Day 8 - A South African Cape Town “Top Down Day”

Optional Activities Day - 8:30am Pickup | Visit local Young Life Club in Cape Town, Hosted by Stha & Alexis, Hike Kirstenbosch Gardens & Boomslang, Local Lunch Out in Cape Town, Urban Exploring the Colorful Streets of Bo Kaap, to Historic Company Gardens, Enjoy a Special Private Braai Dinner at Twelve Apostles Hotel & Spa

Our Saturday in Cape Town began as the sun rose across the mountains slowly revealing the tans and yellow-orangish colors along the highest tier of sandstone which crown the Twelve Apostles. That color would soon dissipate as the soft rays of the morning sun gave way to the stronger sun of mid morning. Inside the hotel, our group was enjoying a delicious breakfast, both off the well appointed buffet, and off a varied menu. All across the dining room, excited conversations are taking place about the day ahead.

This morning Stha had arranged for us to visit and attend a Young Life Club in the Township of Gugulethu,. This Township sits east of downtown, right outside the main central city off the interstate quality highway heading to the airport and then north up to Pretoria and beyond. Our regular tour company will not enter the townships for liability reasons, so we arranged transport with a great local guiding service who took us to our destination.

It is hard to explain the Townships …… set up with the beginning of Apartheid, and home to millions of South Africans , living right next to nice middle class areas. The government funds all the expenses, including utilities, and people live in metal shacks next to other modest but respectable concrete block homes , many with architectural details like columns and door pediments. If you talk with ten people from this beautiful country, both white and black, you will get a different answer from each about this unique phenomenon…… and some quite surprising….. so I will trust my good sister Stha to answer these inquiries!

Our bus arrived at about 10 AM to the rec center, and we piled out. Like most property in South Aftica, it is surrounded by a fence, and has a security guard standing by the gate. Stha explains we are coming on a Saturday morning, because it is the safest time in the Townships, especially for international visitors like us. The local volunteer team greats us enthusiastically , and we immediately recognize several of the faces we saw leading the YL Camp at Simon Town earlier in the week. One by one, the kids arrive, smiles on nearly all their faces and happily greeting us.

Club starts in a large cavernous indoor gym, with some now familiar chants, followed by relay games and singing. Lutando and others get the crowd fired up ! Then the local leader shares a message around John 14:6, “I am the way the truth, and the life, no man comes to the father but by me. “ Then we are introduced to the group by name with clapping and shouting, and finally Kathy Virtue is asked to come forward and be recognized. She rises to the occasion…..yes, AGAIN, and delivers a strong testimony worthy of any YL Club anywhere. What a pro.

After goodbyes and hugs, we board our Toyota minibus, and head out of the township and head to the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens, once the home of Cecil Rhodes, one of the most controversial characters in all of South African history. Our tour guide, a lovely white South African of British descent glides through the history and focuses our group on the incredible variety of native and non-native flora and fauna in this magnificent place. Blessed with a Mediterranean climate….. as discussed earlier, the garden is a cacophony ( my $10 word for the day) of color, texture and shapes, which provide another experience around each bend in the garden ‘s many pathways. We see mature examples of the Cape’s original vegetataion, but then various collections of ferns, trees, succulents, flowers, pollinators and shrubs. It is Heaven to a gardener….. but alas, we have only an hour before heading to lunch at Groot Costancia, one of the oldest wineries in the Cape. I could spend several days here Wine with lunch has become a habit on this trip. It may prove hard giving that up

Like a group of Marathoners, we head back to the central city, taking a quick tour of the Fowntown market place, visit Drew’s and Alexis’ one-time hangout spot, the “Gorgeous George Hotel( just check out the pictures…. No explanatiom needed)”, and head out by Desmond Tutu’s Beautiful romanesque reveal Sandstone Anglican Church, then back to the pier, to join our 15 or so Young Life leaders on a sunset catamaran tour on the Cape Town harbor and Table Bay. Fired up with Alexis’ booming soundtrack - yes it included 5 or 6x inserts of Toto’s “Africa” . People sang, spontaneously dancing and enjoyed the time as the sky turned red then yellow/ orange withe sunset. As we turned back into the harbor, ears a little sore and the Cat’s speakers ready to blow out, the last remnants of late evening sun glow reminded me of the scene from the morning so long before…… to borrow a phrase from a favorite song by Young Life singing artist Alan Levi, where he reminisces about a favorite day driving his car, “It was a [definitely] a ‘Top Down Day’”.

Gratefully,

Babu