Making the Most of a Cape Town Saturday

By Katy Zimmerman and Patrick Osei-Hwere
The morning started off late, compared to other days, as we ventured off to the market at about 11 a.m. Some shopping in Cape Town was just what the doctor ordered. A necessary time  away from the hectic work days the group experienced when service projects began earlier in the week.

Greenmarket Square

We are now staying at The Mandela Rhodes Place which is only few blocks from a thriving African street market known as Greenmarket Square. Many of us had to learn and practice the art of haggling on the fly, the result wins and losses. Big wins for "seasoned" hagglers returning to Cape Town and some losses for some newbies but a great experience all the same. Shopping at Greenmarket Square proved successful and happy with loots consisting of a variety of sculptures, paintings, traditional drums, pillow cases, beads, hair bands and other accessories as gifts for self, family and friends.

Next we went on to grab lunch at different restaurants around the hotel to re-energize in anticipation of continued service project work ahead of the group. We worked from home the rest of the day to get projects completed, or in our situation, hotel. Dividing and conquering the work needed to be done to finish up projects before our presentation of our work over our time here to our designated organizations.

The V&A Waterfront

Isibane se Afrika with Harry and Meghan during Heritage Day.
Source: @isibaneseafrika Instagram post.
Around 5:30 p.m. we met in the lobby and loaded up to head back to the V&A Waterfront where we continued with our shopping while carefully taking in the beauty of Cape Town. Oh, and did we mention that today we also made time to celebrate Dane Glenn’s birthday! We celebrated with dinner at Gibson’s Gourmet Burgers & Ribs, famous for their gourmet burgers and endless variety of milkshakes.

While at dinner we heard a local singing group performing close by. Frank Navarrete purchased a CD from them and the name of the group was Isibane se Afrika meaning the light of Africa.


During their intermission, we ask if they will sing happy birthday for Glenn and they graciously did with an amazing local rendition (click on link for a sample of their happy birthday song).

After dinner, some of us took a ride on the Cape Wheel – a giant observation/Ferris wheel that elevated riders over a hundred feet above ground for spectacular views of Cape Town at night. The rides on the Cape Wheel and movement to live music on the waterfront by non-Cape Wheel riders concluded our night. We left for the hotel to get ready for the next day - a trip to the beach in the morning for surfing, people gazing and beach food. Today we enjoyed the Saturdayest workday ever!


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