INSIDE

Travel

By Kitty Doyle

South Africa is a study in contrasts … from the great beauty of a sparkling sea set off by jacaranda trees and bougainvillea to the ugliness of electrified fencing with barred windows and doors on every home. It has modern city buildings, including the beautiful new, glass-fronted convention center in Cape Town and the countryside has traditional whitewashed, round mud huts with thatched roofing.

We met some of the warmest and friendliest people at the Autism Safari Conference … from our driver Aziz, who took us from our hotel to the conference every day, to Esther who met us at registration with the biggest smile ever! Every South African we met expressed great pride in their country, and great hope for its future.

We had the interesting experience of being in the country at the death of P.W. Botha, the apartheid supporter who had Nelson Mandela imprisoned for so many years. The headline in the paper shouted “The Crocodile is dead.” Given the great animosity of the black population toward the man, we were totally surprised when the current prime minister ordered the flags of South Africa to be lowered to half mast. This is a country trying hard to reconcile differences within its population groups.

We learned that Afrikaans is taught to all students in school; that outside of the large cities, children walk for miles to attend school; that parental ability to pay determines the quality of education for children with special needs; that there are three distinct groupings of peoples in South Africa (Afrikaaners; those descended from the Dutch, German, French and English, blacks and colored; those who are of mixed parentage, sometimes two or three generations back, who are not light skinned enough to be called “white” nor dark enough to be called “black”); we found South African wines to be inexpensive but world class; that olives grown in the region were some of the best in the world; that south Africa’s big five are the elephant, lion, Cape buffalo, giraffe and rhinoceros and there are many active programs currently funded to preserve them in their natural settings.

Two major problems confront south Africa, and demand attention for the country to grow to its potential. One is the Aids crisis. Tamarinda, our tour guide, told us that estimates say that one third of the population is HIV positive. The government has attempted to provide medication for aids patients, but since those who have Aids receive a monthly check because they are unable to work, many choose not to take the life saving medication, since funds are cut off once they are in remission.
The other problem is that of the townships. These are vast areas covered with huts made of cardboard, tin, wood scraps and plastic, where there are communal toilets and showers, and where electrical power from one pole may service 30 or more huts. There are a million people living in this squalor in Cape Town alone.

If you plan a trip to South Africa at any point, be sure to visit Stellenbosch, Franshoek and Paarl to sample the wines. Book a safari to visit the big five on their home territory, and drive the garden route to visit the underground Canga caves, ostrich farms, the Knysna elephant reserve and Montague, home of a thousand birds. Take a boat to the Head where the Indian Ocean rushes into the bay and have lunch in the treed restaurant above the Head. The food was varied and delicious. We tried line fish, ostrich pate, ostrich steak, springbok and local dessert specialties of milk tart and malva cake. In Cape Town, the V&A waterfront provides shops and many excellent restaurants (the African Trading Port has a wide variety of African art pieces at very reasonable prices) and for those who enjoy the art of barter, GreenMarket Square is a virtual dream come true.

Would I have missed this trip? No way! It was an experience of a lifetime. The only downside was the 33 hours going and coming (although I must admit returning with a sprained ankle made the 33 hours seem like 100). It was wonderful to return to the Point, where we take for granted the freedom to go for a walk at night, to leave our doors unlocked and where we reach out to help neighbors and friends … we may not have everything we want, but we have the essentials.