You Mosotho?

Maloti, which is the name of the money of Lesotho. It has a picture of Moshoeshoe who was the man who is the founder of Lesotho. He is holding a Basotho club.

After shopping in Maseru I lugged my grass mat, Lesotho hat, spear and Basotho club to the van and we all made our way back to the Trading Post. Once near the entrance of our temporary residence,  there were a number of children who seemed to be “hanging out” near the front gate. They did not enter the property but simply stood at the gate and as we drove by the children waved and said hello; we returned their greetings with the only one we knew in Sesotho… “Dumela!”. Many people returned to their rooms or one of the two lounges, but I decided to do something else. Since we missed our Sesotho lessons for the day (they were canceled) I thought I’d have my own personal lesson with the neighborhood children.

Although I enjoy my students (hi Thomas, thanks for reading), I really did enjoy my time WITHOUT them or any other children in my immediate circle, yet, I could not resist spending some time chatting with the little ones outside the gate. I quickly changed out of my business suit, threw on some lounging clothes, and went out to… play! As I crossed the gate the children surrounded me; some were dressed well, while others wore jackets that were torn, sweaters with holes them, and sneakers that were worn or almost in shreds. It was tough to see the condition of their clothes and for some, I wondered how they kept themselves warm with such tattered clothing.

Some of the girls and boys I met in Roma

The first girl who approached me was Elizabeth. She was a young girl, I think around 9, and I will never forget her. She acted as the translator for many of the children and managed to ask me my name and where I was from. As I chatted with these children here in Roma I quickly realized that the girls had very little hair. Many of the boys and girls had the same or similar hair styles, while there were a small few who had braids and even fewer with processed hair. It made me realize once again that hair is absolutely important when looking at other cultures. In South Africa and Lesotho I think they type of hairstyle you keep marks your status. Professional women walking around in Maseru had fancier clothes and HAIRSTYLES (mainly processed). These poorer children here in Roma, in particular the girls, may not have the time or money to deal with or style longer hair. Or, maybe they preferred to have their hair in that style and I am just out of the loop. I shall ask and we shall see but, I think my first thought is correct.

Maybe it was because of my “fancy clothes” (jeans, clean sneakers, thick long sleeved shirt, and a sweater) that the pack of children thought I was from Maseru. After all, it was in Maseru that I saw women with fancier clothing and/or hair styles, so that reference made sense to me. But wait, I didn’t even think about what they said. They asked me if I was from Maseru and earlier they asked if I was Lesotho. I had no idea what they meant by that, but by the end of our conversation I realized what they were confused about. When I told them I was American they looked at me strangely and then asked, “How can you be from America? Americans are WHITE!”

Basotho girl

The young children thought I was from Lesotho, but a fancy part of Lesotho like Maseru. When they asked me if I was Lesotho, I misheard them and since I was not familiar with the language I assumed they were asking me if I was Lesotho. However, after sharing this story with others I realized little Elizabeth was asking, “You Mosotho?” (a word for a person from Lesotho).

I wondered if these children ever really had the opportunity to travel outside of their small village and how many African-Americans they had the opportunity to meet. I almost could not believe they thought I was Mosotho, but at the same time I was honored. As I mentioned earlier, I wanted to walk through South African and Lesotho and have the people embrace me as one of their own… because… in essense, I am, and this was even better than what I was hoping! Because of my brown skin, my beautiful external identifier, they categorized me as one of them. I was on cloud 9… what a wonderful and unforgettable experience!

One I understood what was happening, I decided to explain my history and that of many other African-Americans. Naturally, it was difficult explaining the trans-Atlantic slave trade to these children and it was even more confusing for them when I said, “Yes I am African, but I am from America… but my family, my ancestors are from Africa, maybe even from Lesotho… but I am not sure”.

Our conversation then went in a completely different direction due to a request of mine. I asked the children to teach me some Sesotho, the language of the people of Lesotho (but is also spoken throughout South Africa and I think Swaziland). They did, but they also laughed at my pronunciation of some words. I was so bad at learning Sesotho that I only learned four words. When they began telling me the word for breast (and a few girls poking my breast to show me what they were referring to), I decided it was about time to go back to my room.

I said good night and waited for dinner.

Here are the words I learned…

nko (oon-ko)  nose

molomo (moo-low-mo)    nose

mahlo (Mahk-low)      eyes

US Embassy and Maseru City in Lesotho

The view on the way home from Maseru

 I woke up to one of the most irritating noises. It seemed as if someone was standing outside my room and making a distorted coss between a duck and crow. I was too cold to check out the creature just outside my window it seemed, so I stayed in bed. I really didn’t want to get up anyway. My face was cold but due to my electric blanket (which was on full blast) and a strategically placed heater, (close to the side of the bed as I slept), it was hot under the covers!

An hour later, I dragged myself out of bed and got ready for the day. Since we were going to the U.S. Embassy in Lesotho we thought it would be best if we wore our most professional clothing. So, I hurried and dressed and once I thought about the spread we had last night I could not wait for breakfast. We were suppose to have Sesotho lessons today but they were cancelled. Sesotho is one of the languages spoken in Lesotho. Unfortunately the only Sesotho we knew at that time was ”Dumella” which means “hello”. So maybe we will have a few lessons sooner rather than later. It is tough not knowing the language. 

 Once I got to breakfast I was a little disappointed. There were no bells and whistles, but just a regular brekfast, yet it  was really nice to have a warm meal that I did not have to prepare myself. We were served eggs with a bowl of tomatoes & onions, cereal, OATMEAL (my favorite), bacon and sausages. It was all laid out buffet style and once we were finished the staff cleared our plates, silverware, glasses and cleaned the tables. It was almost weird having people clean up after us and we flooded the staff with thank you’s. Interestingly enough, their response was not, “your welcome”, but instead, “pleasure”. Soon after, we were on the bus again and headed toward the Embassy.

Sheppard boys wearing blankets.

Most of Lesotho is a rural area and there are only a few major cities. As we traveled though Lesotho we saw people who were wrapped up in blankets walking along side the road. There were some who wore what we would call more western clothing, and others who were wearing rags.  Some ladies were sweeping the steps to their front door (oya) and others were simply walking dragging pieces of wood with them. Almost everyone was walking! Walking was not limited to the young and strong; I saw older women  and men walking along the road as well, some with children and others simply by themselves.  We also saw small pockets along the road that sold gas, another that sold snacks and treats and then another that sold beer.  There were dozens of people at each one and as we passed them we saw people heading toward these stores or seemingly on their way to somewhere else.

Once we got to the embassy we realized that we were right in front of a golf course. In looking at many of the people in Lesotho, and the condition of the country, I did not expect to see a golf course, but it was there. We had to go through the formalities all over again but this was a little more relaxed. Soon after the security check we were wisked off to a private room where we met the Ambassador of the US Embassy in Lesotho. We talked about many things and by now much of the information is repeating itself. Here are a few highlights:

Traditional hat of Lesotho

Lesotho’s water and their sale of water South Africa.

The poor population of Lesotho and how many women are suppoting 4-5 people with a job that pays 1 US dollar/hour. 

Again we heard about SADAC and how Lesotho often votes along with South Africa, which leads many to believe that South Africa is a bully in the SADAC region.

Rape and Unemployment rates which were the most depressing. Lesotho has a rape rate of 60% and an unemployment rate of 40 – 45%. Although I have not found any formal confirmation of that specific number for the rape rate, many documents I have read do mention that there is a high rape rate in Lesotho.   

Lady making a traditional hat of Lesotho

 After our visit at the US Ebassy we were headed to the city of Maseru! What a busy city, We got a couple of hours to wander around the city and I saw a number of really fun and cool things… and I got the chance to do some shopping. While there, it seemed as if the natives knew I was a tourist, because I got a couple of looks and stares (I am sure my suit also had something to do with it). The best part was that I bought a traditional Lesotho hat and the ladies making it allowed me to take a picture of them working.

Tomorrow is Morija and the story of Moshoeshoe!

City of Maseru

Another view of the city of Maseru and billboard

Boys walking a cow on the outskirts of Maseru

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Traveling to Lesotho

 

Most of the homes and private businesses in Johannesburg were surrounded by walls.

From the Commission on Gender Equality we packed in the bus and began our six hour ride to Lesotho (la-sue-two). As we piled in the bus one of the coordinators mentioned that we had better get moving because we didn’t want to drive through Lesotho in the dark. I wondered why, and thankfully someone else asked,

“What’s wrong with driving through Lesotho in the dark?”

They feared running into any cattle on the road on the way to our next destination. Cattle?!! On the road?!! I didn’t have many preconceived ideas about Lesotho and I wanted to keep my mind open but I never expected to run into cows on the roads of Lesotho. I wonder what other unexpected things I will experience. 

After some time and a couple of naps I completely forgot about the cows and took in the wonderful scenery. After about three or four hours we stopped at a gas station to have lunch, yes lunch, grab some cash, use bathrooms, and stretch our legs. I couldn’t help but take a picture of the gas station so my students could see that the gas stations were the same. This was an Engen station in South Africa.

 

 

Once on the road again we saw a few people burning their fields and soon found out that this was a common practice throughout the country. Many people burn their fields to get it ready for new growth. So along the roads one would often find people actually burning their fields or these huge black patches of ground that was once burned. Usually scenes such as this one are cause for alarm in some part of the United States and this was another thing I did not expect to see once I got here… so again, I had to take a picture.

We finally made it to Lesotho and made it through  pretty easily, much of it was a blur though. There was so much happening and all at the same time. We had to get out of the bus, fill out a form, officially leave South Africa by  walking across this bridge (short walk) to the Lesotho side, reject advances from independent entrepreneurs, keep our passports and money safe, wait in line again, get our passports stamped again and return to our bus so we could drive across the border. It seemed as if there were tons of people. I did not pay attention to the number of people leaving or returning to Lesotho, but what I did notice was that there seemed to be a sense of urgency amongst the travelers. People moved with haste, as if they were in a hurry to get to their destination. I didn’t ask why everyone was so busy, but I wondered if it had anything to do with the approaching darkness.

We were excited to see the “Welcome to Lesotho” sign but were confused by the VODACOM advertisement on each end of the sign. Even before we entered the country we already had an idea as to the monetary presence Vodacom has, not only within South Africa, but also Lesotho since many of our rental phones were from Vodacom, and many sports teams were sponsored by the company. I don’t think I really understood how big the company was until I saw the “Welcome to Lesotho” sign. It was almost as if it was saying, “Lesotho……. brought to you/sponsored by…. VODACOM!”, like at the end of soap operas when they say which company sponsors the show. Either way, it was just unusual to me, maybe I just need to open my eyes and look for the examples here in the US.

We also couldn’t help taking our picture in front of the sign.  Here is a video of us at the border (I am not sure if I can do this or not. Hopefully someone will tell me if I am not)…

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29578701@N03/

Once the bus reached the other side and joined the accompanying car, we were crowded by people trying to sell us passport covers, fighting sticks and Lesotho souvenirs while we were still in the bus. I was just happy we made it there before nightfall; I really didn’t want to hit a cow on the way to our next hotel.

It was not long before we left the border that it began getting dark. There were tons of people walking away from the border… probably headed home. Some people were piled up on buses while others chose to walk. I heard that there was a taxi strike and the government provided these huge buses to transport its citizens. Most people seemed to be walking even though it was QUICKLY getting darker and darker. Soon I couldn’t even see much of the road ahead of us; there were almost no street/road lamps.

After a 30 to 45 minute ride, we pulled up a dark hill and we were at our next… hotel? We were told that we were going to this place called the Trading Post, but it was so absolutely dark that we could not gather where we were, where to go or the layout of the place. We were told to unload our things and the owner, Jenny, introduced herself and tried to quickly get us settled in our rooms. Since our bus was parked next to this building, Jenny started with that one first, informing us that it was the dining hall. To our left was another building with more lighting and from what we were told, a few rooms, television and fire place in the lounge.

We then went to see the other rooms; the first was the “pink room”. This was a single room but almost everything was pink. Even though I was not a fan of pink I grabbed the room right away especially since I was INCREDIBLY afraid of the dark (what can I say, I’m a NY native) and wanted to be close to the main area of the property. So, without looking at the other rooms, I was assigned the Pink room… later to be known as Goldilocks’ Cabin.

 

        

I think I did pretty well for myself; many of the other rooms were joined to each other or did not have a full sized bed like mine. Even though I would have liked the company, I did not want to walk so deep in the darkness that was this property. One lady had the very last room at the very edge of the property and with dogs howling and random noises in the dark, I was glad I chose the first unit I saw. 

 Although Jen said the shower pressure was not great, it was perfect; I did not see a problem with the pressure at all. I had a thatched roof and one of those barn doors where the top and bottom halves open separately. The only problem was the tiled floor. It was already cold and I could not imagine what it would be like early in the morning.

Either way, I loved my room; even though it was not the hotel I was envisioning, it was close enough so that if there was a problem, people could hear me scream… morbid thought huh?

I quickly turned on my electric blanket and my space heater (my BEST friend for the next couple of weeks), cursed the cold (30 F), almost didn’t change into my PJ’s… (I did say it was cold), and went to bed.

Tomorrow is the US embassy in Lesotho…

Good Night! [animals howling in the background]

Commission on Gender Equality

 

 

Today we made our way to the Commission on Gender Equality. The commission is an organization that works with the government of South Africa and mainly the constitution to make sure all laws are fair and equal for both men and women. They also spend a lot of time educating the general public on gender issues affecting the general public of South Africa. While there, we talked about a number of things and we spent much of our time discussing young girls and their access to education. 

According to the lady we spoke with, many girls in South Africa are not performing as well as boys in school. This is due to many parents not being able to afford consistent education for their children and since boys are often sent to school before girls are, some girls can go to school one year and not the next. Also, young women and girls are usually the first to miss school when their younger brothers/sisters or parents are ill. These girls are expected to care for the sick and make sure the home is kept neat and clean instead of going to school. Then there are those parents who don’t want to send their girls to school because they worry about the safety of their daughters as they walk such long distances to get to school.

Once young ladies make it to school they are not always treated fairly; teachers are not always sensitive to their needs and don’t give girls in the classroom the same amount of attention as boys (sounds familiar?). Even the text books used in class fail to be progressive and continue to place women in domestic roles.

So, what is the Commission on Gender Equality doing to help these girls now that they have identified many of the problems? They are working on setting up training programs to help teachers be more aware of gender issues and various gender inequalities in the classroom. They also want to help keep single-sexed schools stay open since most of them are in jeopardy of closing; women often do better in single sexed schools (but this doesn’t help boys since they often do better in co-ed schools). Lastly, they also shared their desire to help teachers and schools accommodate to the learning styles of women and girls, which I wasn’t really clear as to what they meant by that and I don’t remember why I did not ask.

Most of these sound like wonderful ideas. To me, some of them are a little vague but how detailed can you get in a short briefing? I just hope these ideas really materialize into programs that really will help young girls and women.

Some other gender issues discussed include:

• The few number of women in positions of corporate power  
• Domestic Violence (women not being able to get out of abusive relationships and some women going as far as murdering their spouses and their children then become orphaned)
• Gender and AIDS/HIV
• Gender, Culture and Religion (This deals with issues of witchcraft, and cultural expectations of women to be quiet and submissive. The commission is working with traditional leaders to educate the community.) 
• Widowhood (Which is a fascinating topic dealing with how women are treated by the families of the deceased and how widows are accused of witch craft and lose their children and property)

As I reflect on my time there and having read about Saartjee Baartman (African/Hottentots Venus), I realized it was the Commission on Gender who was behind the move to return her remains to South Africa. Read more about her story at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saartjie_Baartman, and then do your own research. Be careful though, you may see some things you were not expecting.

We had a wonderful yet brief time there and soon we were back on the bus headed for Lesotho.

Here are two books I picked up from the Commission. The one on widowhood was quite fascinating to me.

Will continue tonight with the drive to Lesotho.

-Monique

African Pride!

 

I am not sure I mentioned this earlier but I was in the process of doing something different to my hair before I went to South Africa. My hairdresser and I strategized and came up with a game plan for making sure my new hairstyle stayed neat and attractive. She told me what hair products to bring with me to South Africa since we were not sure which products I would find there… if any. After spending so much time packing and re-packing my bag to make the 50lb limit while including my most valued hair care products, imagine my surprise when I saw this billboard as I first entered the Rosebank Mall in Johannesburg.

If you are unfamiliar with this ad, it is one that can be found all throughout New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia (and I am sure many other states throughout America) as well as many African-American magazines. It is an advertise ment for a moisturizer for African/African-American hair.

After seeing this I was a little embarrassed at how I packed and re-packed my bags so I could bring all of my hair care products with me; I could have left my hair care products behind and packed an extra sweater. When I reflect on my surprise at seeing this advert, I often wonder what preconceived ideas and thoughts were running through my head about South Africa and the CITY of Johannesburg. How far behind the times, so to speak, was I assuming South African would be? And why did I not think they would have AFRICAN/ African-American hair care products?

If at all possible, I was even more embarased when I saw this shelf in one of South Africa’s variety and health care store called . It is a South African version of Walgreens, Rite Aid,  or CVS. After seeing this display shelf, the message was loud and clear… Johannesburg was just as advanced as many cities in the United States. 

 

 

After my mini revelation I was in for another. I think it may have been my new hair that made me so conscious of how decorated people crowns were. While walking through the mall and driving through the streets of Johannesburg, I saw hair of all different types. I saw beautiful free flowing locs as well as perfectly styled ones. Most hair was natural and it was either styled in creative and original ways or braided in striking styles. There were also women sporting straight or straightened hair-do’s which was also beautiful, and I even saw a few breathtakingly gorgeous women who had no hair at all! 

Most of all, I saw hair that was surprisingly NATURAL : )

Seeing so many black Africans in Johannesburg with natural hair was wonderful to see and I believe their choice of hairstyles made a strong and powerful statement to me. People can do whatever they please with their hair and as long they feel beautiful and comfortable that is absolutely fine. At the same time, I’ve come to believe that in a world where straight and processed hair often signifies beauty and professionalism, having natural hair goes against the grain and challenges others to understand that African hair in it’s ”natural state” is beautiful as well.

So when I saw so many children, young adults and elders with so many creative styles of natural hair I got the sense that their hair was their outward expression of cultural beliefs; beliefs of beauty, politics, and of African Pride. Loving what is African, South African, and Zulu, Xhosa, Basotho, or KhoiSan (forgive me if I left any ethnic group out). It was moving to see.

At the same time I was struck by the hairstyles and textures of black South Africans, something else happend. Wherever I went in South Africa, I was expecting some, but of course not all South Africans, to notice me as a displaced African/African-American and then embrace me with a great deal of warmth, or at least a handshake, high five or smile.

Well, I was not immediately embrased as I originally hoped. I received no high-fives, head nods or smiles and was completely ignored by the African youth walking through the malls. I was not the automatic star as I originally thought I would be. So, sorry folks, I was NOT surrounded by young South Africans asking me about race in America, Hip-hop music and culture or even Barack Obama. They simply went on with business as usual. I felt completely ignored and it was almost reminiscent of walking through the streets of downtown Manhattan.

Upon recovering from my delusions of grandeur I thought back to my workshop in May when I asked the coordinators of this trip how black South Africans viewed African-Americans. The two Caucasian finally wondered if I would be seen as any other American and unfortunately, I think their assumption was confirmed. I was hoping that once I got to South Africa I would be seen as an African and not an American but as much as I tried, even without hearing me speak, many of the black South Africans there may have been able to look at me and tell that I was indeed a black American. 

So it seems as if I was classified as an American and with the anti-American sentiment discussed in previous posts, it should have been no surprise that I was snubbed, ignored and associated with waste, excess and……….

George Bush.

I say all this to preface my trip to the US embassy in Pretoria. Naturally I don’t have any pictures of the US Embassy in Pretoria because pictures were strictly prohibited. Before entering the gates of the embassy we were also asked to remove all metal objects and show our passports. Once inside we met a man named Steve (not his real name) who was a US official/politician indeed. He had a seemingly rehearsed answer to some of our questions asking his opinion about some of George Bush’s legislations and the United States government.

We talked about the U.S.’ three tiered goal or mission in South Africa which included 1) the U.S.’s support for AIDS/HIV, 2) increasing trade between the U.S. and South Africa as well as 3) making sure U.S. citizens in South Africa are indeed safe. The information he presented was fascinating and he was extremely knowledgeable.

In the middle of the question and answer portion of the afternoon I asked him how he thought African-Americans were viewed by black South Africans. He spent a great amount of time  talking about the Black Power movement in the United States and mentioned that many black South Africans closely watched the movement and used it to help provide some of the structure for the struggle against apartheid. He also shared how the ANC was created one year after the establishment of the NAACP and explained W. E. Dubois’ connection to the ANC. 

Later he mentioned that many African Americans have recently moved to South Africa to live and with the scarcity of jobs in the country, there are a few tensions between the black South Africans and African Americans. In general I got the impression that many South Africans are aware of African-American history and do understand the connection between the struggle of African-Americans in the United States and the black South African’s struggle against apartheid. However, with South Africa’s new constitution, many black South Africans are waiting for conditions of the poor to change and for many people in South African they have yet to change. Thus, when those who are destitute see others coming to their country to live and get jobs, some South Africans may feel that others (non South Africans) are receiving the benefits that naturally belong to them, hence the tension.

However, Steve did finish by mentioning that many South Africans are very proud of their new constitution and country and even though they are not trying to be America, they often consider themselves almost equal or equal indeed in status to the United States which denotes a sense of African pride to me.

I was satisfied with this explanation and was ecstatic at the mass of information Steve shared with us. This was one of the most memorable lectures. As we left the embassy, I saw a young man crossing the street with long beautiful locs. I was hoping he would say, “Hello my sister,”, but he looked at me and kept walking. I was neither hurt nor offended, I just got the sense that he did not have overextend himself to make me feel comfortable in his country. After all, I could have initiated with “Hello my brother,”

So after I turned around to study is crown, I thought: huh, African Pride.

I will not bore you with the details of my visit to the University of Pretoria we were all brain dead by that time anyway, but I thought it would be nice to include the photo of one of the buildings. Although guards did not let you take pictures of the building outside or of artwork inside, I snuck one in.

 

University of Pretoria

We stopped at the Union Building as well and guess which bird I saw there again…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Africa Institute of South Africa and the Department of Foreign Affairs

Children playing soccer outside the Africa Institute of South Africa. They gave me permission to take their photo.

Today we visited a number of places: The Institute of South Africa, South African Department of Foreign Affairs, The US Embassy in Pretoria, The University of Pretoria, and we even had an evening discussion at the hotel on Elections, Electoral Society and Democracy. Yes, five lectures! These five lectures will become a point of contention later on in the trip but, for this post I think I should begin with the morning.

I woke up to the sound of something resembling a crow being choked. When I looked outside the window I saw this bird on the roof of the opposite section of the hotel which we were staying. I will try and get a recording of the call so you can hear it, but here is a picture of the bird. If you check on you tube you can hear its call. Look for Hadeda Ibis.

Our first meeting was at the Institute of South Africa. When I first walked into the building I was automatically bored… sorry to say, but there was something about the decor of the place that made me feel gloomy, dreary and sleepy. Since I knew I was in for a day of lectures I braced myself while going up in the elevator and became immediately drawn to the buttons on the elevator… take a look.

 The button does not say Basement after the first floor, but it says O instead.  I thought it was different and cool at the same time.

But enough of my distractions, at the Africa Institute of South Africa, we were warmly received with tea, cookies and coffee and then we learned about all they did there at the institute. This organization writes, publishes, and distributes materials about Africa and South Africa in particular. They told us that they were the oldest and smallest “science” council and that they were around for 60 years. Through their presentations, I found out that there is a growing concern with publications.

According to the mangers and officials there, school book publications is such a huge business many countries in Europe have almost a monopoly on the system. This means that many African schools use books that are published in Europe. So not only is Africa subject to European views of their own countries iwithin Africa, but African countries also have to pay the shipping costs to get the books to their individual schools. Also, when some schools can not afford the fees for purchasing and shipping books it is tougher to teach students in schools.

Their solution to some of these problems is for South Afica and Africa in general to produce and publish their own books, maps and educational materials for teachers, schools and students.  That way they can provide others with first hand knowledge about Africa. They also act as another way for African researchers and writers to publish their research findings without having to be published in an European journal. So after that great information about publishing (not boring at all) they showed us some of the maps they created, published and often sold. I was so excited that I bought 3 maps:

•  a road map of South Africa,
• a map that looks at diseases, adult literacy, population, vegetation within Africa & more, as well as,
• A map that gives fast facts  of Africa.

I love them all! 

Our next stop was at the Department of Foreign Affairs. There we were warmly welcomed again with not only tea this time but also muffins with butter and jelly. The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) is a part of the government that makes sure South Africa has good relationships with other countries around the world. When a country wants to permanently keep a good relationship with another country they would choose a site for a building and call that building an EMBASSY. Then it is up to the DFA to manage the South African embassies in these other countries/ host countries (like Angola, Brazil, the United States, India and many others) and make sure they are doing all they can to have good relationships with their host country.

While we were there we talked briefly about South Africa and more about Lesotho.  According to the officials  Lesotho is a great country with a lot of problems. Lesotho

• has a population of 2.03 million
• Is a CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY which means that the government is run a lot like England with a Prime Minister who mainly runs the country and a King or Queen who often has little to no power. 
• The King is called Seiso Letsie III
• The GDP is 1.43 billion (it is 13 trillion in the United States)
• Their greatest natural resource is Water (according to South Africa)
• Their major export is their water, yes, their water, followed by sheep’s wool and textiles (which means cloth) to the US (if you have an Old Navy shirt or jeans check the label to see if it was made in Lesotho).

They also mentioned that the relationship between South Africa and Lesotho is a great one where South Africa does not take advantage of the small and land-locked country. Remember that little bit of information because it will come up again in other briefings.

 Next we talked about some of the major issues occurring within Lesotho and how many of the skilled workers of Lesotho are traveling to and eventually living in South Africa because there is a greater chance of finding jobs (Lesotho has a 50% unemployment rate). Lesotho also has a huge problem with HIV/AIDS; at least 30% of the population is in danger of getting HIV and South Africa, although its rates are better, they are not far behind Lesotho, hence, the posters in the lobby and throughout South Africa.

Then they talked about some of the good things about Lesotho and a few ways in which Lesotho could make money so they would not have to rely on other countries. Of course one of the good things they mentioned was that Lesotho could export more of it’s water to South Africa and other countries (Pay close attention to that detail because I will go to Lesotho and ask a number of people about Lesotho selling its water to South Africa). Another thing they mentioned was that Lesotho could make more money by boosting their tourism industry. I bet there are not too many people who knew that Lesotho has ski resorts (one which claims it is the largest in South Africa). Maybe advertising its skiing capabilities may bring them more money as a country. Finally, they mentioned that Lesotho may want to find a way to benefit from the 2010 world cup coming to South Africa.  

In looking at the relationship between South Africa and Lesotho and Lesotho’s dependence on South Africa, one wonders how self sufficient a completely land-locked country could be. Well, this is what we are here to investigate and it is really great to get South Africa’s opinions on Lesotho’s economy so that when we go to Lesotho we can ask its government officials what they themselves believe. So I can’t wait to hear more information and compare.

I will continue the rest of the day later or tomorrow. I have a feeling that I’ve talked some ears off ;  ) and this is a lot to take in if you are an 11 or 12 year old student. 

Next is my trip to the University of Pretoria. That was fun! Here are some preview pictures…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are the web sites to both organizations I mentioned earlier:

Africa Institute of South Africa                             

http://host.yoursoftdns5.com/~aiorgz/                                    

Department of Foreign Affairs

http://www.dfa.gov.za/

 

Talk to you folks tomorrow!

-Monique

Constitution Hill (cont.)

 

 

Later that day we went to the Constitution Center called Constitution Hill. Here is where I took the picture I displayed in the first constitution hill post. This is also the place where some of the highest judges of South Africa hear court cases that are related to the Constitution. We had a wonderful tour of the building and had an opportunity to meet one of the high court judges, Justice Yvonne Mokgoro. She was instrumental in one of my monumental experiences in South Africa, but I will explain further a bit later.

Constittution Hill was built on the site of the Old Fort Prison which was where political prisoners and common criminals awaited trial and sat out their jail sentences. Nelson and Winnie Mandela as well as Ghandi were once held there before the prison was closed in 1983. Later in around 1995 or 1996 the prison was reconstructed to build Constitution Hill on the same site as the prision. Today they give tours of both buildings and I was lucky enough to experience the tour.  

Throughout the tour I read and learned a great deal about how apartheid seperated everything… even the jails. We visited the women’s prison first and that was seperated into a Blacks/Coloreds section and a Whites section. They showed us the size of an average African women’s cell.

 

 

                                                      

 

 

 

 

 

 

Later they showed us the size of the average white women’s prison cell.    

                 (Ignore the guy on the side : )

It was tough at first seeing the differences in jail cells and amenities for Africans and Whites. It even got worse when I learned about the amount the amount of violence that occured there. It was rough when I saw Nelson Mandela’s quote,

        It is said that no one truly knows a nation until they have been in its jails.

              A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens but its lowest ones-

                        and South Africa treated its imprisoned African citizens like animals.

and when I heard about the strip searches, torture, and murder, I could not help but retreat into a corner when no one was around and cry. Here are some discriptions of the strip serarch proceedures. Caution, parents may want to pre-view the descriptions before sharing with children. 

             

             

 

                                                                                                       

   After this I becamer rather angry. Then I wondered how our tour guide Thaibo could handle leading these tours all the time.  Before I got a chance to speak to him, they rushed us into the new constitution building. But before we left we had an opportunity to look see some of the art the prisoners created with simple blankets.

                                                                                                           

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once we were in the constitution building we received a tour of the building and then had a chance to meet with the high judge. We talked about a lot of political things and about the new constitution of South Africa. If you want to know more, just ask. I have my notes and could share but I was not sure how much you folks wanted to know. At the end of our talk we all had a chance to take a picture with her… isn’n’t that cool!

  

 

At the end of the lecture I asked her how she mangages to talk with tour groups about the injustices that has happened (mainly to her fellow Africans) without feeling angry? She told me that she cries as well and that I had a right to be angry…  but she also mentioned that whenever I feel like crying again I should “stop what you are doing and just let it flow”. I think she herself started getting teary eyed at the end of our brief conversation but she was so composed that not a drop of water left her eyes. Unfortunately,  I couldn’t hold back my tears and I was forced to do nothing more than… 

                                                      let them flow.

 

-Monique

Constitution Hill

 

Constitution HIll

 Today was a wonderful day, as was every other. My experience here has been so great and it seems to get better and better each day. This day was actually very emotional for me and began with something that was the least bit emotional, depending on who you spoke to. We attended three lectures by University Researchers and one professor from the University of Witersrand. The first presenter, Faten Aggad talked about an organization called SAIIA, South African Institute of International Affairs. She spoke eloquently about the institute and what they are doing to create progress reports for many of the countries of Africa. The reports are expected to help point out the problems of a country so that they can begin fixing their problems. There were many benefits about the program as well as challenges, yet, as she spoke I was waiting to hear more about their organization actively helped individual countries. After doing some research on the company, I realized that they are a government funded organization that focuses on reasearch only. I believe that they hope their resarch will provide government and policy makers with the statistics needed to change that do not help people and create laws that will. 

Then there was another presenter, Nkululeko Khumalo, who totally confused me when he started talking using acronyms I was not immediately familiar with: ETO, APRM, SACU, EPA. His presentation I am sure was relevant but way to ethereal for my introduction to South Afican politics. I felt like my students when I begin to teach the combining of polynomials. Argh!

 

 

 The next presentation was great! One of the things that really stood out for me was when she said that there was a certain level of South African Pride and anti-American feeling amongst its citizens, especially because of George Bush.  African pride sounds wonderful to me and I think I get a sense of that as I walk through the malls of JoBurg. For me, many of the South African’s here I feel snub me. I don’t know what I was expecting when I first came here and I wonder if I was expecting to be totally embraced by a group of people whom I consider to be “my people” in a sense. At times, though,  I would say hello to people as I walked through the streets and it was crushing when they didn’t say anything. I didn’t understand why an African-American in South Africa would not be totally embraced, then I realized that as soon as I open my mouth I am considered… and American (here I have an American accent). That was not the total extent of it though, there were many times whereothers were totally friendly and said hello and of course I loved it when I occassionally received a “Hello my sister!”. 

 After the three and a half hour lecture, we then broke for lunch and I went to get a samosa and that was really all I had for lunch. For some reason, I am really not eating much food here every now and then. When we go out for dinner, I always have something to bring back with me. After my meager lunch I found a bathroom and surprise, I saw a big condom dispenser… free condoms! I am sure the AIDS epidemic in Africa had a lot to do with that. While in the stall, two South African girls came into the bathroom and started talking in Sesotho. Well, as I approached the sink, the girls gave me this look. I don’t know what I did but since I was at the University I wasn’t afraid they were going to do anything I was just more concerned with what they were thinking.  I left the bathroom feeling rather uncomfortable and confused. What did I do?

Later that day we went to the Constitution Center and I have to talk about that in my next post since there is so much to talk about.

Unfortunately, this site may be down for a couple of days until I can get internet access. Cross your fingers, I have so much to share.

-Monique

 

 

Ebenhezer

 

SHARPEVILLE

 

 

This was a totally spiritual, sun-day. We went to the Ebenhezer Christian Centre which is a church in Sharpsville, South Africa. This church was just feet away from where the Sharpeville massacre took place. Almost 50 years ago, about 6,000 people gathered at the local police station to protest against laws that said anyone who was not white had to carry a pass to say who they were and why they were in a specific area of South Africa. The pass was often the size of a US Passport and police could ask to check it at any time. If you did not have your pass on you when an officer asked you were likely to be placed in jail.

As a part of the protest against these pass laws, protesters did not bring their passes so police could arrest them. The protest was at first successful until one of the officers shot their guns (as the story was told to me). The crowd dispersed and began running away yet the police continued to shoot at the crowd. Many protesters were shot in their backs. When the smoke cleared 69 people were killed.     

The Pastor of the church, Phillip Molefe was actually at the protest when it happened. Cool right?! He took us on a tour of the route the crowd took to the police station and then to the memorial honoring the lives of the dead.

 

 

      

In one of the pictures you can see the street the protesters walked down. They took a right to convene in front of the Police Station. You can also see the names of the people who passed away in one of the pictures. 

After we looked at the Sharpeville memorial we then proceeded to the church for service.  Service began around 11ish and even before we walked into the church we heard ladies singing. I was so excited about hearing the ladies sing and I became even more excited to enter the church. Well, the minister of the church, Chenaba, brought us inside and it was amazing how similar this church was to Gethsemane Baptist Church, my old church in the Bronx of New York City. It had the same wooden walls, the decoration in the back, the altar, flowers on the raised platform (altar), drums, a piano, and a pedestal in front of it all. I almost expected service to be similar to Gethsemane but in an “African” kind of way with drums, sekeres, and other things in addition to the “American “ instruments. Service was not like that. Instead, it was just like a service at Gethsemane but in Sesotho and English.  They sang praise songs in Sesotho and at Chenaba’s request, they sang songs in Zulu. OF course I LOVED all the songs. Many people got up and did a very simple swaying sort of dance while other people raised their hands. It was a wonderful time. The music was excellent and the people were so kind.  

 

After the service we talked with the members of the church and I asked one of the singers if they knew any of the South African songs I knew. The ladies knew Sin Jen Jen Jen (I am sure that is not the proper spelling). Outside the sanctuary, we talked some more and I had the opportunity to share more songs. I felt like a super star when I shared my songs and they said I had a beautiful voice. This other member of the congregation said that a Sharpeville man would try and come to sweep me off my feet and I was so delighted to share that there was already a man who had swept me off my feet more than 8 years ago!

Overall, it was great being there and the hospitality was better than I expected. On the ride up I saw my first cemetery, saw people crossing the HIGHWAY, as if it was a street, and saw some farmers burning their land to make it better to farm.

As I mentioned before, it was a wonderful day and I learned so much.  Write with any questions you have.

 

-Monique

p.s. sorry for any typos, I am really sleepy.

Apartheid & Gold Reef City

Today was my first full day in Johannesburg, South Africa. I just knew it was going to be a great day. However, I was not starting the day off well since I woke up five minutes before I was suppose to meet others for breakfast. Thank goodness my roommate woke me up! So I jumped up, threw on my clothes and walked out toward the front desk. When I met Emily and Doug it was 5 minutes later than I expected but they and some others were there; all together it was about six of us. We walked to the Rosemont mall, took a couple of pictures on the way and went to this place called Wimpy’s. It is a chain restaurant and they serve breakfast, lunch and dinner. They had great options and they were very reasonable so we sat down and I decided to order a smoothie for about R 17.5. It was an Apricot and Mango smoothie and I was really excited about it since I have been addicted to smoothies since the end of school.   

The only thing is that I was hoping that there wasn’t too much liquid in my smoothie and that they place at least some yogurt in there. Well, when I got my smoothie it was a LARGE cup of YOGURT! Given my lactose intolerance, I thought it be best to save my yogurt for later… or for my roommate.

Well, I got what I asked for… I guess.

Today was supposed to be a very full day. We first went to the Apartheid Museum and I can’t believe how emotional it would was for me. I felt angry, connected with the struggle for an anti-apartheid regime, and invisible all at the same time. I spent four hours at the museum and could have easily spent more time there. I learned so much about South Africa and it’s gold and diamond mining, Steven Biko, and so much more. While there they were even filming a segment on Steven Biko for “Sky News”, a television network here in South Africa.

I bought a few posters for the school and a book about teaching about apartheid to middle school students… watch out Yellow Team. It will be interesting to see what type of lessons I can come up with once I return.

What I also thought was interesting was a new section of the museum that was called: Out in Africa Gay and Lesbian Film Festival 2007. It has some really interesting information in the exhibit and it was very well done. Let me know what questions you have. I would love to answer them.

Below I have a few pictures of my time at the museum. You cannot take pictures in the museum so the number of pictures is quite scanty. You can also see the menu for Wimpy’s and if you look closely, I think you can see some of the writing in Afrikaans.

 Next we went to Gold Reef City which is right across the street from the museum. This was one of the most confusing parks for me. It was a historical site, but it also had roller coaster rides, free range peacocks and a performance stage. But we spent a good amount of time learning about the mines during our underground mine tour. We were given hard hats and a miner’s lamp and traveled down a shaft that was 220 meters below the ground. It got really cold down there but we learned a lot about the incredibly hard work that is needed to find such small pieces of gold.

In one of the pictures you may see something that resembles a ladder. Well, it is… a really long one. This is a really interesting emergency exit. If there is a cave-in that traps some of the workers, or if the elevator shaft no longer works, they can climb up this ladder to the surface. Sounds neat huh? The only thing is that I believe it takes two hours to climb from the point where we were to the surface. How’s that for a long day at work?

Then we had the opportunity to see two workers create a solid bar of gold. It was rather interesting to see the gold transform from liquid to a heavy bar within minutes. The only problem was that it was really hot in the room, but we managed. Oddly we were not allowed to take pictures during the demonstration but we were allowed to touch the gold bar and attempt to pick it up. Either way it was fascinating to watch and guess who got a picture of the gold bar?

Hope this is informative and entertaining. Thanks to all of you who are reading this. I hope you like the pictures. There is more to come. I will be going to a church service in Sharpseville tomorrow! I am very excited. Sleep well everyone.

-Monique