Saturday was our last full day in Joburg before heading off to Cape Town for the remainder of our time here in South Africa. Soweto, a SOuth WEstern TOwnship (clever right?), is among the poorest suburbs of Joburg, which if you know anything about South Africa or Joburg, is pretty freaking poor.
Our day was basically planned out by a tour guide who showed us around the township for the majority of the day. Soweto is the poorest area that we’ve been in so far,
other than of course the refugee church we volunteered with. The township is best known for the uprising that happened in 1976. The community rebelled against the government as they were being forced to learn in a language they didn’t understand. The area school lessons were being conducted in Afrikaans despite the fact that the majority of the population did not speak it. During the protest march from a local school, police opened fire on the protestors and killed 566 people. (That’s enough history from me. If you want more http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soweto.)
To be honest, I didn’t find the day particularly exciting. We just hit up a church, a couple museums, ate lunch at a “local” place (which even though DukeEngage paid for it, I expect was a rip-off seeing as how it was the only place in that area), and went to Nelson Mandela’s house. One really cool thing did happen at the church though. Our guide there was absolutely hilarious and would pick at certain people throughout the explaination of the church’s significance during the uprising. During the tour, he grabbed my shoulders and said, “Stand right there. Don’t you move.” So of course I froze while he talked a little more for a minute. And then just as we were about to relocate, he looks at me and says “Now…(dramatic pause)…you are standing in the footsteps of Nelson Mandela.” I swear I got shivers. A lot of famous people have been to that church, but to be standing in the footsteps of Mandela is pretty sick, let me tell you. Even if it is only figuratively. Those are some big shoes to fill.
Because it was our last night in Joburg, the natural thing to do in the evening is of course go out. So we did! We all, coordinators included, went to a bar/dance floor in Melville. We had such a great time. The music was on, and so were the drinks according to everyone. I’m pretty sure our group stuck out though. Not that that’s a bad thing. It was cool to see all kinds of people there (black, white, coloured, striped, polka-dot; I wouldn’t be surprised if this country started classifying people like that). Anthony and Lauren started “shag dancing” in the middle of a crowd, and they started chanting “Go white girl! Go white girl!” It was great. Our group is really amazing. I wish I could post a 934875394 page long description of all them. Maybe I will actually. Well not that long, but a little blurb about each person so you know who I’m talking about. Be on the lookout for that.
Off to Cape Town tomorrow.
Ukuthula,
Lynn
p.s. I promise to start posting more regularly. At least every other day.
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