All friendships start somewhere. This one
starts in Port Elizabeth. Leizel, Kurt, Niamh and Kay welcome Elodie and me
into their family. Happy birthday Amir, what a beautiful birthday cake you have
there. The day starts off with a children’s party and continues with a visit to
Kurt’s parents, then to a family dinner with Leizel’s family. The food is
delicious, and the company even better. To finish the day, we have tea with
some friends. A busy day for us, but oh how good it is to feel the bonds that
tie these family members together… Leizel has been to Belgium and she loved it.
We share memories about places which used to be my home, tasting African
liqueur, even better than Bailey’s.
The next day, they lend us their car so we
can drive around a little.
Our first destination is the Daniell
Cheetah breeding station, about half an hour’s drive inland. Lucky us, there is
no one there so we get a private tour. The guide lets us enter many cages with
wild cats, but the most impressive one is the cheetah itself. A female who has
grown up in captivity is quite tame and we get to meet her, pet her and even
play a little with her. Her name is Ola. If something goes wrong though, we have
no chance of escaping as the cheetah is the fastest animal on earth, running as
fast as 120km/h. She is beautiful! We see two lion adolescents playing with
each other, a leopard in a cage, Caracals, Servals… this is Paradise for cat
lovers!
After that, we drive to the Red Location, a
museum on Apartheid, situated in the township. Interesting building in the
middle of the shantytown. Unfortunately I have no photos as I didn’t want to
take out my camera. Inside the museum are various boxes showing how different
groups of people fought against apartheid: workers, musicians, politicians…
To complete our experience, we drive to the
South End museum. The South End suburb used to be a good place to live for all
sorts of people, regardless of their color: whites, blacks, colored, Indians, Chinese…
This vibrant, harmonious spirit was crushed when the Group Area’s Act came into
force. All non-whites were forcefully removed from their homes, their lives and
assigned to areas far away from the city centre of Port Elizabeth, far away
from their homes. “The museum has been designed to provide an accurate picture
of the life once enjoyed in this bustling and diverse neighbourhood. More than
this, it exposes some of the injustices experienced by non-whites, and it
honours the key figures who lived (and sometimes died) for their eternal
determination for justice and racial equality.” (http://www.southendmuseum.co.za/)
We say goodbye to our lovely host family and hop on the Bazbus to our next
destination.
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