The Company's Gardens and the Choir

2/24

For our last day in South Africa, we stayed in town, shopping and walking about. We visited a natural history museum, which had more examples of rock and cave art, and spent the afternoon in the Company's Gardens – a botanical preserve that dates back to the time of the Dutch colonials (Dutch East India Company) and is filled with shady paths, fountains, lots of birds and glorious gardens.

We acquired a Sunday paper in English, and caught up on the important news (the Oscar predictions, JLo's pregnancy and the further trials of Brittany…). I was interested to read the weekly feature that highlights one brave person who went for HIV/AIDS testing this week – there is a movement in this country to get every man, woman and child tested, and if you are the brave person who goes for the test, then you challenge 5 of your friends and relatives to get tested too, and their names are printed in the newspaper.

Learning about the spread of HIV/AIDS in this country has been a real eye-opener for me – an entire generation of orphans and households run by children. The last president of South Africa denied that HIV/AIDS had anything to do with sex and wouldn't allow education on the subject, and good old George Bush offered financial aid to the country, but only if the education about AIDS promoted abstinence (not just for the young people – for the whole country!). The people started educating themselves at a grass roots level, and getting the word out about testing and treatment over their public Cape Radio. They still have a long way to go, but the work has started.

During our last evening in port, a high school choir from the District Six township came aboard to give us a concert. About 30 young people, they were dressed in faded school uniforms, and had the vocal power of 300… They opened with the benediction that my St. Thomas choir sings each week, "The Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord lift his countenance upon you, and give you peace…" Anybody who knows me, knows that I was on my second Kleenex by the end of that song…

They sang for over an hour, a capella, in at least four languages, and raised the audience to their feet more times than I could count (and did some great dance moves which I'll be bringing home to show Pat and the St Thomas choir!) Their director shared that the students don't read music, they don't have a piano at the school, and learn and harmonize all their songs by ear, only using a pitch pipe. At the end of the hour, the choir sang themselves off the stage and down the gangway, followed by hundreds of SAS students yelling for an encore, The choir reassembled on the dock and sang one final song as the students hung over the side of the ship and cheered. It was a magical end to our stay in Cape Town…