On The Waterfront

Molweni bantu,
We are celebrating our 34th wedding anniversary by indulging ourselves with a stay at the V & A Waterfront Hotel. The hotel is quite nice and we love our room. Sleeping in a king bed is quite a change from our sleeping arrangements at homebase 2. We had thought we were going to sleep in bunkbeds. My mind raced with the multiple dangers of forgetting I was on the top bunk when I needed to get up to use the facilities down the hall at night. That would have been our experience had we been put up at homebase 1. We are on the first floor, have our own toilet and shower, and are not in bunkbeds. We are in twins that are put together, so being in a king is luxurious.
Central heating is not the norm in Cape Town. Our house is nice, but it does get cold at night since we are in winter here. Of course, all temperatures are in Celcius and I forget how to convert to Fahrenheit. Suffice to say it does get cold at night. When the Cape was getting blasted by storms last week, the wind was howling and there were times when the rain came down with a vengeance. One morning at breakfast Bettina, one of our fellow volunteers, discovered that the toaster was wet due to a leak in the roof directly above it. Needless to say, that toaster was out of commission for awhile. The bedrooms do have heat of a sort. A large white metal 30"x30" square is attached to the wall. When plugged in, the square is hot. Sounds good, right? The heat seems to radiate no farther than 3-6 inches from the surface, so all in all, not too efficient. Layering clothing is the answer. There have been nights when Dianne has resembled Nanook of the North as she gets into bed. I use an extra blanket on cold nights.
We are enjoying some fine weather now. The sun is out and temps in the high 60's. I know it's in the 60's thanks to CNN on the hotel TV. There seem to be certain universals when one travels overseas. You can usually count on MacDonalds, KFC, and CNN all of which have a presence here in Cape Town. Of course, all of the news media and radio stations here are filled with news about Michael Jackson. I got to talk to the young adults with whom I work about MJ. He was quite popular here in Cape Town. I am sure his music will be selling like crazy for awhile.
Lots of anticipation about World Cup here next year. Major construction is taking place all over Cape Town. Here at the waterfront we are close to the new soccer stadium as we can see the upper rim of the stadium and the construction cranes from our hotel window. One of the young women with whom I work was wondering yesterday what will happen when the World Cup is over. Will things be better for the people of Cape Town. I find that the young adults I am priviliged to be associated with are very wise and hope for a better Africa. The same young lady was telling me about the violence by South Africans against people from Zimbabwe that occurred last year. She could not understand the why of the violence. She asked "Aren't we all Africans?"
Time to check out now. More later.
Art