It has Stellenbosch University and then lots of cool old Dutch architecture with cafes, shops, and homes. This area is also known for its wine.
Then we stopped at Berg River Dam; we saw about four dams in total on this field trip. The city of Cape Town is in desperate need of urban water. By the Water Act, every dam is required to allow 10 percent of the river to keep flowing. This is vital for agriculture and ecosystems.
Our next stop was Groendal at the informal settlements. They have electricity and dishes to be able to watch TV, but most shacks do not have running water or sewage. Apparently getting some channels from the dish is relatively cheap, but the situation does seem odd.
Peter posed a deep question to us...should the government focus on getting services put into these homes (water, sewage etc.) or should they focus on building more homes for the millions of homeless? The state at which these people live in is very unsanitary, and walking around seeing sewage going out into the gutters by the side of the road was not pleasant. We walked into a community center built by an NGO, but it was in bad shape.
We also drove through the town of Fanschoek. It is a gorgeous area, and some of the best wines come from here. We stopped at a lookout over the Berg River Basin, and Petter summed up the three environmental problems of the Berg River: (1) water, (2) informal settlements, conversion of land from agriculture, and (3) alien trees - escaped pine trees from plantations spread everywhere. They are located far up on the mountain sides, and they take immense amounts of water out of the soil.
We stopped for lunch at a babbling brooke. It made me appreciate being a part of this program and having locals show us the cool spots they know. After driving around a bit more, we stopped at a nice place with cakes, scones, tarts, bread, dried fruit, spices etc.
Peter let us all get a treat and a drink. I got a Rooibos tea latte and an apple tart. It was so good! I also bought a huge box of fresh figs (I am weird and I have a weakness for figs). I even had fig jam.
We passed by Steenbras Dam, a dam owned by the city; it has an upper dam that supplies irrigation water and a lower one that supplies drinking water. There is also an interesting pumping mechanism that harnesses hydroelectric power between them. We passed by a whole troop of baboons on the side of the road, and the babies were so cute!
Next up was a township called Philippi East. In case you do not know the terminology, townships are areas with low cost homes that are sometimes subsidized by the government (also where they forced South African black people to live during apartheid), and informal settlements are areas where people just set up shacks. They don't own where they live.
There are thousands of people living in these conditions in South Africa, and the areas are primarily South African black people, a lasting effect of apartheid. The township is where Peter's housemaid lives. He took us to her house, a house that he helped her get and that has a lot of his old stuff. It is the biggest one around.
We went inside, and one of the daughters and a baby grandchild were home along with her son who told us about his work as a cartoonist. He is the only one in the family with a chance of a better life, and the other children do not have enough schooling.
Peter's housemaid takes care of her kids, as well as grandchildren that some of her daughters abandoned. Even though this house was the biggest around, it would completely fit inside my living room area. The crime rate is very high here, and the daughter said you can't walk around outside past 8 p.m.
We passed multiple stands where meat was being sold on a table. It is open to the air with flies buzzing around, and it sits there all day long.
A cow was running around on the loose and no one seemed to care. Live chickens were being sold in crates along the side of the road. That way you could kill it and eat it fresh when you wanted. You can buy a house bit by bit and one wall at a time until you had four walls. They are primarily corrugated steel with wood bracings. A roof, floor, doors, etc. are extra.
This township was right by a nature preserve of wetlands with lots of birds. This stood out to me, as we have been taking in class about how you reconcile conserving land for biodiversity. Meanwhile, millions of people are without homes and need land.
We also drove through the Philippi urban agriculture area. One of the lecturers who came and spoke to our class gave a presentation about the area and how it has survived as a large agricultural area in the middle of the city. One of the major reasons is that there is sand that they extract for concrete and other materials.
This area provides vegetables to the major supermarkets like Pick-n-Pay and Spur, and the not so good looking produce goes to the local people in the townships. This area is vital for the city, yet there are still people who want to use the land for housing. It was sad to see a lot of trash in the fields.
