A La Cape Town!

I know this might throw some people off because I am posting so quickly, but yesterday was quite a day.

The first full day I was here (last thursday), there were only 3 of us in the house so we had decided to walk down Long street, one of the main streets that has everything on it- delicious restaurants, bars, clubs, grocery etc. We were a few feet away from an intersection when an unidentifiable white van pulls up, and within 10 seconds a man throws open the side door, hops out, and says something about us getting into the van. Now, I don't know about you all, but I had just watched the movie Taken and was not about to jump in with some strangers. So we shook our heads, and walked quickly across the street.

This van, I learned later, is in fact a minibus. There are 4 major forms of transportation in Cape Town: train, city bus, minibus and taxi/rikki. The minibuses are the cheapest and most convenient forms of transportation. They aren't actually run by the city, but instead by various groups who have several vans and drivers under their name. There is a minibus terminal though, where all of them line up and have signs saying where they are headed. While the signs indicate the general direction of the minibus they aren't set in stone, as we found out later on. The minibuses are essentially these 10-seater vans that have a driver and a guy whose job is to collect the fare and also convince other people they need a ride to their destination. There are official stops for them, but these are also not set in stone, as we found out later.

So our exercise was as follows: take a minibus from kloof street (a 10 minute walk from the manor) to the main bus terminal in downtown, and then one to the Red Cross Hospital from there. We head out at around 11:30 to Kloof street and right away a van goes by and stops for us. He confirms that he's going downtown, but the van is looking completely full to me so I wonder how we're going to fit (there were 4 girls). This is how: I squeeze into the 3-seater back (making us 4 people), and 2 seats can be pulled down from the wall into the aisle. Then one sat in the front seat while the money taker sat on the edge. This leg cost us 5 Rand (it is about 7.6 Rand to a dollar right now)

We arrive at the terminal with no problems and head toward the sign for Heldveld (the direction of the Red Cross Hospital). The terminal is split into like 10 lanes, and each lane is for a particular direction. Minibuses from all companies line up in these lanes and as soon as the first one is full it departs. Anyways, we get to the sign and a man asks where we are going, and then takes us to another van. In order to get business they will go out of their way to reach your destination.

We get in this minibus more comfortably and begin our journey. Not to scare my parents or anything, but none of us really knew where we were going. The minibuses are safe in the daylight, but there is a worry about pickpocketing etc. So we're on this bus and this one is playing some tunes! They played superstar (by Mya) but with different lyrics, and then they played a remix version of I Don't Wanna Know (By Mario Winans). So on our first minibus ride, us 4 american girls were singing along to some good music, getting laughed at by the Capetonians in the bus.

Anyways, we reached our destination easily and successfully completed our mission. The way back was also fun because this guy was really into attracting customers, since there were only 6 people in the minibus. He was continuously yelling out the window "A La Cape Town!" and calling specific people out to see if they wanted to get on. At one intersection he actually got out of the van and asked every person he saw if they needed to go downtown. The van door looked like it was hardly going to stay on, probably from being opened and shut so many times.



I, unfortunately, may not be taking the minibus to my internship everyday because the cost will add up (roundtrip would be R26, a.k.a $3.50) and there is a shuttle through the Univ. of Cape Town (called the Jammie) that goes nearby as well. However, I now know that a stranger that asks me if I want to get in his van isn't trying to abduct me. He just wants to take me to my destination...for a fee, of course.