The Good Food and Wine Show was at the convention center in Cape Town this weekend. At first, I hadn't wanted to go since I'm vegan and currently gluten-free. Gourmet food tends to be meat and dairy centered, with vegetables as either an after-thought or an enhancer, not the centerpiece. But food is a high value for both Jared and I. We eat well and very healthy and spend a fair amount of time in the preparation of food. So we really like food... It's a bit more than that actually, if we aren't preparing food, eating, or cleaning up from cooking, then we are thinking about food.
We decided to go to the show. The show was a cross between cooking demos like the Food Network channel (I always think of my friend Ae-young with cooking demos, the Food Network used to be her favorite TV channel), booths demonstrating nifty cooking tools like at the USA Oregon State Fair, samples, and wine. This being wine country around Cape Town, about 30% of the fair was different vineyards offering wine tastings of their wine. And it was free tastings! I didn't come anywhere near close to sampling them all, knowing when I reached my limit after the fortified wine booth... that red muscadel was so good, followed by the white muscadel, then the port and then the sherry. There is something so smooth about good fortified wine.
I was also delighted to find one organic vineyard that also had a low sulfite content. Apparently, all wines have a certain amount of naturally occurring sulfites that are a result of the fermentation process, but many conventional winemakers add sulfur dioxide as a preservative. According to Organic Wine Company (http://ecowine.com/sulfites) sulfur dioxide has been added to wines for 200 years. This website says many people have a low tolerance for sulfites, Jared is one of these people, so its great to find wine that doesn't have a lot of sulfites.
Cape Town has a big Muslim population so one corner of the fair was dedicated to Halaal booths. We had some veggie curry from one of them, they put the curry into this little metal-looking container and then popped it into the microwave. Jared got really nervous expecting sparks or the micro to blow up, but apparently they are special micro containers, so there was no fireworks. I was reminded of freshman year in college when the guys would put CDs into the microwaves until they cracked and the microwave turned black inside and the room smelt bad. Can't remember why this was supposed to be cool.
We finally left the show once we had been there for 6 hours and they were closing the place down. Yeah food!
Monday, June 1, 2009
Friday, May 29, 2009
Living in Nature
Yesterday while messing around Jared drew me a picture of where he would like to live. He drew a sun, trees (nature), the ocean, a house and a garden with flowers and vegetables. Then he drew some people to hang out with, and a car to drive to the city or other places to meet other people and for work. I was pretty thrilled by this little pictures of stick figures. Jared has always lived in cities and has been more reluctant to spend much time in nature. This has been changing though and now he also enjoys being in nature and out of the city as well.
Living in Cape Town has been my most citified experience of the places I've lived. We live in an apartment on the 6th floor of a building with a little balcony where my native Erica plant lives. Inside I have a handful of other plants, but I've missed having a garden and being closer to nature. I can hear the traffic outside nearly all the time. Walking around involves busy streets and loud cars.
There are definite benefits to where we live though. It's easy to get to town, easy to get to shops, and fairly easy to use the public transport system if I can figure out how to get to where I want to go (of the trains, buses, and minibus taxis it's not coordinated and there are only maps of train routes, its been very frustrating). Another benefit has been the amazing view of Table Bay from our apartment.
But I think overall I'd prefer to live somewhere quieter with a garden where I can grow some of my own food, play with plants, and easily walk into nature.
Living in Cape Town has been my most citified experience of the places I've lived. We live in an apartment on the 6th floor of a building with a little balcony where my native Erica plant lives. Inside I have a handful of other plants, but I've missed having a garden and being closer to nature. I can hear the traffic outside nearly all the time. Walking around involves busy streets and loud cars.
There are definite benefits to where we live though. It's easy to get to town, easy to get to shops, and fairly easy to use the public transport system if I can figure out how to get to where I want to go (of the trains, buses, and minibus taxis it's not coordinated and there are only maps of train routes, its been very frustrating). Another benefit has been the amazing view of Table Bay from our apartment.
But I think overall I'd prefer to live somewhere quieter with a garden where I can grow some of my own food, play with plants, and easily walk into nature.
Friday, May 1, 2009
Going Through the Front Door
A new hotel, the One & Only, recently opened in Cape Town at the V&A Waterfront. Sol Kerzner, born in South Africa but not currently living here, has built luxury hotels around the world and is also involved with gaming (helped develop the huge gambling place Sun City near Jo'burg). He is sometimes called the Donald Trump of South Africa.
The One & Only in Cape Town is his first project in post-apartheid South Africa. We'd been watching it being built from out apartment but didn't know what it was. Just another building with construction cranes surrounding it. Then one day the cranes were gone and there was news that a fancy new hotel was opening and the party was full of celebrities including Sharon Stone and Nelson Mandela.
Stories of this exclusive opening party peppered the media and finally Jared and I decided to check it out the hotel for ourselves. Along the road we usually walk to get to the waterfront there is a driveway going to a BP building and there is also a sign that says deliveries for the One & Only. It was a long way around to the front of the building so we went in this back way. We went past the loading docks with some employees hanging out smoking, but we just acted like we knew where we were going and no one bothered us. We went around the side of the building to the water, a bridge, a water fountain, and the front of other buildings along this part of the waterfront. We stopped and were looking around, when a man in a suit (security people at fancy hotels wear suits) asked us if we were residents, we said, no, we were going to the One & Only and can we get to it this way? He said no, you must go in from the front, this was for residents only. Okay we said and went back the way we came.
Fifteen minutes later we walked through the front door of the hotel. We were dressed pretty casual, but that didn't matter. Since the hotel recently opened there are quite a few people still stopping by to check it out. We went through the lounge area which is also a bar with a huge floor to ceiling window and a view of Table Mountain and Devils Peak. Outside the bar is a patio area with some chairs next to the water and then down to the right a bit is a water fountain and a bridge....ummmm yeah..... this looks familiar. Oh wait, I was just standing in this very spot just 20 minutes ago....
From this spot 20 minutes ago we had been able to see the back area of the hotel and the back entrance to the bar, though we didn't know it...but we hadn't been allowed to go that way....why? Rules probably. But it got us to thinking about back doors and front doors and which way we usually go. I'm not talking about sex here but life. I think we have been trying to go about setting up stuff here by going through the back door instead of walking up to the front, announcing ourselves and claiming our right to walk through that front door. I often feel nervous going into some fancy place, especially dressed as casual as I usually am dressed, but attitude portrays so much, and claiming the right to walk through the front door and go for it is the way to make a difference and to be big in the world.
The One & Only in Cape Town is his first project in post-apartheid South Africa. We'd been watching it being built from out apartment but didn't know what it was. Just another building with construction cranes surrounding it. Then one day the cranes were gone and there was news that a fancy new hotel was opening and the party was full of celebrities including Sharon Stone and Nelson Mandela.
Stories of this exclusive opening party peppered the media and finally Jared and I decided to check it out the hotel for ourselves. Along the road we usually walk to get to the waterfront there is a driveway going to a BP building and there is also a sign that says deliveries for the One & Only. It was a long way around to the front of the building so we went in this back way. We went past the loading docks with some employees hanging out smoking, but we just acted like we knew where we were going and no one bothered us. We went around the side of the building to the water, a bridge, a water fountain, and the front of other buildings along this part of the waterfront. We stopped and were looking around, when a man in a suit (security people at fancy hotels wear suits) asked us if we were residents, we said, no, we were going to the One & Only and can we get to it this way? He said no, you must go in from the front, this was for residents only. Okay we said and went back the way we came.
Fifteen minutes later we walked through the front door of the hotel. We were dressed pretty casual, but that didn't matter. Since the hotel recently opened there are quite a few people still stopping by to check it out. We went through the lounge area which is also a bar with a huge floor to ceiling window and a view of Table Mountain and Devils Peak. Outside the bar is a patio area with some chairs next to the water and then down to the right a bit is a water fountain and a bridge....ummmm yeah..... this looks familiar. Oh wait, I was just standing in this very spot just 20 minutes ago....
From this spot 20 minutes ago we had been able to see the back area of the hotel and the back entrance to the bar, though we didn't know it...but we hadn't been allowed to go that way....why? Rules probably. But it got us to thinking about back doors and front doors and which way we usually go. I'm not talking about sex here but life. I think we have been trying to go about setting up stuff here by going through the back door instead of walking up to the front, announcing ourselves and claiming our right to walk through that front door. I often feel nervous going into some fancy place, especially dressed as casual as I usually am dressed, but attitude portrays so much, and claiming the right to walk through the front door and go for it is the way to make a difference and to be big in the world.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
South Africa's Elections
South Africa held elections this past Wednesday 22 April. Like the governmental system of the UK, people vote for a political party and that parties' presidential candidate becomes the next President of South Africa. It was pretty much a given that Jacob Zuma would become the next President. His party, the African National Congress has had a huge majority since 1994 when South Africa held its first free election and Nelson Mandela became president.
There has been lots and lots and lots of controversy surrounding Jacob Zuma. It has filled the newspapers, and new stations. It is so complicated and goes back years, but what I have been able to piece together is that is has a lot to do with arms deals made in the 1990s when he was deputy president to Thabo Mbeki. Corruption charges were put against him, he said he wanted his day in court to prove himself innocent, then did everything he could to avoid going to court. There was evidence that perhaps Thabo Mbeki and some people around him used their political power to alter the process so that Zuma would be charged. After lots and lots of drama, the charges were dropped two weeks before the election even though the National Prosecuting Authority said there was a very strong case against him but that the way the charges came to be was inappropriate. So it it all over? It may surface again.
In the States, I think this would ruin a political candidate. Even if they were acquitted, unless they were very charismatic (think Bill Clinton) it would basically ruin them. But here in Africa people are more forgiving of this sort of thing. It's a totally different mindset.
Another controversy with Zuma was the rape he was acquitted for awhile back. He had sex with an HIV positive woman, then in order to prevent himself from contracting HIV, he took a shower after having sex. Yes, that is right, TOOK A SHOWER TO PREVENT HIV. Umm....okay. I know this country has had some issues making the connection between HIV and AIDS (Mbeki denied there was a connection for years) but, come on! A well-known political cartoonist, Jonathan Shapiro ever since has drawn Zuma with a shower head attached to his head dripping water.
In fact, Zuma is suing Shapiro for defamation. Shapiro was an anti-apartheid activist and during the apartheid regime drew political satire criticizing their policies. Now that South Africa has a democracy, he criticizes those in power now. This is a political satirists job. Nelson Mandela understood this and didn't take it personally, but Zuma is different, he is more juvenile than Mandela.
In any case, he will now be South Africa's president. It's hard to say what changes there will be if any. People are frustrated with crime, inadequate housing, lack of jobs, and poor education. They were promised lots and lots of stuff in 1994 like free houses for everyone. Some people believed everyone would be given a bank account and washing machines would fall from the sky. This hasn't all happened of course. While some people have gotten free government houses, others have been on waiting lists for over 10 years.
The election went smoothly, just a few glitches with running out of papers and long long lines. A handful of election officials were arrested when found trying to stuff the ballot boxes, but there was no violence that I heard of. Zuma started celebrating before the announcement was made that he will be the next President. I read in the paper today he could possibly hold the most expensive inauguration in South African history.
There has been lots and lots and lots of controversy surrounding Jacob Zuma. It has filled the newspapers, and new stations. It is so complicated and goes back years, but what I have been able to piece together is that is has a lot to do with arms deals made in the 1990s when he was deputy president to Thabo Mbeki. Corruption charges were put against him, he said he wanted his day in court to prove himself innocent, then did everything he could to avoid going to court. There was evidence that perhaps Thabo Mbeki and some people around him used their political power to alter the process so that Zuma would be charged. After lots and lots of drama, the charges were dropped two weeks before the election even though the National Prosecuting Authority said there was a very strong case against him but that the way the charges came to be was inappropriate. So it it all over? It may surface again.
In the States, I think this would ruin a political candidate. Even if they were acquitted, unless they were very charismatic (think Bill Clinton) it would basically ruin them. But here in Africa people are more forgiving of this sort of thing. It's a totally different mindset.
Another controversy with Zuma was the rape he was acquitted for awhile back. He had sex with an HIV positive woman, then in order to prevent himself from contracting HIV, he took a shower after having sex. Yes, that is right, TOOK A SHOWER TO PREVENT HIV. Umm....okay. I know this country has had some issues making the connection between HIV and AIDS (Mbeki denied there was a connection for years) but, come on! A well-known political cartoonist, Jonathan Shapiro ever since has drawn Zuma with a shower head attached to his head dripping water.
In fact, Zuma is suing Shapiro for defamation. Shapiro was an anti-apartheid activist and during the apartheid regime drew political satire criticizing their policies. Now that South Africa has a democracy, he criticizes those in power now. This is a political satirists job. Nelson Mandela understood this and didn't take it personally, but Zuma is different, he is more juvenile than Mandela.
In any case, he will now be South Africa's president. It's hard to say what changes there will be if any. People are frustrated with crime, inadequate housing, lack of jobs, and poor education. They were promised lots and lots of stuff in 1994 like free houses for everyone. Some people believed everyone would be given a bank account and washing machines would fall from the sky. This hasn't all happened of course. While some people have gotten free government houses, others have been on waiting lists for over 10 years.
The election went smoothly, just a few glitches with running out of papers and long long lines. A handful of election officials were arrested when found trying to stuff the ballot boxes, but there was no violence that I heard of. Zuma started celebrating before the announcement was made that he will be the next President. I read in the paper today he could possibly hold the most expensive inauguration in South African history.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Pope in Africa
The Pope was recently in Africa. His comments about how people should not use condoms in Africa does not go over well here with the high rate of HIV/AIDS. Thousands of lives are put into danger as a results of his comments.
Zapiro a cartoonist here published the following cartoon:
Zapiro a cartoonist here published the following cartoon:
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Prostitutes and Strippers
Walking along Main Rd in Green Point the other night, I noticed the prostitutes. I had seen women before standing on the street corners. They appeared to be waiting for someone, a friend I assumed, to pick them up and go out somewhere. They are indeed waiting for someone, but not the kind of friend I had assumed. I hadn't noticed them as prostitutes before because most of them are wearing the same sort of clothes other women wear. There was one who was dressed in a more flamboyant costume, but when we passed her, she looked as if she may be transgender. One of the reasons I finally noticed it the other night was because one of the women who was waiting on the corner started walking toward a car that had pulled over. As she was walking to the car, it hit me, then she opened the passenger door and stuck her head into negotiate. At this point we passed on the sidewalk, and then a minute later the car passed us with both of them inside and she was directing him to turn onto a side residential street. She was wearing jeans and a jean jacket. This part of Main Rd in Green Point in Cape Town doesn't have shop fronts, just the entrances to apartment buildings and built up walls surrounding the buildings.
Now that I've noticed it, I see them all the time in the evening and at night. Normally dressed women standing on the sidewalk and on the corners waiting. They don't seem to talk to the people walking on the street.
There is an investigative journalism TV show “Special Report” on Tuesday nights. This week was about strippers in South Africa. Back in Portland, Oregon I know at least some strip clubs don't pay the strippers and the only money they make is from tips, lap dances, and private dances. The industry is completely unregulated here and the women extremely taken advantage of. In addition to not paying the dancers, the women have to pay weekly or daily tariffs in order to work at a club. Then they are fined for things such as being a few minutes late or having their make-up slightly off. In some of the clubs, they are forced into prostitution. The private booths have locks and the fees for working at the club are so high they have two choices: to leave and work somewhere else or to have sex with their customers. Some chose to leave and find another club to dance at and others decide to slip across the line into prostitution.
Now that I've noticed it, I see them all the time in the evening and at night. Normally dressed women standing on the sidewalk and on the corners waiting. They don't seem to talk to the people walking on the street.
There is an investigative journalism TV show “Special Report” on Tuesday nights. This week was about strippers in South Africa. Back in Portland, Oregon I know at least some strip clubs don't pay the strippers and the only money they make is from tips, lap dances, and private dances. The industry is completely unregulated here and the women extremely taken advantage of. In addition to not paying the dancers, the women have to pay weekly or daily tariffs in order to work at a club. Then they are fined for things such as being a few minutes late or having their make-up slightly off. In some of the clubs, they are forced into prostitution. The private booths have locks and the fees for working at the club are so high they have two choices: to leave and work somewhere else or to have sex with their customers. Some chose to leave and find another club to dance at and others decide to slip across the line into prostitution.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Reminders I'm in a Developing Country
South Africa has a very good infrastructure for Africa. A great network of paved roads, railways, buses. Cape Town is also pretty developed and in some parts could be any city in the world. Tall banking skyscrapers, people in business attire on the streets. So sometimes I forget I am in a developing country.
South Africa is holding the World Cup next year. 2010. Big deal. Lots of construction everywhere. Particularly where I live, which is pretty close to the stadium that is being built in Cape Town that I've heard will hold semi-finals. I just look out my window and see the cranes working away. Not only on the stadium is there construction. Some roads are also getting a make-over, new lampposts are being installed, and fiber-optic cables are going in. Over a month ago at night I heard jack-hammering and looked out to see a crew jackhammering in the middle of the Main Road digging a hole. They worked throughout the night. Then they gradually worked their way up the sidewalk past my apartment. A crew of men hand dug a trench in the sidewalk with pick-axes. This was quite a sight. Manual labor is hard. I've done some trail building and using these tools is hard. Using them for 8 hours a day 5.5 days a week sucks. In the heat of summer. As I spied from my 6th floor window and as I walked by, it appeared these guys didn't even drink much water.
Once they buried the fiber optic cable they filled the trench partly with sand. Sand that had been dumped at the corner of the road. Sand that was dumped next to a storm drain and sand being sand, slid down into the drain and filled it. Not so good. Now they have completely filled the trench and laid gravel on top. On top of the gravel they've put oil. Some kind of black goopy oil. The empty oil canister is lying next the sand pile next to the storm drain and now there is black goopy oil in the storm drain. Okay, now maybe in a more developed country sand in a storm drain may not matter, but oil would. That storm drain leads directly out to the ocean and so will the oil once the winter rains come.
Another way I know I'm in a developing country: I recently read in the local paper about sewage just off-shore of a popular beach nearby. This is happening in a very upscale part of town: Clifton. As far as I know, you've got to have a lot of money to live there. There are some popular surfing spots and last year a few surfers got sick after coming into contact with some poopy looking stuff. Recently some surfers found some more poopy looking stuff and it was traced back to some rocks where it was oozing out of. Directly down from a new development. It appears the developers couldn't be bothered doing the sewage properly for the building so its just oozing into the ocean. Definitely not a good thing.
So these are the negative reminders that I am in a developing country. Jared suggests I also write about the good things that go along with being in a developing country. It's good to be balanced about it. Since not much can be relied on, it keeps things fresh and new. Since it's not as safe as the US or UK, we have to stay aware and so keep in contact with our surroundings and don't slide down into complacency and not noticing anything.
Most of all are the people. Even a lot of the South African whites here have a different sense about them compared to the US. A sense of knowing that life can be hard. And not taking things for granted. So many people in the US take so much for granted and get worked up about the most insignificant things. They get so insulated in their small communities and forget about the rest of the world. While there are constant reminders about how small the world is, there is so much to it! Here, many people are still on basic survival. They have directly experienced that life must be lived and not drifted through.
I'm reminded of the mini-bus taxis, a sort of public transport. On Friday and Saturday nights they blast trance music as they zoom about town, and on Sunday mornings they blast Africa gospel as they pick up church goers.
Another thing that is different about being here. The other day Jared and I were walking and passed a woman pushing a man in a shopping cart. He was lying in it making “wah wah” sounds like a baby and she was laughing. It was really funny.
It's all a reminder to pay attention and enjoy. Pay attention to life. Pay attention even to the great quality food I eat on a daily basis and to actually taste it, feel it in my mouth, experience the pleasure of eating and the sensations as my body embraces the basic nutrients of life. For me, I know I'll be able to buy more produce tomorrow and make more good tasting nutritious food, but for many, that knowledge isn't a part of their life.
South Africa is holding the World Cup next year. 2010. Big deal. Lots of construction everywhere. Particularly where I live, which is pretty close to the stadium that is being built in Cape Town that I've heard will hold semi-finals. I just look out my window and see the cranes working away. Not only on the stadium is there construction. Some roads are also getting a make-over, new lampposts are being installed, and fiber-optic cables are going in. Over a month ago at night I heard jack-hammering and looked out to see a crew jackhammering in the middle of the Main Road digging a hole. They worked throughout the night. Then they gradually worked their way up the sidewalk past my apartment. A crew of men hand dug a trench in the sidewalk with pick-axes. This was quite a sight. Manual labor is hard. I've done some trail building and using these tools is hard. Using them for 8 hours a day 5.5 days a week sucks. In the heat of summer. As I spied from my 6th floor window and as I walked by, it appeared these guys didn't even drink much water.
Once they buried the fiber optic cable they filled the trench partly with sand. Sand that had been dumped at the corner of the road. Sand that was dumped next to a storm drain and sand being sand, slid down into the drain and filled it. Not so good. Now they have completely filled the trench and laid gravel on top. On top of the gravel they've put oil. Some kind of black goopy oil. The empty oil canister is lying next the sand pile next to the storm drain and now there is black goopy oil in the storm drain. Okay, now maybe in a more developed country sand in a storm drain may not matter, but oil would. That storm drain leads directly out to the ocean and so will the oil once the winter rains come.
Another way I know I'm in a developing country: I recently read in the local paper about sewage just off-shore of a popular beach nearby. This is happening in a very upscale part of town: Clifton. As far as I know, you've got to have a lot of money to live there. There are some popular surfing spots and last year a few surfers got sick after coming into contact with some poopy looking stuff. Recently some surfers found some more poopy looking stuff and it was traced back to some rocks where it was oozing out of. Directly down from a new development. It appears the developers couldn't be bothered doing the sewage properly for the building so its just oozing into the ocean. Definitely not a good thing.
So these are the negative reminders that I am in a developing country. Jared suggests I also write about the good things that go along with being in a developing country. It's good to be balanced about it. Since not much can be relied on, it keeps things fresh and new. Since it's not as safe as the US or UK, we have to stay aware and so keep in contact with our surroundings and don't slide down into complacency and not noticing anything.
Most of all are the people. Even a lot of the South African whites here have a different sense about them compared to the US. A sense of knowing that life can be hard. And not taking things for granted. So many people in the US take so much for granted and get worked up about the most insignificant things. They get so insulated in their small communities and forget about the rest of the world. While there are constant reminders about how small the world is, there is so much to it! Here, many people are still on basic survival. They have directly experienced that life must be lived and not drifted through.
I'm reminded of the mini-bus taxis, a sort of public transport. On Friday and Saturday nights they blast trance music as they zoom about town, and on Sunday mornings they blast Africa gospel as they pick up church goers.
Another thing that is different about being here. The other day Jared and I were walking and passed a woman pushing a man in a shopping cart. He was lying in it making “wah wah” sounds like a baby and she was laughing. It was really funny.
It's all a reminder to pay attention and enjoy. Pay attention to life. Pay attention even to the great quality food I eat on a daily basis and to actually taste it, feel it in my mouth, experience the pleasure of eating and the sensations as my body embraces the basic nutrients of life. For me, I know I'll be able to buy more produce tomorrow and make more good tasting nutritious food, but for many, that knowledge isn't a part of their life.
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