Hi Guys!

I have just visited Robben Island, the prison where Nelson Mandela was kept for 18 years. The boat trip to Robben Island was a disaster, almost everyone was sick and some even puked on the side of the boat, because of the enormous waves of the Atlantic Ocean.

Anyway, when we finally arrived in the harbour of Robben Island I already saw the first seal swimming and playing in the waves of the sea. Sometimes, it is said, that you can see Great White Sharks swimming around this island looking for food.

Finally on the island we were put into a bus and got a tour through the nature and of course the prisons of Robben Island. Our guide was quite interesting as he told us about the different prison block, A B C and D. Prisons with the letter A had the most priviliges and Prisons with number D the least. This means that a prisoner in section A can have visits 12 times a year, where as a prisoner of Section D only the right has for two visits a year and this person needs to apply for this visit 6 months in advance.

When we got out of the bus another guide came to pick us up and show us through Prison block section D, where he himself and Nelson Mandela were imprisoned. The guide was an extraordinary person, both in his fysique and in his behavior. He told us about his imprisonment for 6 years on Robben Island and when he first met Nelson Mandela, whom he referred to as Mandiba, which is his clan name and is regarded as a name of great respect. At the time when he got imprisoned he was 15; because he was a political prisoner he was put in section D.

When he met Mandela he was stunned by the words he had said to him. "You young lads have only eye for revenge and anger towards the whites and especially the guards. It is time to forgive, and if you treat them with respect, they will treat you with respect".

Dog kennels where bigger than the cell where Nelson Mandela and others stayed. I have been in the cell of Mandela and I can tell you something, it must have been the most horrible experience to get locked up in that cell for 18 years.

Symbolically, our guide told us the story about the discriminating government of the Apartheid, holding a 'white' Afrikaner woman under his arm. He described the vision of the government and that a white could not marry a black, blacks could not go to white toilets, parks, beaches etc. As a result, I'm unable to walk for instance in a township here in Stellenbosch because the black people still carry an extreme anger end hate towards the white people. The question is, do we have the right to blaim them?

After the tour, and with a mind full of images of the imprisonment we went to Cape Town and had dinner there at the Waterfront. It was beautiful and I had the best lasagne.

We arrived back home late and I went to bed immediately...