Dazed and Amazed

left cape town saturday morning and got to johannesburg later in the afternoon. We have have had days full of great food, sightseeing and learning about apartheid and what it was like to live through it and now be free. We went to the Hector Peterson memorial, The Apartheid Museum and Constitution Center/old prison that was closed in 1983. I am still trying to soak everything in and understand what was happening here while I was a teenager in America with nothing more to worry about except new clothes, my favorite song and maybe even boys. Contrast to Hector who in 1976 (I was 13, the same age as him) who became famous in is death. A famous photo of him being carried by another teen ager with his sister close behind was taken during the riot in Soweto that was fueled by Apartheid laws mandating that all children had to be taught in English and Africaans. He was shot by the police during a peaceful demonstration that went out of control.

The townships of Soweto and Kilptown are miles and miles of "informal housing", but honestly they are nothing but tin walls and roofs held in place by rocks. No running water or electricity, women were doing their laundry in buckets on the ground and hung them to dry. There are some communal structures that are used for toileting, again, no running water. Very hard to imagine unless you are here.

Spent an amazing three hours with the Boys and Girls Club of Soweto. They are open to the neighborhood from 3p-6p for kids to play, get a snack and do homework. On an average they see at least 120 kids every day. It is modeled after the boys and girls clubs at in America and tupperware has been a large sponsor. The NBA also sponsored a basketball court for them then sent a few players to celebrate the opening of it. The children there were amazing and so full of energy, happy to be there and even more happy to have extra adults to play with them. I have posted a few pictures. One is of Joe giving kids helicopter ride, he had gotten at lest 20-30 of them involved in a soccer game. There is one with me and my hair looking especially good because 1. I have no way to blow dry my hair and 2. a few of the kids decided that my hair was fascinating and wanted to play with it, two of the little girls tried to style it the way they are used to seeing their moms do it, I didn't have the heart to change it! The kids loved getting their picture taken, this little girl was especially beautiful and loved to pose.


PS---This post was done while I was on Excursion in Johannesburg but I am just getting it to you now a week later, sorry!