Sea Point

Today I got to yet another part of the city I hadn't yet been to, Sea Point. I passed the new stadium that the city is building for the World Cup soccer tournament, which Cape Town is hosting in 2010.

Green Point, where the stadium is (see pictures above), is where the city is focusing a lot of its revitalization efforts, specifically in preparation for the World Cup. There have been questions whether or not Cape Town is going to be able to handle hosting the World Cup given its crime and energy crisis (or load shedding which I've mentioned in previous blog posts). Therefore, Cape Town is trying to do as much as it can to make the World Cup run smoothly two years from now. Mayor Helen Zille is trying to stage a "war on crime" and they're making deliberate changes in the the Green Point area.

I recently read in one of the local newspapers that 40% of South Africans are seriously considering leaving the country, primarily due to crime and economic reasons. The other night I was talking to Mike, the hostel's security guard, who was originally from Congo but has been living in Cape Town for 12 years now. He is now planning to move to the UK as soon as he graduates from university because food prices have been skyrocketing since he's been here, but standard pay rates have remained the same. He studies full-time in construction management, works overnights on weekends at the hostel, and has another job during the week. And still things are getting too expensive for him given that wages have not inflated, as well.

Anyway, back to my discussion about Sea Point and Green Point... there are huge expanses of open green space between the main beach road and the water. I'm sure this is to maintain the sightline between the touristy hotels and the water, but I feel like there's some way that open green space could be used that wouldn't interfere with tourism. There were so few people out along the water today, and it was a beautiful day. A few joggers/walkers or people taking their dogs out, but it was pretty empty overall. Perhaps soccer or other sports fields could be put there along the water for youth or community sports leagues. I did see one play ground along the water, but it was completely void of users.


(If the embedded video above doesn't work, check it out on Youtube.)

Today I confirmed my booking for my next hostel, so I'm moving out to Stellenbosch for five days later this week. Woot! Should be fun. I've heard Stellenbosch is a great place with lots of great architecture. The majority of people out there primarily speak Afrikaans but most also speak English. I have learned "please" and "thank you" in Afrikaans, but my goal is to also learn to count to 10 so I can another language to my list! haha.

Talk to you all soon, I hope!