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January 05, 2008

Hello from Africa!

Hey everybody! I hope you are all enjoying your time off from school. I am here in Johannesburg, South Africa, having a blast with all the other St. Thomas students here studying intercultural communication. It has been a whirlwind of a week so far, so let me tell you all about it.

We arrived in Johannesburg on Wednesday afternoon South African time after about 26 hours in the air. It was a long trip, but it has been well worth it so far. Once we cleared customs we made it to our hotel and just recovered from the long trip. Our hotel is really great. It is a campus of sorts with lots of different buildings. My door opens to the outside and there are trees and all kinds of plans within two steps of my room. We eat breakfast every morning in this great outdoor restaurant at the hotel that serves real authentic African food. Some of it is pretty good, while others aren’t too good for my American stomach!

On Thursday we visited a township called Soweto which stands for Southwestern Townships. It is a place where poor blacks were forced to move to by the Apartheid government. I’m sure we all have some idea of what “poor Africa” is like, but until you have seen it for yourself you really can’t understand it. We visited a community where the children run around barefoot amongst broken glass. Families literally live in metal and plastic shacks no bigger than a res hall room, and there is only one faucet of running water for the entire community. They use that water to cook, drink, and bathe. There are other parts of Soweto that aren’t too poor, and we went to visit those as well. We visited the home of Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, both lived on the same street and both are Nobel Peace Prize Winners. After visiting those places we ate lunch at a Soweto restaurant called Wandie’s. It was quite a cultural experience. Needless to say, the food preparation laws are not the same here in South Africa as they are in the US. Nevertheless, the food was good and it was nice to visit with the locals.

On Friday we visited the US Embassy and then just hanged out together as a group. We had a good time socializing. Today we went to see the Apartheid Museum and Constitution Hill, home to the South African Supreme Court. We are in Jo’burg for one more day and Monday we move on to Durban. I’ll try to get some pictures on my blog so you can see what’s all going on.

Have a great day guys!

Shane

Posted by Shane at January 5, 2008 07:42 AM