In Cape Town

I arrived in Cape Town last night, safe and sound, after a few long flights and a bit of a delay at the Johannesburg airport while they tried to figure out how to get the computer to let them refuel.

I've obviously not seen very much at all yet, but I've been struck both by what a singularly unique country this seems, and, at the same time, how much like the U.S. it is, coming from India.  I think I'd gotten so comfortable in India that I'd forgotten exactly how completely different it was, but even to see orderly traffic, and streets used for driving only, not also living and cooking and working, and if you're a cow, grazing, or to walk into a perfectly average supermarket (my first on IHP: avid readers will recall that there are none in the city of Detroit, and I never saw one anywhere in India), I realize what my normal looks like.

I'm really excited to learn more about everything going on here.  So far, all that's been stressed, loud and clear, is how we should try to stay safe in a city with incredbly high crime rates.  It'll be an odd shift, coming from Delhi, a city which was overwhelming but not particularly dangerous, at least for men.

I'll be living for the next two weeks or so in a township, Langa, a place where it's unlikely any middle class whites living in the city would ever even consider going, but we'll be there with families, and it should be reasonably safe.  Criminals looking to target foreigners don't hang around places where foreigners never go.
What I probably won't find there is Internet, so you probably won't hear from me for a little while.  I expect to have much more to report when I write again.