Weekend 3: Wild Johannesburg!

5/24
Shannon came to pick me up Saturday morning around 6 am because she wanted to take me to Johannesburg to stay with her family. It was about a 4 hour drive, so we decided to seize the day dark and early. She has a very beautiful home, and her family was really sweet. Her mom even decorated the rooms with fresh flowers and left chocolates on our beds. Her dad picked us up from the house and dropped us off at the SPCA where her mom works, so I got a behind-the-scenes tour of the Johannesburg SPCA. Shannon's mom scared me enough for the whole weekend when she told us about her co-worker that was hijacked a few blocks away in broad daylight. Someone just came up to her car at a stop, pointed a gun at her window and stole her phone, purse, car, and even the wheelchair in the back for her disabled kid. Needless to say, from that point on I was super paranoid of every pedestrian walking the medians, especially the ones reaching in their pockets for what usually turned out to be a cell phone. Shannon's family took me to the Apartheid museum around 2, where I learned quite a good bit about Nelson Mandela. I hadn't realized that the African National Congress was actually a communist party, and that Mandela was quite supportive of communism, because he believed that democracy was unlikely to be offered to the black population. I also realized that he wasn't exactly a peaceful leader when he first began getting involved in the apartheid movements, and that his time in prison greatly reformed his strategy. He wound up being a really incredible leader for the nation, however it is important to note that his influence was facilitated by his high level of education, something that a lot of potential leaders are denied in South Africa. In addition, many blacks are employed in positions that they are not qualified for due to legislative requirement of racial dispersion in the workforce and neglect for provision of appropriate education for the black population. Even Jacob Zuma, the president, has no more than a 5th grade education. I quite enjoyed the museum though, I learned a lot about the South African government and gained a better understanding of the nation's reverence for him.

Around 5:30 as the sun was setting, Shannon's dad took me up in his two-seater plane called a "Bushbaby." It. Was. Awesome. I was beaming for so long that my cheeks hurt by the time that we landed.

 

 

Then we picked up Shannon's sister, Christie from the VITS university in Johannesburg, and we had a braai while listening to the Soweto gospel choir DVD that Shannon's mom bought for me at the apartheid museum. Her family was really hospitable and sweet, and her mom gave me her number so that I could call her if I ever needed anything.

 Sunday morning we visited Nan and Gramps' house for tea and coffee and Nan made cheddar "scones," which remarkably resembled garlic cheddar biscuits. Nan also told me that she grew up in Swaziland and was excited to hear that I would be there in a couple weeks. Gramps gave me a short Kruger Park book, which identified numerous wild bucks and birds and such. They reminded me a lot of my own Grammy and Papap, so I kind of wish we had stayed longer. We headed on to the lion park because Shannon needed to leave by 1 pm, and that was pretty incredible as well, as touristy as it was. I can now check petting a lion off my bucketlist. I also got to hand feed some giraffes and go for a game drive, during which we encountered more lions and numerous types of bucks. One lion gave us a scare as he pounced with his front paw on the hood of the car. As we drove through lion territory, there were signs everywhere instructing us to "KEEP WINDOWS CLOSED." Shannon's dad said that one year, a Chinese man hopped out of the car so that he could get some better photos, and a lion snatched him up. Something about Chinese takeout. I apologize for the crudeness.