Soweto

During the weekend we, meaning Jeff, Magda, Kenneth, Frida, and I, went to Drakensberg. An absolutely beautiful place and I took lots of pictures. Too many pictures. They all look the same. Oh well. One cool thing was the big bug we found. It looked like a cricket, but was probably 25 times bigger and colorful. It had lots of bright red and blue all over it. It looked kind of, well, African.

But today was a cool history day. I took a tour of the township called Soweto. This is a place that was built for the blacks when the whites decided they didn't want them in Johanesburg any more. (Kind of rude, don't you think.) So the whites moved them out of town. As one can imagine, this has become a very poor place.

The tour guide, a very good looking black guy, grew up and lived in soweto so he knew the area. He picked up me and two others in this white microbus. We first saw the very richest of Johannesburg. Houses that probably look like they could be in Hollywood. The only problem is they were all surrounded by walls, barbed wire, etc. so it was hard to see very much. But we got the idea that these houses were just a little on the expensive side. We actually saw the building where Nelson Mandela lives. Pretty cool. Then we went to downtown Jo-berg, where we didn't see a single white person. Actually, take that back, I did see one white older man. This part of town was horrible. Broken windows everywhere, buildings run down, it was what I see in movies.

But we could stay there long, so off to Soweto. Again, we started in the richest area. Didn't quite manage the opulence of Jo-berg, but nice houses with no walls. The scariest part of the trip occurred here, there was a crime scene. The street was taped off, with a body in the middle. Our guide quickly got us a way from there. Then off to these buildings where most of the poor people stay. They were origninally built as dormatories for the black men who worked in the mines, but now mainly women and children live there.

We then went to a market type place. Nothing fancy like the farmer's market (can't believe i am calling a farmer's market fancy) but this was a just a few randomly scattered tables on both sides of the street near a taxi terminal (Taxi's are interesting here, I won't use them. Heck, I can't, I don't even know the hand signals). Our guide had us try what some people eat for breakfast. It's the meat of the head of a cow (not the brains). A person cooks the meat there, sticks in on the table, cuts it up, pours a little salt and chili pepper on the table, and you eat it right there dipping it in to the salt and pepper as you see fit. Of course my public health persona screamed the entire time. Where have this guys hands been, is the table clean, is the meat free of Mad Cow!!!!????? But when in Rome...I have to admit, it wasn't bad.

We then saw a Cathedral, the biggest in Soweto. It was used for political meetings at one time, proven by the bullet holes. The guide also pointed out the benches Bill and Hillary Clinton sat many years ago (interesting fact, Nelson Mandela likes the Clintons, won't meet with Bush. Any suprises there?). They also signed in on the guest list. Guess who else did? You won't ever, so I will tell you, Chris Rock! Who woulda thunk it?

What else? We passed by the homes of many of the poorest. Shacks made up of scrap metal, carboard, etc. We went into one of them. There were two guys living in a space smaller than my closet. They cooked using parriffin. The poverty is everywhere.

Another place we visited was the site of a rebellion. The school councils, at one time, tried to set it up so all classes had to be taught in Afrikaans. Which was nothing more than discrimination against the blacks, they didn't know afrikaans, the whites did. The students didn't know it, the teachers didn't know it, the families didn't know it and yet the class had to be taught in it. There's more to the story, but there was a protest, the police killed kids, and riots ensued. In the end, the Africaans restriction was removed.

Let's see, we also saw the house Nelson Mandela lived in before he went to prison, Winnie Mandela's house, and Desmond Tutu's house. There was a lot of learning, and a lot to be learned (I need to buy some books about S.A. now). What an interesting tour.