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Published: September 5th 2008
Lesedi Baby
I made friends with one of the munchkins at the Lesedi Cultural CenterKe Bona Lesedi-- "I see the light"
Well, it took 24 hours just to get to South Africa, but the flights weren't as bad as I though they'd be. First, I had a 10 hour flight from Seattle to Amsterdam. Knowing we'd arrive in Amsterdam at 7am, I wanted to force myself to sleep on the plane. I was tired, but it was hard to sleep because I was excited and NWA ha 'fantastic seat-back monitors so you can watch whatever movies you want or even play games. Thinking I had a brilliant sleep-plan, I had a glass of wine with the first of 3 meals onboard (next time I wonder why we pay $5 for a box of crackers on domestic flights, this is why-- abundant free meals and drinks on international flights. I even had real silverware at one point!) Phase II of my sleep-plan included a Tylenol PM. What I didn't count on was Phase III turbulence and motion sicness that severely clashed with Phase I and II, and had me cutting off a nice old man in line for the bathroom. If you've ever had to use an airsick bag on a plane, the embarrassment of
In Uniform
School children were always willing to have their picture taken. begging to be first in line at the lavatory is nothing. Pleasant, I know. Turns out after that fun experience, I had no trouble sleeping.
After a quick and uneventful stop-over at the AMS airport, it was onto another 10 hour flight to Joburg. While this 10 hours did seem a bit longer, it was also more lively thanks to a group of retirement-aged Dutch folks who turned the plane into one big cocktail party. Grab your wine and/or Heineken and bounce around the plane chatting with anyone you meet. Due to the experiences on the first leg of my journey, I didn't join in, although I appreciated the people watching. I had an aisle seat next to a young couple from Ireland who in one 10-hour time span went from public displays of affection to talking about their relationship to arguing to crying (yes, crying) to making up and back to public displays. That all happened while I sat there, pretending I couldn't hear everything.
I finally arrived in Joburg around 9 pm an just as I had planned, caught up with the UW group at passport control (they were on a seperate flight). We were all
The Apartheid Museum
Pillars are visible from the highway. happy for showers and bedtime at the hotel.
After sleeping in as much as we could, we headed to the Apartheid Museum. They handed us "white" or "non-white" tickets to determine which entrance we use, as well as to determine part of our path through the museum. It was funny ot watch the students try to trade cards with each other in order to stay with friends, and then realize that the point of the exercise was that you had no say in what you get. At the end of the self-guided museum tour, the have a wall of current newspapers displayed to show that many struggles still exist where equality and responsibility are concerned. One of the papers from 8/31/08 showed Barack Obama and his family taking the stage at the Democratic National Convention!
We also loved the few interactions with the school children visiting the museum. At first, some of the students were embarrassed that their peers were taking their photos, saying that it "isn't a petting zoo", but after a while, we reailzed that the kids loved posing for the camera and said "can you take our picture?"
After the museum, we went to
Making friends
UW students and South African school children take photos together at the Apartheid Museum. the Lesedi Cultural Center to learn about different South African tribes. It was really fun with music and dancing and learning about customs. We also got a chance to eat dried, crunchy worms. Yes, I tried them. Yes, they were gross. There were also a few little kids at the center that stole the show, but I promise, I won't bring home any South African babies, a la Angelina Jolie. They apparently frown on kidnapping anyway. We finished our first full day in South Africa with a feast at Lesedi including osterich, crocodile and other meants and veggies as well as a few Castle Lagers. Everything was delicious (my favorite was the crocodile) as well as filling, which is why most of us were lulled to sleep on the 45 minuted ride back to the hotel...
More adventures to come as the spotty internet is available! CJ, I can't wait to see you so that I have a "travel buddy" to share all of this with! For now, Hamba Kahle, or "Go Well"!
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Gary
non-member comment
Cool!!
Hey J-Kitch! Congrats on getting the Pangaea award! That's so cool! I hope you have a safe and fun trip. Gary p.s. Sharmon gave me your blog link.