Robin Island

The first photo is a view from Robin Island where Nelson Mandela and lots of other Political prisioners were held during Aparthied. The second is sample of the diet for the prisioners. The left column is for colored's or mixed race prisioners who were treated better during Aparthied, and the right is for Black South Africans. Instead of bread they were given Puzamandela which means literally 'drink, strength' and was made of a small amount of mealy (like corn) powder blended with water. The prisoners said it did not give them any stength. The next picture is of Mandela's cell. Sometime before Aparthied had ended they were given beds. Mandela was no longer on Robin Island at that point however, he was in prison somewhere else. The next is obviously a gaurd tower and the wall, and the last is Helena, Par, and Johan. They are wonderful Swedes and I am very lucky to know them.

So now that Robin Island is a tourist destination, we all got to go there, and leave there, all in one day. It was a little strange going to a prison as a tourist, but I did want to see it. We learned a lot about what hate can do, and then we all carried on being rude to eachother for petty things, like cutting in line or taking too long. It's strange that we cannot leave our humanity behind even in the when we are stairing its worst parts in the face. I had hoped that Robin Island would teach me something deep about life. Instead I learned that even I hate people, and that can be a pretty big deal. It wasn't the lesson I had wanted to learn.