Grooms Globe Trek . com – Kids

Another tour sounded boring and trying. It was just something I wasn’t willing to have to wake up earlier then I usually do for. We’re not in Cape Town to sleep so I got up. Getting out of bed gave me the chills but I slower got used to it. But about the tour, it was supposedly one of the most dos and you went to the District 6 Museum, a township, a traditional healer, a preschool, and a women’s workshop.

Since we went to more places then some of the tours we went on, time was limited. For this reason we scanned through the museum looking at the pictures, reading newspaper headlines and articles, and going through the other displays as past as possibly. Amongst all the displays, my favorite was the rooms were they showed you what a nice black home looked like during apartheid. Two twin beds, a chair a dresser, books, and suitcases were in the bedroom area of the one room. On the other side of the one room there was a table, chairs, a small amount of plates, cups, and silverware, a radio, pictures, a hot plate, and other simple kitchen supplies. It was definitely a horrible place to live on my scale. Especially when a family of four lived there.

A township is also known as an ugly place to live. The shacks are made of what garbage they can find. The shacks in the township are usually made of tin and wood walls. The roofing is held on with bricks and tires. While at the township our guide took us to the shack where the head brewer of the townships traditional beer lives. They made a large can of it and everyone took a taste or two of the beer. It is very sour. It is made from water, yeast, and traditional corn. It also must have had lots of bacteria in it because after the tour we all had stomach aches.

The next stop was the traditional healer. The shop was pretty small and dark. In the shop we saw animal skins, animal parts, herbs, dream catchers and dried things like pumpkins. The traditional healer is a part time or full time doctor for most people. Traditional healers are nothing like medical doctors though. When doctors recommend medicine to cure sickness, healers recommend drinking turtle pee and wearing baboon skin along with other things. Sometimes it works, other times it doesn’t.

We entered a township once more to go to a preschool. The kids surrounded you when you entered; it was a little crazy. When the kids were all around you they were constantly trying to pull you down and get you to pick them up. You pick up one kid for ten seconds while the other kids pulled on you to get you to hold them too. Your arms get sore really fast doing this. The kids went outside to play so you got a little break before you were picking up kids again. Some of the kids were crying at the school. Some of the kids were smiling like crazy at you. My biggest memory of the school was wiping away the tears from the crying kids.

Finally we went to our last stop, a women’s workshop, which was far less energy draining then the preschool. At the workshop we saw women weaving patterns that ranged from stripes to a house with children dancing outside. One big 3’x5’rug takes two weeks to make. The workshop was first opened for women that live in the township that need to make money. They come to this workshop and learn to make things like t-shirts and rugs. The money they make from the rugs helps the women do their share in their families.

In the end of the tour I was worn out and wrong. It was well worth waking up early for. It wasn’t another boring tour; it was an amazing African experience.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 7th, 2005 at 3:31 am and is filed under South Africa, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.