Spring 2015- Day 77: South Africa
The leisurely morning I expected to have was a reality. I woke up when Kevin started making announcements. I showered, got some breakfast, and got in line to get off the ship when he called for it.
Immigration was easy, we didn't get the huge sticker in our passports like we did last time. I only had to sit for about 10 minutes before they called the ship clear and we were able to get back on.
I went to my room, got my art stuff and went to classroom two, where we were scheduled to meet. There was no one there. I walked to the classroom we normally had class in and no one was there as well.
Where was everyone? We were scheduled to meet 10 minutes ago.
I headed back towards classroom 2 and ran into another girl from my class who was also wondering where everyone was. She needed to grab something from her room so I agreed to not leave without her if people showed up in classroom two and she agreed not to leave without me if she found people elsewhere.
Eventually others gathered in classroom two, including my professor, who told me I needed to have a scarf to cover my head to enter a mosque. Annoyed, I went back to my room to get one.
We left the ship shortly after and piled onto a bus. On the way to our first destination we gossiped more about the scandal on ship. It was getting more and more elaborate but none of them discounted the story. It all seemed to be all about the how and not about the what.
The first place we went was the National Gallery of South Africa. They were just opening up when we got there even though the sign on the front of the building said that they opened at 10. It was a while past 10 and so it made it seem like they were opening just for us.
They also only had three exhibits open because they were under going renovations.
But I ended up not caring about the fact that the rest of the museum was closed. I ended up being completely enthralled with the exhibit they were featuring. It was a piece by William Kentridge called The Refusal of Time.
The installation consisted of five black and white films playing simultaneously on three walls of a large room. In the enter of a room sits an accordion-like automaton, which refers to a nineteenth-century Parisian attempt to regulate clocks by pumping air through tubes beneath the streets. Music is broadcast from all four corners of the room.
The video ran for 30 minutes and we first came in towards the end of it. Silhouettes seemed to be parading their way around the room, moving from one of the projections to the other. The music captured me right from the start. It was harsh, bold, and overwhelming, but in the most wonderful way.
I found a seat in the room and just sat and watched and listened. When it ended I was sad but sat and waited for it to begin again.
Halfway through it Grace came in and tried to call us away. Someone from the museum was going to tell us about the exhibits. I didn't want to leave because if I did then I would miss the middle part and we most likely wouldn't be at the museum by the time it started over.
I protested walking away but she insisted and I had to walk away.
Whatever the women told us was not worth it and as soon as she had finished I rushed right back to where I had been sitting. I probably would have sat in that room and listened and watched all day. I wish there was some place to buy the soundtrack because that was by far my favorite part.
Fiona and I decided that we should explore the rest of the museum. In the main hall of the museum there were three very strange statues. They were sitting in a row on the bench. They were humanoid, but they had deformed faces, with horns, and their spines were exploding from their backs. They were disturbing in a weirdly mesmerizing way. Art is weird.
The other exhibit was called Shared Skies. It was a collection of paintings and quilted pieces that were based off of and paired with South African creation myths. It was pretty cool. I enjoyed the exhibit, there were some really neat pieces and how they interpreted the myths through art.
We were supposed to do a sketch while we were at the museum but I didn't feel moved by anything enough to sketch it. Well, except for The Refusal of Time, but I didn't really feel like I could sketch anything from it in the moment. I just wanted to take it all in.
When we left the museum we headed for lunch. We ate at a restaurant in the Bo-Kaap district of South Africa. It is an area that is predominately Muslim and is known for its brightly colored buildings. It is in "upper Cape Town", which is more towards Table Mountain so it is higher up than the port area. The owner of the restaurant told us about the area and how Cape Town was colonized by the Dutch East India Trading Company. The building that the restaurant is in was the first school in the province. Afrikaans, the language, was created because of all the different people working together to settle the city. There was Chinese, Dutch, and English people. They created their own language by combining all their languages together. Well, that's the basic story behind it.
Our meal was a buffet and included some incredibly delicious juice, salad, and rice. It was too reminiscent of my meals in a Asia, I though by entering Africa I was done with rice and beans. Apparently not.
But it was still very delicious, and the caramel-y donut for desert was even better.
After lunch we walked amongst the colored buildings until we came to the oldest mosque in the city. It wasn't too impressive, it was just a building, which they were renovating a little. Our tour guide, Sam, stood and talked to us about Islam, which was extremely interesting. He said how language is the only thing that has torn the people of different religions apart. We all believe in the same God, we just call Him different names. Also, apparently those that are Islamic are required to know all three books, the Quran, the Torah, and the Bible. Islam is "a way of life in peace."
It was extremely fascinating. I love to learn about the people from other religions and how they feel about their own faith.
After the mosque we visited a Bo-Kaap museum that was all about the formation of that part of time. We didn't spend too much time there and there wasn't much to it. Only three rooms with a little bit of information that I can't even remember and didn't write down.
But Sam did tell me about fezzes and how they were important to them. It was interesting but I didn't write that down either so I can't remember the specifics.
Our last stop was a market of long street. It was a five story market. Our assignment was to do a sketch of something being sold in one of markets and then to present it to the shop owner as a gift.
I had no interest in doing the assignment because I felt really uncomfortable talking to the shop owners. I am a generally a pretty confident person but talking to random strangers brings out my shy side.
Fiona and I explored the stores, which sold all the same things. Time passed and the window to do my sketch got smaller. I really liked the walls of earrings that were in every shop. I picked a few pairs of earrings and did a sketch of them. I handed it to the women who owned that shop and she told me that it was too easy.
She told me that I picked something too easy to draw. So I told her to pick out something else for me to sketch. She chose a small statue of three women. It wasn't too hard to draw and I actually had fun doing it. While I was in the middle of sketching it her friend came up and made fun of her for making me do it again, saying that she wouldn't have been able to sketch something.
So when I was done with my drawing of the statue I told the woman to draw a doll. She made a wonderful drawing and we traded. It ended up being a really fun experience.
From the market we went right back to the ship. Grace debriefed us on the bus so that when we arrived to the ship we would be free.
The plan for the evening was unclear. We had plans to go out, South Africa was the place to party and we were going to take advantage of it.
I had scheduled an interview that could happen anytime between the hours of 7:30 and 9. Jessi had told me that they would wait for me and we would go out when I was done. So I went to my room and got half ready for the evening. Then I left Jessi a note on her door telling her where I was going to be and went upstairs with my phone and computer to sit outside and eat dinner.
About the time my dinner was over, around 7:15, Jessi emailed me saying that she had called my room a million times to tell me that they were leaving at 7:45.
I emailed back quickly, asking her what happened to waiting for me. She said that she couldn't control all of the other people but maybe she could come back and get me. I told her that sounded like it would work because I didn't want to travel in Cape Town by myself.
She emailed back and said that she didn't really feel like traveling back to the ship so I should just take the shuttle and meet them.
With that email I felt horrible, horrible feelings rise up inside of me. I was being left behind. My friends didn't care about me. I wasn't important enough to wait for. They left me behind. I was being left behind.
It had felt like a long time coming. I had felt unimportant and unwanted for a while now and this was just the cherry on top.
The tears weld up inside of me suddenly and uncontrollably. At that moment I needed to talk to someone who I knew would want to. So I called Josh and as soon as he picked up I burst into tears and sobbed. He told me that they better happy tears and I couldn't even answer him, it was like I had been holding in my tears for so long and now that they were loose they could not be stopped.
I think I barely made out what was wrong to Josh when the call dropped. I tried to call him back and it just went right to his voicemail. Before I could try again my phone started ringing.
My interview.
I got it under control and answered.
Although our call dropped twice and I had to call them back and move locations I thought that the interview went really well. I was very happy with it.
Once it ended I called Josh back and cried some more. He didn't understand why I was trying so hard to be like my friends when I was so much cooler than them. His words made me feel so much better. I was still upset that my friends left me behind but I realized that it wasn't the end of the world.
We talked on the phone for an hour. One very expensive hour. Whoops.
But it was something that I desperately needed. And talking to Josh is the easiest thing in the world so I didn't even realize an hour had gone by until it was too late. It was so refreshing to talk to someone who really enjoyed talking to me and who made me laugh.
After Josh I called my Mom, someone else who I hadn't talked to in a while. She made me feel better as well. This voyage has been a lot harder and I really think that it is because I haven't really connected to anyone on the ship. I missed my friends back home desperately.
I spent the rest of the evening watching a movie. I had absolutely no plans for tomorrow. I still so upset and felt so terrible about myself that my plan was to sleep in and then blog and then watch more movies.
On my way back to my room from the piano lounge I saw Brianne in the dining room eating her dinner. I went over to say hi and she told me that she was going on the SAS program to the penguin colony the next day. It seemed like an awesome trip and I had really wanted to see the penguins. I thought about it but I still really didn't feel like being social or doing anything. I just wanted to wallow in my own pity.
And I went back to my room and did just that.
