Tour of Soweto and Jo'burg

With my time in Jo'burg running short, last weekend I organized a tour for myself and 2 other Colgate people staying at the Davinci Hotel.  Daniel from Mexico is here working with the Finance department and Michaela from Italy is here working to help make planning better at the local factories.  We went on a tour of Soweto and Jo'burg.

Soweto is a township with over 1.3 million people - about one third of Johannesburg's population.  Much like SoHo in New York indicates the area is located "South of Houston", Soweto is an abbreviated name for South Western Township.  This large township has many different neighborhoods - townships within a township.  A township is an area that the black people were moved into during Apartheid.  Soweto was originally designated for black people working in the mines and those working in white households.  All 11 of South Africa's official languages can be heard on the streets of Soweto.  Like any small town, there are areas of upper and middle class.  Winnie Mandela still lives on a quite street up on a hill.  There are also areas of horrible poverty, with people living in shacks without running water.

Slum area of Soweto

Dormitory housing built for migrant workers during Apartheid - now converted to housing for families

We visited a hawker market in Walter Sisulu Square where anything can be purchased from clothing to furniture.  We saw two guys carrying a mattress and box spring leaving the market, about 15 minutes later we saw them resting on the side of the road.  I'm impressed they made it as far as they did before they needed a break!

Walter Sisulu Sqaure is the location that the Congress of the People met to draw up the Freedom Charter.  In 1955 the ANC sent 50,000 volunteers out into the townships to gather up "Freedom Demands" from the black people of South Africa.  The result of this was the Freedom Charter - 10 principles to give all people in South Africa equal rights.  Some of them are basic rights like "All Shall Be Equal Before the Law", some seem to have their roots in Communist thinking "The Land Shall Be Shared Among Those That Work It", and some are inspirational "The Doors of Learning and Of Culture Shall Be Opened".

There is also a tribute to the residents of Soweto that lined up to vote in the South Africa General Election which saw Nelson Mandela elected as President.  It was the first election that non-white people were allowed to vote in.

Tribute to those that waited in line for hours to vote

Actual line of individuals waiting in line to vote.  

Tribute made out of sheet metal to acknowledge the many South Africans living in slums housing made out of tin

We visited Nelson Mandela's house in Soweto that he initially lived in with his first wife.  He and Winnie lived there when they were not being held in prison.  Once he was released from his life sentence and let out of prison, he lived in this same small house (less than 1000 sq feet) for 13 days until they realized this would not be safe for the future President of South Africa.  He was moved to a more secure location and never returned to live in his home in Soweto.

1956 was the 40th Anniversary of the Women's march.  We have quite a ways to go in the US!

Letter from the State of Michigan demanding that President George Bush formally apologize to Nelson Mandela for the CIA's role in the arrest of Nelson Mandela for treason.  (He didn't)

We visited Constitution Hill where there was a large prison for many years until it was closed for overcrowding.  We learned of the different standards given to blacks, whites and colored people.  White people received sheets, a pillow and 2 blankets.  Black people received only 2 blankets.  There were terrible inequalities in the diets of the prisoners as well.  Many political prisoners were held here including Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Ghandi.  Ghandi was in prison here for 7 months.

Guard tower at prison

The 27 rights from the Bill of Rights is written on the doors to the Constitutional Court in the 11 official languages of South Africa

The Flame of Democracy is housed in one of the former prison guard towers

The Constitutional Court building is a contrast of old and new with brick used from the old prison.  The judge's desk are covered in cow hide and the South African flag was hand made out of beads by South African women

We ended the day at the Top of Africa with beautiful views of the city.  This 50 story building is the tallest building in all of Africa.

It was a beautiful day for a tour of the area.  I learned so much about South Africa and its people.  I even picked up a little light reading for my flight home.

Until my next dispatch from Jo'burg.  Totsiens and mooi loop!

We were given the option to go bunge jumping between the towers - we declined

Visit to the Apartheid Museum

I am back in South Africa for a few weeks and am trying to get in a few adventures before my time here is up.  Last weekend I took a field trip to the Apartheid Museum.  Apartheid is translated from the Afrikaans meaning 'apartness'.  Apartheid called for the separate development of the different racial groups in South Africa.  On paper, Apartheid was all "equal development" and "freedom of cultural expression" but in practice it was neither of these.  Apartheid was formally introduced in 1948 when the Afrikaner Nationalist Party came into power.  Between 1948 and 1983 over 40 pieces of legislation related to Apartheid were in-acted including the Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act (1949), Immorality Amendment (1950) and another Immorality Act (1957).  People often wonder why such a policy was introduced and why it had so much support. Various reasons can be given for apartheid, although they are all closely linked. The main reasons lie in ideas of racial superiority and fear. Across the world, racism is influenced by the idea that one race must be superior to another.  The other main reason for apartheid was fear, as in South Africa the white people are in the minority, and many were worried they would lose their jobs, culture and language. This is obviously not a justification for apartheid, but explains how people were thinking.

There was an awesome special exhibit on the life of Nelson Mandela

Your ticket designates you as white or non-white and determines which entrance you are allowed to enter through

Apartheid made South Africa a country of signs designating who could go where

You couldn't take photos in the musuem, but I did snap this photo at the exit to remind myself of the importance of the struggle to end apartheid

After the very somber but well organized and presented Apartheid museum, my Polish coworker and I needed some lunch and a couple of cocktails.  Lukasz and I headed to Arts on Main, the downtown artist market and food stall area.

Lukasz enjoyed Indian food from this stall while I enjoyed BBQ pulled pork.  I also found a bakery that had flourless Nutella brownies - I got a few of those to go!

My 3rd trip to Arts on Main and I never noticed this interesting installation

What is on your "before I die" list?

Enjoying a refreshing cider in the summer sun

I had to explain what a "jam jar" was to Lucasz - he definitely enjoyed the drink!

Until my next dispatch from Jo'burg.  Totsiens and mooi loop!

PBR Monster Energy Drink Buck Off at the Garden (or how I spent my Friday night)

When you think of bull riding, New York City is probably not the first place that comes to your mind.  Well, its not the first place that came to my mind for sure!  After a cold snowy Thursday, I found myself navigating the snow drifts on the Manhattan streets to make my way to Madison Square Garden to attend my first ever Professional Bull Rider's "Buck Off" event.  I successfully made the 30 minute trip across town without wiping out on the slick city sidewalks.  My father is a sensational dancer and a gifted athlete.  His daughter inherited none of those skills - I can barely walk and chew gum at the same time.  The fact that I made my way to the bar to meet up with my friends with no embarrassing water spots on my pants meant the evening was off to a successful start.

Nothing like an evening with a bunch of hot cowboys

Ticketmaster has recently changed its site and you can no longer select the seats you want.  I was able to get the same section and row as my friends but I was assigned seat 22.  My friends were in seats 3-6.  I spent the moments leading up to the national anthem convincing 16 people to shift over one seat so I could occupy seat 7.  This feat included convincing 3 people with virtually no English - there was a lot of gesturing and broken spanish on my part.  Besides being called a witch with a b by some lady who wouldn't stand up to let me by, my persuasiveness paid off.  At intermission Sandy told me that her friends 2 rows behind us had witnessed my resourcefulness and were very impressed with my ability to convince the entire group to shift over.  My smooth talking could also be attributed to the two hot cider with bourbon I had at dinner.

As this was the first night of the event, there were 35 cowboys competing in the first rounds.  I was very surprised by the number of riders from Latin America but a quick check of Wikipedia let me know that bull riding origins are Mexico.  Another question that came up is "what makes a bull buck".  I wasn't the only person with that question because it popped up almost instantly before I could complete the sentence in google.  It is not because the bull's scrotum is cinched up by the strap the rider holds onto.  According to another (surely) reputable source, "All rodeo bulls instinctively want to get that lump of weight off their backs".  I thought that sounded perfectly sensible.  The rider has to stay on for 8 seconds only holding on with one hand.  The other hand cannot touch the bull or himself.  The riders are scored and ultimately ranked.  Basically once the gate opens and the bull and rider come crashing out you hold your breath until the clock hits 8 seconds or the rider is tossed off and successfully clears the bulls horns and hooves.

Local beauty queens get to do fun stuff like attend the rodeo

The rodeo clown / MC in the photo was the best thing about the evening.  He entertained the crowd by poking fun at audience members, most memorably 3 dudes that obviously failed "getting dressed 101" because all 3 had their cowboy hats (purchased at the venue) on backward.  Didn't your mom teach you "the tag ALWAYS goes in the back"?

I am glad I took the opportunity to attend a Professional Bull Riding event (that PBR does not stand for Pabst Blue Ribbon like I assumed it did) but much like watching 26 hours of NASCAR is really just waiting for a car to crash, I felt like PBR was holding your breath praying neither human or animal gets injured.

#girlsquad #goals

Sunday found me getting my culture on at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  Banjo's godmother texted me to let me know she and her main squeeze were coming into the city to check out the Michelangelo exhibition at the Met.  With the promise of cocktails after the museum, I agreed to meet up with them.

No trip to the Met is complete without visiting the Temple of Dendur

Everyone knows that I am always trying to get "the perfect shot" on my phone.  While vising the Temple of Dendur I almost got us kicked out of the museum by accidentally walking into the "no one past this point" wire while trying to take a picture of the statue inside the temple.

The Michelangelo exhibit was hot and stuffy and packed with people.  I try to "get" art, but I think it is just not in me.  I read a few placards and looked at many of the drawings but they just don't thrill me like say the china place setting an 18th century castle does.

After Michelangelo we decided to check out the more modern David Hockney exhibition next door.  Across the room, I spied a work of art that I was drawn to.  How cool!  Colgate toothpaste made such an impression on this artist that he included it in his piece.  I pulled out my phone and snapped a pix.  Then I actually LOOKED at the art.  (Now is the time to cover your children's eyes)

After a special trek to find "George Washington Crossing the Deleware", we headed off to a delicious belinni soaked brunch at a great Colombian restaurant on the Upper East Side.  $30 for food and 70 minutes of unlimited drinks.  Yes, NYC restaurants have to put a time limit on their "unlimited" drinking options.  Since we don't have to drive, we would probably sit and drink all day!

This Friday I am headed back to Little Rock to attend the Katy Perry concert with the rest of the Williamson crew - my Christmas present to them.  Saturday afternoon I will be headed back to South Africa for the last few weeks of my stint.  Hopefully I will have a few more adventures to update you on.  In the meantime, stay warm.  I'll try not to post too many photos from my perch poolside!

An exciting time to visit Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

Its been a busy couple of weeks.  The gentleman we hired to replace me started on Monday.  He joined us from another company so I am challenged with not just getting him up to speed on demand planning and inventory at Colgate, but also Colgate in general.  Luckily I had worked on creating a lot of on boarding material for new employees in my previous position so I have been able to use a lot of those materials.  But, business still goes on, so I have been getting to the office even earlier the last couple of weeks trying to get my work done so I can give my full attention to the on boarding.  Life has pretty much been work, an hour or two of TV to decompress from the day and sleep.  When you get to the office at 5:30am, you don't want to do to much except sleep when you get home!

Back to SusieQ's visit . . .

You last found me sitting on the side of the road with a broken down car.  We got the car towed to a local Ford dealership and prepared for our trip to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe.  On the radio during that fateful drive back from the Elephant Sanctuary, we heard that Robert Mugabe had finally stepped down as President of Zimbabwe after a military takeover.  I had been monitoring the situation and checking in with the woman that helped organize the trip.  Victoria Falls is 900km from Harare.  Tourism is the bread and butter of Zimbabwe so we felt pretty confident that they would do everything possible to avoid disrupting the tourism industry.

We woke up to a very promising headline in the Johannesburg newspaper.

We arrived in Zimbabwe in the early afternoon and our first adventure was a dinner cruise on the Zambezi River.  It was a perfect way to start the trip.  Unlike some of the other boats, ours had a very small group of people - less than 15.  The staff was very attentive - our glasses were never empty (always the criteria you should judge a boat cruise by).  We saw quite a few hippos and a crocodile or two as the sun slowly set.

This was also day 2 of anti-malaria medicine.  Zimbabwe is in a malaria zone so we needed to start our medicine the day before the trip and continue taking the pills for 5 days after our trip.  I must have a different kind from when I traveled to Kenya a few years ago because this medicine didn't make me sick like the Kenya medicine did.

Day two started with a tour along the 1.2km path that parallels Victoria Falls. 

There are 13 points of interest along the Falls to visit.  Victoria Falls is famous for the rainbows created by the light and mist from the falls.  I didn't realize that we were traveling in the low water season so the Falls was not in all of the glory that it would be in July but we were able to see a beautiful rainbow at the beginning of our tour.

I thought I was checking something off my bucket list but instead I added "Go back to Victoria Falls in July!"

After our on the ground tour of Victoria Falls, we splurged on a helicopter ride over the falls and some of the local national parks grounds. 

We not only saw the beauty of the falls from above but we also got to see some elephants, giraffes and buffalo in the national park.

During high water, this entire ledge would be water falls instead of only the 3 falls you see here

The hotel that we stayed at has a watering hole on the property that you could see from our room and also from the hotel restaurant.  They also have a dugout that is supposed to look like a large termine mound called the Sidule hide.  We had a late afternoon visit to the hide to try to spot some wildlife.  Our guide picked us up at the hotel and drove us to the hide.  He helpfully tried to point out what little wildlife we did see.  

The hilight of the 2 hours was this little guy peering in the hide to see what was going on.  He saw us arrive and just wanted to check out the party he wasn't invited to.

We saw a couple of crocodiles.  We almost saw a crocodile snack but unfortunately the bird never hopped close enough for him to take a bite!

Our guide brought a cooler - SusieQ drank a beer.  I drank nothing because there was no bathroom down there!  

The Sidule Hide was kind of a bust, but it was really nice to sit in the quiet with nature for a couple of hours (except for the kids screaming at the swimming pool).

We saw so little wildlife, I have to add this frog to our list of animals seen list.

For dinner that evening we went to a drum dinner show that was at the resort next to our hotel.  They had the Bamba Shuttle that ferried us over to dinner.  The meal was served buffet style with many exotic animals (to Americans) to taste.

They also provided festive wraps for us to wear.

We had drums to play during the show that came at the end of dinner.  The funny thing is, I actually fell asleep sitting at the table during the drum show.  I think it was the lulling beat of the drums but next thing I know SusieQ is poking me asking me if I am ready to leave.

We accidentally (on purpose) forgot to eat the worm

On our final morning we had a 6am pick up for a game drive in the national park.  We were definitely having a drought of animals.  We saw a troop of baboons soon after entering the park but we drove for at least and hour and a half with out seeing anything except boring birds.  Clever, our guide, pointed out every bird.  I guess he was trying to show us some kind of wildlife.

Clever had packed a lovely tea and coffee service for us that we enjoyed near the end of our drive.

We were headed back to the park entrance when we finally spotted our first animals.  We saw 3-4 giraffes enjoying a morning snack.

As we drove on, Clever spotted an elephant in the bush.  We sat and waited as he slowly made his way out toward the road.  SusieQ got a great video of him crossing the road in front of us.

Somehow we stumbled across an entire herd of elephants heading to the river.  I couldn't count all the elephants heading through the bush but it was super cool to hear them calling to each other with their rumbling voices.  We tried to wait to see if we could watch all of them cross the road but at that point we had been out for 30 minutes over our allotted drive so we headed back to the hotel.  It was nice that Clever kept us out a bit longer once we finally found some wildlife.

We headed back to the hotel where we enjoyed our final breakfast looking out over the watering hole before heading to the airport.

It really was an amazing trip.  The people had a fresh outlook with the ousting of Mugabe.  "We finally feel free" one gentleman said to me.  I only hope that there is truly a regime change and not just a transfer of corruption from one set of hands to another.

Until my next dispatch from Jo'burg.  Totsiens and mooi loop!

My snack on the flight back - chenan blanc, gluten free muffins and a trashy novel.