Wine Tasting, Beach Fun and Township Tour

Molo (Xhosa for,would you believe it, HELLO!)
I didn't get the opportunity to update the blog yesterday as the hostel internet connection was a bit screwed so i'm sitting in an internet cafe, a strange boss eyed man has just asked me for some money for food i compromised with him and he just took my half drunk bottle of water :I you can't possibly give money to every single person here, it's pretty scary to see so much poverty and segregation left right and centre.
There are so many different things to South Africa/ Cape Town. Yesterday for example we had a sample of the finer things in life with some wine tasting. the best part about it was probably the fact that after 2 glasses (small portions of course) of wine i was feeling slightly intoxicated, this was about 10:30 in the morning, that's what i'm talking about. we also got to try some pretty nice cheese and this fancy vineyard and the experience was mega cheap, about 20 rand which is just under 2 pounds, insane. then we visited a monument located in the hills and mountain which was a tribute to the Afrikaan language, it had a lovely view of Stellenbosch and the surrounding mountains.
Next stop was ANOTHER vineyard, as if we hadn't had enough!
After these exploits a bunch of us decided to head back to the beach, we bought some drinks (this time from the super market). a bloke came up to us trying to sell us his table and wooden ornaments that he had made, he was a big guy with the biggest nostrils i have ever seen, seriously he looked like a rhino, but he turned out to be the best part about the whole day. his name was Joseph but his nickname was 'Born Disaster' apparently...catchy. he was from Malawi and obviously pretty poor but he sat and chatted with us, i think the other guys got him a little bit drunk because he had about 3 beers and was singing alot, not that i'm complaining, he made up a pretty special song about visiting each of us in our respective countries and he had a song that he kept singing, this is now lodged in my brain, it was about the time he got arrested for trying to sell stuff without a work permit ' i reme-eh-eh-em-ber CELL 51' an instant classic. i took a video of him on my camera. He was almost as entertaining at Engels the busker in Berlin.
we also had a cool view of the most amazing sunset over the ocean which cast a beautiful orangey pink light on the clouds and mountains behind us...muhahahahah!
Today was a very different but similarly spectacular. It was far more low key and brought me down to earth with a bump. we had an educational trip and tour of Langer Township. The tour guide lives in Langa himself i think, very well spoken well dressed guy who's mother tongue was Xhosa. He educated us on the long term impact Apartheid and segregation has had on South Africa.
Before the township we visited District 6 Museum. District 6 was basically an area just outside of the central business district where during the early 20th century black, white and coloured people all lived together peacefully. the British were not happy with this arrangement and forced the black people to move out of the area into the townships further from the city centre, after a series of protest and residents refusal to be removed from the area the government bulldozed their homes! our tour guide through Langa township summed it up earlier when he said that just thinking about the politics, past and present just makes you feel disgusted. if anything i find it incredibly bazaar.

during the township tour we visited a real Shabeen, which is basically a pub, well a hut made from corrugated iron selling alcohol, the type of beer we tried tasted absolutely disgusting, our tour guide sort of got a picture of me trying the frothy concoction but it looks a bit warped. the shanty houses otherwise known as 'informal structures' were all packed together, flies everywhere. i was a bit concerned about visiting the township as i was concerned about the concept of exhibiting poverty, i was wary of being patronising, but if it wern't for these educational tours then these townships would be forever 'out of sight out of mind'- you have to see it to beilieve it, it was still pretty surreal though. i have pictures of some sheeps heads which some older ladies were selling by the side of the road, some people believe that if you eat the eyes you'll have good eye sight, ears- good hearing...so on and so forth...i try not to think about the genitals!
we also visited a traditional healer which i was excited about, i also love me a bit of quackery. he was an older guy with a husky voice and a dirty chuckle, he was quite a character and has what i can only describe as a wild cat's arse resting on his head. most of us had our photo taken with him and he would 'bless' us as our photo was taken- the blessing basically consisted of him whacking us in the face with his whip like assortment of animal tales haha! there's a great picture of me mid whack.
His 'office' was just a bit special. it was a large, dark space with some natural light and a few candles here and there. there were ointments, beads, animal parts and anatomy all over the place, it was a taxidermists dream (and probably beccas nightmare). a few notable objects included a giant tortoise shell and python skin stretching from one wall to the next, all of which was hung over head, the smell as you can imagine was quite pungent.
i spotted some condoms hanging about us as well (packaged of course!) good to see that this healer promoted safe sex, AIDs is obviously prevalent within the country.
AFTER this stop, we visited a kindergarten within another township and it was the best part of the week. the kids all sung, well more sort of screamed a song at us and then stampeded towards the group literally climbing on top of everyone and battling to get us to pick them up, i think lee had about 4 kids on her at one point, and a few of the kids groped us in places :s they were incredibly cute though and so friendly. our guide put on his music in the tour bus and all of us were sort of dancing and jigging with the kids to the music. The kids were so warm and friendly and obviously just love company, i'm really looking forward to getting started in the pre school now.
tonight is our last night together probably, as tomorrow we all go to our host families, i'm staying with maddie. unless we all decide to coordinate our activites at the same time it probably will be our last group activity with all 8 of us. hopefully tonight kareoke will be on the cards.

this was a pretty long post today but hopefully once i find a way to post photos up i shall do so asap.
byezibyebye