crack in the wall halfway down (OK, maybe it's quite funny now). The last bit was pretty cool - they had kept saying "enjoy the surprise" at the top, and the surprise was that about 2/3 of the way down I suddenly ran out of wall! So the rest of the way I was just lowered down, and got to sit back and enjoy the awesome view.

Cape Town is really a beautiful city. As well as the coastline there are 3 mountain slap bang in the middle of the city, so you can't really get away from the natural beauty. I can't imagine you could get bored of seeing them out of your window, and I think it must be difficult to be in a bad mood with such a view (although the last person I said that to replied "until you open the newspaper and read about the crime").

On Thursday I watched England beat the Czech Republic 8-0 in a World Cup football match. No, I wasn't dreaming - it was the Homeless World Cup, which was being held in Cape Town. I found it a bit of a weird concept. It must cost a lot of money to fly players from 48 countries to South Africa and I couldn't help wondering if the money could be better spent in other ways. Having said that, for the players involved it must be an incredible experience. It was good fun though, and I was pretty amazed by how skillful they were, considering the fact they were all homeless. I went back on Sat to watch the final, when Russia beat Kazhakstan 1-0.

On Friday I did a township tour, seeing the areas where most Black and Coloured people were forced to live and still live. The highlights were seeing a stall where sheeps heads were cooked and sold. A great bargain, less than 2 pounds each and enough to feed a family of 6! Also cheap - but not necessarily a good thing - was the local pub, which was in a little shack and where local men (the women run the pub but don't drink there) pay 50p to sit all day and drink as much home brew as they like. Helps explain why there's a big problem with alcoholism in South Africa. I found it interesting that during Apartheid, school children protested against being forced to learn Afrikaans at school by tearing down the pubs - complaining that their fathers were too busy drinking to stick up for them.

We also saw the shanty towns, and a 'hostel', where people who have just moved into the township live, three families in each small room. I was quite upset by other tourists in my group giving large amounts of money to beggars - which just encourages them to depend on tourists and handouts. Particularly upsetting was when they gave money to young kids. If a 4 year old is already learning to rely on handouts, what hope have they got of growing up to be independent and self sufficient? I don't want to sound ungenerous - some of the money we paid for the tour goes towards community projects, which is the right way to do it.

This evening I'm getting on a bus (22 hours - yay!) to Umtata, where I'll be picked up to go to Luzie Drift, a school in a rural mountain village. I'll be there for just over 2 weeks, teaching maths. I'm a little bit excited and also nervous - I've got no idea what to expect, and no idea what they expect from me. It's definitely going to be an experience. I probably won't be writing on here till I get back though, so you'll have to wait to hear how it goes!

(By the way, had a few people saying they're confused by how to leave comments. Click on the 'comments' link at the bottom of the post, then click select either 'other' or 'anonymous' so you don't need to log in)