Robben Island (a.k.a. Christmas in Cape Town pt. 2)

Note: This first intro was written by TED - not me: During our visit to Cape Town, we visited Robin Island. I did not see a single Robin. In fact, I did not see any Cardinals or Blue Jays (known accomplices of Robins). I did see a Penguin. Go figure...

Now, a more serious intro: Robben Island is just off the coast of Cape Town, in an Alkatraz-like manner. It has been home to a number of different types of things, most of them not good. The most famous is the prison where the apartheid govt. of South Africa imprisoned leaders and activists of the African National Congress. The most famous of these is of course Nelson Mandela. He spent 27 (or so) years there. The boat ride to the island is about 45 minutes long. We were on one of the boats they actually used to use to haul prisoners back and forth. After arriving, they take you on a quick bus ride around the whole island. You see the prison from the outside, as well as the mines where the prisoners worked. They worked digging limestone out of the side of a big hole every day. They were not allowed sunglasses, and the stone was so bright it was hard to look at for just a few minutes. Needless to say, it ruined the eyesight of many of the men, including Mandela.

Below is one of the more moving scenes from the island. Some years back, Mandela and many of the former "residents" of the island went back for a reunion of sorts. When they visited the mine, Mandela took a stone and dropped it on the ground, followed by the others. A makeshift memorial to so many years of pain and suffering.

Our tour guide is standing in the doorway in the pink shirt. He, and all the other tour guides, are all former "residents", which is the highlight of the experience as far as I am concerned. The room we are in here was his cell - that he shared with 30-40 other men. He talked about his experiences and how they continually worked to keep each other's spirits up and to undermine the prison authorities. One thing that stands out in my mind is that they all shared everything they had. The guards would try to divide them by allowing some more favors and books and such than others, but they were all so committed to each other that when one person got something, it became group property immediately. He referred to his fellow residents as "comrades". They also kept each other's spirits up by playing soccer. Our guide said his team was referred to as the "international squad" because they happened to have 2 men from Botswana and 1 man from Zimbabwe on the team.

All of the ANC leadership, including Mandela of course, were kept separate from the rank & file ANC members, in a (futile) effort to keep the ANC from continuing its work from inside the prison. Our guide said he saw Mandela once in the prison, and talked about how gracious Mandela was, he asked how our guide was doing and seeming genuinely concerned. Below is Mandela's cell - an individual cell in the maximum secuirty section of the prison. Unfortunately, you just had to file through and look at it quickly - not a lot of time to stand and reflect on it.

Below is the last room of the tour. Previously, it was the Study Room and Guard station for the Maximum Security portion of the prison. Mandela was able to write letters and read in this area for an hour a day during his confinement. It is now used to allow visitors to ask questions before the boat ride back.

Below is us with our guide. I hate that we never got his name. Ted would like to point out that he and Trey also met two other former prisoners when they had to walk through the prison to find a bathroom for Trey.

And, last and also least in this case: Ted's penguin. This one was hanging out inside the prison grounds. Not sure how it survives. I guess the penguin is sort of metaphorical now that I think about it.

It's Official: Centre for the Study of HIV & AIDS

Although the Fulbright award I applied for was to work at the Centre for the Study of HIV and AIDS (CSHA) at UB, the Centre was just getting off the ground over the past year, and had not officially been launched. After much work on the part of a large number of people, the Centre was launched last Friday. It was a nice big event in the library auditorium, with over 200 people in attendance. People in this country are very proud of their university, and they turn out to celebrate and honor its successes.

The Centre was developed with a great deal of support (intellectual and financial) from the University of Pennsylvania. U Penn has a major AIDS research center: The Center for AIDS Research (CFAR). The director of that Center - Dr. Jim Hoxie, is a physician who has been instrumental in helping Esther and UB develop the Centre here. He came all the way to Botswana just for the launch, and seemed genuinely delighted to have done so. U Penn and Baylor and Harvard all have medical research and direct service programs here in Botswana, but Penn seems to have the most direct relationship with the university. Their support of the Centre has been impressive to me.

The picture below is from the reception immediately following the formal speeches and such. It was nice - food and wine and my personal favorite: a marimba band. You can see the marimbas in the background. In case you were wondering, the fact that my shirt matches the tablecloths is not an accident. The director wanted the theme to be green, and told me to wear "that one green shirt that I have", so I did. I was surprised how precisely I matched...

With me is Dr. Charles Gossett, the other Fulbright who was appointed to the Centre this year. Charles is a political scientist from Cal Poly Pomona (California State Polytechnic - Pomona) - I think I got that right -sorry if I didn't, Charles. Charles also completed another Fulbright and taught at UB in the 1970s, when the University was just separating from Lesotho and Swaziland.

The CSHA banner in the middle shows the new UB logo at the top. It represents cattle (as valuable as money here), books/knowledge, and sorghum, a major crop. Can you make all that out in the abstract design? Random detail: the young woman standing up in the picture (in the orange top) was one of my students last semester.

The evening after the launch, the Centre Director, Dr. Esther Seloilwe, also hosted an informal reception at her home. It was a well-earned celebration for Esther, who worked incredibly hard to pull the launch off successfully. It was also, sadly, a goodbye party for Charles who was here on a six month Fulbright only. He is now traveling in Tanzania and Dubai before heading back home to California.

The kids adore Charles. He brought back nestle chocolate chips from a trip home to the states and made cookies with the kids - can't beat that!. Trey picks up the phone and has imaginary conversations with him. They will miss him a great deal.

The picture below is from the informal reception at Esther's place. From the left is Harriet Okatch, a chemistry professor and member of the CSHA management committee, followed by Charles. Next is Bagele Chilisa, a professor of education who has become a great colleague. She has a major (5 million dollar) NIH grant in conjunction with Penn to study HIV prevention among adolescents. She invited me to help her analyze some of the data and collaborate on an article for a local journal. That work sparked the idea for another article for a journal in the U.S. - we submitted a proposal for that one and hope to hear back in February. I am enjoying and learning a great deal from working with her.


Below is (at present) the entire staff of CSHA - From left to right is Charles (who is technically gone now, but I am choosing to not really accept that) followed by Esther Seloilwe (the Centre director). Esther is a nurse who got her Ph.D. at Univ. of California San Francisco. Coincidently, in one of those very small world experiences, my mother's cousin, Dr. Charlene Harrington, is a professor of nursing and sociology at UCSF and worked with Esther there. I think I was here about 2 months before I connected the dots on that. Anyway, next to Esther is Queen Seleka (I may be misspelling her last name) our dear secretary. Not a very big staff. U Penn has donated some money, to be matched by UB, for the hiring of a manager for the Centre - someone to oversee day-to-day operations. They have offered that position to someone, who hopefully will be joining us in March.

So, the Centre is off and running. Hooray! I am posting a link to the Centre's webpage on the right under the "Other Sites of Interest" column if you want to check it out.

Freedom for Hope

Ted here: Hope is free of her cast! It was cut away this week. Here are some pictures of the doctor's office and procedure.

They cleaned her leg up pretty well. They also did an x-ray. The doctor says she is not allowed to jump, run or participate in gym class for 30 days but she can walk and swim. After that, another check up and likely complete recovery.

To celebrate, we are going to a new water park in Gaborone this weekend. A water park in the middle of the desert... For Hope, it is certain to be better than our beach efforts in Cape Town:

Christmas in Cape Town - Part I.

Because the Christmas break here is also the summer end-of-the-school-year break, it is about 6 weeks long. Even in the extreme heat we were all getting cabin fever. Plus, without family or the other familiar surroundings of Christmas time, we decided it would be best to just get away. So, we spent 9 days in Cape Town, South Africa over the week of Christmas. Before we left a Muslim colleague of mine said that if a person didn't believe in God before visiting Cape Town, they certainly would after visiting Cape Town, because nothing as beautiful as Cape Town could have been created by accident.


It was beautiful, very beautiful. The contrast between Gaborone and Cape Town could not be greater. The coast, the mountains, the weather, the dense population (there are almost twice as many people in Cape Town as in the whole country of Botswana), the wide variety of activities... It was hands down the best vacation we have ever taken. Below is a sample of some of our favorite things.

1. The Victoria & Alfred Waterfront - a working shipping harbor that is also full of shopping, restaurants, and tourist attractions. Our hotel was very close, and we went several times. Below is Hope from the top of a ferris wheel, with the harbor in the background.


More activities at the Waterfront: Giant hamster-like balls that you get in and try to navigate through a large wading pool. Eden is in the middle one.

2. Cape Point. The very tip of the Western Cape, where the Indian and Atlantic oceans meet. This was a very beautiful and amazing place to visit. We took a cable car-type thing to the top of the cliff. The view is to the south, where the next land is Antartica. The drive down the peninsula to the point was quite interesting. As it got narrower and narrower, we could see the two oceans on either side of us. Check out the video below for Ted's demonstration of this effect.

There were signs all over the peninsula warning about the Chacma baboons. The signs said the baboons had become very skilled at stealing food from people, from parked cars, and from cars with the people in them (they could open car doors). We did see several of them. The baboon below is is sitting on top of one of the signs with a warning about the baboons. He did not steal our food.

The picture below just makes us laugh - for obvious reasons. (Look closely - Trey's mouth is covered in some unidentified food substance.)
3. The Beach at Simon's Town (Indian Ocean). Simon's Town is a port/base for the South African navy. It was a neat little town, sort of felt like we were on Cape Cod or something. The kids had a lot of fun exploring the rocky beach there - they found live starfish and sea anemones and such. There was also a groovy little Tibetan Tea House that overlooked the water, but I was not successful in convincing everyone else that it was worth some time away from the beach to check it out.

The other highlight of Simon's Town was the wild penguin colony. They are African Penguins, also known as black-footed penguins or jack-ass penguins. They are only found on the southwest coast of Africa. They created their own colony on the beach here in the 1980s. Since then, the town has dedicated some space to them and built some wooden walkways and staircases to allow people to get very close to them. They appear to be a very popular attraction.

The one below had strayed a bit far from the colony. It appears to be having fun playing hide-and-seek with Eden.

5. Kirstenbosch Gardens. This is a huge botanical gardens that is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. At the risk of repeating myself, this was an absolutely beautiful and amazing place. It had two outdoor restaurants and shops, along with lots of open spaces for picnicking, birthday parties, etc. It sits on the side of Table Mountain, making the views just stunning everywhere you looked.

Within the gardens there were several different gardens dedicated to different types of plants. My favorite was the "useful garden" where all the plants were useful as medicines and treatments or for other purposes. The bush below was in the "endangered and extinct species" garden - the concept is self-explanatory. The sign says this particular bush is extinct in the wild.

In the picture above, Trey is sitting on a fossilized Dadoxylon tree section. You could clearly make out the growth rings - they seemed much wider than modern trees. The nearby sign indicated the tree fossil was 200 - 300 million years old. Trey did not damage the specimin during our visit.

We had so much fun on this trip that my husband suggested we try to extend our stay by a few days. For any of you who know how hard my husband works, you will understand what a big deal it was for HIM to suggest we extend our vacation. Unfortunately, the travel agent was also on vacation, so we were not successful in extending our stay. But, it has quickly become one of our very favorite places - somehow we will have to arrange to come back some day.

There was actually much more to our trip than this - Christmas in Cape Town Part II is coming soon...