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Tuesday, March 1, 2011

It's March!!!


March 1, 2011 3:00 PM




I’m actually writing a blog while at school!!!! So this is actually a up-to-the-minute update! You should feel so honored! ;)
Classes weren’t super exciting last week, so I’m just going to just ahead to the weekend. After classes were done on Thursday, us Americans boarded a plane to Johannesburg. We got there around 6 and went straight to our hostel for the night.
Friday we got up to begin our first day being the ultimate tourists. We started the day by going to the township of Soweto. Have you heard of the Soweto uprising? It’s an incredible story that played a big part in the apartheid… maybe look it up sometime! We went to a church there called Regina Mundi. It was a church that the people of Soweto went to as a safe haven from the riots and such, but it got attacked by the police one time. There were like 5000 people inside, and there are still bullet holes around the church to show the damage done.
Next up was the Hector Pieterson Memorial. Hector was a thirteen year old boy; the first to be shot and killed in the Soweto uprising. It was a very interesting museum.
We went from there to Nelson and Winnie Mandela’s house, which has recently been turned into a museum. This street also used to host Desmond Tutu; it is the only street to have two Nobel Peace Prize winners live on it.
After lunch we went to Constitution Hill, which is where the major courthouse is, along with a couple of the prisons used during the apartheid. The prisons are now museums, which we were guided through.
Needless to say, it was a busy day.
Saturday was just about as busy. We met up with a bishop in the Alexander township, where we discussed some stuff for about 3 hours. I’m gonna be honest, I don’t really know what they were talking about. It was hot, and there were a bunch of adorable little children following us around (just like at the other township we went to in January). I did pick up on a little, but I wasn’t in the mindset to talk for that long.
Then we went to the Voortrekker Memorial, which is in memory of the Anglo-Boer war. It had some pretty incredible artwork, and an amazing view from the top of the building.
Then we went to the Lion Park! We took a truck tour around the park and got to see some INSANELY large lions. Then we got to pet some lion cubs! Then we got to feed a giraffe! I squealed really loud cause its tongue was really rough and gross! It was fun!
I was asleep that night by like 10. It was a very exhausting day. We had a lovely surprise at about 4 AM with drunken men outside our window throwing condom balloons into our window. Funny? Not so much.
Sunday we got up to do a little devotional with our instructor, Glenn, and then headed off to the Apartheid Museum. This place is crazy. We were there for about 3 hours, and it was hardly enough time to get through it. It really helped me see the apartheid in the proper sequence. We had learned so much about it, but to me, it was still really broken up and confusing. I bought a book since pictures weren’t allowed inside. Let me know if you want to see it when I get back!
Last night we went to our friend, Robin’s, house for dinner. The community there was like nothing I had experienced before. When we arrived, we sat down our bags and went to meet his neighbors. Who does that? But it was really cool, and the food was good.
Today I’ve just been doing homework and chattin with Taran. Tuesdays are my homework/skype days. It’s pretty great.
Much love to you all. I hope the weather there isn’t getting to you too much! It’s a woppin 95 degrees here today. Only 70 degrees warmer than Spokane! J

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