January 7th -- Wine and Township Tour

Today was our first day of full tourist activities since starting our volunteering here in Cape Town. We started off our day at Groote Constantia winery where we were greeted by a beautiful scenery and a large wine farm estate. We then toured through the 362 year old winery and were shown how the wine was made with the machinery and kept in the barrels. At the end of the tour we were greeted with five glasses of wine for tasting. The whole estate was very pretty and I would consider a must see in Cape Town. However, next on our list of activities for the day was to visit the township of Khayelitsha.

Khayelitsha is only about 30 miles from Groote Constantia, but instead of being a large wine farm estate, it is full of small shacks and homes for the people. We made our stop at Kopahong Bed and Breakfast where we were greeted with a smile from Mama Thope, the woman that started the B&B. After serving us a most filling meal, she began telling her story of how she started her bed and breakfast, why she started it, and where she came from originally. She had a very interesting background and brought about lots of questions from the students. After we visited with her we then thanked her and took a drive through the township. The drive through the township was very eye opening for most of the students. This township was geographically close to the previous winery, but it was clearly economically inferior. As we drove we could see shacks made of scrap metal, roaming animals, desert sand, and much more. The dichotomy between the two areas was almost frustrating to see considering how close the two locations are to each other. However, on a free day like today, it was a good reminder of why each of the students are here and why we are volunteering at the sites.

Of course, our leader Jan would never leave us on a very down note for the day, so we ventured to one more winery called Spier. At Spier several of the students got chances to pet cheetahs in the Cheetah Sanctuary and take many, many more pictures. We ended the day with one more wine tasting and students got to view one more pretty wine farm and see some more fantastic African animals.

-- Andrew