Day One

My first full day in RSA. We started the day here at our hotel near the Johannesburg airport with a fantastic South African breakfast, complete with eggs, French toast, fried tomato, sausage, fresh fruit and bacon (way better than American bacon!) – the works, easily the best breakfast I’ve had anywhere in a long time. While breakfast was supposed to be the first activity of the day, I found myself wide-awake in my room watching the sun peak through our window shades as I marinated in the humid air. This is definitely the most humid place I’ve been, and it’s going to take some adjusting for me, a dry-aired Coloradoan. After our FANTASTIC morning meal, we loaded the bus for a day trip to Soweto, a suburb within the city of Johannesburg.Soweto is a place completely unlike anything I’ve ever seen in-person. As our bus entered the township, we passed by corrugated iron roofs, masses of shacks and miles of barbed wire fences. Slums and hostels lined the roads on each side, while makeshift produce stands filled in the spaces in between. I’ve never seen anything like it outside of a National Geographic. But what impacted me the deepest today in Soweto was the people. No matter where our bus went through the township, from parks to churches to marketplaces, we were greeted with waves and smiles. Waves, smiles and dances from people who lived in rusted, beat down shacks and who suffer from a 40% unemployment rate, as well as an extremely high HIV/AIDS infection rate. Our first stop in Soweto was at a monument commemorating the 11 chapters of the new South African constitution, composed after the end of Apartheid in 1994. The monument was housed inside a cone-shaped brick building, and staffed by an outgoing man with two teeth and a flute. As we left, the man played the national anthem of South Africa on his humble recorder. We moved on to visit several other monuments and parks within Soweto, always greeted by waves and peace signs. Our guide brought us to her restaurant, Chez, which was housed under a corrugated iron roof held up by dark red bricks all around. The inside of the restaurant was decorated by about a dozen paintings, each one unique, but shared common colors of red, yellow, blue and green. I am falling in love with South African food dangerously fast. Lunch, consisting of squash, spinach, corn, potatoes, rice, beef and lamb, was nothing short of amazing. So far, I’ve noticed that South African food is practical, filling, but still leaves room for deliciousness. After our meal, some local kids greeted us at our seats with a dance routine, and few APU students even joined in. After lunch at Chez, we moved onto one last monument, commemorating a 1976 anti-apartheid uprising in Soweto, when hundreds of Africans were killed during a protest.The apartheid museum in Johannesburg was our final stop – I left this place with a mix of emotions, historical info, and the beginning of an understanding of the people of South Africa. The museum exhibited the period of time in South African history, from 1948 to the early 90’s, when the national government enacted policies that separated races within the republic. Citizens were issued identification cards that categorized individuals by their race – their respective race determined where they could live, where they could work as well as regulated many other daily activities. It’s tough for me to fathom how a nation could ever be reconciled after such horrible injustices, but the apartheid museum itself is a testament to the progress this country has made in the last two decades. I have so much to learn from this place and its people. Next: we fly out of Johannesburg to Durban, and will eventually end up at our campus in Pietermaritzburg