The girls and I headed out early to go shopping on the Waterfront. We visited two marketplaces called the Red Shed and the Blue Shed. These places are extremely unique. South Africa has a system where public and private come together to help men and women form their own businesses. One must submit a proposal to the board in order to be considered. If you have worked hard and submit a unique, satisfactory proposal and are accepted, they set you up with a place in the blue shed where you are able to sell your product. Once in the blue shed, you must work hard to make your product and find consumers willing to purchase it. If you reach a certain quota, you are allowed to move to the red shed which is located inside the mall. If the same thing happens you then continue on to become a vendor in the mall and eventually may become a shop owner in the area. However, if you do not put in the effort and do not receive enough sales, your funding from the public/private sector will be cut and you are no longer able to sell your product in the sheds.
South Africa does not have a welfare program for their poor, so they have to work to be able to earn a living. This program enables hardworking South Africans to start their own businesses. One woman we met traveled for almost a year from the township she was living to Cape Town in order to submit her proposal just to be denied. She worked hard and received help putting together a new proposal and was accepted. We met her while she was working in the red shed. She has come a long way from where she was almost 5 years ago.
In the afternoon we traveled to Robben’s Island, the location of the prison where many political prisoners were held from the 60s to the early 90s. Nelson Mandela was held here for 18 years out of his 27 year sentence before he was released. On the island we saw the maximum security prison where he and all other political prisoners were held and also the medium and minimum security prisons where convicts were held. In 1991, all political prisoners were released from Robben Island prison and all other prisons in South Africa. This marked a turning point in the South African history of apartheid.
This day was a day filled with understanding and realization of what many black South Africans went through in apartheid and still continue to go through today trying to work their ways out of poverty.
On our return to Cape Town, we went out to eat at an Italian restaurant on the waterfront. With our meal we enjoyed a couple glasses of Sauvignon Blanc, a South African white wine, and talked about our days with the group. For dessert we had the most amazing homemade ice cream with a chocolate fondue cake. It was quite the night on the waterfront.
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