We made it, part II

Mr Cheney, your daughter survived the sharks! Today Jen and I went cage diving with great white sharks off the South African Coast. I wish that I could post pictures now, but unfortunately it will have to wait till I get home. Let's just say that their teeth are as brutal as you would think them to be. Jen knows, as she has two that she is bringing home with her. I will let you guess how she got those (they were fresh from the beast's mouth!)

In all reality it did not seem as dangerous as I anticipated. The cage was very safe as was the crew we went with. And the sharks seemed as curious about us as we were about them. They really are majestic; they just lazily swam around the boat, sometimes going for the chum that was on a bait line, sometime ignoring it. When they really wanted the fish head, however, they would attack and take it so fast you could hardly make out what was happening. We were able to see a total of about 9 sharks, and the largest was probably about 11 feet long. One even breached and came clear out of the water chasing the bait. The water was very cold (low 60s), but once the sharks start coming at the cage you completely forget.

Cape Town overall is exceeding out expectations. The people here are so very warm and friendly. I have never seen more genuine smiles. Yesterday we were able to go to the top of table mountain, which overlooks the city. We also went to Robben Island, which is an Alcatraz type prison that housed Nelson Mandela and other political prisoners for many years. I expected your typical run-of-the-mill tour and was completely surprised to find that our guidewas a former inmate. He spent 5 years on Robben Island after being arrested at the age of 16 in the late 1970s for being a student protestor. The man was truly amazing. After describing some of the horrors he was subjected to (I will not go into detail) and losing all sense of hope he has learned to put aside his anger and forgive those who imprisoned him. By any normal measure he had all the reasons in the world to seek vengence, but he explained to us how he came to learn that in order to break the cylce of violence he had to forgive, else it would perpetuate indefinately. I hope that no one who reads these words ever has to learn to forgive someone for trespasses of such a degree, and I don't know that I ever could. Still, it is truly inspiring to see love and humanity triumph in the hearts of many of those who suffered under apartied. Our guide now runs a leadership institute aimed at helping troubled teens overcome their own anger and become functioning members of society.

Tomorrow we fly to Joburg to begin our safari. Hope all is well to our friends who are at home and to those who are travelling.