Cape Town 17th May
The sounds of pop music blares from the bar's speakers downstairs, yet my small dorm room remains still, with only the bed I lie upon and a crazy old American (who would have thought??) from Louisiana the humble inhabitants on another night on the tip of the vast African continent. I dont think that the size really got to me until after arriving here on African soil; from far away, everything shrinks in size, becomes more accessible when being accessed through the fingertips on a foreign keyboard; sitting here now, pondering life, the journey has suddenly grown huge, daunting even; I try to keep my wits about me, to stick to my guns, to not be afraid of the unknown, despite my senses screaming “you're fucking insane!!” Its been a long day of walking, of adjusting, of pondering; up and down the hills of color, the labrynth of the City Bowl, downtown, the waterfront, peering back at Table Mountain, its rugged splendor, jagged rocks calling me to climb. I hitched a ride this morning with Jeff, who tracked me as I came through customs at the airport; normally on guard, I was disarmed by his easy candor and lack of bullshit; his client who was to be on the same flight pulled a no-show, and I gave him little more than gas money to take me back into town in his tiny red hatchback, telling him how I managed to get through immigration with no return ticket (make up a believable story and deadpan it to the immigration manager who pulls you out of line and grills you for 10 minutes, and ALWAYS be polite...sir goes a long way, all over the world; though for a few minutes I didnt think id be seeing more than the immigration lounge of South Africa's nicest airport-mental note-check immigration requirements MORE CLOSELY next time!). Jeff also informed me that tomorrow is the national election, of which I had no idea; it is almost certain that Jacob Zuma and the ruling ANC will be reelected, but there is growing discontent with his rule and his lack of delivery on so many promises in this “Rainbow Nation.” Of the rainbow, Jeff informed me that Cape Town is very much a “white run city” and thus, not subject to the copious issues of the other major cities if South Africa; even in its innocence, this comment did open my jet-lagged eyes to the truth of life here. Tomorrow, to figure out how to get to the Rocklands, do a bit of gym climbing at City Rock and try to meet some people to hitch up to the mountains with, or arrange a rental car to go it alone (though the costs of everything here are very high, completely even with NYC prices, the food is quite shit and the public transit is sorely lacking, three huge caveats for a poor traveler such as myself which will surely limit my ultimate amount of time here in South Africa). It amazes me how poorer South Africans can survive with the prices as high as they are-I am finding it a very tough adjustment coming from New York City, not the cheapest of places....
