January 20, 2009

Pretoria etc

It's been a few days since any of us have been able to get online so I thought I'd give a quick recap.
Sunday morning we went to the airport and flew to Johannesburg (or Jo'burg as it's known here), was picked up by Pete Meiren (misspelled I'm sure) who was on the Truth and Reconciliation Commision and who is our guide this week, and taken around. We went to a few monuments in Pretoria and out to a township/city called Mamelodi where we stayed for two nights.
Monday we drove to the other side of Jo'burg to Soweto where we toured different historical sites of uprising and injustice as well as a famous tower and the houses of the Mandelas and Tutu. Soweto is supposedly the largest township in the ZA (over 4 million) but when compared to the shanties in Cape Town, it felt like a real city unto itself. So when we drove back to Mamelodi we sang and then had dinner with some young people from a couple of churches. During the night we had our first harsh thunderstorm.
Tuesday we went to a game park and experienced a real safari. We saw zebra, elephants, rhino, hippos, crocs, and even a leopard. Then we came back and now are broken up into houses of families of a local church. The houses are nice and the people are nicer. I'll let others talk more emotively or about specific events but I thought it my duty to update since I have the chance.

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