Exploring Jo'burg, South Africa
So last night all nine of us stayed in one dorm style room. It was all good until one of the guys started snoring. ughhh.. I hate when people snore! I mean it’s okay if I’m already asleep, but if I’m not it is so frustrating trying to go to sleep. Then at 5:30am some guy opened his bag! Like dude, comeon! We are all still sleeping here. Other than that I slept like a baby considering that flight was so long! Once we all got up we had some bran cereal (yuck!).. but I did the healthy thing of adding some sugar to it to make some frosted flakes. Additionally one of the workers at the lodge made us eggs with toast. The eggs were really good. They were a lot saltier than the eggs in the US. Following breakfast we hit the road. Today is the only day we have in Jo'burg so we had to get an early start. When we were driving along the first thing I noticed was that all the places, whether it be a house or a lodge, were all fenced in with either barbed wire on the top or prickly things at the top so no one could enter. I was kind of scared. I had heard Jo'burg wasnt the safest of places, but you really have to see it with your eyes to believe it. Next thing I noticed on our drive to the heart of the city was this cult like group of people in a random field off the highway. It was kind of freaky they were in all white in a.. I repeat.. RANDOM FIELD OFF THE SIDE OF THE HIGHWAY! I didn’t know if it was a gang initiation or what.. I asked my professor what this meant and she told me it is actually a religious ceremony. I completely forgot that it was Sunday here. It was still freaky though. Why do they choose a place off the highway? You would think they would want a quiet place to worship.
We arrived at our first destination for the day.. or so we thought. Our driver dropped us off at the Apartheid Museum, but then from there we walked across the street to get our hop on hop off bus tickets. As soon as we walked across the street to catch the bus, all of us were in awe. In the middle of Johannesburg, a city not particularly wealthy, was this GIANT, BEAUTIFUL casino! I haven’t seen anything like this. We walked in and I felt like I was in the Great Gatsby! We went through security at the doors, then right in front of us were 2 giant be-dazzled elephants! (my fav). I think my mom and aunt would have LOVED it here!
After briefly checking out the place, we got our bus tickets and headed to the Origins Centre Museum. When we first walked into the museum there was a giant wired sculpture of africa connected to the other continents! It was quite cool. I had never seen a sculpture like that before. I’m not a huge museum person to start with so it was kind of a struggle to get through this one.. not gonna lie. But I know we have to do some learning. It is a study abroad after all! haha. The guide went ON and ON though. For hours! It was excessive. By the time we got out of that place all of our stomachs were growling and we were all grumpy. We caught the bus back from the museum to the casino to eat. However, on our way we drove back through the city, which was really fun to people watch in. Some people were selling fruits while others were rushing to work. We drove down some sketchy areas though, but it was fun to look at all the talent shown through the graffiti on the walls. After having a quick bite to eat we went to our last stop of the day, the Apartheid Museum.
I wish we could have spent more time here just because it was VERY fascinating. We had to rush through though because everything closes at 5pm. The Apartheid Museum was very intense. There was one room where they had the ropes hanging down from the ceiling showing how many people hung themselves. It was crazy. Some people were jailed as young as 15 years old. After rushing through, we reached an area where there were rocks on one side of you and nothing on the other. You were supposed to move the rock from one side to the other. I believe this is a symbol going from oppression to freedom. On our way back from the museum we stopped at a gas station to grab some snacks. I tried a juice from S. Africa which was so much better than US juice. Now we are back at the lodge ready to eat dinner. I’m so pumped for tomorrow because we start our 20 day safari tour!
xoxo,
Em