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Published: December 19th 2006
After being invited to enjoy our students' Leah's travel blog to India and Thailand earlier this year, I became committed to have a travel blog the next time I left the country; so, here I am.
We arrived to South Africa early this morning after quite a long journey, starting from Detroit on Sunday evening. The flight from Detroit to Paris was uneventful, as in my traditional manner, I slept nearly the entire way. For once, the service on Air France was respectable; even moreso on the 2nd leg of the journey.
Paris was a foggy mess when we got there, and stayed that way the entire day. We were successful in connecting to the free shuttle that escorted us to the hotel where we had reserved a "day room" - a special rate for those individuals only checking in for a period during the day. The Radisson SAS was the hotel, situated in the countryside of France about 20 minutes from the Charles de Gaulle airport. Despite our best laid plans to take a long leisure bath, paint our toenails, and dine at the hotel restaurant, we crashed! Caroline and Courtland took the queen size bed and I was relegated to the twin size extra bed, that fortunately Bernard was smart enough to request for us. I managed to sleep through at least 4 phone calls - 2 I think were from Bernard, and 2 from Bernard's daughter, Laetitia, who lives in Paris. Courtland was our secretary for the day, taking all of the calls, although he managed to "sleep talk" through one call from his father, informing us that our plane for S. Africa would be late.
Just as we were leaving the hotel and getting into the shuttle later that evening, the hotel clerk came out to the bus to inform me that I had a phone call. It was Bernard reminding me that the flight was going to be late - news to me! Courtland had slept through that phone call. Ok, so it no longer mattered as we had our minds set on getting to the airport.
We checked on our flight status once getting to the airport, and yes, indeed, the flight was going to be late departing. So, we had time to get a snack, and an expensive snack that was! For 3 baguette sandwiches and 3 drinks, we paid a little more than $36. Caroline was in shock! The dollar was obviously not performing as strongly as she last remembered against the euro.
We finally boarded almost 2 hours late, and the plane was full. In contrast to our flights to West Africa, the composition of this flight was radically different. Signifcantly fewer people who looked like us, and more speaking different languages foreign to my ear. It is odd that I slept very little on this longer flight, instead indulging in movies and snacks. I watched "My Super Ex-Girlfriend", "Scoop" (Woody Allen's new film - I am NOT a W. Allen film, but, this film was good; "Cars" (again), and "Step Up".
We arrived to Johannesburg and had no problems getting into the country. Staff from Bernard's office were there to greet us, and the old feeling of being taken care of came back to me quickly. It is amazing how easily it is to adapt to that convenience. Trust me, I don't resist it either. I am tired of being the "supermom" and "superdaughter" in the States, and my son reminded me that I will have to go back to that; but, in the meantime, I am enjoying this without shame.
The driver gave us a short history of South Africa on our trek from Jo'Burg to Pretoria. He was originally from Soweto, the hotspot decades ago for breaking down the walls of apartheid in this country. We hope to go to Soweto as part of our trip here, although I haven't decided how I feel about the "official" tours to the townships (there are many organized).
The neighborhood where Bernard rents a house is heavily guarded and individually gated. It is very pleasant, but, neighbors keep to themselves. This used to be an exclusively White area, according to the driver, and some are still having problems accepting the changes in the country, and with the few persons of color who are starting to move in. It will be interesting to see how it feels to be a Black person here in South Africa compared to our experiences in the USA. One thing both Caroline and I noticed in the Jo'Burg airport bathroom was the constant stares of the Black South African women who cleaned the bathrooms. It seems as if they were trying to figure out who we were and where we came from.
That's it for today. Hope to have some pictures soon. We are enjoying the beautiful weather - in the 70's. I am walking around in flipflops.
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Sandra
non-member comment
Interesting first impressions. You should keep a journal (if you can) to record how it feels to be black foreigners in South Africa. Looking forward to pictures.