To get to Sodwana Bay, I first flew to Durban, then took the BAZBus up to Coral Divers. BAZBus is the student and backpackers door-to-door hostel bus - it's a really cool concept and the people on the bus were all great, but it was a bit expensive. Once at Coral Divers, I was pleased with my accommodations in a huge single tent. I met my instructor and my University of Pretoria friends soon after arriving, and we planned out our dives for the week. Because I got my advanced scuba certification, I had to do several skill-based dives, including a deep dive, a peak performance buoyancy dive, and (my favorite) a fish identification naturalist dive. I learned so much about marine wildlife, and I can now tell the difference between Coachmen and Moorish Idols, spot various types of juvenile butterfly fish, and recognize whether a school of kingfish (also called jacks) are hunting or just swimming around together.
As I mentioned, one of the highlights of the trip was getting to swim with two whale sharks on my last day of diving. The skipper spotted the first whale shark as we were boating out to 7 Mile Reef, and we frantically grabbed our snorkel gear and jumped in to swim with it. It was huge - probably about 30 feet long - and had such beautiful markings. As we frantically swam at the surface to keep up, it barely moved its tail from side to side to propel gracefully through the water. The Dive Master went down a few times to swim next to it (it was probably 15 feet beneath us), but it wasn't particularly curious. After we got back on the boat and had gone about 5 more minutes, we then spotted ANOTHER whale shark...and this one was swimming with dolphins. We were all screaming and hooting and hollering. A German guy with us who had been diving for 35 years was almost crying with happiness: this was the first time he had ever seen a whale shark, and it was a truly amazing experience. Anyway we dived into the water to swim with this one as well, and it was really interesting to watch the dolphins interacting with it. I cannot wait to go diving again!
In the evenings I hung out by the pool or the bar and played board games with my new South African friends. There was a group of four girls that I got to know particularly well, although they knew a few other people at Coral Divers who would often join us for dinner. It was really interesting to hear their perspectives on the directions of the country and the upcoming elections. In Cape Town, there is an overwhelming sense of excitement for the future, largely because the World Cup is going to be held there in 2010. But across South Africa, white people are quietly leaving and becoming more and more discouraged. Crime really is a serious issue here - one of the girls had even had her car hijacked from her at gunpoint. Every single one of their families own guns and have security systems surrounding their houses. The ANC has been in power for 15 years, and in that time infrastructure has slowly been getting worse. Many whites think there won't be clean drinking water in the country within 5 years. White South Africans are completely disillusioned with politics and the government. The ANC is corrupt beyond help, and yet it is virtually cemented in power and guaranteed to win the upcoming election.
Sadly, the frustration that white South Africans are feeling and the alarming rate at which they are leaving the country is really, really bad for South Africa. White people still make up a disproportionate majority of business owners, entrepreneurs, doctors, and engineers, and the country really can't afford to lose them too quickly. Eventually, the machinery will be in place for the black population to get the education necessary to fill this professional vacuum, but this will be a gradual process. Popular black politicians frequently make comments to the extent of, "We don't need any whites in this country...let them all leave." Unfortunately, this kind of thinking is widely accepted but obviously not practically sound. And even though my many black friends here seem to be optimistic about the future and ready to face the challenges ahead, I think it is a bad sign that so many white people are so disillusioned and leaving the country as such high rates.
On a similar note, I was struck by the fact that every single white South African I met on this trip asked me the same question about coming to study in South Africa: "Why?" They couldn't understand why someone from American would want to come to their country, and they were worried that I would be horrified by all the crime. They asked me if I thought there would be elephants and lions roaming around the cities, and seemed relieved to find out that I didn't have any false preconceptions about their country.
Anyway, the elections are coming up on April 22nd, and it will be interesting to see what the atmosphere in Cape Town will be like. Jacob Zuma (the head of the ANC) will almost certainly be the next president, which is quite distressing. Not only was he indicted and taken to court for dirty arms dealing, but he has also allegedly raped a woman who was HIV positive. When asked about that, he said he took a shower afterwards so that the virus wouldn't be transmitted. I cannot believe that this man is going to be the next head of South Africa, such a beautiful and promising country, and usually a model to other African nations.
The weather is still perfect here, cooling off only slightly, which means there will probably be hiking and a beach day this weekend. It was definitely a little bizarre celebrating Easter in the fall, though! Highlights of this past week involved a beautiful piano recital at Baxter Theater, a speech at UCT given by the ANC Youth League President Julius Malema, and a fabulous girls' night out yesterday with my two best friends on the trip. Now it's time for an early night after this massive update. From Cape Town with love!
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