Our first day here we were in Johannesburg. We began the day by going to the Apartheid Museum. When entering the museum we were each given a ticket that randomly said "White" or "Non-White" on it. If we were white we went through one door and if we were non-whiter we went through another, this was designed to give us an idea of what life was like during the apartheid for the Whites and Non-Whites.
I was a White for the day.
Once we were inside the museum our group joined together again and we went on a tour. There was a Nelson Mandela exhibit going on where we got to read about his life and see many pictures, videos, and letters from different times throughout his life. It was so interesting to see how much of a difference he made in the fight against the apartheid and how greatly he contributed to the freedom of the Non-Whites. He is truly a remarkable man!
We then went on to the main museum and learned a lot about the apartheid. I knew very little about the apartheid, so just about everything I learned was new to me. A lot of the information was also disturbing, it absolutely crushed me to know that just over 20 years ago such inequality was occurring. There was one moment during the tour of the museum when our guide slammed the door of a solitary confinement cell to show us what it sounded like when the prisoners were locked up and that sound was like a stab in the heart because it symbolized the imprisonment of the people's rights. By the end of the tour most of our group had watery eyes and we were saddened by all the hardships that the non-whites had to face during the apartheid. Luckily before our tour came to an end it brightened up because we began to learn about the rise against the apartheid and how it eventually ended. When we were walking out of the museum our guide told us that although it is heartbreaking, the South African people have chosen to forgive as long as it will never happen again. Hearing that was so encouraging because it was difficult enough for me to walk away from the museum not upset but to have actually gone through such injustice and walk away with forgiveness is truly inspiring. However I have now learned that such forgiveness and peace is just another remarkable quality the African people have.
After the museum we went on a tour of Soweto, where we were able to drive around the township with a guide who lives there and hear all about its history. While on the tour we saw many different style homes, it ranged from shacks to mansions. There was one part in our tour where we had just been driving by some mansions and then blocks away we came across small homes that were falling apart. It was sad to see such poor living conditions, but our tour guide said that although these people live just blocks away from each other the size of their home isn't a barrier that stops relationships from building. The poor don't look up to the rich and the rich don't look down on the poor; it's simply just the home they live in. It's amazing to hear that such a lifestyle exists, that how much money people make doesn't create a barrier between friendships and that these people can live blocks away from each other and not be upset by the depreciation of value it may cost their home. Not only was it incredible to hear about this but it was so easy to see this on the faces of the African people because everyone was happy, whether they lived in a mud shack or a million dollar mansion. They were happy even though they experienced injustice about 20 years ago.
Soweto stands for SOuth WEstern TOwnship
The people here are so happy. Yet it breaks my heart because I think back to the U.S. and I just get so frustrated that we aren't happy. We have much much more than these people have yet we always want more and we're not happy with what we get. How is it that these people can have so much less and yet be so much happier. Something just isn't right with that and it must change.
Aside from that here are some more things we did on my first day in South Africa:
We had some fascinating entertainers during our lunch
We got to visit Nelson Mandela's house in Soweto
We stopped by the 2010 FIFA World Cup Stadium
So that's what we did for the day when we were in Johannesburg. I really enjoyed visiting Johannesburg but it was a city and by the end of the day I was ready to see where we would be living. Fortunately, the next day we did just that. Early that morning we headed to the airport again and got on a flight to Durban. Luckily this flight was only an hour long and compared to 26 hours it was nothing.
When we began landing in Durban, you could instantly see the change in scenery from the city of Johannesburg to the coast of Durban. And everything was GREEN! It was probably the most beautiful landing I've ever experienced and little did I know things would just keep getting more and more beautiful.
Our landing in Durban
Once we landed, we grabbed our bags and got on a charter bus that was to drive us about an hour to our campus. We will be spending 10 weeks at African Enterprise, which is a Christian conference center that houses groups. African Enterprise is in Pietermaritzburg and Azusa Pacific University has been staying there ever since the South Africa Semester began 10 semesters ago. The drive to Pietermaritzburg was absolutely GORGEOUS!!! There were so many green hills and cliffs covered in trees, I tried taking pictures but nothing compares to seeing it in person. Everyone on the bus was going wild over how beautiful it was and how blessed we are to be here, we were ecstatic! Finally after days of traveling we arrived at African Enterprise and were able to see our stunning campus that we are privileged to live on for 10 weeks.
This is where I live :-) Beautiful huh?
After we got to campus we had lunch and got our keys to our room. We then had orientation and got to have a tour of African Enterprise, the campus is absolutely stunning and covers about 18 acres so there are plenty of places to go exploring.
The next morning was a Sunday and we went to church. The service was pretty long and consisted of mostly worship, it was very different from what I'm used to but I enjoyed it a lot. Everyone was so excited to be at church and passionate about worshiping God, it was really inspiring!
After we got back from church some of us hiked to the second waterfall. There are two waterfalls on the AE (African Enterprise) campus, one is just outside my bedroom window and the other one is about a 20 minute hike away. Since no one has hiked to the second waterfall since last semester there was a lot of overgrowth, but we had Ryno (the AE intern) leading the way and bush whacking through the path. The hike was quite an adventure with all the vegetation and at the end of it there was a steep hill that most of us slipped down, but once we got to the waterfall it was well worth it!
Once we got back from the hike we had some more orientation meetings and picked up our books for classes the next day. I forgot I wasn't on vacation here and had to take classes but at least we're all in it together! When we went to pick up our books it started raining and somehow the idea of a mud fight began to spread, so we all threw on some junky clothes and ran down to the rock pool to have a mud fight. The rock pool is usually a swimming hole on campus but it's currently filled with mud and is going to be cleared out next week, so we decided to take advantage of the mud and get dirty! The mud fight was great, everyone got so into it and it was almost impossible to get out because you kept getting stuck in the mud. It was nice though because once we were done getting muddy we were able to go up stream and get most of the mud off. After that everyone went there separate ways and showered before dinner, but we all joined back together again to watch The Lion King before bed.And then it was Monday.... Our first day of classes. We began the day with Chapel and the director of the South Africa Semester spoke. His sermon was great and it got me really excited to have him as my professor. After I had one class and then we went to the mall after lunch. The mall was not really what I was expecting. Basically it's no different than a mall in the U.S. Our first priority at the mall was to exchange money and as it turns out this takes MUCH longer in South Africa then anywhere else I've been. It took us about an hour to exchange money because they had to enter all our information into the computer to make an exchange. In all the other countries I've been to it only takes like 2 minutes max to exchange money. Well I guess This is Africa (TIA) and one of the things we need to get used to culturally is that things take much longer than we are used to.
On Tuesday we visited a service site called "Walk in the Light" and got to learn about how the organization began. It was really inspiring to learn about how the director of the organization gave up so much to help the people in Haniville. This is an organization that I will get the chance to work at and so far I think I would really enjoy working there but there are still 3 more sites to visit before we choose which one to work at. Later Tuesday night I went to the movies with 6 other people and we saw "We Bought a Zoo," the movie was so cute and it was good to go out with a smaller group for a while.
Sorry this has been such a long post, I guess I didn't realize how much I did this week. I should probably start posting more than once a week. Okay well I hope you were able to stick through all that, I know it was long! Anyways long story short, I'm absolutely in love with this place and am starting to wonder how I'm ever going to leave. But not to worry, I will be coming home! Bye for now.
God Bless,
Yvette
