Arthur, aka Gotulaki, picked us up in a mini bus for our tour of Soweto and the accompanying museums near there. He was a very jovial and kind man, with enough stories to tell us of the area, history, and his own experiences to keep us entertained while driving all over the township.
Our first stop was to the apartheid museum. Gotulaki told us that in order for a company to get a gambling permit that they must build a cultural site for the government. That is how the Apartheid Museum came into existence.
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| Add your rock to the pile at the end of the Apartheid Museum (photo by TravellingFool.com) |
It was an interesting place to see and detailed the journey of South Africa from a separated nation to a more united one. Considering how recently this struggle occurred it is interesting to see how the people were able to enact such a change that they are still struggling with today. With the considerable corruption of the government, extremely high unemployment, drugs, and influx of inexpensive immigrant labor from the neighboring countries, South Africa is still in the throws of growing pains. In the midst of it all they still have a positive outlook on the future.
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| World Cup stadium (photo by TravellingFool.com) |
After the Apartheid Museum we did a driving tour of Soweto. The first stop of which was the soccer stadium where the opening and closing games of the World Cup took place. It was designed to resemble a traditional clay pot and is used today to hold exhibition games and large concerts, the most recent of which was Justin Beiber.
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| Street art in Soweto (photo by TravellingFool.com) |
Driving through the township was quite interesting. It is divided into chunks with houses ranging from large to shanty. The shacks of the poor would be only a street away from elaborate homes. As a whole I expected it to be more shanty and less comfortable homes but I learned that Soweto is more of an outer borough of Johannesburg then slum.
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| Homes in Soweto (photo by TravellingFool.com) |
Driving around we wound up at the Nelson Mandela house and saw Minnie Mandela's home (where she still lives)only a few streets away. The home was incredibly small. There were bullet holes in the exterior of the home and there had been a concrete wall that Minnie and her children hid behind during police shootings. Inside the home were trinkets and plaques from various universities who honored either Nelson or Minnie - one of which was from Queens College!
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| Local shop in Soweto (photo by TravellingFool.com) |
Lunch was right across the street at a restaurant that seemed to be for tourists only. At least mostly. There were a lot of other tour groups there. It was a buffet (again) but this time had all local specialties. Some of them were good like the orange quinoa thing or the chili onion salad and one I avoided (tripe and mystery stew). I wasn't hungry still from breakfast but it seemed rude not to try it out. They also were serving some funky drinks being dished out at the bar and a collection of Cuban cigars for purchase.
After our local tourist lunch we went to another museum, Hector Pieterson Museum. This one was to commemorate all the students who were killed during the uprising when Afrikaans became the mandatory language in schools. It included stories from people who survived the march from the local high school to the bridge and the worry families went through while children were being detained and killed.
There were a few vendors outside the museum. After our tour we stopped to take a look at what they were selling. Since it was a Sunday there was no one else around which made it easy to see what was there and difficult to say no. I saw a local painting I had eyed during our driving tour and purchased it. I didn't bother haggling, $8 extra is a small price to pay for something I really enjoyed.
By the time we got back in the car and started off towards the hotel I found myself already tired. We had a chance to sit outside and watch the sun go down while having a few drinks and think about what lies ahead on this trip. I'm already considering retiring here, the climate is so mild and the dollar so strong. We ended the night around 8, after a small dinner in the hotel restaurant. Dinner for my brother, who was still full from breakfast, consisted of a Glen Fiddich 12, Johnny Walker Blue, and a McCallan 12. The liquor is so incredibly cheap that it's hard not to indulge on $5-12 shots of drinks which easily cost 10x that at home.
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