It's a different world over here.

Today we met a very special 80 year old man by the name of Ahmed Kathrada. He told us stories about fighting against Apartheid alongside Nelson Mandela. Both of them were imprisoned at Robben Island (for 13+ years), where we planned on sailing to later on in the day. He was joking with us about the time when he and a few other prison mates were released on a rainy day. They rented a car to bring them from Cape Town to Jo’Burg and drove the entire way with the windows down because they thought they were broken… to then learn (after being soaked) that there's a button that opens and closes the windows! Ha! Can you crank up the heat? It's kind of cold in here! (Above is a lovely picture of yours truely with Mr. Kathrada)

Mr. Kathrada told us what it was like to be kept in maximum security at Robben Island. (Here is a picture taken outside of Mandela's cell, which is the one on the far right). Mandela was treated worse than Kathrada because Mandela’s skin is “black” and Kathrada’s is “colored” (In America, he’d be Indian). (Hold on to your hat everybody, I'm about to rant here). Does it really freakn matter what color your skin is? This still goes on today in South Africa! Apartheid is still alive. People are labeled as COLORED. Barack Obama is COLORED. Anybody who isn’t black or white is colored. Indian, Asian, a mix, whatever it is. It’s pure ignorance. Is it that hard to label somebody by the name they were given at birth? Why do they have to be judged by the color of their skin? I just want to take these students with me to the states where they can get ahead by their intelligence and their dreams. I’m not saying that we’re perfect in America, but we’re definitely two steps ahead of South Africa.

Wow, sorry about that… Anyway, one last noteworthy point: The lecture with Mr. Kathrada ended with an African TSiBA student saying, “Thank you for sacrificing your youth so we could have our freedom.” (Sigh)… It’s a different world over here.

We made our way to the Waterfront and awaited the ferry to bring us to Robben Island. On the island, we got on a bus which toured the torture camp. We pulled up to the Limestone Quarry, the place where Mandela spent countless hours hammering away at limestone to bring it from one end of the quarry to the other, and then vice versa the next day. This is actually the place where he lost most of his eye site. There were some days that the sunlight was so intense that it beamed off the white limestone and caused eye damage that he still suffers with today. When photog’s take Mandela’s picture, he requests that they don’t use a flash. Here's a picture of the limstone quarry.

I'm signing off now, see you next time :)