Imagine This...

After an amazing day on the beach it's time to go home. You walk to the train station and look around for the place to buy your ticket. You know from the morning trip that they do not check tickets but you buy one anyways because you believe in the honor system and feel like you should. Then you wait on the platform with twelve other girls wondering if you are even on the right side. It's obvious you are new to this and because of that people are looking at you and so you just politely smile back. Once the train arrives you notice it's packed but "so what" you say, "it will be an experience".  You all board the train looking around and within just the first few minutes you are separated into two smaller groups gripping on to three poles and in for the ride. Some of your friends make comments, everyone looks uncomfortable. At each stop, it seems, more people get on and by the third stop the doors to the train are wide open and people are hanging out the doors and windows to make more space. Young boys have occupied the spaces between the cars and found their spot on the cables. Wherever there is space, people have occupied it and then some. As people prepare for their stop you are pushed around back and forth and it's congested so breathing is difficult moving is impossible. The sight is a sea of people and hands holding on to big metal poles. Some people are sitting but many are squished together. Your trying to remember your stop and when the daunting task of exiting the train arrives you realize that in this whole experience you've been pushed as far away from the door as possible. At least you can breathe and you have found a cool space against the back door to rest on but you must get off the train at the right time. Your friends go first, they get off two stops before you and then you are alone…

What I just depicted was my first experience on the trains in Cape Town during rush hour. After a great day off at Muizenberg  Beach we could have never expected that our ride home would be the most memorable part of the day. After the chaos of the ride many of my peers got off the train in Rondebosch(two stops before Mowbray) and I was left alone, I got separated from the other people I was with because of the crowd. I was nervous at first until a woman started talking to me. She seemed concerned that I had not gotten off with everyone else. She told me that it's a dangerous place to be alone and I needed to be more careful. When I looked around me, everyone was concerned. The hustle and bustle of the train ride subsided as I experienced my first instance of the South African kindness we've all been told about. This willingness to act with kind regards for someone else is grounded in community values which shined through the hot, sticky, smelly train. Everyone thought I missed my stop and they showed compassion for me. When I explained that I did not miss my stop and I live further up, one man began looking for the stop with his head out the window to make sure I didn't miss it. Another woman showed me how I should hold my bag when I got off so that nobody had the opportunity to steal anything. She was insistent and continued to remind me not to be too comfortable and to watch out. When the train stopped at my stop the women around me were telling me I needed to push my way through. Almost everyone towered over me and I felt really small. One man just grabbed me and told everyone to move and they all helped me to get off this jam packed train. I waited on the platform for my three other friends. The same generosity was given to them as strangers pushed and pulled them through the crowd to the open air. I grabbed their hands from outside and helped them get off in time. We laughed when we got off and one man approached us and said "So, you're Americans?" it could not have been more obvious if we tried. We laughed this comment off and were glad to be safe at home.

This must sound like an adventure movie or a wild made up dream. I know it felt like one to me but this is Cape Town. Today I experienced the real Cape Town travel experience but more than that I felt the support of everyone around me. Strangers showed that they cared and a crazy sense of happiness came over me. I was thrilled and also appreciative. I felt like I was a child and that everyone around me knew me and was there to care for me. It's a special, unique way to life to be so focused on others. Not enough people show the compassion that I was given in this hectic situation. If not for all these people showing me the way, I would have never gotten off that train that’s for sure. The adventure is over until next time. Sunburnt and sleepy I'd say it was a pretty amazing and memorable day!