Soweto and Pilanesburg (or, Kingdom of the Animals)

Today was a really intense day. I haven't slept more than four hours a night because we go to bed so late and wake up so early - each day feels like multiple days.  I'm exhausted, but today was the best so far.

Our first stop was a tour of Soweto, a village of mixed demographics, but largely of settlements of indigenous people.  We visited a village that welcomes tourists into their settlements so that they can "spread the word" to see how the rest of the world lives.  It was emotional to say the least. I took these pictures with permission and I want to share them to stress the way we often lack perspective in our own lives.

Across from middle-class single family homes and a strip mall was the settlement.  It was surrounded by rusty barbed wire.  Garbage lined the walk paths that were made of dirt.  It was starkly reminiscent of barracks in concentration camps.  The bathrooms were two holes in the ground (one for each gender). Next to the bathroom a line of people formed to pump water from a well into dirty jugs so that they'd have drinking water.  Above them were strung power lines and cell towers.  When our professor asked why they don't have electricity, despite power lines surrounding them, our "guide" (a member of the village) said they have to steal it.  Ads for Coca Cola were pinned to the barbed wire.  There were no ads about HIV prevention.

Each "home," or shanty as they call it, was made of four sheets of aluminum nailed  together with a corrugated tin roof weighed down by bricks.  They were at most, five feet wide by five feet long, and less than six feet high.

A woman named Hilda invited us into her shanty.  In it was a twin-sized mattress, a moth-eaten curtain pinned above the open window, and a table with a pot and two dishes.  I shook her hand. It was cold as ice even though it was eighty degrees outside. She looked to be near 70.  She had glaucoma. I could see it in her faded eyes. She had lived there for 22 years, she said. She had a pot of maize for her food that day.  I could see the raised sign of a KFC across the street.  She spoke softly.  "We do it for the future of the children," she said.

When we left, four little girls had gathered nearby. They were around age 3 or 4.  Their clothes were filthy.  They waved to us. I knelt down. One took my hand as we began to walk. Another took my other hand.  They pulled at my bracelets. I wanted to take them off and give them to these little girls, but I didn't want to offend anyone.  I high-fived them instead, as our guide said they love giving high-fives.

My little friends.

The girls paused as we approached a small daycare/school  house.  They did not go inside. They waved goodbye with their tiny dirty hands and little dresses.

The "day care" serves 40 children in the settlement ages 2-5. All of the books are in English.  The teacher, who was younger than me, told us she has to translate everything for the children.  I asked her why some of the children were not in the day care.  She told me that those children's parents had come from Botswana and Zimbabwe, and did not believe in bothering to educate their children.  The kids' playground was surrounded by that rusty barbed wire. Why? What criminal would this keep out? It wouldn't even keep out the elements.  The teacher pointed to a poster with different fruits on it.  "The children have never eaten watermelon. They know it only from this picture. It is expensive, so we cannot buy it." I thought of the plate of watermelon I'd eaten for breakfast at a hotel ten thousand miles from home. Most of these people will probably never venture more than ten miles from their shanty.

The kids did indeed love high-fiving. I don't know why, but this made me feel sick.  A strictly American gesture, and yet what must the adults think of us, Americans coming into their village with our cameras and our phones taking photographs?  How humiliating it must be for those like Hilda to allow us to gawk at their homes in the hope of getting a few dollars out of it, while their children imitate these ethnocentric Americans.  I felt embarrassed of myself, like I was gawking at a zoo.

I wanted to throw my phone in the garbage after this. To think of what I complain about, when I have never known hunger or a lack of plumbing.  And yet, these villagers gather at night to laugh and dance and tell stories in this mud made up of God knows what.  Someone had a pet dog, another a yard full of chickens. There is a sense of optimism in this dreadful place, and especially a hope for a better life for  these children. They were unfazed by their living conditions, and the children were completely happy.  But I do wonder where this "promise land" will come from...

This pretty flower grew amongst the garbage. 

So it was an intense morning.  After this we saw some tourist stuff: Freedom Square, Regina Mundi (largest Catholic church in SA, with, notably, Jesus depicted as a white person), Nelson Mandela's house, and the Hector Pieterson museum.

After this we drove all afternoon through the amazing mountains and countryside to reach Pilanesburg, where we are staying at a game lodge. It is exactly what you'd expect of a "game lodge" - like a giant log cabin. We had dinner outside under twinkly lights and facing the mountains. Our room has a porch leading to just endless mountains. I can see antelope from our window.  A monkey has been perched in the tree ten feet away from me all evening. There are so many stars here - it's pitch black, and when I look up, I see millions of stars. I didn't even know the sky could hold that many stars. Crickets are chirping now, and other than that, it's very still.  It's one in the morning, but I'm looking forward to being woken up by animals outside my door in the morning:)

Of course, I have to talk about my first safari!!!

An open-sided truck took us miles into the mountains. When I think of mountains, I think of snow, but these mountains were full of green trees and bushes. Along these trails, we saw wild elephants, giraffes,  rhinos, hippos, zebras, antelopes, and even lions.  They were eating and grazing mostly, but I honestly think the giraffes were posing for us! And I know I keep repeating this, but this pictures do NOT do the scenery justice AT ALL. These were the most incredible landscapes I've seen in my whole life. Miles and miles of mountains framed by the sunset. Sparkling lakes. Clouds glowing from lightning inside them.  Elephants came within inches of us - terrifying and exhilarating all at the same time. Giraffes brushed our truck.  And to know we were within a foot of these wild lions, these deadly predators, was so amazing.

Here are a few pictures that will speak for themselves!

Posing !

Hippo

Lions out hunting 

Our adorable little lodge. 

I have about 300 more pics, too. :)

I cannot wait for tomorrow! I have to try and get little sleep since we're going on a safari from 5:30 - 8:30 am tomorrow, and then heading to cape town! We keep so busy that it's been enough to sustain me so far.  I've heard great things about cape town and I can't wait to spend this next week there.

Edited to add: sight is an amazing thing, really. The ability to see is just such an incredible phenomenon. To think of how it influences our other senses as well as our emotions is just such an amazing thing. It's hard to wrap my mind around it, and to think of what it would be like to lose that sense.

I was reminded of this Jane Goodall quote today:

"It never ceases to amaze me that there's this person who travels around and does all these things. And it's me. It doesn't seem like me at all."  I keep having to pinch myself to make sure I'm not dreaming.