Table Mountain

Cape Town is famous for its huge mountains and bordering oceans. Basically since the moment we arrived in Cape Town everyone in our group has been staring to the mountains in vain waiting to climb them. We have not been allowed to go without a guide because people are often robbed on the mountains and it’s not smart to go without someone who is familiar with the paths and the area. Our academic director has been talking about coordinating a group hike since we arrived but it keeps getting put off. I had finally accepted that we were never going to get the opportunity to climb any of the mountains when we received word that they had a guide for us to climb Table Mountain, one of the most famous mountains in South Africa. It was scheduled for this past Sunday and then had to be canceled due to thick cloud cover on the mountain. However, luckily enough for us this Monday was a public holiday (for freedom day) so we had the day off of work and were able to make the trek. It was a 6.5 hour climb and I think was just over 6 miles in total. It was probably one of the most fulfilling experiences of my life and one of my favorite days here. It was a huge workout but the most breathtaking views imaginable. I took close to 600 pictures during the hike. I also got so exciting that I was basically leaping from rock to rock down the side of a cliff and jumped one too many times and blew out the bottom of one of the air pockets of my sneakers.... the rest of the hike it felt like I was walking barefoot and it would make noise and let out a gush of air with every one of my steps.

After we got back from the hike and hung out at our apartment for awhile, one of my roommates and I decided to pop over to one of our other friends apartments 3 streets over because I had left our laundry soap over there the other night and we needed it back. So we walked the familiar 5 minute walk over around 7:20pm. On our way there we were confronted by beggars for spare change, an ordinary occurrence in Cape Town. However, usually when this happens you can shake them off and continue walking without any hassle, but these guys were different. We said no and continued to power walk past them when all of a sudden my friend and I were swarmed. They split us and one guy blocked me off so that I couldn’t walk anywhere. He got in my face asking me for money. I just looked at him and then pointed to myself. I was wearing hospital scrub pants and a t-shirt. I said, “hey man, I don’t even have pockets. I don’t have anything.” (luckily enough for me he did not realize that I actually did have a pocket in the back of my pants that had my cell phone in it, so I was able to get away without having that taken). He quickly backed off and said, “okay, okay I’ll get my friends away.” Meanwhile three of his friends had swarmed my friend and cornered her against a wall. They were going through all of her pockets and questioning her about money. She told them she didn’t have anything, and sure enough she didn’t. She had actually had her phone stolen earlier that day while at work and neither of us had money. The guy who tried to take money from me got his friends to leave her alone after thoroughly digging through her pockets and not managing to find anything. Actually the only thing in her pocket was a slip of paper with a phone number on it that they knocked out of her pocket when they were searching her and one of them even picked it up and gave it to her as they walked away. The entire time this was happening a city worker was standing a few feet from us watching all of the commotion and not saying anything. Thank god we had nothing on us to be taken, and they didn’t find my cell phone, and also that they decided not to attack us. We have heard stories of people getting attacked because they aren’t carrying money and the robbers get so frustrated with them for not having money that they beat them up. It was a scary situation but a good lesson for us to all learn. We have gotten very comfortable here and often walk around alone at night with our cell phones out and our laptops in our bags, and it was a good security check for all of us.