Wednesday was an early day! At 7:45, we went down for breakfast and half an hour later, we loaded onto the bus and started our drive to Athlone School of the Blind. After taking some time to chat with the younger students, we did a 45 minute performance. We sang some a cappella songs (including Emlanjeni for the first time!) as well as a few guitar accompanied songs with Alistair. At the end of our set, we chilled around for about another half hour, drinking water and playing cards. Soon, the older kids from the school came in and we started another performance, this one even better than the first! When we sang Shosholoza near the end of the game, all the students joined in with the singing and movements. It was a great moment. After the performance ended and we were on our way out, one of the students grabbed a drum and started playing, and the rest joined in to sing along. While we didn’t know the song, BCS tried our best to join in.
After leaving the school, we drove to the Castle of Good Hope, the oldest standing colonial building in South Africa built in the 1660s.
The castle is located right near the Black River and was originally built around a fresh water spring created by Table Mountain. Our tour guide Enrico took us into the building where we saw statues and maps depicting conflict between the Indigenous people of the Cape and the different colonial powers that invaded. We saw models of the original Castle of Good Hope as well as versions of the original South African flag. Inside the building, we also saw various paintings and ceramic pieces from the 19th century.
In the castle, Enrico also showed us the torture chamber that was used when the castle was first built. It was very very dark and there were some mysterious hooks on the ceiling. We also saw the well that the castle was originally built around. The courtyard in the middle was very beautiful!
After the Castle of Good Hope, we went back to the retreat in the early afternoon. Some of us went for a run in the warm weather then met back up for dinner and rehearsal with the rest of the choir. After rehearsal, some of us played cards in one of the common spaces and ate many, many snacks while other choir members met up to watch Pitch Perfect in the TV room. We all headed to our rooms at 10 pm to sleep and get ready for another great day!