Johannesburg, South Africa

I blogged every day in South Africa, but didn't have internet access so I wasn't able to post them. I'll post them all this week, in the order I wrote them. Here is the first one:

Bill picked me up at the airport at 7am, even after he had a late night himself the previous evening (thanks for everything, Bill, you’re the best!). We made it to his house, where I took a shower and planned to rest. After I had showered, I wasn’t tired so we had lunch (first time I had salad in a month) at Nando’s and headed through downtown Joburg to the Apartheid Museum. The museum was very interesting, and I learned a lot. In the beginning, we entered through separate entrances (he entered through the white gate, I entered through the non-European gate) and we were actually separated – I could see him but couldn’t get into the section where he was. In addition to background of how South Africa came to be populated (Dutch settlers, Indian servants, native Africans), the museum gave good insight about how Apartheid came into existence. There was also a nice room honoring Helen Suzeman and an exhibition on Nelson Mandela. There were parts of the museum that were downright depressing, but the ending was encouraging and I was really glad we went.

Bill’s family and I joined Cynthia and Gary for Indian food at dinner, and we called it a night early since I was still tired from my journey. Sunday morning, Percy picked me up and the four of us (Cynthia, Gary, Percy, and I) went to the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site. The Cradle is over 115,000 acres. We started with Maropeng (www.maropeng.co.za), which is a very nice exhibition that opened in ~2005. I saw Mrs. Ples and other fossils, learned about the history of our world, and saw evidence that the whole human race started in Africa. It was interesting, and higher tech than I expected. The end also had a political slant, in a good way, talking about poverty, education, natural resources, and more. I especially enjoyed that part.


After Maropeng, we went to Sterkfontein Caves (www.sterkfontein.co.za, means something like Strong Fountain/Waterfall in Afrikaans) and saw where Little Foot is being excavated. We also saw stalactites and stalagmites, and other rock structures (one that looks like an elephant), and an underground lake.


In terms of animals, I saw a springbok (a jumping buck, like a deer) and some ostriches. I learned that the South African rugby team are the Springboks and the cricket team are the Protea (which is a flower that I haven’t seen yet). We had Thai food for dinner. All in all, it was a great day.

Monday, I went to Diepsloot (a poor township, aka squatter’s camp, where people live in 10’x5’ shacks assembled from scrap metal, wood, plastic and cardboard, even sometimes lacking running water) to help teach the 3rd graders English. (Joburg public school students start learning English in 3rd grade.) My table of students had 6 black South African kids, some with names that were easy for me (a girl named Miranda and a boy named Kelly), some that were straightforward (a boy named Ntando), and one little Zulu girl whose name I can’t even pronounce. It is spelled Sinenhlanhla and the “nhl” is a click sound that I can’t make. I tried several times and she laughed, but I never did get it right despite getting close. I had a nice time and the kids really appreciated the one-on-one attention because the classes are ~60 kids per teacher. As I saw in Kenya, since education is a privilege and not a right, the kids were very happy to be there and well-behaved despite the overcrowded classroom.

After Diepsloot, I went to the township of Alexandra. Jenise’s friend Lance is a civil engineer working on the redevelopment of Alex (www.alexandra.co.za), so he gave me a great tour. Alex is 2 square miles (~1 mile x 2 miles) and was designed for ~70,000 people but today there are more than 700,000 people so the population density is unreal. It is much cleaner than I expected because there are port-a-potties and many of the shacks (6-10 people living in a ~15’x20’ room) have running water. It smelled good and the people were friendly, but I didn’t take any pictures. Most of us could not imagine living in the conditions I saw at either Diepsloot or Alex. Lance and I ended our tour of Alex at Zack’s Shebeen, a (formerly illegal) bar where I had some water since I was heading to the IBM office immediately after.

I spent a few hours at IBM meeting with recruiters and an HR rep, then Carolyn and Roberto picked me up for dinner. We went to Moyos (the Swahili word for “soul”) and I had poitjie (pronounced like “poy-kee” it’s a stew) and pap (made from maize, tastes like light and fluffy mashed potatoes, but better). I tasted Roberto’s ostrich and pumpkin/groundnut mash (yummy!) and had my face painted.

It was such a treat to be there, and I am so grateful that Carolyn came out even though she wasn’t feeling well. I really appreciated their hospitality, something I have consistently enjoyed throughout the continent of Africa. Bill and Laura were also incredibly gracious hosts! They gave me a room with ensuite bathroom, fed me lots of great food, drove me around, and made me feel so welcome even though I know they had to rearrange their own schedules to accommodate me. They even provided me with food for the road and an adapter so I can charge my digital camera on the safari. Thanks a million, Laura and Bill! I hope to be able to return the favor some day.