So, number one thing to see in Cape Town was Table Mountain and number two is Robben (Seal) Island....
Here we are down at the Victoria and Albert Waterfront...quite the cool place to hang out...
The ladies are readee...
So, SADLY, there is a stupid 'fiber' that hung out on my lense for most of this day ruining many a photo...it's not so bad here, but it's above my head....
SO, every now and then a strange alien craft invaded my pix to remove the image of the 'fiber'...but the aftermath is not always pretty...
Here we are, our boat that will take us out of the island....
The Dutch used the island as a prison as early as the mid 1600's. Prisoners included 'rebels' from Indonesia. The island later served as a leper colony, but became most famous when in the 1960's it became a prison for political prisoners namely Nelson Mandela and the current South African president Jacob Zuma.
'We Serve With Pride'....
But that is one of the greatest things I noticed with Mandela and even our tour guide (tour guides are former inmates) - they preached that their own guards were 'victims' of the Apartheid system as well and that the guards were not to be hated...what a lesson....
:) Love it...and it's SO true!
Duh Ladieez ready to go in the front door....
This is the compound where Mandela and other inmates would spend hours a day breaking rocks into smaller fragments...
Going from left to right, Mandela's cell is the 4th window....
Here is our tour guide...he was REALLY nice and really cool...I find it amazing that so many former prisoners work here and former guards as well...
Better picture of the rock-breaking....
corridor of Mandela's 'wing' of the prison...
And there is Mandela's cell...that is where he was for EIGHTEEN YEARS!!
The red bucket was a toilet as well as where the inmates were supposed to wash their clothes...
like I said, I am just amazed that he could enter here...so full of 'anger'....and then leave so full of love, forgiveness and kindness...
I'm just so happy that his struggle wasn't 'in vain', i.e. he saw the victory in his lifetime...a tender-mercy....
Reminds me of Sachsenhausen concentration camp....
This is where they hung their laundry...
Their schedule was hard labor, 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. Saturday was sports day and then NOTHING, not even going to church services, was allowed on Sundays....
Dozens of prisoners were kept in these larger rooms....
An identification card....
This is the part that kills me. Apartheid even reached into the prisons!! The AMOUNT of food you got also depended on your RACE! ???????? WHAT?!
A lady we met told us how it was that way even in the hospitals...there were linens, etc. and dishes, etc., that would have little letters or colors that would let the nurses know whether or not that BOWL was for a white person or an Indian or a...... ?????????!!!!!!!
Our guide told us the prison used to have lovely gardens....'we walked in fields of gold'....
This is a pic of the last boat-full of prisoners being released....so, roughly said, Robben Island's history as a prison, over 400 years old, ended that day....
'Oh happy day....oh happy day....oh Happy Day...'
Here are the remains of the leper colony graveyard....what a horrible disease....what a horrible legacy....
Here is the limestone quarry where Mandela and other inmates would work....the sun was so bright that many inmates went 'snow-blind'; even the guards suffered and were not allowed to wear sunglasses cuz it was 'not part of their uniform'....
This is the Church of the Good Shepherd...it was specifically built for the lepers when parishioners in the village 'Garrison' Church kicked the lepers out of their church due to the stench of the lepers' sores....
Not trying to say I would've kicked the lepers out as well...but how AWKWARD when you're reading in the Bible the story of Jesus healing the lepers here in the Garrison church....knowing that the lepers are now down the road cuz you didn't want them around anymore....I don't know....just odd the 'disconnect' sometimes between belief and practice....
This is a memorial to Sayed Adurohman Moturu, a Muslim Iman who was exiled on the island and died there in 1754...
Thanks Robben Island!!
Back at the Waterfront....
Table Mountain has a 'Table Cloth' on it now ;)
Whilst waiting for the First Aid guy to help Catherine with her twisted ankle, Maria and I found things to keep us busy....
Fascinating, no? Just look at row after two after row of teeth ready to takes each others' places....and they say sharks aren't killing machines....
Maria and I played Tic-Tac-Toe....isn't it strange how when you were little you or your brother/sister would actually WIN! Now it's just tie, after tie, after tie, after tie....maybe smartness takes the fun out of things....
Peace and love people...the only true paths...
