Today we took a flight from Manzini, Eswatini to Johannesburg, SA, and then from Johannesburg to Cape Town. We arrived in Cape Town and got our first views of Table Mountain right at sunset. It was pretty glorious. What a beautifully situated city, recently awarded the title of Time Out's "Best City in the World to Visit". Tomorrow we have a free day. Most of us are getting on the Hop On Hop Off bus for at least part of the day. Dinner was hilarious with 16 women trying to figure out what to see and what time to leave and so on, each trying to convince the others that their idea was the best. Bonnie and I and one or two others are heading out at 8:30 am and hoping to put in a good long day on the HOHO. We are both keen on taking the cable car up Table Mountain if the weather cooperates, and trying to see the beautiful Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens. I also want to spend some time at the beach. :) 

We heard some news this morning about Trump presenting the president of South Africa with what he called evidence of white genocide. Shortly after, we met an Afrikaner married couple, about our age, who told us:

• not to trust anyone at all that we meet in South Africa,
• that there is indeed a white genocide going on (He said with great confidence that SA is already at the 8th stage of the 10 stages of genocide with regard to the white farmers.)
• that 84 white farmers per day are killed in SA, more than people dying in Ukraine daily.
• that they like to call the SA President "Squirrel" instead of Cyril. 

When I fact-checked this, this is what I found out: According to the South African Police Service (SAPS), only one farmer was murdered in the third quarter of 2024.

Maybe I shouldn't even be sharing this because I don't know very much about it but it was easy to see that this couple was a) very privileged, and b) very angry. South Africa is indeed a country with many complex challenges and I found this exchange interesting and difficult on the heels of Trump's ambush of President Cyril Ramaphosa.

view of Table Mountain from the bus: