Robben Island..

Friday was a short day at school - only 45 minutes in the morning! Since Tobi is not here, I invited Karen with me. We drove to Esangweni and picked up Mr. Nobatana, the teacher who had invited us to Robben Island. The ferry was supposed to leave from the Waterfront at 11, so we didn't have much time - I had to drive quite fast to get there on time! Luckily we made it! It took about 40 minutes by ferry from the Waterfront to Robben Island. It was very windy on the sea and the waves were huge - some people who stayed outside got soaking wet! The boat was jumping high on the waves and people were screaming..
When we got there, we had 3 hours to explore the island before our boat back.
We were lucky, because we got a personal tour of the island - all the others went in a big tourist group. Mr. Nobatana had been in prison there for 6 years. So, he knows many of the former inmates who are right now working as tour guides on the island. And so we got access to all areas!
The living conditions in the prison were appalling... The inmates slept on the concrete floor, they only had a thin matresses.. Beds were brought to the cells only in the 1980s. The cells were extremely small and besides the matress, there was hardly anything in there. The food was scarce and there were different meal plans for black and coloured inmates!! It is hard to imagine how people survived in that prison.
On our way back, the waves were so huge and the boat was jumping so much that people got seasick, including me..

When we drove back, Mr. Nobatana said that he had an appointment in town - he said that it would take only 10 - 15 minutes. We said we would wait for him. We waited for one hour and he still didn't show up.. And I didn't have his number either. So we left.. I feel really bad about this.. I have to find him now and ask about it..

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I finally found a place to go jogging - the UCT (University of Cape Town) stadium! It's about 5 minutes by car from our place. I've been there two days already and probably going again today..
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On Saturday, the weather was quite nice. So we went to Camps Bay to watch the sunset. But we couldn't enjoy the sunset because it became really cold.. and for another reason - there are people there who want to sell things or just ask for money and since they realized that we are not locals, they all came to us! They were mainly selling small figures and keyholders made out of beads. It was really getting annoying. One guy even scared us a bit - I had bought a small bread and placed it next to me - the guy approached us from the back and suddenly yelled: "Give it to me now! I'm hungry!" - I didn't give him the bread and he didn't go away either - until some locals, who were sitting close to us told him to leave us alone.
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I'm reading Nelson Mandela's biography, "A Long Walk To Freedom" right now. It's very interesting. I really recommend it.

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Robben Island pictures here.

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I'm getting spam to my blog comments! I deleted these and hope that I won't receive any more...