Weekend Jaunt: Johannesburg and Soweto

At 6 in the morning on Friday our rattling combi dropped us off a little gas station somewhere in near the Main Mall in Gaborone. This, apparently, was the international bus station. and the bus was pulled in at the side of the lot. We hopped aboard, were reseated 5 minutes later to accomodate the Knoop children (our program director's), and then 30 seconds later when our new seats were mysteriously already claimed. Then we left.

The bus ride was about 6.5 hours. The Bots-SA border was our first stop, 30 minutes in, and featured a total lack of direction, thick glass and low voices, and a long, muddy trek through shrubbery and a thunderstorm from the Bots "signing out" building to the SA "welcome" one, a trek which was unsigned, unexplained, and only successfully completed because we saw our bus driving away and chased it in a panic to the other side.

We arrived in J0-burg around 1pm, to a big bustling bus station which essentially looked like any average train terminal. We were picked up in a combi/van by a guide from our hostel, and taken to see something like the "Museum Africa," a panorama of Jo-burg, and finally the Apartheid Museum. The Apartheid Museum was superb, with a strong focus on architecture (concrete, reflective stone, and water), and an amazing collection of photographs from someone last-named Cole, a black photographer who captured many stellar images of life under apartheid.

After that, we drove to Soweto (the SOuth WEstern TOwnship), which was originally a black, coloured, and Indian community under apartheid. Our hostel was a small, hippie establishment run by a Rastafarian named Lebo and his European girlfriend. We had dinner there.

The next day, we took a four hour bike tour of Soweto. The tour was hilly at parts, but bareable, and quite nice on the downhill. We tasted home brew beer in someone's corrogated hut, were chased by ridiculously excitable children, rode through a variety of housing neighborhoods and levels of poverty, and learned some of the history of the neighborhood. Soweto was absolutely amazing - everyone was warm and genuinely delighted to see us, life was vibrant and happy, and people seemed to enjoy a pleasure of community that you rarely see in the States.

The rest of the day was spent relaxing and visiting with the fleet of young guys who worked at the hostel and were friends with Lebo. Sunday, we walked to an area with a few stalls for souveniring, then took our return bus ride home.

THEN THE DRAMA STARTED!!!