Cape Town- Danger Again

Another not so good day in Cape Town. This morning I headed down the street to the office of the safari company. It's near where I got mugged and I wasn't able to locate it last time. I wanted to do a dry run for tomorrow morning to make sure I knew where it was. On the way there, I found one whole city block cordoned off by the Police. They were out in force but were just getting set up. Apparently someone held up a restaurant and is holding everyone in there hostage. This is only like 3 blocks down from where I am staying and it's across the street from the ATM I went to after my mugging. (Check out the news article.) Then, when I get back to my hostel, I learned that some girl got all her bags stolen. They were all locked up in her room, even locked in a locker. Someone got in and stole everything. She only has her phone on her now. I only have one more night in this area and then I am out of here.

I did manage to explore the town a little bit. I went down to the Waterfront to book a trip to Robben Island, the prison where Nelson Mandela was held. Unfortunately, the seas were too rough today and all trips to island were canceled. Just my luck eh. Then I decided to go to the District 6 museum. This is an area that was inhabited by black people and then the government declared it a white only area. They "moved" everyone out and bulldozed it all, except for the churches. They left the churches because they did not want to get the international religions upset or involved. But alas, I wasn't able to go to the museum. The taxi driver pointed out that it looked closed and I asked him to wait. Sure enough, it was closed. Ugh... The driver said it's probably closed because of the strike. The government workers are on strike here because they want a pay raise. The government says it can't give them a pay raise because they don't have any money. Apparently only 50% of the people here pay tax which doesn't give the government a lot of funds. All the funds are stretched thin because they have too many other infrastructure and social programs to invest in.

I thought about my mugging more and I think the downpouring rain which made it hard for me to see was another factor for why the guy went after me on Thursday. I've talked to some other people and they say you shouldn't stop at all but if you do, you should raise your voice and talk really loudly. That draws attention to the situation which they don't like.

I'm looking forward to getting out of here.