First Full Day - July 16

Yesterday, our delegation was finally all together in Johanessburg at dinner last night.  Most of the students were pretty tired after all the traveling, so after dinner it was pretty much straight to bed for an early start today for our first full day in South Africa.

Our first stop today was the Apartheid Museum.  We arrived before the museum opened so we had time for an "in Country briefing" where the students were given an overview of South African History, the political system, economics, health, flora, and fauna.  

To give the students a better perspective on how large the continent of Africa is, the were shown a map of the continent with the the following countries inside on the map outline:  US, China, Eastern Europe, Japan, France, India, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Netherlands, and a few others.

From there, we toured the museum for a few hours, learning about Apartheid, how it came to be, some of the struggle to end it, and how things are still changing today.  We learned about the different terminology and social status as it pertains to race, i.e.  Whites = European, Colored = Mixed race, Asian, Indian, etc., and Blacks = Black.   They also learned that in Africa, it is derogatory to call a person who is from this country to be a "native," they are "indigenous."  Our tickets for the Museum had a race on it and you would enter the museum through the door that was for either the Whites or the Non-white.  When walking through the white door - everything was written in large print and was big, whereas through the non-white side, it was small.  Gave the students a little bit of feel of what it was like.

After the museum we headed to lunch in a nice outdoor-ish restuarant.  They students all seemed to enjoy their meal of either chicken breast burger, beef burger or pesto pasta.  We were then on the road again to the supermarket to get snacks for those who needed them for the Bush Camp.  We came back to the hotel for a short rest (about an hour or so) and then headed back out to watch the film "Leaving Mandela Park" which was a documentary about children growing up in Soweto and their struggle to make it out of there.  I think it is starting to hit everyone of the poverty and sometimes hopelessness some of these people feel.  Tomorrow will probably have it all sink in when we go there.

Dinner was "artsy" pizza - proscuitto and basal, chicken and mushroom, chicken and avocado, and artichoke and sun-dried tomato.  Again, everyone enjoyed it.  We are now back at the hotel and they students are enjoying about an hour of free time before bed to get ready for our day in Soweto tomorrow.  Everyone is doing well and are enjoying getting to know new friends.