South Afri-fucking-ca
After ten long arduous days at sea with waves that made even the most experienced sailors turn a little green, we saw Cape town on the horizon. My friend Lucas and I had woken early that morning to get a glimpse of the coast, and just before dawn we climbed to the very top deck on the bow of the ship and watched the most amazing thing I have ever experienced.The wind was blowing a furious gust through our hair and we watched with wonderment as the coast of this most elusive and mysterious continent seemed to rise from the vast oceans, dawn had started to break over Table Top Mountain and the whole city seemed to grow a crimson halo. I watched mesmerized while Lucas filmed the event panning from my reaction back to the sunrise. Slowly, as if the mountains were the hands of god's sweetly singing angels a red globe of fire peeked over the ragged horizon, and lifted into the air to start the day. In that moment I felt like god had risen the sun on my life. I knew my life was changing at that very instant, and I squeezed Lucas’ hand knowing he felt it too. It was amazing in every sense of the word.
It turned out that the furious winds we felt through our hair were the effects of a terrible hurricane in the harbor of Cape Town, so we sat just outside with the whole city so close we thought we could jump on land, some plotted to swim there, other suggested snagging a life boat. We all wanted to on land so badly we could taste it, and I wondered quietly how those sailors of ancient days could stand traveling for months on end without seeing land, without tasting mountain air, without feeling the steady earth beneath their feet. I wanted off that god damned boat, and yesterday was too late!
We tried to laugh as we turned circles in the water, “look kids, Big Ben, Parliament.” We played endless games of cards, Gin, Egyptian Rat Screw, Hearts, Spades, Go fish, it was almost cruel the way they had us stuck out there for so long, and all we wanted was to explore. Some people slept, knowing better than to sleep while on shore, wanting to soak up every moment that was South Africa, and other of us too wired from not sleeping the night before paced the deck and asked every passing crew member fifty times a piece “can go yet?”
Finally after dinner after we were all convinced that we would never be allowed to dock, we heard the loud speaker click on “we will be docking in Cape Town by Midnight” Sweeter words were never heard aboard the SS Universe Explorer that semester. Thew whole ship seemd to roar with excitement. We dragged the speakers and turn tables out to the poolside and had a regular poolside MTV dance party. There so much energy on the ship that night I thought we might spontaneously combust before customs had even gotten to the G’s in our passports. As the time to dock drew near and the pin points of light grew into discernable windows and street lamps, we ran to our rooms to primp and prepare for a long night of celebration and indulgence. The world had never seen a happier crew of 700 kids, every last one planning how shit faced they were gonna be.
It did not disappoint us, some found the drugs their bodies were craving from pot to coke to heroin as any city as big as Cape Town is bound to have, and some found love and the human touch, that they shunned from hands of their ship mates, in the form of Dutch adonis, and some found adventure and some found life. I found all the things that made my orginal impression of the continent ring true in my ears.
On the last day of our stay there, my theater troop and I went to the first of three performances around the world, the first and by far the most amazing. \
We arrived by bus down dusty roads of the crossroads township, a huddled mass of corrogated tin huts, and makeshift houses unfit for rodents let alone a family of five human beings. We pulled through the maze and finally arrived at the open air pavillion in the center of the school yard, we piled off the bus, some of us hung over, most of us bored from rehearsing the material with our psychotic theater professor, and began singing some strange native american song to represent our country despite the fact that not a one of us were not descendants of european anscestry. It was fine they didn’t really understand us anyway, they were just so thrilled to have us there that what we were saying seemed superfulous.
We strolled across the courtyard singing our song expecting to turn and see forty or so children ready for a school assembly, but what we found instead were the faces of several hundred children from ages 4 to 18 and they were radiant with energy, singing and clapping and stomping their feet creating a rythm that swept us away. The only emotional expression we could muster to explain how felt were the tears that streamed down our faces, tears of shame, and tears of joy. Celebration and remorse in one. Nothing has ever touched me so deeply as that.
I left South Africa with a sense of a broader understanding of life. These images of people I once viewed intangible as pictures from a magazine, were downright veridical and they followed me on the rest of my voyage, and stay with me today. My eyes were opened that morning outside the harbor and they haven't closed yet.
Kenya