Blogs from Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa, Africa - page 39

Ke 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 ... read more

Today we had two amazing church experiences. We began the morning at Regina Mundi Church in Soweto. This church was the home church of Archbishop Desmond Tutu and played a significant role in the apartheid resistance movement. Although the service was in Xhosa (one of the 11 official languages of South Africa), the songs were very moving and the congregation was very welcoming. We then continued our morning worship at the Central Methodist Church in Johannesburg. We were guests of Dr. Lolwana who wanted us to see the wonderful work her church is doing. The Central Methodist Church is currently housing hundreds of refugees from Zimbabwe. Although the church is not equipped to handle that many people, they are doing their very best to provide safe haven and social services for the refugees. Not only is ... read more

Nur ganz kurz ein kleiner Bericht aus der Metropole, einer Metrople, in der man auf Grund der Kriminalitaet nicht zu Fuss gehen sollte. Immer Taxi oder einfach zu Hause bleiben. Deshalb auch der Wunsch meinerseits so schnell wie moeglich ein Flugticket nach Bangkok, Asien zu bekommen. Das stellte sich aber nicht so einfach heraus wie es anschliessend war. Nach tausenden Telefonanrufen (das Internet hatte mal wieder den Geist aufgegeben... UND: fuer Interessierte... Ich habe eine prima Auskunft darueber bekommen, warum das Cyberspace in Suedafrika so langsam ist. Die Antwort auf diese Frage steckt im Namen selbst. Es ist das suedlichste Land Afrikas. Wicked! Der Insider erklaerte mir, dass lediglich zwei Breitbandkabel auf dem ganzen Kontinent unter der Erde liegen, eins entlang des Aequators, eines aus Asien kommend. Und jeder Online Computer bedient sich dieser Leitungen... so ... read more

The motto of the Coat of Arms of South Africa is !Ke e:/xarra//ke, written in the Khoisan language of the /Xam people. It means "Unity in Diversity" or, literally, diverse people unite. I guess it's really quite appropriate then that this country was chosen as the location for PointCare's annual training and development programme, and for the meeting of employees based all across the African continent. People with many different personalities, coming from different backgrounds and different countries and able to speak a host of different languages. Between the 16 of us that attended we speak English, Danish, Afrikaans, Kiswahili, Kimaasai, Woloff, Lusoga, Luganda, Kikamba, French, Spanish, German, Arabic, Hebrew, Greek and more! (I'm not saying we're fluent and I will be completely honest and say that only very few words are known in the last ... read more

Today we were guests of the Ivory Park History Teachers Forum. This forum is a collaboration of seven high schools working to standardize the teaching of history within their district. Perhaps the greatest challenge facing the forum is the impoverished condition under which most of its students live. The schools that belong to the forum are all located in a township that was created during the apartheid era to house non-whites. Many parents do not work and some students are orphans and are now the heads of their households. After a warm welcome from the forum, the fifteen of us were divided among the seven schools. I visited Eqinisweni Secondary School. Like the other six schools, Eqinisweni is working under difficult conditions including their extreme overcrowding. Originally built to house 1,200 students; Eqinisweni currently has approximately ... read more