Why I WENT TO AFRICA

In 1992 all my friends in London said to me - why do you want to go to South Africa?
They’re all racist was the common comment I got.

Well I wanted to find out for myself. I have never been one to take someone elses word for something (although these days people seem to beleive anything they read online!) and I had a lot of friends living in London actually from South Africa so I had contacts - it was time.

Nicky my travel buddy came with me and we planned on working and living there for the foreseebale future. We found a flat in Seapoint Cape Town - next we needed a job!

Armed with the fact we were getting to be known as Vicki and Nicky from Australia and New Zealand we started training to waitress in SPUR at Seapoint and the Waterfront. Our first real shift outside of our unpaid training was on Mothers Day and it was so busy that we really could not handle the volume of “steaks” coming out oif the kitchen let alone being able to recognise a meal as it came out - fast enough to grab it!

We got fired on our first shift.

What did we learn?

We met some amazing people - of all colours and I guess there was some racism - I saw a bit of it on a bus ride to Sun City in Johannesburg. Ultimately people were kind and wanted good things for their country.

We stayed a few more months spending our days sunbathing on the beach and our nights clubbing at the Waterfront. We saw Duran Duran live and even bumped into them on the drive to the waterfront one day!

So what’s the motto of this story - don’t judge a book by it’s cover.

Go see for yourself and make up your own mind.