Days 4, 5 & 6 in Johannesburg/Pretoria

May 19, 2011

Soweto, South Africa

We're on our way back to the hotel tonight, today was a busy day. We drove to Soweto (40 min.). It was where all the student uprisings and protests by blacks were that helped end apartheid. We went to the Hector Pieterson museum (the first person killed during the protests). A man called Brown was our tour guide for the day, and he was involved in all the student uprisings and protests during apartheid. It was our first time out of the city into a township. Townships are close to what people think when they think of Africa. They're really poor and a lot of the houses are made out of tin. It was really sad to see people still living like that.

Hector Pieterson Museum

After that we went to the house that Nelson Mandela grew up in, it was actually nicer than I expected. A group of little boys came up and started singing to us, it was sooo cute. We all gave them money, but when we were getting in the car a guy came and took their money. We tried to get our money back but our driver and tour guide said it wasn't worth it. It was so sad because he didn't deserve the money and took it from little kids.

Nelson Mandela's childhood home

Next we went to the Apartheid Museum, it was really amazing. I bought 2 childrens books, one for lawson called "The Baboon Who Went to the Moon" and one for my classroom of African tales about how animals were made.

Apartheid Museum

Now we're on our way back to Pretoria, but the traffic is crazy. A bunch of us are planning on going out tonight, talk to you soon!

May 18, 2011
Municipal election day here in South Africa!  Went to election headquarters and chatted with the top political analyst in South Africa and got to meet the Secretary General of the ANC! Exciting day :-) 

P.S. He was a Spartan, Go Green!

May 17, 2011

Today was really interesting. Our first lecture was boring, it was about South African history from 1652-1910, but after the lecture we heard singing outside.
We went outside and they were singing a song campaigning for the elections tomorrow. They were with the ANC and singing "my mother was a kitchen gal and my father was a slave, that's why I'm a communist" in Afrikaans. I took some videos and it was really cool to see.

After our second lecture we went to a South African restaurant that was better than I've had. We went to a market and I bought a salad bowl for my mom with a bunch of animal prints on it.

The African Leadership Academy was cool. I learned they have a contract for all their students that say 10 years after they graduate they will come back to Africa to better the continent. The only part I found disappointing was that it cost the equivalent of $55 million and there are only 108 students. Its very nice and advanced, but in a country like this, $55 million could fix so much.
Tomorrow we are going to the voting polls to talk to people, I'm really excited about that.

African Leadership Academy