We're concerned about your safety

If there is one thing I dislike it is to feel unsafe. My heart starts pounding, palms gets sweaty, I start thinking about worst-case-scenarios, which are usually quite horrid and terrible, despite me never watching anything scary on tv at all, but anyway, I hate not feeling safe.

Yesterday we had had a beautiful drive around Table Mountain in a very typical tourist manner, but we got to see a lot of what is surrounding Cape Town. Kari and two of her friends decided to head back to their place, while I felt the need to just chill out and relax at home. It was around 6pm and the sun wouldn't set for hours, yet the driver of the tourist bus nearly freaked out when I told him I was planning to take a minibus taxi by myselves. "It is not safe, it is not safe" he kept saying. The pusher on the bus was a little more calm and offered to take the train with me to Mowbray, but as I am not fully orientated yet I declined and said I might have troubles finding home from the train station. He then insisted on following me to a bus which would go along the main road (same as the minibus taxis), and at least I was sure to get to Mowbray safe. After walking me across and through the central station he asked me if I wanted him to stay with me until the bus arrived, but I politely declined and said I would be fine along the 20 or so other ladies in the queue. "Ok, but go straight home now," he said, and I did.

As a white girls in Cape Town you feel everyone is looking out for you. Either because they want to rob you - or because they want to make sure you get home safe. It is extremely frustrating to always have people minding about your safety, which is after all something most of us take for granted back home. Sigbjørn came home later last night and also told me that the ladies on his minibustaxi had told him it was stupid of him to catch it by himself and a local girl even offered to follow him to his point of interest. He accepted.

Today we've been at Old Bisquit Mill Market. It is a large area with lots of stalls with yummy food - olives, cheese, freshly baked bread, muffins, crepes, and bubbly for 15R a glass (10 NOK, 2AU$). The market was situated at the end of a long road, where all you could see was black people loitering, but the second you entered the market, the demographic changed completely and it felt like you were back in Europe. Happy, white people enjoying the sun and the champers. As we walked back a minibustaxi stopped and asked us if we were going to Mowbray, but as it was only the driver and the cashier in the car we declined. Didn't want them to run away with us did we, and jumped in the next taxi with more people in.

To be honest, the system, the segregation and the social differences due to the colour of your skin makes me sick, but as the pusher on the tourist bus said last night "Better to be safe than sorry", and I can do nothing but agree with him.