The Rainbow Nation

I find myself waking up everyday by 6:30 am; I think it's because I don't want to waste a single second of my time in this beautiful country. I spent this weekend hanging out with family friends, who I was fortunate to meet through relatives in the States. Gary, Lucy and Jade, have truly become family for me here, in such a short time. I'm so glad the family/village that I have lived my whole life in, has carried clear across the ocean. 

On Saturday, we went to a hardware store to grab some things, and then had breakfast in the hardware store. Here, most supermarkets, and some hardware stores, have coffee shops within them. The owners of hardware stores use the hardware materials they sell, to design and build the shops; supermarkets use the same foods and goods sold in the store, to prepare what is sold in the shops. Later that evening I went to see "The Equalizer", starring Denzel Washington. We watched it in the "Prestige" section of the movie theater, that usually cost over $30 in the States, but was only $11 here; I was shocked because that's the price of a normal ticket. Then we hung out, and  had "Chicken Lickin'"(a better version of KFC) and watched futbol (soccer). It was the perfect ending to a Saturday night. 

On Sunday, Gary and Lucy took me to Soweto. First, we went to Nelson Mandela's house. It was very small, but had a ton of amazing artifacts inside; it was very insightful. He had over 15 honorary degrees from schools in the US. I got to see the last picture taken of him before he was sent to jail for 27 years. There were pictures of his family, and Winnie Mandela had several awards, as well. Her house is not far from where Nelson Mandela's house is. 

Soweto is a very diverse community. It is unlike the other communities that I had been exposed to so far in SA. There are houses everywhere, and small spaza shops (corner stores). I went into a spaza and asked the store employee for a Fanta in isiZulu. I said Sawubona (hello to one person), Unjani? (how are you?), Ngicela icolddrink (may I please have a cold drink). I had to practice like 5 times before asking him; it was quite funny. Then we went to a restaurant across the street from Nelson Mandela's house, and had traditional South African food. I loved it! The chicken was fresh and full of natural flavor, I've never had anything like it back home. I also had samp and chakalaka which is beans with a spicy tomato sauce on top. We then went to the Hector Pieterson Museum. Hector Pieterson was a 13 year-old boy who was killed when police opened fire on protesting students 
during Apartheid. 

The museum was heartbreaking to observe, but also explains why some of the people in South Africa have a negatively inculcated mentality. I saw a sign that stated "to hell with Afrikaans". Black South Africans were forced to learn in Afrikaans, and limited to Bantu education. Bantu education dictated what the non-whites studied, which was significantly inferior to what white students received.

After that, we met up with a friend, and she took us to a Soweto Snake Show; which is actually someone's house with more than 10 snakes and bearded dragons (I have a bearded dragon at home named Charlie). I got to hold the boa constrictor of my choice. I love snakes, and really enjoyed playing with Coco. 

The founder of the snake show and Coco.

As we were leaving Soweto, I saw older neighborhoods that look like the ones I've seen in movies, and there was a very small section of shanties. It made me upset to think about how Africa is depicted as a place full of shanties; but after being here for over 2 weeks I've only seen one very small area that looks that way. In Soweto, I saw very affluent people, driving Bentleys and Porsches; but I've never seen Africa shown in such a positive light on movies and media in the States. One of the many reasons I am here is to show people that Africa is more than game parks and poor, black african children. South Africa is culturally rich, and proves to be everything its nickname, "The Rainbow Nation," would make you imagine...and so much more!