On the way up the mountain...
Steven and Peter pointing out landmarks as the clouds move in...
...and me blending into the fog!After Table Mountain, we went down to the District Six Museum, which is actually housed in an old Methodist church which Dr. Storey served in the 1960's. It's an incredible museum chronicling the removal of an entire community of black and colored Cape Town residents durign the apartheid regime - but unlike the depressing museums we visited in Johannesburg, the District Six Museum is focused less on the injustice of the community's removal and more on the character and resilience of the community itself.
Plaque outside the District Six Museum, installed when it was still a Methodist church.
Then we took a walk downtown, and happened upon a giant march protesting the recent removal from office of the Deputy Health Minister of South Africa. There has been much controversy because the country is being decimated by the AIDS virus, but the Health Minister insists that AIDS is a result of poor nutrition rather than viral transmission. So people are not getting the drugs they need or taking the precautions they should. The deputy health minister was attending AIDS conferences to try to help the South African people with this giant issue, and she was removed from office and fined about $50,000 for using state money for unauthorized purposes. It's crazy. So hundreds of brave South Africans, many of them HIV positive, attended this march past the Parliament buildings to let the government know their thoughts on the health ministry.
HIV positive women march in protest of the removal of the deputy health minister.
We cheered on the protesters for a bit, and then continued on our walk to St. George's cathedral, former seat of archbishop Desmond Tutu. It's an incredible building, and just happened to be the home base for the protest march - as a result, on the steps of the cathedral we ran into Zackie Achmat - and since Dr. Storey knows him, we all were introduced! What a privilege. Zackie is the founder and leader of the Treatment Action Campaign, working to provide retroviral drugs to all South Africans who need them. He himself is HIV positive, but he publicly refused to take his medicine until retroviral drugs were made available to the public in 2003. Now he is healthy and successfully leading protests! He was the winner of the first Desmond Tutu leadership award and the Nelson Mandela award for Health and Human Rights. He's an incredible leader. And he was being interviewed in the cathedral by a woman who attended the public policy school at Duke. Small world!
Zackie Achmat being interviewed in St. George's Cathedral after the TAC-sponsored protest march.
After our protest participation and encouragement, we went out to the suburbs to have dinner with Gilbert and Jane Lawrence at their home. Gilbert and Jane are a colored couple who attended Dr. Storey's church as youngsters and were relocated in the District Six removals. They have gone on to lead extraordinary lives, Jane as an educator and Gilbert in civil service. It was a delight to spend time with them!
The group (minus Joaquin the photographer) with Jane and Gilbert.
There is much more to tell from Cape Town, but it will have to wait until tomorrow. I'll post again and try to catch up soon!
Plaque outside the District Six Museum, installed when it was still a Methodist church.Then we took a walk downtown, and happened upon a giant march protesting the recent removal from office of the Deputy Health Minister of South Africa. There has been much controversy because the country is being decimated by the AIDS virus, but the Health Minister insists that AIDS is a result of poor nutrition rather than viral transmission. So people are not getting the drugs they need or taking the precautions they should. The deputy health minister was attending AIDS conferences to try to help the South African people with this giant issue, and she was removed from office and fined about $50,000 for using state money for unauthorized purposes. It's crazy. So hundreds of brave South Africans, many of them HIV positive, attended this march past the Parliament buildings to let the government know their thoughts on the health ministry.
HIV positive women march in protest of the removal of the deputy health minister.We cheered on the protesters for a bit, and then continued on our walk to St. George's cathedral, former seat of archbishop Desmond Tutu. It's an incredible building, and just happened to be the home base for the protest march - as a result, on the steps of the cathedral we ran into Zackie Achmat - and since Dr. Storey knows him, we all were introduced! What a privilege. Zackie is the founder and leader of the Treatment Action Campaign, working to provide retroviral drugs to all South Africans who need them. He himself is HIV positive, but he publicly refused to take his medicine until retroviral drugs were made available to the public in 2003. Now he is healthy and successfully leading protests! He was the winner of the first Desmond Tutu leadership award and the Nelson Mandela award for Health and Human Rights. He's an incredible leader. And he was being interviewed in the cathedral by a woman who attended the public policy school at Duke. Small world!
Zackie Achmat being interviewed in St. George's Cathedral after the TAC-sponsored protest march.
The group (minus Joaquin the photographer) with Jane and Gilbert.
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