So for those of you who I have not had the pleasure of chatting on gChat with, I am currently in Cape Town, South Africa… and its cold and rainy. This is kind of depressing since I am limited to my two legs as transportation, and the weather report before we left said it would be in the mid 70s all week and sunny, so I only brought one pair of jeans for a ten day trip. Looking at my backpack full of skirts, bathing suits, and short sleeve shirts I am left feeling like a tourist in San Francisco who thinks just because they are in California it will be warm.
Despite the weather this really is a beautiful place and Eli and I are staying in an incredibly nice place called Monkey Valley in Noorhoek. What brought us here is that Eli is doing a photography workshop with David Turnley (www.davidcturnley.com). If you don’t know who he is, because I did not, his site is worth checking out… he was Nelson Mandela’s personal photographer when he got out of prison, and he is a Pulitzer Prize winning war photographer, and in general a really wonderful person. I am sort of riding on Eli’s coat tails on this one since I had to leave Kenya for visa reasons – must leave East Africa every 6 months – and I get to stay here with him for next to nothing and sit in on all the workshops. I was going out to shoot the townships with Eli for a bit, but since I have my own work to do as well, and I want to check out some other things, I have been hanging by myself here… which has been interesting though heavily impeded by the weather.
So far I have gone into Nyanga Township and Mitchell’s Plain, headed out to a wine estate owned by a friend of David’s and had lunch there and got full run of the place, gone out to a wonderful dinner in Kalk Bay, was supposed to go to Robben Island but with the winds the way they are all the trips have been canceled, and in general just met some very interesting people.
Its difficult traveling with this group though being unemployed and on a strict budget, which has proven nearly impossible to stick to. The other participants are all self employed and this is a vacation of sorts for them (there is a fashion editor, an eye surgeon, a photographer for Hugo Chavez, a successful real estate agent, and an ad and marketing agency owner) and while they are all incredible people, its tough to stay on a budget with a group of people who don’t really seem to have one… especially when they buy food for the house and at the end of the week we are all going to split the bills evenly. After struggling with this for two days Eli and I just decided that we should probably just suck it up, eat what we want, and starve later. Its hard enough having a budget, its even harder when you are expected to chip in and were not prepared for this and everyone else is not on a budget… I can barely keep myself on my budget, I am not about to impose it on anyone else.
Its a big change of pace for me too, I have been used to having enough money to do what I want within reason and not have to worry to much about it… but when you have no money coming in and only money going out, its difficult. Eli has been helping me take a little bit more relaxed view of the situation though, money comes and money goes and stressing where it is at will not make more of it, so just enjoy it now and suck it up later. This has never been my monetary mentality so I am struggling a bit with it, but am happier now anyways.
So enough money talk, there are so many amazing things going on here and that I am learning about photography and South Africa it is a shame to use this much of my time discussing that. It is crazy to think that only 15 years ago Apartheid ended. Hearing the stories from our guides/drivers, who photographers call “fixers,” has been amazing. These people give you unfettered access one on one to their lives and answer questions as directly and earnestly as possible. Eli’s fixer is Sindelle, a wonderful black man in his mid to late 50s who was very active in the Apartheid years and even had to leave South Africa for Malawi for a time due to persecution. He plays all kinds of percussion instruments, writes musicals based on South Africa folklore, and is one of the most sincere and genuine people you could hope to meet.
What is really interesting about South Africa for me is not just the division between black and white, but that between black – normally of Xhousa or Zulu decent, and colored- of varied decent including Malai (spelling might be wrong), mixed, and other tribes of lighter skin color. There is also a difference between the whites but this is much less noted – Ukrainian Jews, Dutch or Afrikans White, English, and other small groups. Speaking with David its interesting to hear his stories about a section of the Western Cape called C-Point where most of the transplanted Ukrainian Jews live/lived. He tells stories from 1985 of a jewish family on a whites only beach and asking them how they felt about this having only come to South Africa because they themselves were escaping persecution… for this family they simply said you take all the opportunities as people that you have, but for others these were some of the main white activists against the apartheid system.
It is amazing seeing what 15 years can do to change a country though and to think that its really only been about 50 years for our country of equality, if that. In fact, its funny to even really be worrying about money, when while I might not have as much as I did when I started this trip, I still have more saved than some people in the Cape Flats (this is the main colored ghetto/township) or in parts of Kakamega, Kenya will have in a few years. In fact, I think Eli is right, money does come and go, and worrying about it will only cause me unhappiness, and having it won’t get me any more happiness. Money just is, and I will deal with its consequences when I have to… there are worst things in the world than having to skimp… especially when your looking at the view I am.
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