Exploring Soweto, Nelson Mandela Square, the Apartheid Museum, and Volunteering at an Orphanage

I've been incredibly behind on blogging and to catch up, I'm just going to try to organize this by where we went/what we did!

Soweto and Nelson Mandela House
So last Saturday (6/8) we decided to go explore Soweto, which is where Nelson Mandela and his family lived for 40 years.  The name Soweto actually originated from South Western Townships and it Soweto is just a mixture of a lot of different townships in Guateng (which is the province where Johannesburg is located and where we are staying)!

We went to Soweto with 3 other girls from our graduate program who are also staying in Johannesburg - Marcie, Kate, and Emily.  When we first got to Soweto, the Nelson Mandela house was really crowded with school groups so we walked around a bit to pass the time so that we didn't have to wait in line.  We window shopped at all of the booths locals had set up near the house and came upon these beautiful bowls that were handmade out of beads and copper wire.  We spoke to the woman at the booth for quite a while and discovered that she had worked with someone from France to create a program where children and women from Soweto make bowls and plates to sell at this booth and the money earned goes directly back to them for groceries and living expenses.  It sounded really incredible to us and we spent a really long time picking out the perfect bowls to bring back home!

Then, we had the chance to visit Nelson Mandela's house, which was the first house he ever purchased on his own and his family lived there for 40 years (even while he was in prison).  Throughout his house they had many awards that Mandela and his second wife (Winnie Mandela) were given throughout the years - it was incredible.

The address of the house!

On the left is the last picture taken of Nelson Mandela before he was arrested and to the right (much smaller) is the first picture taken after he was released from prison 27 years later

Our delicious Soweto drinks!

After the house, we decided to explore some local food and culture, so we went to the place that clearly seemed hoppin' - Sakhumzi - it was packed!  You paid around R120 (120 Rand - which is about 12 US dollars) for an all you can eat buffet that was so delicious - it was packed with chicken, rice, beef, salad, veggies, and anything else you could possible imagine.  We also ordered drinks there!

The South African version of a restaurant space heater

The Apartheid Museum

If any museum could possibly try to capture everything that happened during the Apartheid, this one definitely came as close as humanly possible.  The museum was huge and incredible.  We were there for 2 to 3 hours and were literally kicked out as it was closing - we didn't even get through everything!  When you first walked into the museum, you were assigned to either Blankes (white) or Nie-Blankes (non-white).  Michelle and I were each assigned to different groups.  You then entered the museum based on your assignment and couldn't cross over to the other side. 

I wasn't really down with the racial and ethnic barriers so I just crossed over to Michelle's Nie-Blankes side real quick. :)

I'll stop boring you with additional knowledge that I learned at this museum, but believe me I learned a lot. Also, to be honest, I'm a little exhausted right now and probably can't even teach you very well.  I will tell you the most surprising thing I learned, though.  I had no clue that certain groups within South Africa were violently against the peaceful solution Mandela and FW de Klerk were working towards in the early 1990s.  The IFP (Inkatha Freedom Party) and other parties in South Africa broke out in violent riots during the 1990s, that were against Mandela agreeing to negotiate with de Klerk about an end to the Apartheid.  The IFP specifically wanted Africa to be ruled by and dominated by only historically native Africans. But, like many of you know, there is now a democratic South Africa and eventually there was a peaceful solution! 

At the end of the museum, they had a peace garden where you had the opportunity to reflect on everything you'd just learned (and how anything like the Apartheid could be possible).  It was beautiful.

                           

At the very end, we picked our favorite Nelson Mandela quote from a series of quotes that were color coded and added a stick of that color to a large collection of sticks people who have visited the museum have added throughout the years.  

                                              

Nelson Mandela Square Fail and later fix
This past Wednesday we set out to find the peacemakers museum, which we read was in Nelson Mandela Square.  So we set off to Nelson Mandela Square in Joburg, which is about 4 or 5 malls (literally, like full malls) and 8 hotels arranged in a massive square complex.  We asked around EVERYWHERE and never seemed to find out where this dang museum was located, so we ended up wandering around instead.  Thankfully, we decided to go back this Friday and saw the museum.  The Peacemaker museum honored Nobel Laureates from South Africa.  There are 4 - Nelson Mandela and FW de Klerk who won together for working together to find a peaceful solution to the end of apartheid, Cheif Albert Luthuli who was president of the Africa National Congress (ANC) and consistently stood by a policy of non-violent resistance, and Desmond Tutu.  It was a very small museum, but we were still excited to see it and learned even more about 4 very important figures in South African history!  We signed a peace pledge there and made an origami dove out of it to add to the museum.

A huge statue of Nelson Mandela at Nelson Mandela Square

The Peacemakers museum dove made out of peace pledges taken by people who have visited the museum.

Our peace pledge doves

After the museum, we saw The Fault in Our Stars and bawled our eyeballs out.  After all of that sadness, we met our 3 friends who are living here - Marcie, Kate, and Emily - out for drinks in a new side of town - Melville - where they are currently living.  Melville really reminded us of a college town - there is a whole strip of nice restaurants and bars on one street and pretty much everyone walks around.  We had a really great time!  I also met a fellow Tar Heel (WE'RE EVERYWHERE!) who is studying abroad in Joburg for 6 weeks. Marcie, Emily, and Kate met him a couple of weeks ago where they used to live.

Volunteering at an Orphanage in Soweto
Kate, one of my fellow Emory students, studied abroad in South Africa before and had the opportunity to volunteer at an orphanage in Soweto.  She reached out to the orphanage again to see if we could volunteer there this week and we did today.  It was so incredible.  We were there from 1-5pm.  From around 1 to 2:30 we cuddled with some incredibly adorable babies that were all around 5 months old.  One of them was upset whenever I wasn't paying attention to her and was talking like crazy until I would hold her again.  I fell in love.

My love

Then, for the remainder of the time, we played with the older children.  They taught us a lot of South African games and we taught them duck, duck goose.
                                      
In the spirit of Father's Day, I definitely want to shout out to my crazy father - Micheal Hannah - who always played the "Up high, down low, back side, too slow!" high-five game with me when I was little.  It's always a hit for the kids.  I taught it to this adorable little man...  There's a little piece of your spirit in South Africa, dad!








During the last hour or so, I met the most incredible, bright little girl.  She asked me my name, and when I told her, she asked, "what does it mean?"  I told her that, honestly, it meant "a bale of hay".  She told me her name - Kinsley (I know I'm not at all spelling it correctly, but that's the easiest phonetic spelling), and that it meant "beautiful."  She told me that she is in 4th grade and that her favorite subject in school is math.  We did some division and she ACED it all!  She also taught me a great deal of Zulu and was a natural teacher.  She kept quizzing me to make sure what she taught me had stuck.  I really needed a notebook to take down notes because she described the words, how to pronounce them, and their meaning so well.  I can't wait to go back and spend more time with her and honestly, I wish I could take her home with me.  She is incredibly bright and sweet, and deserves an entire world full of opportunity.

Learning Zulu from my natural teacher

                                               
I can't really do today justice in words, but honestly it has been one of my favorite experiences in South Africa (and life) so far and I know we will be going back again.

I apologize for the lack of blogging and for this condensation of my past week in South Africa!
Ngiyakuthanda (I love you :) )

Just 51 years ago the leaders of the South African Liberation Movement were arrested at Liliesleaf...

I apologize for the lack of exciting blogging - the past few days we've been working on a large research protocol for the study we will be conducting this summer.  So it's been a lot of early mornings and working all day.  Luckily though, we've been working from home so we do have the benefit of working in our pajamas.  We have been staying in a bed and breakfast while we were looking for another apartment - so a maid comes in daily to clean.  She's been laughing at us because at 12pm, we are still in bed, in our pajamas, clicking away at our computers.  We've been wildly productive though - and the research protocol is due to the ethics committee by tomorrow, so we are hoping it's good enough to pass through them with few edits!

Today, we submitted our additional protocol for edits and decided to go out for the afternoon while we waited for feedback.  Michelle eagerly looked up the "top things to do in Johannesburg"- isn't Google fantastic?  Seriously, how did people travel before Google... I should send those guys some fan mail.  We landed on Liliesleaf Farm, which was a home bought by the SACP (South African Communist Party) in the late 50s to act as a safe house for members of the South African liberation movement.  The white nationalist party was quickly pushing forth Apartheid policies and by the 1950s, made both the African National Congress (ANC) party illegal and anti-Apartheid protests illegal.  That caused the ANC and SACP to move underground.  An SACP leader chose to buy Liliesleaf farm to host the underground liberation movement.  Goldreich, a member of the movement, posed as a rich white man living in the farm with his family.  They had several black farmhands, who were often key members of the liberation movement who were hiding at the farm.   The facade of a rich white family working a farm with black farmhands would not cause much suspicion during this time, so the party was pretty darn smart!  There was a main farmhouse, where most of the meetings took place and where Goldreich lived with his family.  Then, they had a lot of farmhand cottages off of the main house where they would hide many liberation leaders (and also hold more secret meetings).

They also had documents stored all over the farmhouse and the surrounding land. 

The main farmhouse

The surrounding living quarters 

The thatched house where a lot of members of the liberation movement met

Nelson Mandela even stayed in Liliesleaf farm before he was arrested in 1962 - and we got the see the quarters that he lived in.  It was incredibly poignant.  Children had even left letters from before he passed away, telling him to "get well soon." 

Before this time, the African National Congress had a strict non-violence policy, and protested the white nationalist Apartheid ideals.  However, after the Sharpeville massacre, a large massacre of non-violent protesters outside of a police building, the liberation movement chose to adopt a violent response to oppression.  They even created an underground military wing called the  Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), or "Spear of the Nation.

At Liliesleaf, the liberation movement held a meeting in July of 1963 to draft and sign a plan to violently overthrow the current government for the liberation of South Africa called Operation Mayibuye.  The police came in a laundry van, posing as laundry workers, and raided the entire farm.  They arrested major liberation movement leaders that they hadn't even been looking for and found an unbelievable amount of incriminating documents, books against the Apartheid that had been banned in the country, and the like.  They were actually trying to find the ANC president, Chief Albert Luthuli.

They ended up finding a lot of incriminating documents hidden in the coalshed.  Here is a typewriter that was used to write a lot of documents used by the liberation movement.

FUN FACT:  Chief Albert Luthuli is the first African recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize for supporting a non-violent resistance.  

Then, the government held the Rivonia Trials - where Nelson Mandela and other resistance leaders were sentenced to life in prison.  Although Mandela was arrested a year earlier and sentenced to 5 years in prison, they found many documents at Liliesleaf Farm connected to him, so they tried him along with the others in the Rivonia Trials.  

Needless to say, the perseverance of the human spirit is absolutely incredible, and we had the opportunity to walk through a place where some pretty outstanding people once opposed a terrible movement.

This has been more like a history lesson than anything, but it was incredibly interesting to me and amazing that all of this happened in 1963... and that Nelson Mandela was only elected President in 1994.  Apartheid was something I always heard about in school, but it's different to hear about it and see it first hand.  And to be in a place that was a huge part of South African history.  

We went to dinner at a place in Rivonia that was recommended to us by our new landlord - called Rockets.  We had a couple of fancy cocktails (that were only around R44 each which is about $4 - so cheap) and pizza.  

After that, we went to get the keys to our new apartment (yes we are moving yet again) and it is fantastic, affordable, safe, and finally.. perfect.  We really like the bed and breakfast like place where we are staying now and the owners are very nice, but, the place where they were going to put us didn't have a full kitchen.  We planned on mostly cooking these three months in order to save money - so we wanted more space!  Also, this new place is much more affordable (B and B's aren't cheap y'all!).  

On a side note, they do this thing in South Africa where they burn crops once they get old because they believe that it will rejuvenate the land for more crops, even though it's actually terrible for the soil.  So we saw this on the side of the road tonight...

This weekend we are going to a documentary film festival, Soweto, where Nelson Mandela's house is, and the Apartheid Museum in Joburg, so stay tuned for more!

Sorry I'm such a nerd, but hey, if you read this, you learned something. 

South African Terms

Not too much happened today, we slept until 1pm (hello jet-lag...) and unfortunately, Laura had to leave to go back to Atlanta.  We moved last night and love the new side of town we're in - so hopefully we get to stay here as long as traffic isn't too bad to work!

I figured I'd just update my South African lingo list...
From the old list:
"Is it?" means "Oh really?"
"Lekker" means "Good/cool"
"To let" means "To lease"
"Toilet" means "Restroom"
"Get it sorted" is just something they say... lots. Along with "Fetch"
"I'm going to go get it sorted and fetch the girls then!"

New lingo:
"Robots" mean "Streetlights"
"Garage" means "Gas Station" i.e. "if you notice someone following you and you feel creeped out, just stop at a busy garage!"... seems totally counter-intuitive...
"Boot" means "Trunk"
"Take Away" is a "to go box"
"Bakkie" means "pick-up truck"
"Slip road" means "exit ramp"
"Sidekick" means "mistress"

I'm sure it will continue!
Tomorrow is our first official day of work - we plan to leave our cottage at 6am to beat the traffic!