Johannesburg Day #1

Today was a fabulous day. Through a series of emails, we had arranged to go on a tour which was cancelled. The people with our Bed and Breakfast have a friend who does tours. She used to be a lecturer at the local university. How serendipitous!!! She was great!! We learned so much, and she had a wicked sense of humor!!!

We started at a former power plant, which has been turned into an adventure site, that offers (?) bungee jumping, etc. NO, we didn't bungee jump!! But we did ride the orange cage up the side of one of the cooling towers, for a great view of the city!!








The hills in the background, over Jill's shoulder, are "mine dumps," where all the soil from the mines is piled. All of Johannesburg is over mines!!
Next we went to Soweto, where 4 million people live. We visited a school in Kliptown, an area of Soweto.


The school was wonderful. The kids were mostly asleep. Those that were awake LOVED the Instax camera!!!










We went to the site of the Freedom Charter - there's a wonderful park and monument. The skylight on the top is the mark of a vote.



While the most important parts of the Charter include voting rights, as well as other basic human rights, we also liked this one:



Tomorrow we're going to the Apartheid Museum and to see the Soweto Strings!! I can't wait!!

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