First Week in Johannesburg

So we’ve officially settled in Johannesburg at a guest house which was a former seminary training school (where Desmond Tutu went, pretty cool)! When we arrived the first night the  group of 15 of us were pretty jet lagged so we just dinner, played some icebreaker games to get to know each other and then tried to get some sleep. I was successful for about 3 hours when my body woke me up telling me it was only 4pm, but it was actually 2am in Johannesburg. Breakfast began at 8am and then we were off for our day.

Before we toured the town we had a guest speaker named Mowlefi come and speak to us about the Apartheid and history of South Africa. This was exciting to me because to be honest I didn’t know much. He spoke about his personal involvement in the student uprisings and the impact that it made on the change to come. This was inspiring to me to see young people so passionate about change that they’re willing to step in to make a difference. Following the discussion, he then took us on a tour of Soweto, which is a black township in Guateng province of South Africa. Soweto alone has a population of about 3 million people! (the whole country of Namibia only has about 2 million). While touring Soweto, we visited Regina Mundi Catholic church which was a church that allowed students to gather during the uprisings. In this tour we saw bullet holes and broken banisters that were left that way to show the damage done when police invaded the church. We also got to sign the same guestbook Nelson Mandela did a few years prior as well as stand in the same spots he did, so awesome.

Inside the Regina Mundi Catholic Church

South Africa feels a lot like home, a lot less foreign than most would imagine. Despite people driving on the left instead of the right, and the currency change,  most areas don’t seem much different. Though, when we were walking around the mall after we got lunch, we got many stares because we were about the only white people walking around the area. I felt like we had a sign on our head that said ‘not from here’ but that’s okay, its funny! When we were driving we also even heard a guy yell to his friend “Hey look, white people!!” We all got a kick out of that.

Following the tour of Soweto we visited the Hector Pieterson museum, a museum dedicated to the student uprisings, and named after the first young boy who was innocently shot by police on June 16, 1976. His older sister paid us the honor of telling us the story of what happened. It was awesome to me how remarkably positive she was about the entire situation despite losing her baby brother. My best guess would be that she knows the impact and legacy that her brother and many other young individuals leave, so I suppose there is a certain peace that comes with that.

A blown up photo of the moments following Hector Pieterson's death, as his shaken sister runs beside

Tuesday, we headed out a bit earlier for our trip to Orange Farm. Going into this I didn’t really know what to expect, we were not really briefed on it beforehand so it was a surprise when I looked out the window as we drove over dirt roads, noting the shacks people call home on the side of the road. Orange Farm is a community small in size but had a population count of a bout 1.7 million in 2007. I’ll give a brief overview of what we saw in Orange Farm so you can get a feel for it. First we visited a recycling center and were given a tour by a wonderful lady named Gladys. She showed us around the area, explained the process a little bit and took us by the little daycare center they run as well (too cute!!). The recycling center is many people’s only form of income because so many are unemployed. While in Orange Farm we stopped by a specialty school where individuals of all ages (17-75) take classes learning basic life skills like cooking, computer functions, and woodwork. These individuals pay to go to these specialty classes so that they can have a degree so that they can have a better opportunity to get a job and better improve their lives. While in Orange Farm we also had the privilege of visiting a project center focused on HIV/AIDS prevention, teaching,healing and support groups. I especially loved this because of the passion people have for helping those who are positive, or have been effected by people who are HIV positive. After my visit to Orange Farm I couldn’t help but think about how incredibly blessed I am to have the opportunities I’ve been given. These people of Orange Farm have very little materially, but they do have hope and hearts bigger than you could ever imagine. Their desire to help those in need by providing services like HIV/AIDS education and support groups, counseling/lawyers for domestic violence victims, or recycling centers that allow people to make money is so inspiring and humbling at the same time. They just want to make a difference. And they are.

Plastics smashed together to be sent off

On Wednesday, we went to the province of Guateng’s capitol building where we met with the two major political party groups, the Democratic Alliance (DA) and the African National Congress (ANC). Since 1994 the ANC has had control of 8 or more of the 9 provinces in South Africa, and with the election coming up in May, things are getting pretty intense. I was really interested in learning about how the South African government runs as opposed to the U.S. The best thing to me about the South African government system is the fact that there are many, many political parties, and even though ANC has had control for the past 20 years, statistics are changing and the smaller parties are even making a difference. Wednesday night we were privileged to see a play in downtown Jo’burg which was based on racist stereotypes in America. I liked being able to see people’s perspectives here in Africa of us back in the U.S.

The group in front of the capitol in Gauteng

Visiting the Apartheid museum was very emotional but so full of so much new information. I especially enjoyed the Mandela exhibit; it was an incredible tribute to an incredible man. One part that stuck most with me that I learned was that Mandela took up a foreign identity, traveled to many countries all over Africa and got people to join the movement for freedom and equality. Last but not least, we got to visit the Wits Art Museum and learned a lot about African art and all the different forms. We were so lucky and got to go into the storage room, where many of their collections are kept. I especially loved the pottery because I can appreciate all of the hard work and patience that goes into creating and perfecting each individual pot.

This weekend I depart for my first home-stay in Soweto, with a family that has a 5 year old little boy and 11 year old boy. You could say I’m a little excited.

Thanks for reading, stay tuned!!

Xoxo

Maddy