Day 3 - Vicky's B&B

Day 3

I woke up early morning with the goal of making it to table mountain before sunrise on day 3, we were only thwarted by teensy little fact that the trams up and down don't start running till eight.  We passed time with a leisurely breakfast and made our way to the top later in the day. We hiked around, napped in the shade, absorbed the views and took too many photos before heading back down and to lunch. It was there that I discovered my long dormant talent as a food photographer, I may just have to drop out and follow that as a career path.

For the evening was a recommendation from past voyagers, I was going to go back to the townships, this time Khaylitshe, and spend the night at Vicky's Bed and Breakfast. The only hitch was getting there.

"You don't want to go to Khaylitsche, even the locals don't go there."

"The trains are too dangerous! Why do you want to go there?"

Every verbal reaction was reflected in a complete change in facial expression as well, needless to say this got us a little worried. Don't worry parents, I took caution and ended up chartering a taxi who knew the area to take us to the township. Well in the end we made it and it turns out, at least in my experience, those fears were unwarranted. The townships are a vibrant, overflowing with a sense of community and lately they have been improving rapidly. Those shacks much like those seen in District 9  are being replaced with houses and apartment buildings. In Sector-C of Khayelitche, this is especially true due to the work done by Vicky. We arrived in the evening and toured the township where some shacks still remain, though the people living in them don’t spend much time in there. The kids are playing soccer with each other in the streets, the parents are grilling  chicken feet, making fat cakes or  crafts along the side of the road when they aren't just hanging out. I was truly jealous of how integrated the community was in this place versus the U.S. where I don't know half of the people living on the street of 6 houses I have lived on my entire life. The dinner I had that night was one of the greats of this trip and was cooked entirely by the middle daughter of the family. My friend and I bummed around the kitchen while she was cooking and spoke with her about her favorite music (Lady Gaga), her interest in law and her role in the school play the week before we had come last.

The next morning her husband, who had built the entire Bed and Breakfast by hand, took us around the township and showed us some of the sights. We met a man who made flowers from trash found on the side of the roads, taken to a hill overlooking the entire township and the local craft market to do our part at boosting the local economy.

Later in the week when I returned to the ship, this is the experience I chose to write about in one of my classes. Below you will find the essay I wrote describing Vicky's  transformative role in her township and a little insight into her experience during apartheid:



In the video “The Girl Effect” (look it up on youtube!) two tales are told about a single girl. The first, it is the reality we see in many developing countries today, a girl who never made it to school, is married off early in her teens, has kids and ends up dealing with HIV and hunger with little to no say in the matter. The story is then retold; this time with that same girl actually having an opportunity for an education, she gets a loan and opens her own successful business, she gains the respect of her town and is ultimately asked to serve on the city council. Well in South Africa I met the “girl” from story number two and her name is Vicky.
Vicky had made it all the way up to her third year in college for Electrical Engineering by the time classes became too expensive. She applied for her grant from the apartheid government to continue with schooling under her name of Vicky Bowman, and as a result of her academic record was selected for a face to face interview with the awards council. To begin the interview, the placed a pencil into her hair as a test of race, her lighter complexion combined with her name indicated that she was “colored” as opposed to “Black” or X’hosa as she was in reality. The test was whether the pencil would fall out or not, if it did she would be considered “colored” else she would be labeled as “black” severely diminishing her chances of receiving aid to continue on with school. It fell, leaving her with what she described as one of the most difficult decisions of her entire life. Deny her heritage so she can continue on and complete her college education? Or disclose her X’hosa heritage and deal with the repercussions.
In the end, she chose the latter, was denied the scholarship and ended her college career then and there. She stayed in Khayelitsha, but she did so armed with an education. Soon she noticed tourists, cameras blazing, passing through her township in tour buses more and more frequently without ever actually stepping foot in the townships.  She approached the companies arranging these tours and requested that they would stop by her house from time to time so she could provide the visitors with another side of the story. She started inviting these people into her home to stay the night and over time it grew so popular that she decided open a bed and breakfast with her husband to meet the demand.
Her bed and breakfast has had incredibly far reaching effects throughout the community and has more than doubled in size since its creation. She’s worked with her neighborhood to reduce crime in the area, which has led to more guests feeling comfortable staying there. Those guests, in turn, have donated heavily to schools and other causes within the township, providing money, books, underwear, toothbrushes, uniforms and more to kids throughout the neighborhood. In addition, this steady stream of tourists in the township has provided a boost to the local economy, benefiting the craft market, the food stalls and even the local pub which was just recently able to afford a renovation as a result. All of that has further increased motivation to keep the area secure resulting in a truly stunning transformation of this township neighborhood in the span of a decade.
My time at Vicky’s Bed and Breakfast emphasized to me the importance of empowering developing areas to take control of their own destinies. This one woman has transformed her neighborhood through her ingenuity, resourcefulness and most simply because of the fact that she was given the chance to. Her story is a shining example of how engaging a nation’s entire workforce can accelerate its development. This experience has also shown me that with the rapid and extensive globalization our world is experiencing today, any country not taking advantage of their entire talent base –i.e. women- is going to be left at an almost insurmountable disadvantage. It only makes sense that it would be advantageous for all global citizens start off on equal footing with no artificial barriers such as gender or race to stand in the way. If not for purely ethical reasons, it stands to logic that a country could reap tangible benefits by removing any unnecessary obstacles from the path of any citizens trying to contribute to their country socially, artistically, scientifically, spiritually or economically. Vicky’s story is only one of many that are being written daily; let’s just hope that trend continues.

P.S. Just a little follow up on the story, Vicky is now on the City Council equivalent for her town and is the one in charge of all of the construction for the new houses and apartments being built. It is truly an amazing story.