Welcome to Joburg

Last weekend I headed to Johannesburg with my seminar. Score for traveling with a large group of Americans! It was a really great weekend, and I learned a lot!

Went to the Apartheid Museum. Why would we spend three hours there? Because it is one of the best museums I’ve been to and is so full of information. My brain actually felt full when we left, but I have a much better understanding of apartheid now.  It’s so fascinating! I could go on and on about it, and it’s also super interesting because you can see how it still effects life today (read: serious segregation and racism).

“To be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains but to live in a way that enhances and respects the freedom of others.” –Nelson Mandela

 

Saw a comedy show. Understood about 30% percent of the jokes.

Stayed at a B&B in Soweto, the largest township in the country, and got a tour Saturday morning. I expected it to be full of the shacks like the townships in Cape Town, but it is very different. Yes, it does have some extreme poverty, but there is also some wealth (40 millionaires live in Soweto). It is also FULL of history. We ate lunch at a delish restaurant at our tour guides home. YUM.

Went to a soccer game at Soccer City, a World Cup Stadium. INSANE. INSANE. INSANE. This is a huge rivalry and the fans are intense. We’re talkin’ tons of team spirit, vuvuzelas, and 92000 people. I saw a couple fights break out, got beer poured all over me, and made a new friend who may have wanted to be my boyfriend

Soccer City!

Sunday morning before our flight, we stopped by Nelson Mandel’s house (no big deal). It’s been converted into a museum and is the only house Mandela has ever owned. Cool schtuff.

Cheesin'. Did you know that the street Mandela's house is on is the only street home to two Nobel Peace Prize winners? Props to whoever can name the second winner.

 

Lastly, we went to the Hector Pieterson Museum and Memorial, which explored the 1976 Soweto uprising. Students were protesting and rioting the use of Afrikaans in the education system, and police ended up opening fire.

June 16, 1976

 

So I’d call that a successful weekend. It was really interesting to learn so much about South African and Soweto history!

Cheers!