On the afternoon of January first I carefully packed my duffel bag and waited on the arrival of Adam and the MCC bakkie. He arrived and took me and Dinar to his apartment in Pietermaritzburg where Sokea was already. We spent the afternoon swimming and eating Nutty Sweet Potato Waffles from "Simply in Season" They were amazing!
On the morning of January 2 we loaded all five of us, all our luggage, and everything we would need for the next 9 days in the bakkie and we were off! We were headed northwest toward Johannesburg, South Africa. We stopped along the way for breaks and lunch. We finally arrived mid afternoon at Arum Guesthouse near downtown Johannesburg (Jo'burg, Jozi). This guest house was amazing! It was gorgeous, we were so lucky to start our trip in such a nice place...but it would be downhill from here accommodation wise. We walked to a neighborhood to eat supper and found that, because it was a national holiday many of the restaurants were closed :( We did find a shawarma place however, and it was delicious! Then we spent the evening at the guest house resting from the drive. We got up early and drove to downtown where we bought our tickets and got on the "Hop On, Hop Off Sightseeing Bus" this was such a cool way to see Johannesburg! There are headphones and you can hear information about the city as you drive along the streets, then the bus makes stops and you can get off and do whatever there is to do and then catch the next one! They run on 30 minute loops.
We got off at Carlton Tower, the tallest building in Africa and went to the top! We got off at Bloemfontaine a cute little hipster neighborhood where we ate lunch, and we got off at Constitution Hill where we took a tour of the prison and Constitutional Court. This history of Constitution Hill is frightening, interesting, extensive, and sobering. The era of Apartheid left South Africa in a state of over crowded prisons and terrible living conditions for those who were deemed "criminals." We saw the cells that were made for 20 but held 60 men. We saw the outdoor showers, designed for 200 but "bathed" over 1000, we saw the portions of food allotted for white, colored, and black prisoners...and believe me, you wouldn't be very strong on any of the portions. We saw the solitary confinement cells which by law were only allowed to contain any one prisoner for 30 days but some would stay in for more than a year or hold more than 6 children prisoners at a time.
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| At the top of Carlton Tower |
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| Constitutional Court in all 11 official languages |
We then got back on the bus and rode it to a stop we weren't expecting and got on the Gautrain to go back to where the bakkie was. The Gautrain is designed for laborers (mostly white) to commute very quickly between Pretoria (South Africa's Capital) and Johannesburg. This tour took us all day, after we had finished we drove to James and Joan's (the Area Directors for SwaLeSA) house, outside of Johannesburg, we had a lovely dinner there before we went to BIMS, a baptist missionary guest house. It was a cute little apartment style guest house.
The next day we spent the morning at the Apartheid Museum. This museum is unique in that there is not really artifacts but stories, you read as you walk. You wind through the museum reading different stories of people affected by apartheid, people that created apartheid, and the way it affected South Africa as a nation. In case you don't know, Apartheid was the systematic racially driven segregation that occurred in South Africa between 1948 and 1994. This system pushed black people in to townships outside of urban areas and affected every aspect of everyone's lives, there were separate schools, stores, toilets, restaurants, prisons, everything. Because of the white political dominance the colored and black people of South Africa became
severely (I can't think of a strong enough word) oppressed. I could go on, but there are many many aspects to apartheid, but this is the main idea. It was sobering three hour walk through the museum but my knowledge and understanding of how this system came to be and what it meant to the country grew exponentially. And now, as I live and work in South Africa, the effects of Apartheid are still apparent, and I spend my days trying to figure out how I can be a part of continuing to break down the walls that were put up between the races, how I can harbor and foster peace with everyone I meet and even teach people I come across how to reconcile with one another and see the equality that is deserved by all people.
We then went to Rosebank a shopping centre and had a lovely little lunch before we went to an African Craft Market and spend too much money! It was very cool to see so many traditional crafts and to be able to support artists.
The next day we loaded up the bakkie and headed towards the border. We were on our way to Lesotho where MCC had partner organizations. We drove many many hours before arriving at Paballong HIV/AIDs Clinic, creche, and farm. We drove on slow highways and dirt roads. Lesotho is a small little developing country that is surrounded by South Africa on all sides. It is the highest country in the world, most of the country lies above 1 mile above sea level, and is extremely mountainous. It was beautiful! Anyway, Paballong, lies very much in the middle of nowhere (like much of Lesotho). At this clinic it was rainy and pretty cold, but we rejoiced as the country has been in a terrible drought for years. We had no electricity and no water, but we made it work, we made hobo dinners over the little braai that we took with us. The next morning we helped to clean chicken eggs to sell in town and helped to volunteer in the clinic! I helped to write out patient information for record keeping. This clinic I soon found out was partially sponsored by Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation which I helped to raise money for while doing Dance Marathon all throughout my time at BW. I was humbled and honored to be volunteer at a clinic I may have directly been involved with helping to keep up and run.
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| Dance Marathon shirt from Freshman year at BW at the EGPAF Clinic |
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| Pterodactyl Footprints in Morija |
We drove to a small tourist town called Morija where we stayed in a nice guest house (they even made our food for us!) and we went on a hike and saw dinosaur footprints, we just chilled here and had a break before heading out in to the middle of nowhere again. We drove for more hours and arrived at Growing Nations Farm in Maputseng. To get to this organization there is not even a road, just sort of a break in the fields where you drive over some rocks...it was quite a bumpy ride! Here we met some lovely people, I met some lovely little girls who I played with, and we met up with one of MCC SEEDers who is assigned there. This organization teaches local young farmers how to "Farm God's Way" which is sustainable and more effective in different weather conditions. We spent our morning of service here hoeing a field...my back was very sore, but it was very cool to see the difference that we made! We then spent the afternoon on a farm tour seeing the property and the crops that are grown to sell to the locals. This place was set in a gorgeous valley and I spent a lot of time looking at the scenery in our down time.
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| Girls I met and played with at Growing Nations |
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| A small corner of Growing Nations |
Finally early in the morning we loaded up and headed back out of the country to PMB and back to camp. But first we stopped at Clarens South Africa "The Tourist Gem of the Free State" we stopped at a little store where I found Root Beer and Dr. Pepper! I was very excited, I'm saving my Dr. Pepper for a very special occasion...I don't know when! We arrived back at our respective homes late in the afternoon and very tired, but it was a lovely trip learning about South Africa and about MCC's partners.
Whew! That was a long one, I thank you for reading it all the way through! You can keep more up-to-date on my Facebook and Instagram pages.
Thank you to everyone for your thoughts and prayers it is always appreciated!
