The Last Few Days in Pretoria and Travel to Durban

Sawubona! Sorry it has been so long. We haven't had internet access since last Wednesday and now I must write a book to keep up :-) I have been having a great time but I definitely miss Pretoria now that we are in Durban.

On Wednesday night, which seems like forever ago, we went to a play called "Silent Voices." It was really interesting...I didn't quite understand the plot, but the basic story was that money isn't everything in life. The actors were great! After the show, we went out into the lobby and they were having a jazz night. There was a bar there and everyone was watching the ManU-Chelsea game. The jazz band was awesome---very talented. This club/bar was a black bar so they really weren't used to having a whole slew of whites in there but they took to us well! When one of the songs began, a few of the people there grabbed our hands and pulled us on stage because none of us were dancing! At the end of the night, EVERYONE was dancing together. It was an amazing experience. While Pretoria is incredibly conservative in terms of race, it was just a really neat sight to see a bar full of whites and blacks dancing together.

Thursday, we travelled to Soweto. Look up Soweto because there were some very important uprisings there in the late 70's. Basically, the African students there did not want their primary language of instruction to be Afrikaans anymore (which is basically the language of the opressor in this country) so they revolted. Many of the students were killed--including a boy named Hector Pieterson, in which there is a museum named after in the town (which we went to). Soweto also has Nelson Mandela's house before he was taken to Robben Island.

After the Hector Pieterson Museum and lunch, we went to the Apartheid Museum. For this being one of the most important museums in this country, I wish we would have had more time there! We got there late and only had about an hour and a half---I think we needed over 2 hours! I saw some really interesting things there and will be doing a lot of research on Steve Biko--one of the leaders in the anti-Apartheid movement. It is just unbelievable what people have gone through in this country. The police brutality is especially disgusting.

On Friday, I was unfortunately sick with a bad sore throat, so I couldn't attend the morning lectures. I did get to sleep in until 11am, with only a few interruptions from the cleaning lady who "would love to come to America!" I felt better later and was able to go to the Union Building (which we couldn't even go inside!) and the U.S. Embassy. I didn't really like the embassy...it looked like a huge cinder block and the security there was a little unreasonable. The programs being implemented here by the U.S., however, seem pretty effective. They are recruiting a lot of U.S. teachers to teach here because there is such a shortage. The also have a Fullbright program in which you can volunteer to spend the summer here and work in the schools --which I believe I will be taking advantage of in 2010. I love it here!

On Friday night we had a traditional braai (barbeque). I had some awesome chicken. A lot of the students went out after the braai (which they regreted Saturday morning), but I stayed in and invited the tour guide from Freedom Park (Goitsemodimo) to come to the lounge and talk to a friend and I. We had a great time just talking and playing cards. We taught him B.S. and he taught us Crazy Eights. The people here are amazing to talk to. They all have such interesting stories. Goitsemodimo, for instance, dropped everything he had to become a motivational speaker. He is one truly happy person.

Saturday was our travel day. We went from Pretoria to Durban in about 8 hours. On the way we stopped in a township called Zonkeziswe. The townships here are incredibly poor but the people are still so happy. We took a tour around the township and met some people that run an after-school program there. I chatted with a 15 year old boy named Packemahni for quite some time. He was excited to talk to me about the ManU game (probably because they won!). I asked him if he liked living there and he said he did but he wants to come to Michigan State for college :-)

When we finally arrived in Durban, all of us were very tired. My first impression of this city is not that great...they have a lot of crime here and the people in general are a bit more standoffish. Not that I haven't met nice people, but it's just not like Pretoria or the townships. On the first night, a black boy came up to me in this food complex and told me that these Indian girls were being racist towards him. When the girls saw him talking to me, they said, "what the f*** is your problem?" He let them know they were being racist and they said something awful in reply and walked away. Maybe the problem in this city is the fact that there are so many different people. In Pretoria, I was the only white person on the streets in the morning and everyone said hello and good morning to me, or at least smiled. The best part of Durban is that we are right on the beach and it's a lot warmer here!

Yesterday, I woke up early to run on the boardwalk and then 8 of us headed over to a place called SteetWise for a carnival. Basically, StreetWise is a program for boys who have been on the streets and want to have a better life. It is a residential complex and I think about 50 boys live there. I was helping with tye-dye. They loved it and I now have very colorful hands! It's really an interesting experience to talk to the kids here. They seem so mature. They also like it when I ask them to teach me some isiZulu :-)

I will save the rest for a later post since I have written so much already. Thank you for being patient with my late posting and I hope you all are having a great summer!