Tour of the Slave Lodge and visit to the US Consulate

Thursday September 8th 2011


Today was another interesting day. Departed in the morning to downtown Cape Town to spend the morning touring the Slave Lodge. I didn’t know much about South Africa’s history but this tour and museum enlightened me on the subject. In the 1600s many slaves from western Africa and mostly across the Indian Ocean came to Cape Town and served the colonists there. It was really interesting to learn about because I had no idea that South Africans come from so diverse a background. The tour was given by a woman named Lucy who was soo passionate about the subject. She spoke about the importance of knowing ones background and how the majority of the people of Cape Town do not discuss or know about their true background. The museum we were in was literally a slave lodge which was a warehouse back in the 1600s used to store company slave workers.

After the Slave Lodge, we had lunch at Mariam’s Kitchen where I had delicious middle eastern food! I’m doing a really good job at trying new foods and usually eat whatever is suggested by the workers at restaurants as their staple food!

After Mariams we got on the bus and went to the American Consulate of South Africa. It was pretty intense and they wouldn’t even let us take any pictures, but pretty much we were sat down in a room and told that the best way to stay safe in this country is to get on a plane to the US. Very nice! After the “scaring” of us, the guy giving us the speech invited us to a marine farewell party next weekend! Should be fun!!

Later tonight we went to a restaurant called “Blue Chip” where there was a live jazz band. Joe, the man who had given us a tour of the District 6 museum earlier in the week, was there and even got up and sang “What a Wonderful World” to us! He was an excellent jazz singer and had us all swaying and singing along! The original jazz band was soo great and even got all of us up and dancing including Vernon and Parks (our driver/body guard who pretty much resembles Mike Tyson). Over all excellent night!