"This is life."- Johannesburg and Saweto

Well, it feels like there is no possible way that LESS than one week has gone by since I left APU. In fact, I’ve been on South African soil little more than half a week, considering we arrived in Johannesburg on a Wednesday night and it is now Saturday evening. The people with whom I am now living were practically nonexistent to me seven days ago and now I know all 48 of their names and faces (Yes—I worked very hard to be the first one who accomplished this feat. I believe I may even receive a prize if I’ve heard correctly).

Last time I wrote, I was about to experience my first full day in South Africa, and what a full day it was (especially when one is running on four hours of sleep, no coffee, and experiencing an immense amount of jet lag due to the 9 hour ahead jump).  Needless to say, I was not at my best. I was just so………tired!! As we all loaded (or dragged) ourselves on to the 60 seat bus, I was wondering how I was going to make it through the day—I quite honestly wasn’t sure. Regardless, I was in South Africa!! I was determined to enjoy it. We headed straight to the Apartheid Museum (which I posted pictures of in the photo feed below), where we walked through an exhibit as we read about the history of South Africa—the good, the bad, and the (mostly) ugly. There was also an additional exhibit on Nelson Mandela (South Africa’s real live superhero) that was being displayed for a limited amount of time (there are pictures of that in the feed as well).

I must admit, my focus that morning was limited. I mostly just looked at pictures and watched videos. Reading display after display took more energy out of me than I could spare at the moment. Overall, it was a great way to start the trip—with history. History is what makes us who we are (our life stories are a part of our history and people must know them in order to know us). In order to know or even begin to understand South Africa, you must know its history. Something that struck me immensely was the fact that so many of the facts I was reading and so much of the video footage I was watching was so recent. On one hand, that was exciting because it means the people with whom I will interact on the trip (at the service sites and on the staff that is taking care of us) will most likely have lived through some of these major events and have incredible stories to tell. On the other hand, it’s frightening to think that such injustice and brutality could take place on such a large scale all the way into the 1990s.

After the museum, we drove around a city called Saweto, and what struck me most about this place was that, on one side of the street you would have people living in the dirt with a small covering over their head (this is called a house—this “housing” is for those who are unemployed, mostly). Then, on the other side of the same street, there would be a row of apartments and housing that looks much like what I will be living in with my roommates this coming spring at APU. Shocking. Nothing like you see in the U.S. The woman who was guiding our tour was a native of the town, and after she would describe a certain row of houses or talk about an aspect of life in her city, she would finish the phrase with,  “This is life in Saweto.” She said it matter-of-factly as if to say, this is just the way things are and we accept them and we live our lives to the fullest in spite of our circumstances, whatever they may be. Everyone was so friendly—waving, smiling, and welcoming us as we drove through the town in our enormous bus. I noticed that the billboards posted around the city often appealed to the part of human nature that desires to prosper, live well, and find a place in this world. Whether a sign was advertising for a church or for a housing complex, all the messages seemed to be the same. Do the best you can with what you have. There was no victim mentality in this town. People there were responsible for themselves and they knew it. No one in Saweto begs. Instead, they are encouraged to be entrepreneurs, selling items at a street corner, or cutting hair on the side of the road. Looks like America could take a hint from Saweto.

As our day in Johannesburg came to a close, we all went back to the hotel, had a beautiful candlelight dinner right next to an airstrip landing, and headed back to the hotel. I popped two Tylenol PM, went straight to bed and slept straight through until my alarm sounded at 6 AM the following morning. HALLELUJAH! Drug induced sleep or not, it was much needed.

The next morning, we ate breakfast in the hotel lobby once again, loaded up the bus, and headed back to the Johannesburg airport. We took a short and sweet flight to Durban (southeast of Johannesburg), and arrived there around 1 PM. Then, we hopped back on another bus and drove about an hour and a half to African Enterprise Conference Center (where we will be staying for the next 10 weeks, doing school and completing our time at service sites). Considering this blog has been oh so long, I will save the details of my past 24 hours here at African Enterprise for the next one.

Until then, goodnight, and,“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

-Romans 15:13