Cape Town is So Random: An Overdue Post

On Saturday morning, a group of us decided to go to Old Biscuit Mill. We weren’t sure exactly what this was, but we were told it was somewhere where you eat and shop and that “we HAVE TO go at least once.” As we walked in, Stefanie turns to me with a look of surprise and says, “Cape Town is SO random.” I could not put it better myself. Old Biscuit Mill turned out to be an open air market of gourmet food stands where we could purchase the best of any food category- meat, fruit, fish, decadent desserts, breads, Belgian waffles, coffee, pizza, really anything we could possibly want to eat. This was surrounded by blocks of boutiques where we could easily spend hundreds of dollars on items ranging from designer clothes to home decorations. What surprised us most was not necessarily the concept of Old Biscuit Mill itself, but the people and the general feel of the place. Everyone was dressed and looked the same, as if they had been plucked right from a free people catalogue. One thing was also very apparent; these people had money. As we “people watched” the young blonde child eating her gourmet crepe or observed those purchasing the fancy designer clothes with their bulging wallets, I could not help but be shocked (once again) by the contrast in the people and places around Cape Town. It is an area of homogenous niches of people, which seemingly coexist but rarely interact. Just minutes away are Manenberg, the township that we work in every day, and the other townships in the Cape Flats. Here, life looks much different. You may live in a four-walled shack or an over crowded house. Some will not have running water or electricity. Instead of eating gourmet food dishes, you eat a cheese sandwich for lunch, and you are considered well off if you can afford to buy meat once in a while. You will go to an understaffed school with few resources. Leisure activities will include playing games in the street, rather than shopping or food tasting at Old Biscuit Mill. Even across the townships there are homogenous niches; it is still possible to categorize the townships as “black” or “colored” and the boundaries are very clear. This pattern is pretty apparent wherever we go across the city, and it is this pattern that makes Cape Town and the surrounding areas feel so random. By simply driving a few minutes, you feel like you are in an entirely different world; even the language spoken from place to place changes! As travelers here, we are attempting to experience it all. From posh restaurants on Kloof Street to Mzolis in Guguletu, from Camps Bay sunsets to Manenberg mornings, from cable cars to mini bus taxis, from tours of Cape Point to tours of Khayelitsha, we are slowly being exposed to the vast range of lifestyles here. It can be shocking and overwhelming at times, and even though we are more than half way done with our trip, I am still trying to grasp the dynamics of this amazing city and the areas surrounding us.