Robben Island

Bonjour,

One of the most moving things we did in Cape Town was visit Robben Island, a UNESCO world heritage site just off the mainland. The longtime, early prison (starting in the 17th century), former leper colony (mid-19th through early 20th century), and later military training and defense center (1939-1945), the island is most famous as the prison that housed Nelson Mandela for 18 years (before he was transferred to a facility on the mainland), as well as other leaders of the anti-apartheid movement.

What is amazing about this place is that they took what otherwise would be a sad, terrible place and turned it into a place of hope. It didn't feel horrible there. It felt inspiring, a testament to the powers of reconciliation.

Tours of the prison are given by former political prisoners. You also get a bus tour to see other sites like the leper graveyard, island school and mine where all political prisoners worked in the hot sun (badly damaging their eyes). The pile of rocks at the mining site was made by former political prisoners, including Mandela.

Once in the prison building, you start in one of the two community rooms used by most prisoners (who had open windows, even in winter, with no blankets). One hundred prisoners squeezed into this room.

The discrimination against black Africans continued into prison life. Among other things, it affected the clothes they were given (unlike whites, they were allowed only short pants and t-shirts, no socks or shoes, even for the chilly wintertime), as well as their food rations. The second photo below was taken during a visit by the international Red Cross in the late 1960s. For the visit, prisoners, like Mandela (on left), were given clothes.

High-profile, influential political prisoners, like Mandela (or "Mandiba" as he is fondly called there), were usually kept separate from the rest of the population -- including violent offenders -- because they were too inspiring and converted even hardened criminals.

Mandela worked, studied and wrote throughout his imprisonment in his tiny cell (second photo below), and hid the draft of his book, The Long Walk to Freedom, in this garden he created (first photo below). The prison authorities found his manuscript and destroyed it, not realizing he had given a second copy to another prisoner just released.

While Nelson Mandela was released from the mainland prison in 1990, the last of the political prisoners were not released from Robben Island until 1991.

This is what they saw as they headed into the Capetown Harbor (at least before they saw their families and friends).

In 1993, Mandela and then-South African president, F.W. de Klerk, were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. One year later, Nelson Mandela was elected president.

After the Robben Island prison had been turned into a living museum, Mandela spoke:

“Today when I look at Robben Island, I see it as a celebration of the struggle and a symbol of the finest qualities of the human spirit, rather than as a monument to the brutal tyranny and oppression of apartheid. It is true that Robben Island was once a place of darkness, but out of that darkness has come a wonderful brightness, a light so powerful that it could not be hidden behind prison walls… '

Quite a man.

A bientot,

Kim

The Cape of Good Hope

Bonjour,

We had heard that many consider Cape Town, South Africa to be one of the most beautiful cities in the world. I thought that meant that the cityscape would be spectacular, super chic, and European feeling. Turns out, that's not what I think most people mean when they talk about the beauty of this place.

Compared with other parts of sub-Saharan Africa that we visited, it certainly feels European. And there are some nice buildings and excellent restaurants. But Cape Town wasn't what we expected.

The city has an edgy feel -- the lingering tension between black/white and rich/poor seemed obvious to us (and fairly understandable, given the history and extremes of rich and poor). I was more uneasy walking around there than I ever am in Morocco.

But Cape Town also has one of the most beautiful natural settings I have ever seen, along with spectacular shoreline along the Indian Ocean coast and even more so, the Atlantic Coast.

We spent our first full day there driving and hiking through the peninsula, first stopping at Boulders Beach to see the penguin colony with birds that summer in Antarctica and winter in South Africa.

Wait, that's not a bird...

We then stopped for a picnic lunch by a deserted beach that looked perfect.

But just as we were starting to eat and true to a few warnings posted, we attracted the attention of a troop of baboons. You won't be surprised to hear that I was a bit alarmist (or maybe not alarmist enough, as it turns out) when I noticed them about a block away, but Bob was a bit too casual. Shortly after we got up and started running to our car, the kids and I were surrounded by snarling baboons, and in my panic, I dropped our food. The largest baboon then parked himself only about 20 feet away and ate the entire bag of hand cut rosemary and sea salt potato chips while another scarfed down my roasted veggie/chevre pocket sandwich.

The whole thing was kind of harrowing, although they were really just after the food.

No photos of the nasty baboons.

After all of that excitement, the rest of the afternoon was uneventful (although we saw other baboons attack a French family trying to eat too). We hiked to the lighthouse at Cape Point, near where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans meet, and visited the Cape of Good Hope, the southwestern most part of Africa.

We saw some nicer wildlife.

We found a better beach to hike along and had the opportunity to take the obligatory beach pictures of the kids.

Finally, we drove back to the city as the sun was setting.


A bientot,

Kim

Slovenia

Bonjour,

Despite the date noted at top, it's really August 29th as I publish this post, and we've just returned to Morocco for the second half of Ramadan. We had lots of adventures in the weeks since my last post but very little internet access... so, to catch you up...

After saying farewell to the Karloffs in Trieste, we headed to Slovenia for a quick visit.

(Here's Sarah, demonstrating the perils of camera timers despite her speed).

Slovenia, which declared its independence from Yugoslavia in 1991, was not part of the nasty Croatian/Serbian/Bosnian war. Instead, based upon what we learned at the history museum, Slovenia defeated the Yugoslavian forces after a 10-day war in late June 1991.

In any case, it certainly didn’t feel as if there had been a recent war in the country. The Slovenians we met were friendly, open and appeared genuinely happy to have tourists (of which there were a fair number, largely European. Still must be to hard to compete when you are Italy’s next-door neighbor...).

We spent a night in Ljubljana, a charming, cozy-feeling capital city with a definite Slavic architectural style. I think you can probably figure out what the city's symbol is...

Since we seem to like to climb things, we headed up to the palace overlooking the historical center (well, Bob climbed. The kids and I took the funicular), and then climbed the tower to capture these views (and so Tommy could torment me by pretending to fall).

En route back to Italy (Venice) the next day, we visited an easily-defended castle of a 16^th century robber baron that had been built into a natural cave on a 100-meter cliff face (see also photo at top).

Then it was off to the airport and back to the African continent. This time, though, we headed to Africa's southernmost points...

A bientot,

Kim