Adrian Ruchini - We embrace the world

The birthday is almost over, a pleasant fatigue is already creeping up. We are not in a hurry; we go to the business class lounge to wait for our flight to Cape Town. This will be one of our longest flights. Tomorrow, or almost today, we will be in Africa, at the very end of it, right across from Antarctica. We will see the ocean, Table Mountain, and penguins! Oh, tomorrow would be incredible!

The waiting time for the flight passed quickly with the company of baklava and Turkish tea. We take our suitcases and go to board our Turkish Airlines plane; this is the second and last flight with them. We deliberately write down the names of all airlines in order to compare their service. So, Turkish Airlines is very good. The flight was long, but comfortable and we had a great night: we ate, read, and slept. It was such a night resort in the air.

When the captain announced the start of the descent, we opened the window and saw it. This was Africa: terra-cotta hilly landscape and endless space. South Africa, of course, is not a typical example of African continent. Maybe one day we will fly to Botswana or Namibia, but in the meantime we have Cape Town, and we expect a lot from these five days.

Do you know what is the first and very important moment of getting to know a new country? The first breath of air you take when you get out off the plane or step out of the airport. That first breath can tell you a lot about where you have landed. You immediately feel the temperature, humidity, freshness or pollution, the smell of plants or emissions, the smell of morning or evening.

Cape Town meets us with the warm and wet breath of the ocean. First of all, we go to the car rental office, take our right-handed car with a manual transmission and drive to the hotel. In order to diversify the experience as much as possible, we decide not to stay in the same hotel for more than two days, changing the place, the view from the window and the area looks like an interesting idea.

The first hotel is located close the ocean. This is a fairly large building with a beautiful view of Table Mountain, we have chosen it for this, the amazing location and view of. It is the mountain, that has become the highlight of the first day. There is only one thought in the head, which, by the way, will be almost constant during our stay in Cape Town: «Oh my God, what a beauty!». We walk along a beach with light grey sand, a soft wind blows in our faces, and the mountain is covered with a huge cloud like a white hat. In this incredible place, you feel the power of the ocean, nature and Africa. There is a different energy here compared to Europe, it is powerfully sparkle, you feel it almost physically.

March in the southern hemisphere is the first month of autumn, fantastic time, the temperature is optimally pleasant, but the water in the ocean is already cold, no one bathes, so our plans for bathing and sunbathing are not destined to come true. But for happiness, it is enough to see all this, touch the water, breathe in the breeze, yes, this place is amazing.

The walk along the beach is almost in a hurry, as we have to meet the first Rotary Club today. They are waiting for us in the Newlands area, which is also the name of the club. We’ve just arrived, we haven’t seen much, and we have to go to a meeting with people we don’t know instead of starting a beautiful tour. But it will be a great positive surprise.

A meeting with our future friends is appointed at the cricket club, where they meet weekly. The British have left a huge heritage in South Africa: language, traditions, favourite sports. Anglo-Saxon influence is felt everywhere here. Such a number of cricket clubs can only be found in Britain itself. All of them are in excellent condition and they are preserved very well.

There are always a lot of people here, especially in the evening, you can do some sport, play games, meet friends, drink a glass of beer or some wine. We are very warmly welcomed by members of the Rotary Club Newlands. It has been an extremely difficult day for them today, one of the most important of the year. To raise funds for their charity projects, they organize an annual 109-kilometer ride for cyclists around Table Mountain. It is easy to imagine that the mind-blowing views and the opportunity to get a unique experience attract a large number of cycling enthusiasts. This year there were 25 thousand of them from all over the world. To organize an event of this scale, 5 thousand members of all Rotary Clubs of the District have joined forces.

The people of the Republic of South Africa are excellent speakers. When we sit and listen to these people sharing their experiences with a great sense of humour, we do not think that we would prefer sightseeing to meeting them.

When all the stories are over, the floor is given to us as the invited guests. Everyone is listening with interest to the story of how an Italo-Slovenian and a Russian have come together on a trip around the world, becoming ambassadors of Rotary Slovenia and Northern Macedonia and of Slovenia beauties itself with the motto of « I FEELS LOVENIA. We talk about Slovenia (by the way, few people even know where this country is located, so we have put a map of Slovenia with neighbour countries on our business cards), we show a small video of its beauty and seems that we have surprised them a lot.

Today marks the beginning of a bunch of friendships that we are going to make during our trip. So, let us introduce Janie, Janey, and Geraldine. Yes, it’s not easy to remember, but all the ladies are completely different and beautiful.

Janie is the President of the Club, a strict, highly organized blonde. Snaps problems like nuts and perfectly organizes people into effective teams. «You are our guests, so if you don’t mind, we will help you with your free time,» Janie said. There was no point in refusing her, and why? Cape Town is one of the most beautiful, but also one of the most unsafe cities in the world. Being close to the locals and spending time with them means protecting yourself from a lot of problems and it means the possibility to spend time with rotarian friends and to share our experiences.

In general, this topic is quite sensitive. Cape Town could be called a city of contrasts. On one hand, you see in South Africa the terrible poverty of black population, on the other hand the wealth of the white population, whose life is also not a fairy tale. They have to protect their beautiful rich houses with barbed wire stretched along the perimeter of the yard, which carries an electric current. Looking at these «bastions», you can assume the level of danger and violence that reigns around. When night falls on the city, it becomes scary and deserted, everyone hurries to leave the street, white people move only in cars or stay at home.

Do you know what is the most unpleasant thing? That both white and black populations live in one of the most beautiful places on the Earth, but they have difficulties to enjoy it, because you either have to look carefully around you, or spend all day looking for a penny for bread.

If we haven’t really scared you too much yet, and you still want to read our stories, we will continue.

Let us introduce our next friend, Geraldine. A lively pensioner, full of energy, knowledge and desire to help people. She has invited us tomorrow to go with her and another couple from the Netherlands, a husband and wife also from a Rotary Club, to see their main project, which they plan to conduct for 10 years and money for which they have collected all over the world. «Would you like to see what we are doing for preschool education? Come with us tomorrow and we’ll show you.» This is far away from entertaining program, but we are on our trip to see the real life, as we are and want to be travellers not tourists, of course, and these are the things you will never see in a guided tour, even more you will never do them alone; of course we agreed.