Visitors from the West

Last week we had our first visitors and we had a wonderful time.  Maddie and Chad flew all the way here to spend some time with grandma and grandpa before they embark on their adventure to West Virginia for medical school.

 They stayed with us in our apartment and slept on an air mattress that was flat every morning. We enjoyed some adventures, good food and played some mean card games of '500'. 

We spent several hours at the Apartheid Museum learning about a dark time in the history of South Africa.

Mike and Tami's Sophie emailed us Flat Stanley which we took with us many places.

South Africa is called the Rainbow Nation because it is blending so many different groups to form one country.  There are 11 official languages in South Africa, and the many different colors on the flag represents this blending of tribes, cultures, etc.

Tragically, Stanley lost his life later in the week

Maddie, Chad and Stanley with statue of Nelson Mandela at Mandela Square

 At the Elephant Sanctuary we spent some time 'up and close' with some very big elephants.

We took turns feeding the elephant

                                         And not only up close, but up close and personal

Maddie got kissed by an elephant

Wet and slimy.   Ugh!!!

 

Walking with an elephant hand in trunk

                                                     Maddie and Chad went for a ride

 

Wednesday, we went on a tour of Soweto (acronym for South Western Townships).  Soweto was originally an area of Johannesburg where blacks were re-settled in the Apartheid days in So. Africa before 1990 when they were forcibly evicted from their homes and taken to resettlement areas. 

Two abandoned, 300' cooling towers, now with a bungee jump between

. 

Garbage sorters go through the garbage cans and haul away their treasure

You can see just the roofs of these "homes" with porta potties nearby

Today there are between 1.3 million and 3.5 million people in Soweto, almost all black.

We visited a particular township of about 40,000 people there called Kliptown.  It is just a collection of tin shacks or shipping containers with unbelievably terrible living conditions. There is no running water or electricity.  They get their water from taps around the town to wash their clothes.

                                            The dirty water then runs down the dirt streets.

                             They cook on kerosene stoves and share an outhouse with 15 other families.

                         We were invited into one of these tiny homes, this one has one bed but sleeps 8

Living area



Bedroom

We visited an organization there called Kliptown Youth Program.  Some remarkably dedicated people working to improve the lives of the kids who live there.  It was started 5 years ago and has 400 children enrolled.  Their goal is to help the children graduate from high school, find jobs and raise themselves out of poverty.  Some youth have been helped with college tuition and so far 21 have gone on to college.  Along with their parents, these kids sign a contract and promise to stay in school and attend a tutoring class twice a week. The program helps provide uniforms for public school (all children wear uniforms to school), books and pay the school fees.  They have to walk a long distance to attend school.  On their way, they stop and get a sandwich for lunch and after school they get a hot meal.

Kitchen at Kliptown Youth Program

The founder and director of the center is Thulani Maldonado.  In 2012 he was chosen by CNN from a group of 45,000 as one of their top ten heroes of the year.  This cash award enabled them to get a computer lab with 20 computers.