Wednesday, August 5 in Joburg

Wow! And this wasn’t even a game viewing day. We were on our way to the Cradle of Humankind to view an archeological dig where they have uncovered skeletons of hominids about 2.5 million years old. We saw rhinos, zebras, baboons, springbok, rare sable antelopes, blesboks, orynx and hartebeast. It blows me away that this was only about an hour outside Johannesburg and about 15 minutes away from heavily populated areas.

We nearly froze the first two days, but now the weather is gorgeous. We’ve had very full days and visited many places. Monday we toured Johannesburg which is probably the biggest, most spread out city I’ve ever seen. The traffic is absolutely horrendous and there is construction everywhere trying to get ready for the soccer World Cup next summer. We toured the township of Soweto which has gotten a bad reputation over the years, but is actually a vibrant, thriving community with housing ranging from thrown together shanties to very elegant homes. We visited Nelson Mandela’s home and a monument to Hector Peterson, the first child who was killed by the police in the 1976 student riots in Soweto. There are still many social problems, but it is hard to believe that it has only been 15 years since apartheid was outlawed when you see all the progress that has been made and the healing that has occurred in such a short time.

We visited several projects that support women’s empowerment where they have learned a craft and business skills so they can improve their economic situation and help support their families. For those of you who contributed baby and children’s clothes, they were greatly appreciated.

We also visited the Ndebele Cultural Village where we saw the homes decorated by the Ndebele women. It is a signature style that is known throughout the world. Our phone and internet access has been surprisingly sporadic for such a metropolitan area. Tomorrow we drive all day to the Drakensburg Mountains to spend several days, so I suspect we will be out of touch for a while.
Judy