Hi good readers,
I depart from the norm here and post a first hand account by one Flemish visitor to our shores.
The short visit by Marc Boeckx (author herein) and Inge Fonteyne, his wife, took place from 26/03/2014 to 09/04/2014.
The rest, apart from my small corrective edits, is Marc's report:
Our aim of the journey was clear ;
1) visit Sarah enrolled in a traineeship
2) see as much as possible of the nearby region
Arriving late at night at the airport a shuttle bus took us to the Green Hotel. The boy carrying our Luggage to the room explained in detail why this is a green hotel.
The day after we drove by rented car to Sarah's guest house. The guest family granted us an overwhelming warm welcome. Short after we explored the nice and friendly city of Stellenbosch.
Our tour then started, heading for the wine region Franschhoek. Beautiful wine estates in peaceful areas, always run by white people ; we here realised the difference between rich owners (white people) and the workers (black people). I hope the workers gain a decent salary so they can raise their family, send children to school. When moving to Oudtshoorn some 350km eastwards, we had the same impression ; heavy road work done by only black people, never a mixture in a team.
We didn't go into a township, although very interested to learn how people get around here.
During all the journey we mainly saw white South Africans and tourists ; why where we so little confronted to the black population? What did we do wrong in organising our trip? So to us it very much looks like
Apartheid, still today, a denomination we thought had disappeared!
How does the (new) government compete with this.
However, our overall impression about the region we visited, particularly all the people we addressed ourselves to, has marked our impression in a very positive way. We earlier visited some countries in Asia and Canada and are familiar with other cultures.
Here we directly felt like home, at ease, comfortable, but above all
HAPPY!
Those were Marc's words and I am happy to hear readers' comments!
Keep travelling safely!
I depart from the norm here and post a first hand account by one Flemish visitor to our shores.
The short visit by Marc Boeckx (author herein) and Inge Fonteyne, his wife, took place from 26/03/2014 to 09/04/2014.
 |
| Fltr: Author Marc Boeckx, Inge Fonteyne, Sarah Fonteyne (all Belgian) , Evy Olivier, and Ron Olivier (South African) on a wine estate. |
Our aim of the journey was clear ;
1) visit Sarah enrolled in a traineeship
2) see as much as possible of the nearby region
Arriving late at night at the airport a shuttle bus took us to the Green Hotel. The boy carrying our Luggage to the room explained in detail why this is a green hotel.
The day after we drove by rented car to Sarah's guest house. The guest family granted us an overwhelming warm welcome. Short after we explored the nice and friendly city of Stellenbosch.
Our tour then started, heading for the wine region Franschhoek. Beautiful wine estates in peaceful areas, always run by white people ; we here realised the difference between rich owners (white people) and the workers (black people). I hope the workers gain a decent salary so they can raise their family, send children to school. When moving to Oudtshoorn some 350km eastwards, we had the same impression ; heavy road work done by only black people, never a mixture in a team.
We didn't go into a township, although very interested to learn how people get around here.
During all the journey we mainly saw white South Africans and tourists ; why where we so little confronted to the black population? What did we do wrong in organising our trip? So to us it very much looks like
Apartheid, still today, a denomination we thought had disappeared!
How does the (new) government compete with this.
However, our overall impression about the region we visited, particularly all the people we addressed ourselves to, has marked our impression in a very positive way. We earlier visited some countries in Asia and Canada and are familiar with other cultures.
Here we directly felt like home, at ease, comfortable, but above all
HAPPY!
Those were Marc's words and I am happy to hear readers' comments!
Keep travelling safely!
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