For a few days, I felt like a sort of perpetual tourist. While my life has a side of ordinary; going to work everyday, spending evenings cooking, hanging out with friends, and selecting medical schools, my weekends, and self-selected days off are full of really fun Cape Town explorations and eating a lot of ridiculously amazing food ( I will dedicate another post to this, but Cape Town has, hands down, the most incredible food in the world. Period). And I know what you're thinking: what's wrong with that?
With this life, there is very little immersing myself in South Africa. My previous travel experiences, particularly Ghana, were so raw and so powerful. Ghana was dedicated solely to exploring the culture around me on every level of comfort (or often discomfort). I was able to see the complexity of history in the faces of everyday, and immerse myself in the hope of the future of the communities I encountered. Similarly was my experience working in Morro do Urubu (a favela outside Rio de Janeiro). Even as an obvious foreigner, I never felt like a tourist. I hate tourists. Although tourism is complex and dynamic, it can do a lot for foreign growing economies, it's also an exploitation, and it always will be.
As Jamaica Kincaid once wrote, "A tourist is an ugly human being". And it's very true, and we all have been. We seek to escape our nice lives, comfortable homes, families and friends, because our ordinary is somehow so taxing, and we need to 'get away'. We go to some foreign land, even when we don't even leave the nation, some beautiful location for pleasure, we shake off and ignore the discomfort of poverty slipping into our holiday, the homeless child picking up your soda cans, the street food vendor with six children, the poorly paid waiters, hotel housekeepers, taxi drivers. We sulk at rain and hope for shiny non-stop sun for the days we are there, without it crossing our mind what it may mean for a person that lives there, whose livelihood may depend on the few drops of rain. We bargain every dollar down on a price at the market, knowing that that dollar will feed a family, or pay for a school uniform, but instead we feel entitled to fight for our vacation dollar. With our need to 'get away' we become ugly people.
"Every native of every place is a potential tourist, and every tourist is a native of somewhere... Every native would like to find away out, every native would like a rest, every native would like a tour. But some natives- most natives in the world- cannot go anywhere. They are too poor. They are too poor to go anywhere. They are too poor to escape the reality of their lives; and they are too poor to live properly in the place where they live, which is the very place you, the tourist, want to go- so, when the natives see you, the tourist, they envy you, they envy your ability to leave your own banality and boredom, they envy your ability to turn their own banality and boredom into a source of pleasure for yourself." - From A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid
That is what I hate about tourism. Of course, I am not saying that all tourism is awful, that we are bad people everyday, but for most of us that have ever taken a vacation, there is an ugliness to it. Having been blessed with so many experiences abroad, I am always tangibly aware of this, I try to make my travels meaningful and immersive, and not just a series of photo opportunities. And so so many touristy activities, living on a nice university campus with wifi,electricity and running water, in the middle of a developing nation, is undoubtedly uncomfortable.
However, this is not my previous travel experiences, this is no study abroad, or personal trip, this is my job. I am exceedingly blessed to have it.
The week before last, we had a grueling productive day at work and decided to take the next day off (the beauty of making your own schedule =) to explore the city center (which was more like getting distracted with all the shops that we never made it into the museums). As I sat in a balcony with a drink overlooking the lively scene of Long Street during the day, I had one of those moments of intense gratitude and peace.
I had a realization of just how much I've grown through my travels, how incredibly hard I have worked for the last four years in college, and how lucky I am to be here, all expenses paid. I am free to enjoy this experience to the fullest, to relax and explore, to learn and learn and learn and enjoy what will probably be one of the last times of relative calm in my life. I know that I will soon be in the books again for the MCAT, extra classes, and then to sign away the rest of my life to medicine, an incredible sacrifice and a whole other journey I will never come back from.
No matter where I go away from home, I will always be a tourist (at least in some respects) and that's the truth. I will never really be from there and will always enjoy the comfort of earning in dollars, and an end date to return 'home'. However, just because my time here in South Africa has constraints, doesn't mean I become an ugly tourist. That enjoying the free time I have exploring the beauty and opportunities of Cape Town, having a lot of fun with new friends, doesn't make me a terrible person. And that I am far far far from being an ugly tourist, the simple reason that I am so reflective and aware of my impact and role in this city has shown me that, I am no tourist, at least not an 'ugly' one.
Although I can't be more a part of a community, I am taking so much away from Cape Town than pictures. This is a different experience than my previous travels, and I am making the best of it. I have great friends that make our weekend adventures much more than touristy stuff. Even in my limited contact, I have met Capetonians, learned a lot about the raw reality of life post-apartheid, and have made sure my stay here is reflective and respectful.
And so, I have come to terms with this life of non-ugly tourism, and let myself just be okay with all the great experiences I'm having, I have earned them. And like all other blessings in my life, I will try my best to 'pay it forward', make the best of my time here, and continuously share everything I take, never lose sight of my incredible privilege and the responsibility that comes with it.
On that note, what have I been doing? Pictures are always better than words.
Petting Joseph the Cheetah
This was a pretty awesome experience. We visited the Cheetah Outreach located in the out of the city. They do incredible work. The Cheetah Outreach is an education and
community-based program created to raise awareness of the plight of
the cheetah and to campaign for its survival. They are partnered around the world, offering environmental education and workshops, do a lot of training of farmers to reduce conflict between them and predators, and hand-rears cubs to be ambassadors of the species.
We got to meet Joseph, who is a pretty old cat and is actually a movie star cat who has met quite a bit of celebrities including Arnold Schwarzenegger, Haley Berry, Snoop Dog, Bill Clinton, and now us =) He's like a big kitty cat, who would just purr as we petted him, but so majestic and awe inspiring.
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| You are only allowed to pet them in their back and sides, their ears, paws, tails and belly are quite ticklish, so they are considered their private parts. |
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| They have over 2,000 spots! |
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| You always have to be squatting with at least one knee up, ready to move back in case he decides to stand up. |
Penguins!!!
aka: the greatest creature in the world =) =) =) We visited Boulder's Beach, home to a colony of African Penguins, another endangered species. These little guys are so absolutely adorable it just makes your heart happy. They roam free and sometimes come up to you, but you can't touch them, they do and will bite.
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| Boulder's Beach is pretty beautiful itself |
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| Baby! |
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| Look at the moulting one, right there in the center bottom. African Penguins molt once a year and lose their water-proof plumage for another one. The process takes 3-4 weeks in which they cannot enter the water, thus can't eat. So they fatten up and fast for around 21 days until their new plumage is ready. On the right you can also see some baby penguins growing their adult plumage. |
Watch this adorable video:
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| Nap time |
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| Sneaky little guys... |
Scenic Detours
We decided to rent a car for the weekend, unfortunately Cape Town has no reliable form of public transportation and Hopkins does not let us ride the public taxis (mini vans) that are available. A whole lot of craziness ensued in driving on the opposite side of the car and the road, but we managed to make it everywhere safely. We did however get lost a lot, and once make wrong turns onto highways that are going up a mountain, there isn't exactly an exit. So we did a lot of detours, beautiful detours on our way to Cape Point.
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| Baboons decided to come out and take over the road. |
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| This is actually the Cape of Good Hope, it's the southwestern most tip of the African continent. The incredible hike up was so worth it. Looking over the vastness of two oceans, it leaves one breathless. |
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| Another mountain road, this time during sunset. |
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| We were trying to watch the sunset, but this very awesome cloud was covering it. |
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| This is Devil's Peak. The folk-tale behind its name is of a man who challenged the devil to smoking contest. Although he won, the smoke of their contest covered the mountain and today the "tablecloth" of Table Mountain originates at Devil's Peak and clouds carry over down the mountains to Table Mountain. |
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| Among the clouds |
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| Another mountain driving adventure |
Wine
Cape Town is home to some of the best winelands in the world. While I am no connoisseur, Capetonians are proud and knowledgeable of their wine, so while in Rome...
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| An awesome chandelier made of wine bottles |
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| Wine tasting at Spier, a beautiful wine estate founded in 1692. |
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| If you ask me what any of these are or what they tasted like, all I can say is wine. But hey, it was a good experience nonetheless. |
Nena, enjoy this experience, u deserve it. Please keep writing, I will keep reading to live it through ur experiences. Love u, Ili
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