Peaks and Bends and Dramatic Dips

I am in Cape Town. It is a land of tres expensive internet, thus a lack of posts. I am finding much that is curious here in Cape Town, and much that is beautiful. Because I am at heart a historian, I'll work this post chronologically. When I last wrote it was mainly of the flight. As Tanya can attest, I have a habit of giving great descriptions of my plane food but sometimes get too overwhelmed to give an adequate reflection of the actual place :)

Here goes...
Night one was characterised by being picked up by a driver from the airport (who held a card with my name on it!!) and being driven on mainly freeway back to the hotel. All was dark but my initial sense was one of slight discomfort. I noticed a lot of houses that looked like caged in compounds. The hotel itself was plush and the maitre de was there to welcome me. He was the campest boy ever and we did the mutual gay exchange of looks. I have never been so pleased to flop into a fluffy white bed and welcome the water of a warm shower. Frasier has proved to be an irreplaceable comfort and I have enjoyed watching Season 9 from the first night when I fell asleep after a couple of episodes.

I was picked up by Fuzzy the Driver for Day 1 in the office. He talked me through the town as we drove to the office and I was a little nervous. On this drive I got to see some of Cape Town's majesty for the first time and oh how beautiful it is! It has a mountain range right on the back of the city and right outside my hotel is the Atlantic Ocean. Although the weather was grey all the way up until today (although blue in parts) it has been warm enough not to need a jacket at all! Driving through the city I was struck by some of the sameness (chains like Caltex, McDonalds and Woolworths... oooh and the Amway building), but also by some of the amazing differences: So many black people. It's not a racist thing, but a complete land of difference. Here in Cape Town the residents freely talk about the Whites (English & European heritige ... lots of Dutch/German/Scandanavian backgrounds); the Coloured ("Cape Coloureds" - Cape Malay people who are decended from old Malay slaves apparently) and "The Blacks" who are northern Africans - by all accounts lots of people from Namibia & Kenya. To my untrained eyes I don't think I can always tell the difference between the "Coloureds" and the "Blacks". It pains me; sits so uncomfortably with me to even talk like this, but with a lack of other terms - and with the clash of cultures being more pronounced than I have ever seen it, I fail to know how to talk about it.

The things I saw on that first trip through town were: school kids who to me look like classic German kids with long socks, blonde hair in bowl cuts and blazers, bounding off down the streets with cricket bats (Oh Colonialism!); Coloured people in the middle of the traffic at every set of lights going up to the cars and trying to sell a range of things; Shops with their signs written in Afrikaans; People sleeping on the street; The new stadium for the World Cup 2010; The beach near my hotel which looks like the St Kilda Forshore; & a general lack of traffic - rather like driving through Geelong. It was so strange to be driven to work anyway, but at this point I started to see a trend: all the people who served me were Coloured or Black (besides Roy the Camp & Portly Maitre De).

At Oxford itself, the building is in a completely lockable compound. Fuzzy took me in and I met my 2 main hosts Leanne (the operations manager) and Matthew (IT manager). Both went out of their way from the get-go to introduce me to people, make me feel welcome and comfortable. I struggled through that first day with the accents. The range of accents there are huge - Sth Africa has 10 official languages with English and Afrikaans both compulsory at school and a range of other African languages including Xhosa and Zulu being spoken. It was a funny feeling walking into this building which is for one of the most Colonial of all organisations ever and seeing such a range of nationalities, colours, accents & languages. They must speak English at work (and they all do with perfect precision - if not a thick accent!). I was welcomed and given a desk (which has changed over the past few days).

The experience in the office during my time has been rich and I have felt much like an investigative journalist - with set times with people and a range of information I know they will be able to help me with, if only I ask the right questions. I have carried my leather Oxford compendium around like a 3rd limb and have filled a whole notepad cover to cover. I have met the Managing Director (I think definitely she bats for my team) and the Finance Director. They all know who I am and I am being treated a little like a young celebrity in the office with everyone being very willing to share their knowledge. In return I am trying to help where I can, and I think I have built some strong connections. I feel confident in that environment, particularly because nothing particularly is expected of me. I feel like I have made a good impression, which is nice.

So Day 1. Loads of meetings, at the end of the day my head was spinning. I was so weary that the evening involved doing ironing of all my work shirts for the rest of the week (a great idea in retrospect), hanging up my clothes and collapsing asleep before 9. I didn't even have dinner.

Day 2. I woke up @4.30. Sigh. Jet Lag... Morning messages were very nice and I got to watch a whole lot more Frasier. Niles proposed to Daphne... FINALLY (but I still have missed the series where they actually got it together. Must do that when I get home.
Another Buffet Breakfast. Completely lovely - my choices were: Bacon, Scrambled Eggs, Fried Eggs, Chipolata Sausages, Hash Browns (win), Baked Beans, Cold meats, salmon, Cheese Platter items, Crossaints, Danishes, Breads, Jams, Nutella (Win), WheatBix, Cornflakes, Muesli, Champagne, Juices of every variety, Fresh fruit, Stewed prunes, stewed apples, baked apples, wheat free everything, and a pot of tea or coffee. I like Breakfast :D

Leanne picked me up and we got a chance to chat. She's very lovely and I think we actually may stay in touch. Work was busy as expected but good. The afternoon though was fabulous. There was a planned trip up the cable car to Table Mountain, but the weather was so bad that it was impossible. Instead, Leanne and I went sightseeing. She took me to a lookout on one of the mountains where we visited the memorial for Cecil Rhodes. It was so high we got a great view over the town. The memorial is in the middle of the Table Mountain National Park where apparently Baboons roam (but I didn't see any) and so do Zebras. I saw some!! eeeek. But not close enough for photos sadly.
We enjoyed Milk Tart (a Sth African dessert that tastes like a tart made from ground rice and vanilla ... ooh so yummy) and a lovely chat. Just when i thought my sightseeing was at an end she announced that we could take the Long Trip or the Moderate Trip. She then drove me all around the cape and we went to Chapmans Peak. This is like one big long Great Ocean Road less than half an hour from the middle of Cape Town! I was like a pig in poo taking in all the scenery. She was generous in letting me stop for pics and she seemed to enjoy it as much as I did. We also stopped at a little fishing village where I saw fur seals in the wild feasting on fish - right off the pier!! I was so chuffed.

I ended up getting back about 7 and went for dinner in the hotel. Although it was strange to eat at such a seriously fancy place alone, the food was great and the wine was simply amazing. South African wine is beautiful and I could be converted for life. I had an eggplant dish and in between courses they brought me steaming sorbet. I enjoyed writing out some postcards to those dearest to me and just having a spoiling kinda dinner.

Yesterday was a great day too. I got a bit of time at work to do some writing up (very needed) and met some more lovely people including a woman I email for work a bit. Always good to have a face to the name. It was a good afternoon too with some seriously enjoyable time just bumming in the hotel. We had dinner out too, at the V & A Waterfront. It's a really touristy Darling Harbour type place and the dinner was ok. The MD came out for dinner too - there were 5 of us, but it was a bit awkward I think because of some of their internal politics. But I still enjoyed and Leanne took me out afterwards just to show me some of the city at night. Its such a pretty place, but so disjointed with the racial groups. I havent been to a place that has 2 languages that get used so interchangeably in a mix with other languages too. It's a vibrant blend.
I even got to try Skype last night and proved that it did in fact work. So good to have a friendly voice on the line.

My evenings have been seriously quiet - lots of Frasier and a big comfy bed. Room service comes twice daily. To make my bed and then later to turn down my covers and put a mint on the pillow. I feel like a total white supremist and it's a horrible feeling being waited on so obviously. I find it uncomfortable at the best of times but in a way that is so noticibly affected by racial tensions in the nation it's just hard at times. I make up for what feels so unfair by being talkative to the service staff, tipping when I can (cause the service industries work on a horribly low wage) and reminding myself that it feels more unjust because our exchange rate is so high comparative to the Rand. 1 Aussie Dollar is 10 ZAR today and to give you an example, I paid for lunch today for 3 people including drinks and side dishes for 150 Rand (and I tipped 20 Rand). That's pretty much 17 bucks for 3 people. Crazy.

I'm sure I have more things to say, but I feel like I'm rambling. I'm sitting here in the lounge of the hotel - very old Dutch colonial looking, with a hot chocolate and light jazz playing. The sun's gone down and I'm not sure what to do for tea. I think it may end up being room service cause I don't really want to go out alone.

I'm missing everyone at home but I'm proud because I'm coping and doing my best to enjoy every spice and snippet. I never expected to see the things I'm seeing and I really am lucky. Thanks for all understanding my big fraidy-cat-ness as I left on the adventure. I have moments where my tummy sinks and I wonder what on earth I'm doing so far from home, but work is a welcome distraction and I'm being a willing slave to the routine. On Saturday I have all day to do the tourist thing and I think that will be a bit more confronting, but I don't want to let an opportunity slide. Heck, it's just a day!

Love to you all & thanks for reading.
xx