Adventures in Moshi: Cape Town: Table Mountain & Reflections

And my rambling continues...

Highlight #4 -- Table Mountain is impossible to miss from anywhere in Cape Town. I convinced Jeff, Sumera, and kids to go to Table Mountain (and skip part of FIGO -- but they weren't helpful sessions!). Even though it's billed to be a 2-3 hr moderately intense hike, ie totally doable, I was still SO sore from my Lion's Head hike a few days ago, and Alya and Ilyas had never been on a cable car -- so we cable car'ed up to the top, over 1,000 m tall. It is gorgeous up there, albeit cold -- granite and sandstone rock, amazing views of Cape Town and the Cape of Good Hope!!! That's right, I saw the southern most tip of the African continent!

See that tiny spot of land far away -- that's the Cape of Good Hope!

cable car!
Views from above...

The Twelve Apostles

flowers on Table Mountain

Greenpoint Stadium, from above...

We unfortunately were unable to go to the botanical gardens on the slopes of Table Mountain or take a ferry to Robben Island, where Mandela was imprisoned from ~1964 to 1990 (I think), but that just means I'll have to return to Cape Town... and this time, armed more knowledge about South African history. Being in Cape Town made me realize how little I know about apartheid and South Africa in general (let alone African history! At least I've finally *almost* learned all of the countries in Africa and where they belong on the map).

Table Mountain, as seen from the Cape Town Gardens...

Cape Town is such a European city, which is actually what I loved about it -- so many things to see and do besides shopping, the architecture is quite lovely, lots of little shops and distinctive neighborhoods in town (from the little I saw), good fashion sense, beautiful scenery and lots of outdoor activities ... it just felt like home in a way.

It's somewhat racially diverse, with some Indians and Malays in addition to the black and white population. But what's sad is that race and socioeconomic status segregate together, and it's clear that the majority of the wealth is centered in the white population. No wonder it's not the safest to walk around at night (anywhere in the city, which is quite sad), and especially not if you're clearly a foreigner! Although I will say, I think the safety issue was a bit overblown -- it was totally fine to walk alone in the day time!

The Market! ...with a random dude all dressed in eggs and feathers,
and a rotary phone!!

Actually, it was really interesting being in Cape Town and South Africa as I happened to be reading The Invisible Cure by Helen Epstein, a book on the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa that primarily contrasts the control of epidemics in Uganda and South Africa, especially in terms of governmental willingness to acknowledge HIV and investigate and recognize the factors driving the astronomical rates of spread. A quick sidebar -- apparently the HIV 'epidemic' started in the Kagera region of Tanzania, near the Uganda/Tanzanian border, around the time of the war when Idi Amin was trying to invade Tanzania (I think -- again, poor African history knowledge... and poor internet connection to check right now).

Anyway, she proposes that HIV spread(s) so much faster in Africa because of the sexual social network -- relationships here are more likely to be long-term and concurrent than serially monogamous. So although Africans are likely to have fewer partners in a lifetime, because they can occur concurrently and for some time (an accepted practice culturally), HIV spreads faster. It can seem a bit counterintuitive but actually it makes sense if you can imagine the diagram -- although this theory isn't wholly accepted by HIV experts.

The reason this is important and interesting at all is because in South Africa, sexual relationships have a particularly transactional nature. Women enter relationship partly to receive something tangible with value attached, in addition to gaining the social status of having a boyfriend, and are thus willing to compromise on his having more than one girlfriend even if they are unhappy about it. Because many women feel that this is their 'ticket' out of their current situation, generally one with no promising future, they often contribute sex to the relationship -- although it's not necessarily in the same way as prostitution. It's rather complex and I have so much more reading to do to fully understand it, but that's the basic idea. So you can imagine how quickly HIV spreads in such situations.

Reading this while being in Cape Town, I couldn't help thinking about South Africans in this light and wondering who had entered in these types of relationships -- and especially when men were hitting on me, I totally wondered if they had HIV, which I know is so bad, and how they perceived me--as the wealthy foreigner? as an unwitting female? as someone who would give them what they wanted?

On a more uplifting note, more pictures of the city...