Student Project Perspectives

November 26, 2007

Week 5 - Making Progress

This past week included significant progress within our project as well as within our Cape Town experience. With our project we conducted extensive surveying on the ridership of the two bus routes that enter the CBD from the North. This weekend, we also checked two major locations we wanted to see off our list of things to do. Having passed half way, it is really setting in that we need to continue making progress on both of these fronts every week to not only have a very successful project, but also to complete everything we hope to do while we are here.

Can you spell that?

One of the key parts of our project is observing the needs of the ridership along the corridor to the north of the city. One component of their needs, of course, includes where they are starting from and where they are trying to get to in the city. We decided to develop a survey with which to collect this origin and destination information. This past week we got up early and boarded the buses at 6 a.m. an hour north of Cape Town and rode them into the city. Each of us had a member of the transportation department with us and we boarded four separate buses. Along the way we surveyed individuals on their origins and destinations as well as information regarding their major complaints on public transport. Now this task would have been difficult if it had simply been on buses in the city of Worcester. Trying to survey a crowded bus with people who in many cases are not very willing to participate is a difficult task. Now add to that the language barrier and our lack of knowledge of streets in the city of Cape Town and the difficulty of the task increases significantly.

It is true that most individuals in Cape Town use English as one of their main languages, but it's the accent that we find to be one of the main challenges that slows our progress. In many cases we encountered individuals who had difficulty understanding our accents, as well as many individuals whose accents we had trouble understanding. It wasn't uncommon for me to ask someone to spell a street name because I simply couldn't make out what they were saying. At times this could be embarrassing especially when the street name was something like "Long Street" and we were forced to ask how to spell it because we simply couldn't understand. In other cases, people would name a landmark to which they were heading and it was hard because, though it is something really obvious to an individual living in Cape Town, to us, it was something completely unknown. Overall, it was an awesome experience and in general people were very willing to help.

When it came to the question as to what was their major complaint about public transport, the issues varied significantly. In some cases it was the punctuality of the buses while in other cases it was overcrowding. One of the more interesting complaints was that many individuals disliked the fact that people smoked onboard the buses. To us, this is something very foreign because most of us have gotten used to the smoke free facilities found throughout the state of Massachusetts. In general, this fact has been something that we have had to get used to. Again, we are hearing the question smoking or non smoking in the restaurants, which is something that before coming here I had almost completely forgotten about. With the amount of individuals that smoke in Cape Town, I don't feel this city will be going smoke free any time soon.

Overall, though it was difficult at times to be on the busses talking to the locals, it really brought our project to life. We had the chance to interact with the people that will directly benefit from our project in the future and hear for the first time what they really think. I think we now see how this overall BRT project will truly transform public transport. Many individuals who currently travel on the bus for upwards of one and a half to two hours will cut that travel time in half with the introduction of this new system. This has reinforced our feelings about the need for an overhaul of Cape Town's public transport.

All the way to the tip

After getting up early throughout the week, a nice relaxing weekend with nothing to do would have been great. With only four weeks left though, there is no time for resting if we want to take in all that Cape Town has to offer. Saturday we hired a tour guide and a bus and headed out to Cape Point which is the very southwestern tip of Africa. Along the way we stopped at multiple locations including Seal Island which is basically an island right outside of Hout Bay completely covered by a colony of seals. It was really funny because the seals could really care less as we pulled up in the boat along the island. You could tell they were used to it. Probably one of the funniest things we noticed is that with so many seals on the island, if a seal in the middle wants to get out to the edge, he literally just climbs over all the over seals to get there.

After Seal Island we continued down the coast to Cape Point stopping a couple times to take in some of the amazing scenery as you can see in the pictures. The bus could only take us so far. We had to walk along paths the rest of the way to make it to the tip. At one point as we were walking and there were oceans on each side, it really hit me that this was the farthest south I had ever been and probably ever would be. To some individuals, Cape Point is considered to be the place where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans meet, and when you are there you can see why. It was a great feeling to stand on the tip and look out and know the ocean in front of you leads right to the shores of Antarctica. I would say it is one of the must see locations for any visitor to South Africa. On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at a penguin colony along the coast. The best way to describe it is to think of the penguin exhibit at the Aquarium in Boston if you have ever been. Then imagine you are able to walk down and stand right in the middle of all the penguins. It was really surreal. You could squat down less then a foot from a penguin and they really could care less. It is definitely one of those things I don't think is possible to do in the States. We really wanted to take one home but we thought the logistics of getting a penguin onto the plane would be difficult.

A little history and then "the hike"

Our Sunday began with a little bit of history. We headed over to the District 6 museum. Now District 6 is an area of Cape Town that was declared "whites only" back in the 70s during apartheid. When this occurred, the government kicked all those individuals not considered white out of District 6 and bulldozed it completely. People were literally forced from their homes in prime real estate right at the base of Table Mountain and directed to move many miles from the city based solely on the color of their skin. It really was eye-opening to see firsthand the devastating effects of apartheid. At this time, the government is currently working on rebuilding housing and moving those residents who were displaced back into District 6.

After the morning history lesson, we all put on hiking clothes and set out to hike Table Mountain. Table Mountain is a massive flat topped mountain that surrounds the city of Cape Town. About 18 of us took a taxi to the base and set off in search of a trail to climb. Now looking at Table Mountain, it is really hard to comprehend how you hike up something that looks completely vertical. We ended up coming across a trail that went up through a gorge in the mountain. As we started out we were all laughing and joking and taking pictures of the waterfalls along the path and the great views. An hour later we began to really question what we had gotten ourselves into. Though the path was still completely laid out in front of us with well constructed steps, the steps had gotten increasingly steeper and we were starting to really feel it. We ended up breaking into two groups with the faster people taking off and going ahead while the slower group stayed behind at a slower pace. I proudly stayed behind in the slower group due partially to the fact (as I would find out later) that I was hiking with both a chest and throat infection. After 1.5 hours into our journey, we knew that we were over half way and had to power through it as the path continued to get steeper. At times, the only thing to catch us if we were to fall was some conveniently placed barbed wire (though I'm not sure if I would really prefer getting tangled in barbed wire). Two hours later as we reached the top, though we were exhausted, we really had had a lot of fun and were definitely proud of our accomplishments. Side note: We thought originally the trail we "stumbled" upon was one of the easier trails on the Table Mountain. Come to find out, our luck had led us to one of the most difficult trails on the mountain. In some ways we are glad we chose that trail because our feeling of accomplishment.

The view from the top of the mountain really can't be captured in a picture though we tried. We could see everything from the construction of the stadium for the 2010 World Cup to the building in which we work everyday. Up on top you really feel like you can see the curvature of the earth below you. It is definitely something not to be missed when visiting Cape Town. The good news is there is a cable car that runs up the mountain which we conveniently took back down to the base.. walking back down was really not even considered.

With Thanksgiving break coming up there is a lot to be excited about. Not only do we only have two days of work next week, but my parents will be arriving on Monday and staying for the entire week. I feel like many of my friends are just as excited as me. The idea of seeing someone from home for the first time in four weeks is definitely very exciting for all of us.

Until next week,
-Nick