I was swept off my feet by the beauty of this country...and how easily I was fooled.
Cape Town is the most breathtaking city I have ever been in. In fact, it is so amazing that it manages to cover all the flaws and struggles of the people living here.
No where in the sunsets, ocean, mountains, Long street, music, or cute coastal shops do you see the blemishes.
No where in those things do you see the violence that tore and is tearing apart the lives of its citizens.
No where in those things do you see that out of the whole world, the largest population of people living with AIDS is here.
No where in these places do you see the townships and poverty of millions of colored and blacks that were second class citizens for decades.
Even the clothes worn outside the township act as a mask for the tin shack the person lives in back inside the township- sometimes without running water and electricity.
How easy it is to travel here and never see the truth and how lucky I am to be shown the real South Africa.
This is not the Dominican Republic where the racism sits on the surface of every aspect of life. It is not Ghana where the city still lacks visible infrastructure like closed sewers.
No, not here. In South Africa it is all separated...poverty from the wealth and beauty. Then again...that's how it was planned.
While they may have come a long way, the word apartheid has never been more real to me...separated.
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