After the brief walking tour, I had to hurry back to the Waterfront to catch a ride with Kathy, Dixie, Amy V., Tommy, and Jason for the wine festival in Stellanbosch. I was worried at first because even though I had asked Vicky and her husband about leaving near 9 am to get back to the hotel in time, it was after 9:30 before we left Khayelitsha, South African time does not work on a schedule. Heather, Mary, and Kori loaned me some money, since I wasn’t going to be able to come back to the hotel and get my own. I bought a hat on the waterfront and went wine drinking, sans shower.
I had a lot of fun tasting wines and of course there was delicious gourmet food, including a lady bug cupcake, wine, salami, and some wonderful sausage and swarma. No, I didn’t eat ALL of that.
It was probably one of the most fun and relaxing days of my journey. But, again it was a day squirreling away stories of people and experiences.
First, I met Devin and Paul, two heavily intoxicated but social Afrikaners. Paul, I think, was trying to hit on Amy V, but Devin kind of spoiled it when he began telling us how much he disliked the United States and how conceited we are because we don’t travel enough. “People from the states just don’t get the rest of the world,” he argued. I told him he was partially correct, but no one turned down our money or aid when they were in need, so we may be insular and detached, but we (as a people) have also been generous and concerned. He’s right that we have made a lot of mistakes, especially surrounding foreign policy, frequently bullying countries into submission, but I think as a general group, Americans are also passionate about causes they believe in. We put our money where our mouth is, if it’s something we truly care about. In the end, Devin still gave me a sloppy hug and told me, “You’re all right for an American,” before weaving his way off to find more wine.
The second person we met was a sommelier from Speir, a winery. While we were sitting on the sofas having cheese and crackers, Jason came over raving about this hot sommelier who as it just so happened was sitting right across from us. He turned three shades of red J. She was brilliant though. We sat talking to her for a good thirty minutes, her and a coworker with a family. They were wonderful people. She was young and so full of hope for her country. She is working on her second degree, one in marketing. She said she has no intention of leaving the country because she wasn’t to make her home better. She told us about finding funding sources to put her through school and help her with difficult topics, and we talked about what she remembered of apartheid, and what she remembers most is that we would not have been sitting there talking together the way we were, a mix of colored and white. If we did, we would certainly be ostracized by the whites around us. Every time I talked to someone in his/her twenties in SA, I have been impressed by their hope and determination in a country that has 60% unemployment of the youth. Even the young men, recovering from their Saturday party that we met in Khayelitsha spoke about their pride in the country and their hard work to get somewhere.
The final people we met were Jim and Louise, a white couple. He was from Liverpool and she from Jo’burg. They had been long distance dating for some time and were recently engaged. They were both very friendly. Tommy, Amy, and I even ended up having dinner with them when we returned to Capetown. What stands out most to me about them is that they are educated and trained employees, but when they marry they’ll go to England, not stay in South Africa. As Jim said, “There’s no jobs here for a white male immigrant.” Louise will give up her country because there’s no way the affirmative action policies in place would allow Jim to get a job. There’s hope for a coloured sommelier, but not for a white man in South Africa.
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