Voortrekker Museum and Freedom Park

Now I feel like I have to write a blog every day! We have finally been having some free time in the afternoon, so hopefully I can get to the computer more often.

Today started with a lecture from a professor at the University of Pretoria. She was British and her lecture was about 20th century South Africa. While she was definitely not as biased as the Afrikaaner lecturer, I still felt as though she was making excuses for the way the non-whites have been treated in this country. (In my last post, I failed to mention that the terms for the people here are black, coloured, indian, and white---these terms are all fine to use.) Even our South African driver, Dan Dunn, said that many of the whites here will not admit to supporting Apartheid even though there was a huge support when it was actually occuring. It's a bit disheartening to hear all of this, but is really opening my eyes to what is going on here.

After this lecture, we began our education course with John. I was much more engaged in this as we were comparing the logistics of education in the U.S. to that in South Africa. Unfortunately, there are many similarities between the two systems. I cannot believe how much has not changed in South Africa since Apartheid ended. I'm not sure if I mentioned this before, but an informal Apartheid is still occuring because black children cannot afford to attend the other schools with the better resources. I wish there was something I could do about this NOW. This reality, however, is making me feel the need to come back here and really figure out the system. I think the price of the plane ticket would be worth making a difference here.

After the morning lectures, we went to the Voortreker Museum. To keep it short, this museum is basically celebrating the Dutch colonists (Afrikaaners). It was a bit sickening to see...

Freedom Park was a completely different experience. Although the park is not finished, what will become of it is amazing. It's basically a park that celebrates the liberation of all people in South Africa. We also had an amazing tour guide that I will be keeping in contact with. This man had so much heart. He is the chairman for the African United Youth Organization and he is only 26! He is working to bring unity to this country. Hopefully I will be able to meet up with him again soon and really talk about some of the things he sees going on here.

I don't have much time left on the internet, but hopefully I will be writing again soon. I hope you all are enjoying reading this and please do some research on the xenophobia going on here. I'll be bringing back newspapers, but it's important to know what's happening. It's incredibly tragic and the people here are really unhappy about it. Sorry for all of this depressing news, but I really am having a great time and am learning more than I ever thought I would!