This is gonna be a big one.

     I have discovered a few things since being in South Africa.  I will mention two.  One, I am allergic to SOMETHING out here.  I don't know what it is, but I am having allergy issues out here which I never had at home.  Two, beetles aren't harmless.  They actually bite.  I have like five or six bites on my left calf proving it.  I am not super happy about it.

     I didn't write last night because was so tired when we got home from Robben Island.  As the title says, this will be a big one because I have all of yesterday to write about and all of today.  Luckily for y'all the Robben Island information will be based mainly around pictures, so it will be less writing.

This is the boat we were on to go to Robben Island.  On the way there we were outside, but it really hurt my ears by the time we got there so we were inside on the ride back.

There was this random pirate ship sailing around.  It made me giggle.



There was this wall around the island with these tall white blocks.



These were the walls of the prison.  I will tell you how they were made later.



This is a picture of the men being shipped to prison.



This building was the building that if you had a visitor you would go.  Visitors would have to apply 6 months in advance in order to be approved (if they got approved) to visit their family.  No physical contact was allowed nor was talk of politics.



These were the first men every to be sent to Robben Island as prisoners.  They actually had to build the prison that they lived in, including the walls that held them in.



This is the fence to the maximum security prison.



I don't know why, but this one keeps uploading sideways.  This is an explanation of the food colored people would be given.  There were different "menus" for whites, coloreds, and blacks.

There are five of these towers that had a security guard in them 24/7.



This is an example of a prisoner's information.



This is the courtyard.  They would either do work in the courtyard or play sports.  The prisoners were allowed to play sports as long as they "behaved".  They were not allowed to talk politics, so one of the ways they communicated political things to others is by playing tennis.  The men would place information in the tennis ball and "accidentally" hit it over the fence.  As the guards were laughing at how "bad" they were, the other prisoners were reading the political note.  Pretty smart right?



This is some of the work they would do in the courtyard.



This is Nelson Mandela's "garden".  They are actually grapes, but they didn't taste good because of the salt water.



Nelson Mandela's cell.  He was actually allowed to study special hours for some reason.  A lot of the men were able to get educations while in prison.

 

Maximum Security.



Before Robben Island was a prison, it was a colony of lepers.  This is one of the many graves for these sick people.



The house on the left actually holds a really interesting story.  There was a man named Robert Sobukwe who was a political leader who founded the Pan Africanist Congress.  Obviously, the Apartheid Regime didn't like him at all.  He was particularly against the Pass Laws which required black people to carry around an almost passport looking thing.  He encouraged his followers to march to police stations with either no Pass book or to burn/tear the pass book in front of the police station.  He was arrested at this point and sent to Robben Island for three years.  While he was in prison, his followers didn't stop following him so the Apartheid Regime got scared and passed a new law which made it legal to arrest him for no reason and whenever they wanted.  This became known as the Sobukwe Clause.  He is the only man who this applied to.  As soon as he got out of prison, they arrested him again.  They eventually put him in solitary confinement in that house.  Because of this fact he developed mental problems, lost his ability to speak, and developed throat cancer.  The Apartheid Regime didn't want him to be considered a martyr, so they "released" him, rearrested him, and put him on house arrest where he stayed until he died of the lung cancer.



The man in the middle is Robert Sobukwe.



Originally the convicts were held in the same prison, but since the political prisoners started to influence the convicts to be politically savvy they separated them.  This is where the convicts would stay



These courts were made by the prisoners, but they weren't allowed to use them.



This is one of the hospitals of the original leper colony.



This used to be the school, but it closed because there were only 12 students.  They now have to take a boat to Cape Town in order to go to school.



Just in case y'all don't know, fire happen here all the time due to how hot and dry it is.  I know it's not very clear, but across the water you can see part of the town on fire.



Table Mountain!



Funny story: This gun was made for battle in war, but it was finished two years after the war ended.  Ironic.



This is the lighthouse.



The Lime Quarry is almost a bittersweet place.  This is a place they would take prisoners just to do work for no reason.  The prisoners would dig tunnels in the lime stone all day long.  The big issue with that is the fact that dust from the lime stone is not healthy.  Nelson Mandela is unable to cry to this day because the limestone dust ruined his tear ducts.



This is one positive thing about this place.  This pile of rocks is a monument.  The political prisoners came to this spot when they were released and pretty much said that they wanted to move on and work together to better South Africa.  Each political prisoner who visited placed a rock on top of this pile of rocks to represent them coming together for the better good.



Another positive thing is this cave.  This cave is where people would eat and poop and rest and such.  They also studied here when they were given breaks.  This was called the "University" and even some of the guards were taught by people like Nelson Mandela who were educated.



After Robben Island, we went to Waterfront mall where I saw this sign and had to have a picture of it for my precious puppy. =]



      When we got home last night I made some pasta salad so I wouldn't have to cook today when I got home.  The kids in my class wanted to push our buttons today.  The first class we taught was the girls only class and we talked about feelings and the proper way to express them.  The girls are normally well behaved, but when you add the boys to them things get a little out of hand.  Our teacher actually stepped in today to discipline a boy, but the way he did it was kinda messed up.  He asked the boy to come to his desk and kneel at his desk.  After the boy was on his knees he started throwing papers off his desk onto the ground.  He then made the boy pick them all up.  I was shocked at how demeaning it was.  He certainly should have been punished, but I didn't feel that was appropriate.  We talked about art and how to express feelings in art.  All the kids got to draw in their work books (that were so kindly donated by Vanessa's boyfriend's family) and some of them were really good!  A lot of the kids asked us to do a slide show to show them our families and such so we will be doing that next week.  I asked Tyler to write something for the blog, and this is what he gave me.

     "Today was a good day.  It was overcast. Train ride was 10 minutes. The train was yellow. The train was loud. I love lamp.  Today we talked about the importance of culture with the chitlins. Throughout the semester we are talking about a different continent every week and so this week we talked about North America. Every week the chitlins are going to draw the flags of some of the countries on that continent in their passport booklet they made today. Good day."

     He thought that he was being funny, but obviously didn't think I would actually post it on the blog.  I hope this wasn't too much information to read all at once.  Tomorrow is just Xhosa class, so it should be pretty short.  Hamba Kukuhle.