After 16 and a half hours of flying- 7 to Dakar, Senegal plus an hour wait inside the plane, plus another 8 and a half to South Africa, we made it to Johannesburg. First observations were that it didn’t feel a whole lot like a place outside of the United States, aside from the fact that cars drive on the left side of the road. Since all signs and advertisements are written in English, I didn’t get the usual culture shock I get in most countries of trying to decipher foreign words. Additionally the cars are a pretty normal size, unlike the miniature ones the Europeans scurry around in. Even the weather was fairly normal. It’s been overcast and windy- not more than 70 at the hottest. I even wore jeans today!
While in Johannesburg the 16 of us students plus the professor and intern are staying at a guesthouse in a suburb outside of Jo’burg. It has quite a history, built in 1911 and served as a secondary school and seminary for young black men such as Desmond Tutu (!). It is a perfect place for us to adjust to the 10 hour time change and take everything in. All the buildings are open air and the courtyard is filled with shady trees and tropical flowers, a beautiful contrast with the stately brick buildings. We eat breakfast and dinner here and I was surprised to realize that South African food is heavily influenced by British cuisine; I guess I should have suspected that since they were under British colonial rule for so long. This has led to food such as beans on toast for breakfast, marmalade, lots of tea at all times of the day, beef stew, and puddings of all types.
The last few days we have been exploring Soweto, the largest township in South Africa. It houses an estimated 3-5 million people in a 16 by 23 km area. This was the area where many blacks lived during apartheid because it was within close proximity to the city, where they could work but not live. Today, I was surprised by the vastness of the area and the economic diversity within its boundaries. From how the area was presented by the media and in articles I had read, I imagined the entire area to be a sprawling slum. However I was surprised to see very nice homes, a university, a shopping mall nicer than my own back home, and the largest state hospital within its borders. We also saw Nelson Mandela’s house and some liberation struggle museums within Soweto. Today we visited Kliptown, which was a much more impoverished area of Soweto. Most residents were unemployed and received little if any help from the government, except the use of porta-potties, which were distributed one per 25 families. The root causes, that I could discern from the situation, was a lack of means to attain a quality education- there are no schools in Kliptown and children must walk far to attend even primary school, which then creates unemployability. The lack of utility services was also a noticeable problem. Lastly, we were told that illegal immigrants often end up in informal settlements such as this one because they lack proper documents to qualify for other housing. On a positive note, we were made welcome in the community, despite our feelings of self-consciousness trooped through someone else’s neighborhood. Kliptown is a forgotten part of Jo’burg and the impression I got was that residents were glad someone was taking the time to learn about them and the daily challenges they face. My overall impression of Soweto is that today it is as economically diverse as if it was its own city. Perhaps if it was treated as its own independent entity it could get funding for services more easily than today, as it is treated the same way as it was pre-apartheid- simply as a township adjacent to the larger city of Johannesburg.
That's all for now, I stay with a host family in Soweto this weekend, and I can't wait to experience South African food and culture firsthand!
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