Cape Town chronicles: Khayelitsha to Lion's Head

I went to Cape Town because I'd heard it was a cool city to see, but also because I wanted to visit fellow Colby Mule and friend of the people Eric Barthold, who is working there this year as an intern for Grassroot Soccer. Eric had already had plenty of visitors this year, and did not have the time or inclination to take me on a tour of the various tourist attractions in Cape Town. So instead, I sort of shadowed Eric doing whatever he had planned. This ended up being great because a) Eric does some cool stuff in the course of his work that I'd never be able to see if I hadn't been there with him and b) he generally does more in three days than I attempt in that many weeks.

The first day, Eric had to go to the township of Khayelitsha (where he works) to help orchestrate a small soccer tournament with people who had participated in past Grassroot Soccer programs. Khayelitsha is a sprawling place with everything from sturdy-looking government-built housing to the type of smaller corrugated-iron structures I see in Lesotho. The tournament took place on a small asphalt court in a park with a nice new playground. It was definitely disconcerting to be around so many people - from what I can gather, the population of the Cape Town metropolitan area is almost twice that of all of Lesotho. At one point, Eric and I were leaning against his car and a large group of kids played a game where they would alternate poking each of us in the chest, which caused us to make silly faces. They speak Xhosa in Khayelitsha, so I got to practice with my very limited Xhosa (essentially stretching "nkosi" to mean everything).

As we were driving back from Khayelitsha late in the afternoon, Eric said he would need to work out before we got dinner, because he felt funny if he didn't get some exercise in during the day. I took this opportunity to sprawl out on the couch and read. When Eric returned from exercising, he told me he realized that he in fact had already exercised that day, and had forgotten the two soccer games he played during the tournament. This struck me as odd, because not only do I never forget when I have exercised in a given day, I usually don't let any of the people around me forget it either.

The next day we watched one of Eric's friends compete in the 2 Oceans ultra-marathon in the morning and then went to something called Old Biscuit Mill, which is sort of like a giant farmer's market, and I imagine maybe 90% of the vendors would describe their products as "artisanal" (the rest would use "bespoke"). The food was terrific and there were more people than I generally see in a month. After Old Biscuit Mill, Eric took me on a hike up Lion's Head, one of the mountains that looks over Cape Town.

"This is the school we went to!"