To Joburg and Then Some :)

Ahhhhhhh, a long breath out as we prepare to leave Johannesburg. What a city, alive with a mixture of feelings, awareness of the danger at the forefront and then a undercurrent of respect and love for the rough and gritty streets.

When we last wrote, it was a quick stop off in Rustenburg, and have not really written since Durban. In Rustenburg we stayed at a so-called B&B called Bieki Berg (that we have since nicknamed Freaky Burg :) which felt a little like pulling up to an Alfred Hitchcock film set. Three days there, in the biting cold was a different taste of Africa. The drive from Joburg to Rustenburg took a little over two hours and winded through the dry countryside of Gauteng province in the north of SA. The often flat, dry brown land stretched on all sides of the road and the sky was dark with smoke from the fires that blaze in all the open fields, set alight when locals make small fires to warm themselves and the embers accidentally spread. It is such a normal thing that people just let the fires blaze on without incident. Made for a stunning sunset over the largest platinum mines in the world that are along the main roads, almost like the sky was paying homage to the sad history of the mines and those who worked there.

On our free day in Rustenburg we visited the Cradle of Humankind, which was a bit like Disneyland for Anthropologists - I was in a heaven, surrounded by evolutions nerds like me  :) It was a powerful feeling to be standing on the exact same land that I spent years studying in school, Sterkfontein Caves, the Cradle of Humankind, where our deepest ancestors took their first steps, transitioned to walking on two legs, our brains growing steadily and humanity in gestation. Wow. We even went in to the caves where Mrs. Ples, a famous fossilized head was discovered. It was a great day.

The next day we went to the Ghana v. Australia game which was awesome, proudly wearing our Ghana jerseys that Sia (that basket man in Sebastopol, originally from Ghana) lent us. The game was action packed and we were sitting with a large group of Ghanaians who were dancing and playing music and the whole nine! It was so much more alive then some of the other games we have been to and I think I understand a little bit more about the African soccer spirit now.

After Rustenburg, we came to Joburg and have been staying with a lovely lady named Denise who has a sweet little B&B in Melville, a suburb of Joburg. Yesterday, we took a tour of Soweto, the largest township in South Africa, which I am at a loss of words to describe. Calling it a township does not do the city in itself justice. The way of life was similar to our previous township tour, only with class distinctions were more pronounced, with the wealthy area of Soweto being named "California" and barbed wire fences lined the walls of the houses, similar to the homes in the wealthy suburbs of Joburg. The striking lack of these kinds if fences in other parts of the township is illustrative of what the locals call Ubuntu, or humanity, community and the reliance the people have on one another. People claim that Soweto is so dangerous, but I felt safer there than I did in the suburbs if Joburg. In the suburbs, people build fences to keep each other out, in Soweto the people need each other too much to do such a thing. A different world, but not so different that we would not recognize the struggles of not having enough work, enough money, enough to feed our families.

Last night we went to and INCREDIBLE game with Spain v. Honduras, (I say incredible because I love Spain and was shrouded with my Spanish flag blanket that I bought in the market). Spain won 2, nil and it should have been 10 nil but El Nino was off his game.

Today we leave to Pretoria, and are praying that we can score tickets to the USA v. Algeria game. My grandfather would be so proud to have us cheering for the USA team that we have to make it happen. Put a prayer out there for us!!!!

We are signing off, sending love and wishes that you are doing well wherever you are.

With love from Africa,

Camelia and Jason