Mosque, minibus, and aquarium!

On Tuesday we went to a mosque during the day and it was absolutely beautiful inside (the picture of us on the right is some of us before we left, before we put our headscarves on). When we got there they had a women’s empowerment group and there was at least two hundred women there. It was really great to see so many women there to try and better themselves. One of the amazing things that I learned in the mosque was their soup kitchen serves about 4,000 children each and everyday. I thought this was absolutely outstanding for a community that barely has anything compared to what most of us have in the United States Everyone was so welcoming there, just like everywhere else we go.

  After the mosque we went out to dinner at a Muslim restaurant and the food was actually really good. It was buffet style and they had everything from seafood, to curry, vegetables, chicken and so many more yummy things! Gram, Grandpa, Gram Roccy, and Dad you guys would all be impressed at all of the different things I’ve been trying! But that doesn’t mean I am going to eat anything besides pasta and meatballs when I get home!

On Wednesday Sarah, Nisha and I went down to the waterfront to go to the aquarium and have lunch! On our way there we took a minibus and it was my first experience on a minibus. So a minibus taxi is basically a work van and they pack as many people as possible into it. The minibus drivers race the other drivers to get to people first and it is really quite the experience. So on my first minibus taxi ride we broke down on the side of the road and we all had to evacuate the bus, talk about an interesting first experience. While walking to the aquarium we passed three seals chilling out on the dock so that was pretty fun to watch for a while! The Two Oceans Aquarium was a lot of fun and I am so glad we went. We saw all different sea creatures and each one was so neat. We also saw African Penguins and we were just in time for the penguin feeding. I was bummed while we were in there because the sea turtle was hiding so we couldn’t see him, but then on our way out THERE HE WAS J. I was so excited and grabbed a few good pictures of him. After the aquarium the three of us went to a Thai restaurant for lunch, and for the first time I used chopsticks for my entire meal! I am really becoming culturally diverse here (haha)!  On our way home we took the minibus taxi again and of course we had another interesting experience. We were on the bus in the terminal waiting to pull out and the driver was yelling at a white man, “No white people, no white people! This is the new South Africa!” He was definitely joking because he let us on but it was still sooo awkward and all we could do was laugh! So we all crammed on the bus and were mushed the whole way home, but we made it!

So it is official, I have been here for half of the amount of time that I will be in South Africa and I really cannot believe how fast it is going and how much I am loving every second of it. Cape Town is absolutely beautiful and I would really suggest everyone to put it on your bucket list! I just finished final exams and tomorrow I am off to safari for the week so hopefully I’ll have plenty of great blogs and pictures for when I come back!

Hope you had a great birthday gram! I love you J… I miss and love my friends and family so much, even if I am having the time of my life!

The back of the minibus, before ten more people got on!