South African Bus Stop

Two days ago we left Cape Town to travel up the coast on what is called "The Garden Route." Our first stop is a small town called Wilderness. It is a one stop light town built for summer homes and B&B's. We got here by taking the first class bus (like a greyhound) for 110 Rand (nearly 18 dollars). The bus was a lot like busses in the US only it stopped at KFC when the driver got hungry. And also, the driver drove righ pass the bus stop in Wilderness because he forgot we were going there and instead dropped us off on the side of the highway in the middle of nowhere at 10 PM.

We had to walk to a gas station where we asked if we could call a taxi. The people laughed and said no taxi's drive this late. So we asked a guy for a ride and he was glad to help out. We were lucky cause it would have been a 3 or 4 km hike in the dark, in the cold, and it was fairly difficult to find.

Backtracking... the people on the bus were very nice. One guy tried to get Nathan to flirt with a beautiful girl right next to him. It was hilarious. I sat next to a young girl that tought me some Zulu and also Xosa (sounds like "click" c/t osa).

We also met a young man named Donovan who had come from Tanzania in search of a better life. It broke my heart to talk to him. He came up to me with the brightest smile you have ever seen. He had this happiness and optimism in his eyes. I must have looked affable because he came right to me and introduced himself. He showed me how to give a proper handshake; around the thumb, the hand, and then snap your thumbs together. I showed him the fist pound and he seemed to like it. I asked him where he was going and he said to George, a tiny city about 5 hours outside of Cape Town, where he will hopefully find a shelter before dark. It was already very cold and hopefully he wouldn't have to stay outside before looking for work in the morning. He only had a raggy suit jacket to keep him warm. I don;t write all of this to make you feel sad, but it is an interesting story of the economic climate for many Africans in cape town. Many people stand on corners hoping for someone to pick them up for a days work. Somedays they get picked up, somedays not. The going rate is 100 Rand per day.

A bit more about cape town. There are so many different groups of people who speak so many different languages. Enlgish is a common language in that most people can speak some English but it is rarely the first language. Afrikaans is a type of Dutch that is spoken by most of the whites and colored( I'll explain later) people. And then there are a majority of the black people that speak either Xosa, Zulu, or dozens of other languages. On our bus ride we were the only white people on board. But the girl next to me spoke primarily Zulu. The driver spoke Xosa along with the majority. But many other people spoke other languages. The language barrier is very strange, it obviously causes divisions among the people.

Colored people are people of mixed blood. Either back from the colonial days or whenever, they are considered colored. Blacks are the full blooded African people.

Today we are off to the beaches of Wilderness. Pictures will come soon but just think of Malibu, without Mel Gibson driving drunk through the streets, and you will know where we are. In a few days we will hitch hike to Knysa, a slightly bigger town and check it out there for a few days. One final quickie: One of the guys that works at the backpackers dorm is a german with a crazy accent and an even crazier slang. Every sentence ends with "boo" which he uses like "dude." He is a surfer, if that helps....