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Published: August 25th 2007
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Hi Everybody!
Just wanted to let you know that I am safe and healthy in St. Lucia South Africa.
Sorry about not emailing or updating- It has been super busy with no internet access and non-stop traveling.
Let me give you an update:
I think I last emailed from Maun... or was it Jo'burg???? Well... I am going to say it was Jo'burg... So I survived my two nights in Jo'burg. The first night we stayed in Mufasa Backpackers on the outskirts of town- nothing too exciting to tell you about. The next morning Marnie and I went with Sarah and Boris on a taxi tour of Jo'burg and it's townships (the shanty poor, poor, poor neighbourhoods). It was so different than i expected! I though that Jo'burg was going to be completely fortified and scary and for the most part looked like any normal city. You could tell that it was not the richest city but some parts you could have mistaken for Calgary. Our taxi driver took us to the really poor area of Alexandra, where people build their homes out of corrugated sheet metal and scrap wood. It was shocking to see how many
people live in such a small place and what some people live in. There were even two story shanties that our driver called "the mansions". I couldn't believe that they could even hold up the floor above it....
From there we went to Sewato- another township. I thought that Sewato was going to look like Alexandra, but it has cleaned up significantly from when it was created. There are tons of brick houses and it now looks like a clean housing project. OUr drive took us to the Hector Pieterson Museum in Sewato and we learned all about the 1967 uprisings. I had no idea what this was all about but it was a student protest that went terribly wrong with hundreds of children and people being killed in the process- it was quite sad.
From there we went to the Nelson Mandela family home museum and saw where Nelson Mandela lived in Soweto. It was pretty cool to see how small his home was and to be able to see some of his personal belongings.
During the day we were also taken to Nelson Mandela's new house in a very nice part of Jo'burg. Man that
guys has his house guarded! Cameras everywhere!
OUr drive also took us through the very crime filled area called Hillborow. I would not walk the street there in day light or even think about doing it at night! There were lots of people that looked at us very resentfully. I was a little worried about driving through that area, but it was the only place that i felt unsafe in the whole day.
From Jo'burg we left to Mozambique- Wow! You can tell that Mozambique still has a lot of growing and catching up to do. There are still scars from the wars on the buildings there. We drove through Maputo and I was truly shocked at how poor Moz is. There were tons of grass and wood board shanties. The streets were lined with wooden slapped together street vendors selling anything from 2nd hand clothing to bananas and sunglasses. I think that was the first time the I really saw what most of Africa is like.... Before Moz we were in rather rich countries and Moz is definitely a poor nation.
From Maputo we spent two days in Tofo on the Moz coast. It was shockingly
beautiful!! Our tents were set up just off the beaches on the Indian Ocean. Marnie and I did tons of playing in the surf, lounging in the sun and even took part in horse back riding. It was the first time that i rode English style- I way prefer western! I felt like was about to fall off the horse for the first half of the ride as the saddle is very little and doesn't have much to hold you in....
From Tofo we headed down to Maputo for a night. Nothing to tell here except that it really looks like the overcrowded Africa cities they show on tv.
Then it was on to Swaziland. We stayed in Milwane National park for two nights in Bee Hive Huts. IT WAS AWESOME! The animals in the park are not scared of humans at all! i got about 3 feet away from Warthogs and Nyala (antelope). There was also a family of hippo living in the water hole near the resturant. So cool!
WE said good-bye to swazilnad yesterday and got here to St. Lucia last night. It is a resort town on the St. Lucia Lake near the
coast, very nice! This morning we went for another game drive in the Umfolozi National Park and saw 5 Elephants less than 20 feet from our truck! I got some pretty awesome pictures!
I hope to be able to upload some more photos at our next stop- My camera battery died today during my Zulu village tour. I got some amazing pictures of a Zulu church ceremony that I would love to share, but must charge the battery first!
Hope you all are well!
Happy travels!
Erin
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