Isabel's week of adventure and valuable takeaways

Day One – Johannesburg

After a long travel day to Johannesburg, we spent the following day taking in the history that this city has preserved within its borders.  We toured both the Apartheid Museum and Constitution Hill Museum on Saturday.  The Apartheid Museum encompassed a thorough history of South Africa from the Group Areas Act to the 1994 democratic elections.  The portion of the museum that I viewed as most profound was a room commencing those who lost their lives in prison or by police brutality.  The entire ceiling of this room was jammed packed with nooses.  Our tour guide explained to us why the nooses had double loops rather than just a singular loop – they were intended to execute properly.  He went on to describe exactly how this style of execution worked.  This system was not abolished until 1994 – just one year before I was born.  It was a pretty cryptic thought.  That night, during our reflection of the day, Becca and I both examined the idea of human vs. human warfare.  It is unfathomable that when we are walking down a street we fear another human harming us or our property.  We are not scared of a gorilla or lion coming out of the bushes and harming us, we are fearful of our own species.  I question how this began.  How did this competition or entitlement or viciousness occur in every country’s society today?  I have juggled that thought in my head over the past few days and I can only pinpoint one answer and that is desperation.  It is the only reason I can give at the moment, although it may be incorrect.

Day Two – Johannesburg

Sunday started off pretty groggy for me.  I felt pretty worn down and in need of a 10am sleep in time, but that mindset soon shifted as we began our itinery.  Our first stop was the Hector Pieterson Memorial Museum.  This was probably my favorite museum of the trip thus far.  The structure of the museum was presented in a steady incline, while telling the story of this historic massacre and its aftermath.  What I learned from this museum was that the massacre started as a peaceful march – sadly as most massacres do in our world today.  The march was protesting the education system that had oppressed many students in South Africa.  The government was asking all students to learn and test in the oppressor’s language of Africans.  A group of students decided to protest these efforts on 16 June 1976.  They were met with police backlash that resulted in a large number of casualties as young as eight-years-old.  One in particular was Hector Pieterson.  The museum quoted his sister’s testimony after his murder, “I think it was just out of curiosity that he (Hector Pieterson) was involved in the march”.  The testament from Antoinette Sithole, Hector’s sister, was followed by Colonel Johannes Kleinggeld’s statement about this historic day.  Colonel Kleinggeld was directing his police force that day.  “I did not give an instruction to fire.  However, some people were shooting out of desperation”.  Another witness, Hendrick Tshabola, testified, “…the police attacked every child, whether he was causing havoc or not.  The children were also attacking cars whether they belonged to whites or not”.  These witness testimonies made me conclude that neither side fully understood their position.  Each side was triggered by their lack of control and soon ciaos broke out.  It reminded me of a podcast I have been listening to.  The podcast is about an enlisted American soldier, Bo, who was captured by the Taliban.  Bo describes his job description as a US soldier before his capture.  He says most days were spent passing out rice or coloring books to local citizens in Afghanistan.  Bo states that neither he nor the citizens receiving his assistance really knew how to feel about their interactions.  I feel as though this is the case for almost every soldier during any period of history.  Their intentions are to follow command of their country’s institution whether they make sense or not.  There is never a round of questions to understand their exact position, rather they are handed a uniform and told to fight.  I compared this to the 1976 march in South Africa because it seems to tell the same story.  The police were sent out that day to control these young students, but never told the whole story.  When they see the danger surrounding them, they become desperate and end human life as a result.

Day Three – Johannesburg

I still have trouble understanding this day.  Monday was a national South African holiday, Human Rights Day.  We spent the day in Sharpeville to visit another site of massacre.  The Sharpeville Massacre claimed 69 innocent lives on 21 June 1960.  The whole community seemed to be spilling into the streets, either commemorating the day or campaigning their political views – a strange combination if you ask me.  We were greeted by many, many on looking stares, as well as people in the community coming up to us without even a simple introduction to take our picture – in my estimation to show their family members that they saw a white person today.  The whole day made me pretty uncomfortable.  I felt like people were very invasive and it took away from what we set out to do.  I also took in many observations about the community.  The only other white people around were police officers and they lined the streets.  It almost looked like a flashback in history – white officers and black civilians.  Their police cars had extension trollies on the back of them lined with massive amounts of barbed wire, its potential use I had no idea.  Overall, Monday was a very awkward day in my opinion, although our tour guide, Alice was very wonderful.

Day Four – Johannesburg

On Tuesday, we spent our whole day at the Pimville Boys and Girls Club of South Africa.  In total, I think I spent the full six hours being climbed on or danced around by three tiny six-year-olds and I enjoyed every second of it.  The day was a pleasant change after a rather depressing passage through history during the beginning of the trip. 

Day Five – En Route to Krueger National Park

An endless bus ride…

Day Six – Krueger National Park

The moment we got off the bus yesterday we have been touring Krueger.  We went on a sunset game drive yesterday where we witnessed rhinos, elephants, zebras, giraffes, and even some glimpses of hippos.  It has been nice to see the animals freely roaming and not contained to a certain space.  Mariko told me that Krueger is in fact fenced in, but the parameters are equivalent to Massachusetts.  Once we watched the sunset and the full moon come out, we discovered hyenas and their babies with the spotlights on the jeep.  After just a few hours of sleep, we woke up at around 3:45AM Thursday morning to set off on another drive.  After the sun rose, we saw a group of female lions out in the brush.  Altogether I think we all witnessed 4 out of the 5 “Big Five”.  Tomorrow we trek out early again and set off back home to Rondebosch.  I am excited to get back to my little comfort zone after a week of adventure and valuable takeaways.  Till then!

Isabel, Mariko, Kayla & Meg on game drive in Kruger