In Johannesburg at last!

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After spending almost three wonderful days in Amsterdam we boarded the long flight to Johannesburg and arrived in the early hours of Friday morning. This time I gave up trying to sleep and watched several movies - but don’t ask me what they were! The Virgin Atlantic flight was so much better than US Airways in cleanliness, quality of food, and service, it was amazing. Watching the sun come up as we approached Johannesburg was really beautiful. The dust that sits in the African atmosphere was lit by the sun and created a bright orange belt and streaks of brilliant pink and gray-blue that stretched along the entire horizon.

We caught a cab to the Bahá’í Center, which is in a community called Northriding in Johannesburg. The Bahá’í Center is a former school that the National Spiritual Assembly (NSA) of South Africa recently acquired, and it is a place of great potential. There are a number of very sweet volunteers and a few paid staff members, and I am learning African names and helping Bob with them. I’ve included photos of John/Ntalimbo, who wants to come and work at Louhelen, and Khanyisa, who runs the bookstore. There are several children living here; the facility includes several houses that the Bahá’ís are renting out, and the children are warm and friendly. We are referred to as

Uncle Bob

and

Auntie Sherri,

both by the children and by the younger volunteers, which is a custom in this culture. The children always want us to read and play with them. Believe it or not, their favorite game is

school.

This is a game where we play the teachers and they are the students. This is for me one of the most striking differences between the US and Africa. The kids are always asking us questions about every subject imaginable.

We are staying in a room that is part of a dormitory of rooms on a courtyard; a photo shows our door in the corner beyond the fountain. It is simple and comfortable. There is a window in each room, and no screens, but no bugs yet. I have included photos of the main building of the Centre and one of the rental houses, nearest the dormitory. There are beautiful flowers and plants here, such as the bottlebrush tree just outside the courtyard entrance, and a blood lily, which looks like a large makeup brush. There are also lemon and avocado trees, bougainvillea, honey flowers, hydrangeas, irises, bird-of-paradise, and many others.

There are so very many people here who have absolutely nothing it is difficult to imagine the differences between the haves and the have-nots. Every residence and business is surrounded by a wall that has an electric fence on the top of it. Everybody here also has dogs to keep intruders away, this includes the Bahá’í Center. We are urged not to go out at night and to always drive with our windows up and our doors locked. Crime, we are told is much better once we get outside of the Johannesburg/Pretoria area.

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Photos

Centre rondavel
This is overflow housing for conferences, near the dormitories.

Dormitory courtyard
Our room is the door in the corner beyond the fountain.

Kids at the Baha'i Centre
Elmon, Jabu, Sobela and Mimi

Courtyard entrance and bottlebrush tree
The bottlebrush tree has beautiful red flowers, and the new wood appears to grow out of the seed casings after the flowers.

Blood lily
The blood lily has a flower that comes before the leaves, and it looks like a gigantic makeup brush, about 3-5 inches across.