A Day in the Life
A typical morning on my trip begins around 9:30 AM. After getting out of my warm bed I dress for the weather: June and July in Cape town is winter time in the Southern hemisphere, which translates to about 60 degrees with some days warmer or colder. Breakfast at Deco Lodge is great and I usually spend time before or after eating reading relevant research papers. Our professor shares weekly readings and for today the reading was on Bo Kaap, a Cape Malay/Southeast Asian community that is rapidly gentrifying amidst its historical place and importance to the city centre. We will be spending the afternoon doing a cooking tutorial with Gahmeeda, a cook and restaurant owner in Bo Kaap who invites people into her home for lessons and a bit of history.
As I look forward to the promise of curry and samosas for lunch, I head on the bus for our first excursion of the day: a talk with Guy Briggs, an architect at GHK firms who works on designing accessible public space. He spoke on True Rivers Urban Park, a development to transforming the racially defined enclaves of the city through a mixed use public park that bridges separate areas. As an affiliate with University of Cape Town, Guy Briggs spoke on how student ideas drove the design plan: redesign the rivers to prevent flooding and develop businesses and mixed use park space that links colored, black and white neighborhoods who were intentionally separated in apartheid city planning by natural barriers such as rivers and highways. Because of the difficulty the architect firm has had in transforming this redevelopment and integration plan to a city agenda item, It importantly noted the common disconnect between planning for social inclusion and the local processes that permit participation and planning partnerships.
With these lesson learned, the rest of the afternoon was spent in Bo Kaap cooking with Gahmeeda. Walking around before lunch I was marveled by the bright houses which represent the Muslim heritage of the area, integral to Cape Town’s touristic marketing of history and culture. Gahmeeda taught the group how to cook curry, roti bread, and samosas, a fried pastry filled with a variety of savoury fillings. I really enjoyed the process, getting to roll out my own dough and master pastry folding. After two hours of work and laughs I was able to enjoy the great meal.
Following this experience our group headed home for project time. From start to end, typically my days are structured by a guest lecture from an urban planner, historian, sociologist, activist, or non-profit professionals working on various social justice issues in the city through research or practice, and a fun cultural excursion. With the conclusion of the trip, time is allocated for field research. Thus I spent this afternoon compiling data on health access in the community and gathering pictures for next week’s presentation. For dinner I headed to Woodstock Lounge, a neighborhood grill and bar with classmates.
Although my days are long, they’re filled with fun and I’m excited to see the fruit of my research as I enter the final week of the project. Cape Town is a great place to be and learn about social exclusion given its ties to my personal experiences in Selma and Ferguson and my dedication to equity.
