I am going to try and update all of you on my first week in South Africa, but I only have 45 minutes and there is so much! First the flight was seventeen hours (I was impressed I survived). Before we left I had a pumpkin spice latte in the airport of course then once we landed it was just nice to be able to smell fresh air again. We left the airport for saint peter’s place to stay. Fun fact both Oliver Tambo and Desmond Tutu studied here. The first wee has been filled with museum visiting and listening to speakers. (I’m just going to talk about my favorites). We visited Kliptown, which is the area of Soweto where the freedom charter was adopted and it is also one of the poorest areas of Soweto. The freedom charter states all citizens of South Africa should have basic necessities including education, water, and electricity, it also claims other things like how all South Africans deserve a right to own land and etc. In kliptown the government does not provide water, education, or electricity because it is privatized in this country. The people in kliptown do not have access to resources to get them out of poverty and all of them live in tin huts with open sewage surrounding their house. These are conditions that the poorest of Americans would not live in. South Africa is known for having one of the largest wealth disparities in the world and it becomes clear when in one part a person can see huge mansions and beamers and then travel forty five minutes and find people living in absolute squalor. After our tour of kliptown we talked to a scholar who studies South Africa’s political economy and he explained the problems within the ANC and how in a lot of ways the people have become hopeless and discouraged by their high unemployment rates, insufficient education, and government corruption. He was my favorite speaker. The next day we met with members of the different political parties, no surprise the ANC could not answer our questions about how little they have done for the people. This day was my favorite because regardless of the country I could talk about political parties and elections in any country. The member of the DA explained to us the problems within the ANC and how they are trying to change things it was fascinating. It still amazes me how many large problems the country has that America does not or has worked to change because so much of the time we discuss how terrible things are in our country. There are so many problems between race and wealth and after being here it is not surprising why blacks still hate whites and think they are rude. It appears as though whites have everything in this country and apartheid is not over. They have the nicer towns, malls, school system, and neighborhoods. Whites still refuse to go to the townships. This weekend we did a homestay in Soweto and I loved my family. We went to all different parts of Johannasburg and everywhere we went Elyse and I (who I did my stay with) were looked at funny for being in the townships and being with our family. Regardless, I loved them! The first night we were there we were given African names hers was Mpopo and mine was Neo both mean gift in Zulu. Our sister leoso knew English, Zulu, and Afrikaans. Most people here know four or five languages, here little brother Sandilla is learning English and he is only three! The primary language spoken in South Africa is Zulu because it is the largest ethnic group in the country. Our family was a Zulu family so we learned lots of new words and new names. Saturday morning we tried fat cakes that are kind of like doughnuts and they are delicious! We went to Naatal-Sprate, which is another township. We met our host mom’s extended family and everyone was surprised to see white Americans in the township we took pictures with everyone and when we went to the grocery store people were dared to say hi to me. In America seeing white and black people together would never be as big of a deal as it is here. While we were there I tried a chicken foot and had to bite off the nails. It didn’t taste that bad but it was a little too much for me to handle because it was mostly cartilage. After we went home we watched T.V (they watch a lot of American T.V.) Sunday we went to a funeral and it was HUGE! And they eat a lot, lots of meat and spicy food. They celebrate the person’s life with lots of songs. The girl who’s funeral we were attending died of HIV. Today we visited a school and ours are much nicer and the kids had lots of questions for us. The biggest surprises have been how bad the race relations are. The second surprise is that their lives are very similar to ours and despite popular belief it is hard to get a gun and the crime is just as bad as any other city. When I told them I was from Chicago they said I hear its black dominated, there is lots of crime, and lots of drugs. Proving we all have misconceptions. The entire time I felt safe and the family and friends we met we so welcoming. Here everyone greets anyone that includes strangers. Random sidenote I’m getting a sweet tan already
Later
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