This is South Africa

---

“I’m from the United States,” said the Black youth, surveying our reactions. I flinch at this introduction, considering our surroundings. I’m standing in Kliptown, a shantytown of sorts - a miniscule corner of Soweto just outside Johannesburg. I’m confused as to how an American teenager of any creed or culture could end up as one of the four million people living here.

“I’m from the United States of Africa,” he clarifies, and I smile at his clever turn of phrase. “South Africa is all of Africa - every country, every person, we all live in South Africa.”

This is it.
This is the moment when I know I have fully arrived in a new country.
This is South Africa.

From Johanesburg to Cape Town by bus, we have an entire country to discover in the next three weeks.

This is our second day.

---

Photos

The NBA cares
T.K., our guide through Kliptown, explained how the NBA provides support and infrastructure for Sky, a youth centre we visited. Members of the NBA have also visited Kliptown.

Marc & Bob
Bob is the founder of Sky and the Kliptown Children's Youth Centre.

Battery Centre
Since Kliptown has no electricity, residents must visit the local Battery Centre to rent a battery to charge their appliances, such as a cellphone or radio.

Regina Mundi Church
The church has been the site of many public demonstrations in Soweto - and it still has the bullet holes to prove it.

Churchgoers
Dressed in their church uniforms outside Regina Mundi Church on a Sunday morning.

Hector Pietersen Museum
Hector Pietersen (seen being carried in the background image) was shot and killed by the police while protesting the inclusion of Afrikaans as the language of instruction for all subjects in schools in 1976. He was 13 years old and the first student to die in the resistance, making him a symbol for the cause.

Marc art
A display leading into the entrance of the Apartheid Museum displayed mirrors with images of living ancestors of those who flooded to Johannesburg when gold was discovered at Witwatersrand.

Apartheid image
In the museum.

World Cup is coming...
To South Africa in 2010. This is big, big news for the country.

Comments

[Auntie Marcia]

God I love travelling with you guys...
when you get home, will you keep blogging your 'travels'?.......you could make dishes and diapers an adventure for me....love you guys.

[the soul cultivator]

The United States of The World.
Great images.......I love them X