The Promised Land

After a couple of hiccups with our train journey, Wes and I got to Lusaka, Zambia and had some quality hanging out time at the airport. The airport had a bar and a stuffed warthog’s head grinning down on us, what more could we need? A quick flight and we made it to the promised land, a.k.a South Africa. After living in rural Tanzania for a year, some American friends of mine keep referring to South Africa as the promised land and it has caught on, or, at least, it has caught on with me.

Arriving in South Africa on December 23 gave us all a quick breather to catch up on the last two years of news, for Wes to meet my Dad and his partner, Bernice, and for us to do a lightening tour of all the important places in Johannesburg, like where I went to primary school. Then we tried to fall into the spirit of Christmas. When I first got to Canada, I had trouble associating Christmas with snow and coldness. Nine years later, I had the opposite problem in South Africa where the 30 degree heat dried up all my Christmas spirit (although it was somewhat revived by a little turkey and champagne).

Over the next ten days, Wes and I had a whirlwind taste of the history, the food and the wildlife of South Africa. As all good lawyers do, we popped into the rather avant garde Constitutional Court of South Africa for a quick look-see at the cow-hide covered bench. We also swiftly learnt that South Africa’s Bill of Rights, which is contained in its Constitution, is one of the very few that guarantees economic and social rights, such as the right to health care, food and water. It will be interesting to see how the court deals with proceedings to enforce these types of rights.

Our next step was the apartheid museum. I had somewhat mixed feelings about the apartheid museum because I wasn’t sure how it would reflect South Africa’s recent past and because I am a white South African. Overall, I would give it two thumbs up, as it has interesting and largely comprehensive multi-media exhibits. However, sometimes, a little more context was needed to get the full flavour of a particular historical event.

After our historical dose, we were off to commune with nature. Our first stop was the Dewildt Cheetah Park, where they breed cheetahs and wild dogs in captivity to bolster the stocks in the wild. Our second stop was the Pilansberg Game Reserve. The highlight of these wildlife endeavors was having a black rhino and her calf saunter within 6 or 7 meters of the car. Our proximity to the rhino gave us a new appreciation for its size – it is HUGE. Rhinos are renowned for their bad temper and their poor eyesight. We were quite careful to not get between mom and her calf.

The last thing on our list was a township tour. Somewhat like the apartheid museum, I felt a little conflicted about going on a township tour and watching someone else’s way of life. However, in the spirit of giving everything a go once, off we went. We went on a tour of Soweto, one of Johannesburg’s largest and oldest townships. Soweto was an interesting mix of middle-class suburbia and shacks that had been cobbled together with tin sheeting. We also had the chance to see a couple of historical sites in Soweto, such as where the Sharpeville massacre took place and a church that was the “parliament of Soweto” during apartheid. Ultimately, I found the township tour a bit boring. I think that by the time we did the tour, we had overdosed on museums and the living conditions of the poorer inhabitants of Soweto are very akin to the living conditions of the folks that I go past every day. In the mornings, my seat on the dalladalla gives me a window into people’s lives as they have a “bowl bath’’ outside their tiny, tin homes that have no power or running water. In the evenings, I see little kids playing in the dust among flattened water bottles and fluttering pieces of plastic bags. I have not become inured to the difficulty of living in these types of conditions, but I have lost the desire to stare at it or to be shocked by it.

Wes and I got around a fair bit, thanks to Wes’ ability to drive a manual. However, being in Johannesburg was about more than being tourists. It was about introducing Wes to South Africa and spending time with my family. I enjoyed the opportunity to be a tourist and a home girl.