27 Apr 2009 – …Must Come to an End

The cold rain that fell steadily on Saturday confined most of us to the house, either packing or finding ways to pretend it was not our last full day in Cape Town. Some people did brave the weather to head into town or to the Laundromat, the latter of which was a must-stop for anyone who’s laundry had not yet dried on the line (indoors or out) because of the wet weather. Packing wet clothes for an international flight was trouble we’d rather avoid.

By Saturday night, the election results had been finalized: Zuma’s ANC took 65.9% of the national vote with a 77% voter turnout across the country. The DA won 16% of the vote, Cope won 7.4%, and the other 24 parties running in the national election all won smaller percentages. The DA won more than half of the Western Cape, so for the first time, the ANC has neither two-thirds of the seats in Parliament nor the claim that it represents all regions South Africa.

(And as I’ve finally tracked down the photo I captured months ago on the steps of Parliament with my supervisor’s camera… here is a picture of South Africa’s next president.)


For our last day in South Africa, the weather fortunately turned in out favor. As we ran about the house packing, cleaning, and stuffing bags full of clothes and items to donate, there was a palpable feeling of resignedness within the group. A few of us ran out for very last minute items or for a final jog around the Commons, but generally, the hours between 9 and 5 saw the fifteen residents of 10 Loch Rd neatly folding up and packing away the last four months of their lives in Africa. We also did our best to check the list of items to return things to the proper places in kitchen drawers and bedrooms, and we cooked as much of the leftover food as possible. At six o’clock, we gathered in the upstairs Common Room with Ben for a final house meeting before leaving, and we did our best to vocalize our thanks and appreciation for all he’s done the last four months as both our RA and our friend. Naturally, the room dissolved into tears and sniffles as we shuffled back downstairs and lugged our suitcases out through the gates to Parks and the waiting van. We loaded the trailer, and then, now devoid of our South African keys and cell phones, waited outside in relative silence for the twenty minutes it took for Ben to fetch Marita and her luggage and meet us. The cool air and dusky light made the moment all the more nostalgic as we gazed wistfully back at the sliver of house that we could still see over the cement wall. We took turns saying goodbye to Parks as we waited.I’d decided to take my chances getting the baby guitar on the plane as a carry-on item, so I had the instrument in hand as we waited. Jordan was also planning to carry on her bongo, and Dan decided to pull out his harmonica, so between the three of us, we were bound to look like a traveling band once we reached the airport. Vernon and Esmé were waiting to bid us farewell at the international terminal, where we congregated in the entryway with our loads of luggage and rather forlorn expressions. Emily G and Steph Y are staying in the country a few more weeks, and the tearful goodbyes continued until we had to move on through the passengers-only gate to check in. We checked our luggage without any trouble, despite fears that many of the bags would be overweight and call for hefty fines, and then we said our last goodbye to Ben at the foot of the escalator to our gate. Having been together for months, leaving pieces of our group behind felt like abandoning parts of ourselves; it was both sad and surreal.We had several hours to kill in the airport, so most of us had dinner at a café in the terminal. A few people contemplated accepting an offer to take a flight the following night because of over-booking on our plane, but in the end, we all boarded the KLM flight around 10:30. Shortly thereafter, the thirteen of us and Marita bid South Africa its final farewell as we took off on the first leg of our 22-hour trip back to the United States.
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Thank you all for following the blog over the last four months. It’s been a great way to keep people up to date with our adventures and experiences in South Africa this semester, and I’m happy to have been able to share these things with you from halfway around the world. For more pictures from the trip, don’t forget to check out the link to the "SA Flickr Album" on the upper right hand side of this page.

Thanks.