My Mom and godmother – Auntie Verna traveled the necessary 15-16 hours by plane to visit me here in South Africa. Although I’m sure that they weren’t sure what to expect I believe that they were quite surprised that things were so advanced here. The roads are almost in perfect condition, the streets are clean, the cars are fancy, the shopping malls modern, and there are beautiful houses – despite the fact that they are all hidden behind very thick and solid walls. It is modern but a divide still exists – remnants of apartheid, dire poverty which is very well hidden away and sheer luxury which is also somewhat hidden away – only a sliver of middle class is sandwiched between the two worlds.
We all agreed that it is these walls that although a few black people now live behind that both physically and symbolically continue to keep people separate.
It was very nice to have them here and we all had a good time. The agenda started on Sunday with church in Soweto, a visit to the Nelson Mandela house, lunch at a well known restaurant in Soweto called Nambita’s. We spend a large part of the day with Sahle, her Mom, her sister, and her best friend who were visiting SA at the same time. After getting lost in the “mean streets” of Soweto for almost an hour I made it back to Joburg in time for a visit to Cliff and Refiloe’s house and dinner at one of the major malls – Sandton. Whew! And that was only day 1.
During the next 2 days, we visited the apartheid museum, went to dinner at a beautiful African-themed restaurant called Moyo’s and saw a great dance show called Umoja that almost got canceled due to a blackout.
That Wednesday we all traveled to Cape Town and stayed in the center of town in an area called Green Market square near Long street. I am convinced that Cape Town is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. The town center is built around a range of mountains so every where you look the landscape is absolutely beautiful.While there, we spent a lot of time with Sahle and her family and went to Robben Island (place where Nelson Mandela spent 18 of his 27 years in prison)…
Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens – one of the most beautiful places in the world…
the famous Constantia vineyards for some wine tasting…
Hout Bay….
Cape Point…
But can you imagine that there is more racism there against black people than in Joburg and that there are thousands of shacks that you from the highway when driving from the airport to town? These shacks are frail structures with tin roofs some of which are patched with large black garbage bags and build very close to each other. In the winter people burn coal to keep warm and risk wiping out hundreds of “homes” with fire. What a tragedy in the midst of all that natural beauty. People think that Cape Town is safer than Joburg, but I don’t believe that is true. There certainly is a lot more to do in terms of restaurants, bars, beaches, and other sites as it caters more to people who have a tons of money as well as foreigners. South Africans continue to perpetuate what they want about crime given the history of apartheid and the fact that more black people live in Joburg, but in the end you must be as careful as you would be in NYC while in both cities.
So while in Cape Town the airline carrier that we flew down with called Nationwide Airlines, was shut down due to some issue about an engine falling out of one of their planes. I was not surprised given some issues that Sahle had with the airline in the past, but rather irritated because we had to buy entirely new return tickets on another airline.
Oh well. I think that my patience has increased significantly since being away on the account that I learned to live without television or radio, dealt with the occasional blackout, couldn’t go where I wanted to whenever I wanted to because of the limited public transport system and the fact that the stores close very early (6pm), and only had access to the internet up until 11pm at night which was about 5pm US-time. But we made it back to Joburg (hoping and praying that I will get reimbursed by Nationwide for the original ticket), and spent the remaining says shopping at the Rosebank fleamarket, and visiting a friend in Pretoria.
I’m so happy that they were able to visit me and come and see this very interesting, dynamic, and multi-dimensional country. So please if you ever get the chance to visit SA, please do, and be sure to visit Joburg, Sun City, Cape Town, Durban, Swaziland, Lesotho, Mpumalanga, Kruger National Park, Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, the Safari in Botswana, and the beaches of Mozambique. It will be an experience that you will never forget.
