After passing our exhausted from our travels the night prior, we arose bright and early, 6am, eager to attack the day and the year. The day tour wasn't set to begin until 9:30, so we had some time to have an enjoyable morning.
07:00 - Motivated, encouraged, ready to explore the world, Ben strapped on his brand new shoes, stretched a bit, and took off for an early morning run through the not-so-safe streets of greater Johannesburg of which we were warned by multiple people not to venture to independently. Without outright saying, though implicitly expressed, Nadine and Ben were of the wrong skin color. Nonetheless, Ben figured, what could possibly go wrong at 7am on a Saturday morning?
"Nadine, why are we even bothering to travel to the world just to stay in the hotel room? There are dangers everywhere. We might as well have stayed in Bulgaria. Plus, I'm a big boy. What can go wrong?"
07:03 - Within minutes, something went wrong, yet no safety warnings could have predicated this. A combination of uneven road and lack of confidence in new shoes resulted in Ben crumpled on the side of the road clutching his ankle, the left one. The same ankle that required surgery from basketball injuries. Hobbling shamelessly like a wounded animal back to the hotel, the ankle grew to the size of a golf ball. Nadine was not pleased. There are three options: the ankle is broken, the ligaments are torn, or it is merely a sprain (a severe sprain). We must seek out a doctor at once! Not so fast though. Our driver is coming to pick us up in an hour. After wolfing down an English breakfast, whilst watching WWE on the hotel TV (every TV in South Africa seems to either have soccer or wrestling on it), our driver and tour guide, named Twoboy, promptly arrives, an hour early. Off we go.
According to the Expedia itinerary of our guided tour, we have two stops: first the Apartheid Museum, then the Soweto slums.
We rode around JoBurg for nearly an hour picking up the other tour participants prior to arriving at the Apartheid Museum. Twoboy tells us we have two hours to walk around the museum and educate ourselves about the sad history of his beloved country. Two hours of walking?? At this point the ankle looks like a Penn tennis ball and it appears that amputation is probably the only option. Thinking swiftly on her two working feet, Nadine requested a rickety wheelchair from the front desk whose best days were long behind it. Most likely the twilight of the wheelchair's career was spent during the time of the Apartheid itself. One will never know. If only those wheels could speak!
APARTHEID MESEUM
As is the case with all museums, each visitor was provided an entry ticket. However, never had we seen tickets that were designated by race. To evoke emotion, either the ticket will have Whites/Blankes (which means white in Afrikaans) written on it, or it will say Non-Whites/Nie-Blankes. Unlike segregation in the Deep South, discrimination in South Africa was not strictly directed at Blacks. Indians, Chinese, and Coloured (mixed race) were also Nie-Blankes, therefore subject to the laws of Apartheid. Moving forward, upon entering the museum through revolving turnstile gate, one must enter through the door of their corresponding skin color. Whites to the left, Non-Whites to the right. Unfortunately for us, no amount of racial discrimination or oppression could compare to neglection of the handicap. We were forced to wheel uphill for roughly ten minutes only to take an elevator back into the museum. Frustrating.
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The museum itself is educational and eye opening. Beginning with the history of British colonization in the region, the museum guides visitors through the checkered past of South African history. We learned about various political factions, both white and black, as well as the fractured relationship between parties on both sides. Aside from Nelson Mandela, of whom everyone is familiar, there are hundreds upon hundreds of political leaders, and community activities who played major roles in helping to end Apartheid. It was heartbreaking, to say the least, to read the stories and watch videos of the atrocities that happened as recently as 20 years ago. Whether it's fair or not, Nadine and I naturally compared Apartheid era South Africa to Nazi Germany, in the systematic relocation and oppression of a select group of people based on their race was the norm. It took quite a long period of time for the rest of the world to recognize and make the tough choices to intervene, whether politically or otherwise. To be sure, there are more differences than similarities in the two cases, but this blog is meant to summarize, not elaborate, on our travels and learnings.
The next stop after the museum was FNB Stadium, the iconic soccer stadium in Johannesburg. After his release from prison in 1990, Nelson Mandela gave his first speech there after his release from prison. It was also the site of the 2010 World Cup Finals. We would have liked to get a bit closer to take better pictures, but currently the stadium is hosting some Jehovah's Witness gathering/convention so we could only see the stadium from outside the parking lots. The design of the stadium is meant to look like an African pot, which the mosaic tiles matching the colors of the African ground.
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Our last stop was in Soweto. To provide a brief history, Soweto (short for South Western Townships) is a township created in the 1930's to separate the Blacks from the Whites. It 77 sq miles and home to roughly 2 million people, 99% of which are black. Soweto was also the home of Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu, whose houses we saw from the outside.
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Initially, we were not too impressed with the area. Yes, people were poor, yet almost every person had a cell phone or some other piece of electronic. There were quite a few cars, satellites doted the rooftops of the homes, and the roads appeared to have been paved within the past couple of years. We have seen worse conditions in the slums of Tijuana. It was not at all the crippling poverty that was described on the internet.
Then Twoboy drove us further....
As advertised, as seen on TV, as we expected...
It was evident they were coach by either the tour guides or their parents to butter up to tourists in the hopes that they will be given money, personal belongings, or chocolates. Regardless, seeing how so many people live is disheartening. Memories like these we will carry forever.
All in all, our second day of the trip wasn't exactly what is considered to be traditional fun, but our minds were opened quite a bit. Our scheduled itinerary was supposed to take us to Soweto before the museum, but scheduling errors and by Twoboy rearranged the order of things. In retrospect, it was preferable for us to read about the history of the country before seeing it firsthand.
Tomorrow we up bright and early for an 8am flight to Cape Town. First stop, Robben Island!
Nadine and Ben
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