Robben Island

I was so tired last night after writing about my weekend that I didn't have a chance to tell you about what I did yesterday.  First we went to our new placement - it is still near the township of Athlone, but it is in a community center instead of a church.  The set up is a bit different than last week, and that is both good and bad.  The good thing is that there is a playground outside, but the bad news is that there aren't any classrooms - we are all in one big room, and that can get loud and chaotic really fast.  It seemed to take a bit longer for these kids to warm up to us, but they did eventually.  A few of the kids from last week came over to the community center right as we were getting ready to leave for the day, but when they saw us there they promised to be there first thing Tuesday morning - and they were.

We took a little field trip to Robben Island today.  Robben Island is where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for the majority of his almost 30 year sentence.  Our tour guide told us that Robben Island was first a home for the native South Africans, then the Dutch housed everyone who had leprosy there.  After that it became a prison.  I think one of the most interesting parts of the tour had to do with the picture of the cave above.  It is situated in the limestone quarry where the prisoners were sentenced to hard labor.  There were prisoners of all educational levels there  - from lawyers, political activists, and doctors to those who were illiterate.  Their philosophy was "Each one teach one," so they would use the sand and sticks in the cave to teach the illiterate how to read and write.

Here is a picture of Nelson's Mandela's cell.  He was kept in solitary confinement, and the kennels for the guard dogs were bigger than his cell.