Robben Island

The picture above is of a community cell room on Robben Island. This is a close up picture of the end of the room. This room held 30-52 prisoners. The prisoners initially only had 2 straw-like material mats to sleep on. They eventually got the beds shown in the picture. Windows also were not initially on the windows, leaving the prisoners exposed to the elements of hot summers, rain and cold winters.

Saturday 10/3/10

Glad I could make Robben Island the title of this blog, because Robben Island almost did not happen for us today. (Robben Island is where Nelson Mandela and many other political prisoners were kept.) We booked it for today, first thing, when we got here a week ago. There was space on Monday, otherwise the next available time was today. Because Monday was our first day here, I decided we should wait to go to Robben Island, in case trading in the car and acclimating to the city took longer than expected on Monday. When I booked the reservation for today, I was a bit nervous that it was scheduled so closely to our departures. I figured what can go wrong though?? I couldn't really come up with anything, and figured as long as we made it to our reservation we would be set.

Well, when we left our B&B this morning, Peter-B&B owner, informed us that the newpapers were reporting that the Robben Island Ferry was broke down and people were unable to go. We left, figuring we needed to go there and check out the situation. When we got to the Robben Island ferry station, there were signs on the doors saying that tours had been cancelled for the day due to problems with the ferry. As soon as I read that, my heart sunk, knowing that this was something Grandpa and Grandma really wanted to see. The sign said refunds could be given, or trips could be rescheduled at the next available date, which I pretty much figured would not be before Grandpa and Grandma leave on Monday. I told Grandma to go over and watch the Robben Island video that was playing because it may be all she would see of Robben Island. The ticket agent took our information and got to work on the computer. Next thing you know, she handed us 3 tickets, and said we were set!!!! Yay! Thankfully, an independent boat had been hired to take people out to Robben Island.

Not wanting to risk any chance that something may come up, we got in line for the tour immediately, which was an hour and a half before departure. It was along time to stand in line, but we did not want to chance not being able to go. Grandma said this was the first time she was first in line for something.

The ride out to Robben Island was a beautiful ride. The ferry usually only takes 15 minutes, but this boat took an hour, which was fine by me, because I enjoyed the view from the top deck of the boat, as well as the sun on my face. Once we were on Robben Island, we started the tour in a bus with a tour guide. The bus took us around the island to see the different aspects, including the Lepers graveyard and the lime quarries where the prisoners were forced to work. The Lepers graveyard is the burial place of people who were sent to Robben Island to live in the early 1900's because they had leprocy, and at the time there was no cure.

After the bus tour, we took a tour of the prison facilities. The tour was led by a guide who was a former prisioner at Robben Island. He had served 5 years at Robben Island because he had fought against his university back during apartheid times, because students were expected to learn in Afrikaans, which was not his language.

The tour was very informative, and being on Robben Island helped paint a more clear mental picture of who Nelson Mandela had to be, what he fought for, and some of what apartheid was like for South Africa and the people who fought for equal rights.