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These are recent stories - the rest are in my latest book,"Walking Through Adversity."

Stories about Africa

Rob bryant
2006-01-08 23:15:10

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side of the cape. Each evening I would roll around to the shops, restaurants and waterfront to meet people and buy momentos. The mountains rose from the ocean floor literally all around Cape Town and was a deep green that evolved to jungle on the inward side of the mountains. The temperature is a mild 65-85F almost year round due to its extreme southern position (same latitude as Australia). The ocean water is in the 40�s as it originates in Antartica just south of S. Africa. Great White sharks frequent the shallow waters here just off the beach causing many shark alarms per day. The classes I taught there were so much fun as there were many nationalities and languages represented so communication was a challenge even though speaking and understanding English was a requirement. The people were delightful, laughed at my American humor and I made life-long friends. One evening I took a tram 3,000 feet straight up to the top of Table Mountain which overlooks the ocean, harbor, islands and city (http://www.tablemountain.net/main/index.asp#). A brochure explained that there are more types of fauna on this one mountain than the entire United Kingdom. I was surrounded by clouds which covered the dark green mountains like a white tablecloth. I could see South to the Cape of Good Hope and North toward deepest Africa. Capetown�s harbor, Islands, city and surrounding country unfurled below me like a welcome mat. On the west side, the sheer cliffs dropped off to the white beaches below with deer, zebra, gazelles, and other strange animals roamed the green hills below. A never-ending stream of ships from around the world headed into the harbor. Of all the sites I�ve seen in the world, this was one of the most spectacular (www.aboutcapetown.com).

Erik - Erik was my African driver and we spoke during the drives to and from the class each day. The racial problems they�ve had here in the recent past was truly herefic. Erik�s father was beaten and lost his job to white employees during the unrest here between the races just 15 years ago. His grandfather was poisoned by local witchdoctors from his tribe. Hearing his calm description of the extreme prejudice that existed here in the recent past and still plagues the people here was alarming.

The Long Day - After sleeping in, Peter and Jill Deering (my hosts) took me out to the Wine Vineyards of Capetown (web site) deep in the mountains. It was wonderful and we had lunch at a chateau high in the mountains with a breathtaking view. Then it was off to the airport for 36 hours of flights and layovers from Capetown to London to Miami to Baltimore. After just five hours of sleep in over 48 hours, I slept a few hours before going to work in Baltimore at the National Security Administration.

Copyright by Rob Bryant

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