Last Sunday was my first day in Africa. We stepped (or stumbled) off the plane at Cape Town International Airport at 11 in the morning after thirty hours of travel. The winter storms of Nova Scotia were behind us and the brilliant, scorching southern sun was above us. South African Airways was a pleasure after flying Air Canada. AC execs should try a few flights with SAA and take notes.
Any guide book for Cape Town will attempt to describe the disparity between rich and poor, and will probably advise visitors that disparity will present itself soon after leaving the airport. It does. The road to the city passes the township of Nyanga - corrugated iron shacks pressed into rows, baking in the heat.
I have only been here a few days and won’t pretend to know the first thing about South African culture or politics – apart from what I’ve read. I know apartheid is over but my first impression this that segregation, inequality, and division between black and white is not. We live in a predominantly white neighbourhood (and we’re white too). Yet ninety percent of the people building houses, tending lawns, fixing roads and checking groceries are black. Pedestrians are mostly black as are users of public transport. For me, it’s striking and leaves me a little less comfortable with who I am.
Whether my first impression will hold, and whether it’s representative of other parts of Cape Town remain to be seen. I really haven’t ventured very far.
On a brighter subject, the weather is lovely. Sunny, dry, hot in the day and cool at night. There’s always a wind blowing, picking up the dirt and weaving into clothes and hair. Reminds me of southern Saskatchewan in summer.
The fruit bears no resemblance to that in Canadian grocery stores. Jon ate an entire mango for lunch yesterday and Thomas is subsisting primarily on white grapes and yellow plums. Just as well because our furniture is still somewhere at sea. We been cooking one-pot meals, eating lots of muesli, and relishing the fruit.
I haven’t met many people, but those I have seem very friendly. It will take a while to fully comprehend the South African accent however. No doubt they say the same about me.



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