South Africa: Week 4

Week 4 was tough. We had a great time and made the best of it, of course, but the fact that it was my last week in South Africa was upsetting. Although, I'm finding as I continue to travel that such a post-travel depression is common after leaving a place where you have gotten comfortable and had so much fun. Anyway, when we came back from the road trip, Ian had a hefty school schedule and was incredibly busy for the first half of the week. Luckily, Ian's busy schedule allowed me to see some pretty cool things such as the Seven Memorial in Gugulethu, which he needed photos of for a school project, and the beautiful campus of the University of Cape Town, where I wandered for a bit while he was meeting with a Xhosa professor (Xhosa is the African language that Ian studies/speaks). Here are some photos:

The memorial was built in remembrance of seven African men who were murdered by the police during apartheid.

Oh yeah, I also finally got pictures of some local African ladies preparing goat heads in Kayamandi, which I had the pleasure of seeing every time I walked from the Prochorus Headquarters to the school where I was helping out (by the way, here is a link for the Prochorus website if you'd like to check it out):

Awesome! One of the teachers from the school actually explained the process to me at the time but I forget most of it (something along the lines of searing the hair off and removing the brains). But despite my earlier sarcasm, if you can believe it, this process and the process by which they clean chicken is really not disgusting nor unsafe for cooking/eating. Honestly, the crap they pull at Micky D's is probably far worse. Moving on... For my final day, after heading to Cape Town early to check out the top of Table Mountain, I was fortunate enough to be invited along on a yacht cruise around the city by Ian's great friends/second family in South Africa. It was the perfect way to close the trip:

  And so, my time in South Africa was over. My experience there was unlike anything I could have anticipated. The country is beautiful, exciting, and insanely unique. To be honest, it is probably only a matter of time before I try to go back. For now, however, I was off to Istanbul.