South Africa Day 3 - The first day in Cape Town

The last morning in Stellenbosch had dawned. Our families took us to the Paul Roos Gimnasium at 11 a.m., where we immediately loaded our suitcases into our coach and then said goodbye to our families. We were all welcomed so warmly and kindly by our host families that we really have no choice but to say "Thank you!" from the bottom of our hearts. We felt very comfortable with you. Thank you very much for your hospitality. And as my host family taught me: "En Stellenbosch is lekker!"

After an obligatory Grubbafodo, we finally left Stellenbosch at around 11:30 a.m. and headed towards Cape Town. On board was our tour guide Martin, a Red Cross friend who has lived in South Africa for 30 years and will accompany us to Port Elizabeth. From the bus we could once again see the hundreds of corrugated iron huts that are lined up endlessly. Martin told us that Cape Town has a population of around 4.5 million people, 30-35% of whom live in these corrugated iron huts or so-called RDP ("Reconstruction and Development Programme") houses that were built by the state for people who cannot afford their own homes. Unlike the huts, the settlements of these RDP houses have both electricity and running water and are built with permission.

When we arrived in the centre of Cape Town, the stark contrast between rich and poor became clear. The Cape Town City Hall, where we were to perform later, was an incredibly magnificent building, while two streets away there was one homeless camp after another...

A concert by the "Choral Celebration Network Foundation" (CCNF) took place in this very City Hall on Sunday afternoon. A total of six different choirs took part. With the exception of us, the participating choirs came from the South African province of Western Cape. First, we had time for a short rehearsal in the truly breathtaking hall, in which a huge, impressive organ towered up behind the stage. Contrary to expectations, the acoustics were really good and we could hear each other well, so the rehearsal went very successfully and smoothly. Afterwards, we quickly changed into our concert clothes and then met up again with some of the other participating choirs in the concert hall. Together we rehearsed a South African birthday song, which was to be sung together at the end of the concert. Every choir, regardless of where they come from (but especially us ;)) should take this piece with them so that they can sing it on birthdays, instead of the well-known Happy Birthday:)

After this rehearsal, we had a little time to eat a little something and have a Grubbafodo in front of City Hall before the CCNF concert started at 3 p.m. First, the CEO of the Foundation welcomed the audience and asked all choir leaders to come on stage to welcome all choirs on behalf of them.

Afterwards, each choir had 15 minutes to present a program of their choice. The first to perform was the "Cerro Century City Choir" under the direction of Harry Sauerman. The choir consisted of about 17 children in beige and blue uniforms who filled the hall with their gentle voices. In fact, the pieces performed were very familiar to us: "Sanctus" and "Agnus Dei" by Karl Jenkins from the "Mass for Peace", as well as "Something just like this" by Coldplay.

The conductor of the second choir, the "Cape Choral Academy", was very well known to us, as he was Xander Kitzinger, who had given us a workshop the day before. His choir performed, among other things, a very great version of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" and ended their performance with a "Welsh Song" called "Give me a pure heart".

The "UWC Creative Arts Choir" under the direction of Sipho Fubesi followed. This choir completely enthralled us all. First they sang "All of me" by John Legend with an impressive vocal power, which gave some of us goosebumps. Sipho Fubesi then explained to us that the following song was meant to convey a "taste of struggle". This piece was very moving. While they sang, the singers placed their right hand on the left shoulder of the person next to them one after the other until the entire choir stood united in front of us. Then the choir accompanied an emotional feminist speech delivered by one of the singers in quiet but very moving sounds. The piece that followed was an absolute delight for us spectators. For several minutes the choir turned the stage into a dance floor. Their singing finally brought us to South Africa and left us speechless. It was just unbelievably fun to watch this group and it is hard to describe the energy the choir conveyed.

The fourth choir to perform was the "Hoërskool Stellenbosch Koor" under the direction of Jared Hanekom. The choir sang, among other songs, "What a Wonderful World".

This was followed by the "Durbanville Primary School Choir" under the direction of Annamarie Dippenaar. The children had impressively full voices and concluded their program with a Filipino song consisting of nothing but nonsense words.

Unfortunately, we didn't hear the boys' choir from Paul Roos Gimnasium, because we had to line up behind the stage because it was our turn next. However, what came from behind the stage sounded excellent. So our performance followed, which was also the last of the evening. First, we had some German choral literature in the form of "Richte mich Gott" and "Immortal Bach" in our program. We then sang "Witness" and "Bohemian Rhapsody", which was very well received by the audience and rewarded with loud applause. Then Xander Kitzinger's choir joined us on stage and everyone who had a birthday on that Sunday or in the coming week was invited onto the stage. We then sang the newly learned birthday song together, which gave the evening a nice end. But that was not to be the end of the singing. The entire time we were leaving the stage and the guests were leaving the hall, the UWC Creative Arts Choir really got the crowd going, singing and dancing all the way up to the choir rooms. It was absolutely brilliant!

Before we could finally change, we had the honor of going to the balcony where the statue of Nelson Mandela stands and which was opened especially for us to take pictures.
After this eventful day, we finally made our way to our hostel in Cape Town, where we had dinner together and ended the day in a relaxed manner.