We are headed for Kruger Park, so I will likely be without internet access until Thursday night. Until then, here are the details of the last couple of days. I miss you all, and can’t wait to see everyone again!! I’ll talk to you again as soon as I as am able.
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Our morning started with a meeting with a representative from Standard Bank. She spoke to us about mergers and acquisitions that the bank has undergone in order to grow in various areas throughout the country. It was an interesting presentation about the various offerings of the bank, and how the bank has grown over the last several years. As with all of our presenters, she was candid and allowed us to ask many open-ended questions. Standard Bank is one of the four main banks in South Africa, and is using mergers and acquisitions to grow throughout the African continent, as well as into India and South America. During this presentation we learned that Nigeria is the market to watch, as the bank is looking to this market for explosive growth in the near future. This will be another company for me to keep an eye on once I am back in my normal routine.
After that, we drove to the Cullinan Diamond Mine. We were whisked into a room where we put on very attractive mining suits (I’m being sarcastic), and really long gray socks and boots. We were outfitted with glasses to protect our eyes, ear plugs, masks, and hard hats. It turned out that we didn’t need most of the gear; it was given to us as a precautionary measure in case we needed them, but we did have to keep the hard hats on at all times. We got into an elevator that took us about 2,400 feet down into the mine. I was impressed when we got out of the elevator how much space there was to walk around. I had visions in my head of a cramped, dark space, and the mind was really nothing like that. It was well lit, and we could walk comfortably throughout our entire tour. This is an active mine and we actually got to see the miners leaving for the day since it was an early shift. The diamonds are mined from volcanic pipes, as the diamonds are only found in the rocks located within those areas. Machines do most of the drilling into the rocks, and the process of loading the carts with rocks to be broken and taken out of the mine is primarily automated as well. It was quite different from the image in my mind of men hitting at the sides of a tunnel with pick axes, and it was very fascinating. I really enjoyed the opportunity to see a working mine, and to look through the store where the fruits of the labor within the mine are for sale. All of those items were outside of my budget for the trip, but it was nice to browse. Cullinan also has a special cut of diamond that is only available on-site (with 66 cuts instead of the 58), and it is spectacular! I don’t imagine I’ll have one in my life time, but I enjoyed looking at the beautiful star shape under the looking glass!
We had lunch outside in a garden at a place right down the street from the mine. I believe it was called Whispering Oaks, and the food was amazing! It looked like it was a home that had been converted into a restaurant, and the cooking space inside was tiny. But I had the best ham and cheese sandwich ever, with homemade French fries that were to die for! It was beautiful and relaxing afternoon in the garden, surrounded by rose bushes. Ivy ordered a dessert and was gracious enough to share. It was a crepe-like pancake filled with ice cream, and topped with some kind of delicious caramel-like sauce and bananas. Between our entire group, we polished it off for her with no problem.
Saturday evening was the first down time I have really had so far on the trip, and I needed it! I spent the evening in the hotel room, with room service and movies on TV. I actually got 8 hours of sleep, and I loved every minute of it!
Sunday, May 17, 2009
This morning, we headed to Soweto for our full day tour. We started at the Apartheid museum, but unfortunately only had one hour to absorb the information there. I think I could have spent an entire day there because of all of the information available. The Apartheid is something that is such a foreign concept to me, that I have a hard time wrapping my brain around it. Much like segregation in America, I do not have personal first-hand experience of that type of inequality, and I just can’t fathom how anyone could be justified in believing that separation by race is a fair way to treat anyone. The black population in this country was constantly being moved around, from area to area, and being told where they could live, where they could spend their time, where they could work, and who they could associate with. And it only stopped less than 15 years ago – it is mind boggling to me to think about. I am grateful we had the opportunity to see the museum, but I wish we had been able to spend more time there.
We then went across the street to a non-working gold mine. We viewed a demonstration showing how gold bars were made, and then we were led to an elevator to go down in the mine. The elevator was dark and cramped, and we went down about 500 feet. This was barely into the mine, as it had 54 levels and is over 10,000 feet deep. The mine was much darker than the diamond mine we went to the day before, and some of the spaces were more cramped. Not too bad, we just had to bend over slightly so we didn’t bump our hard hats on the ceiling. We got to see how the shafts were made, and how the digging was done when the mine was active. Men who worked in the lower levels of the mind had to spend two hours getting to their job site each day, then work an 8 hour day, and then spend another two hours getting out of the mine. I can’t imagine working under those conditions! It certainly made me think of my little cubicle at work a little more fondly.
After that, we went to Wandie’s, which is a tiny little restaurant where they serve a home-cooked buffet. I didn’t eat anything that exotic – I stuck to the chicken and beef dishes, which were delicious. Several people at my table tried Ox tripe, but I wasn’t willing to taste it. While we ate, we were sung to by a couple of gentlemen with a guitar, and the songs ranged from La Bamba to songs in their native tongue that I did not recognize. It was a great experience.
Our tour of Soweto continued as we went to the monument erected in memory of the children that died at the Soweto massacre, which resulted in an uprising that was pivotal to the end of Apartheid. At this massacre, the children of the township had rocks that were used as a weapon against the authorities, who opened fire. There were similar events at many townships in the region, as the officers tried to keep the black population “in line”. I don’t think that my visit today has given me a full understanding of these events, and I believe that this is a historical moment that I need to spend more time researching.
We then visited Nelson Mandela’s residence, where he lived before being a political prisoner, and tried to return after his release from prison. It was a modest home, and I felt a huge sense of historical importance just being in that space. Compared to some of the homes we saw in the area, it was a nice home. I just think of someone of such historical significance as living in more plush surroundings. We also visited the Freedom Tower, where the Freedom Charter is depicted in a memorial. This is very similar to the Bill of Rights in the US, and it was penned in the Soweto region by many of the political prisoners. Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela lived on the same street – I believe the only instance of two Nobel Peace Prize winners living that close to each other.
Then we went into one of the townships, where a guide talked to us about what it is like to live under those conditions. While this is an area that has a significant amount of financial poverty (with roughly a 60% unemployment rate), there were no signs of emotional poverty to be seen. We were met with smiles and waves everywhere we went. To see the number of children running in the street we walked down broke my heart. I wanted to pick them all up and hug them, but what they wanted most from us was money. We were told that it was best not to give it to them, as they want the children to go to school. School is a 1 to 2 mile walk away for these children, and many of them prefer to stay close to home and try to make money from tourists. We were welcomed into one woman’s home, I believe she told me her name was Hilda, which was literally a one-room shack with a kitchen at one end and a bed at the other. She welcomed us into her home with a smile, and asked us how we were enjoying our visit. I’m not sure how many people lived in that small space, but based on the clothes hanging on the line outside, I am guessing at least two adults, and two to three children. The residents there are waiting for government housing to be built, so that they can live in more permanent homes. They do not have running water or electricity inside their homes. They can’t leave, because they are registered with the government for their new homes.
Everything that we saw today gave me so much to think about. How do these people keep such a beautiful spirit under such conditions? I would not be surprised to find angry and hostile people in this environment, but being met with smiles and waves and a sense of welcome is very surprising. The injustice that has happened here is appalling, and the people here seem so willing to accept that it was unjust, and to move on. I am humbled by all that I have seen and all whom I have met – there is no other word for it.
Tomorrow we start our trek to Kruger Park, so I will be out of email range until Friday. I’ll try to keep up with all we are doing while I’m off-line, and catch up with you when I have internet access again. I can’t wait to spend some time outside looking at the animals, and I can’t wait to share the pictures!
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