Sort of like Highway 1

You can't quite see it with this picture, but the road sign, like many others on the road approaching Jo'burg reads: Hazards Next 3 km. These signs, as I mentioned, mean you are approaching Jo'burg, but more specifically "the townships," the famous Soweto and Alexandra. These are plain and simple, shanti-towns and slums. The word Hazards does not imply falling rocks, nor road-work, nor abberant livestock. These signs, in so many words, are basically a warning about car high-jacking. At night, armed men from the Townships, probably sick and tired of seeing stupidly expensive cars roll by, hide at the side of the road, just on the other side of the various rolling hills you encounter on the way into Joburg. As they see a car approaching, things are thrown into the road leaving the driver two options: driving into it and probably crashing or slowing down or stopping putting him/herself at risk of being shot or jumped by the car-jackers. Essentially, don't drive at night. Secondly, if forced to drive at night, drive slow enough to take evasive manoeuvres or so as to be able and reverse out of the way of harm. Craziness.

Jozie

I went to Johannesburg, or Jozie for all of us here in the SADC region, and made it back safe and sound. Jo’burg, from what I saw of it, is far different than what I expected. Areas of the city that I visited were bustling, trendy, interesting and well, white. Unfortunately, there is still economic segregation, with white people taking in the good food and culture while being served by black South Africans. This reality is changing though, consensus being that the black middle and elite classes will grow significantly over the next decade.

What is true is that I did not see all of Jo’burg, just the areas commonly referred to as the safe areas. We stayed in a place just outside downtown Jozie, similar in location to Point Grey’s proximity to Downtown Vancouver. Accommodation was amazing as was the food. It is actually easy to forget that you are in Jo’burg when sitting in a bar open to the street, reading the paper in a funky café, or perusing good lit in various used book store. Reality sinks in when you realize the constant police presence, the high visibility of private security forces and notice that every house, yard and garage fenced in, electrified and reinforced by barbed wire.

While I found the energy to be similar if not better than Vancouver, it is a sense of potential danger, of limited mobility, racial tensions and tempered freedom that takes away from Jo’burgs appeal. It is this that makes me again realize how important freedom is, even if you are talking in terms of being able to walk from bar to bar at night, or driving home after dinner, without having a legitimate fear of being car-jacked or mugged.

We also took advantage of the cultural offerings in Joburg and went to see a play the Saturday night we were there. The production was entitled, Truth in Translation, and though probably a bit heavy for a Saturday night, was as powerful as it was interesting. The play told the stories of the translators who had to, verbatim, translate the questions, statements and testimonies at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings. Amnesty was at stake and a lot of former combatants from both sides (this was all new for me, the armed resistance put up by the African National Congress, now the ruling part in SA, to apartheid rule) laid the facts bare, perhaps over remorse but equally likely to pass the buck. Regardless, it meant that some very heavy, detailed and grotesque events were brought up during the course of the play.

Going to the play was preceded by an afternoon spent on Constitution Hill. This is where SA’s Constitutional Court has been built, actually on the same site, and incorporating some of the buildings, of an apartheid era prison. It is juxtaposition like no other. We spent an hour walking through the old prison, learning just how cruel and f%*&#@ up apartheid rule was. From the prison yard, you can walk into the publicly accessible Constitutional Court. Inside the building, hope was re-established and solace was taken. The Court has been established to uphold South Africa’s post-apartheid constitution which unlike the Constitution of Canada or the US, upholds people’s social and economic rights as well as political and civil rights.

Driving back from Jozie I realized how very strange it is to go, in under four hours by car, from a place where 60% of the populations lives in poverty and where only 10% of the population has electricity to the biggest city in the world, not bordering a river or ocean. Having Jozie so accessible, I would say, is a perk to doing development work in Southern Africa. It is possible to go to a functioning city and do “normal things:” shop, eat, watch a movie, essentially embrace consumerism which is funny as it is a way of life that I would be critical of if living back home. It is as if myself, and others in this industry, feel like we deserve and are allowed to live frivolously because of the nature of our day-jobs. What is certain is that it is a strange life, one that over the long-term is probably not good for your health or sanity.

A giraffe!

Picture taken in Umfolozi Game Park. No fences anywhere hence the the advisory to stay in your vehicle at all times :)

St. Lucia

This is a picture taken in the St. Lucia Game Reserve. This is at a high point in the park. Behind me is the estuary and behind that would be the ocean. As you can see, it is an extremely lush area, in parts looking very similar to forests and greenery back home. The difference is that monkeys and giraffes inhabit this area, as do elephants, lions and hippos.

Beach in Durban

So that's the beach in Durban. From this angle the skyline looks ok, but its actually horrible. Clearly the same zoning manager who now works in Langley, BC used to work in Durban. Ugly buildings, at strange angles seem to be the norm along the Durban coast. This said, the sand was beatiful and the air fresh; a very nice change from being 3000 feet above sea level.

Durban, check, Joberg...here I come

We are into September now which means, incredibly, I am nearly halfway done my contract here in Lesotho. Today is Friday and in another few hours I am off work and back on the road, this time to Joberg. Obviously, when one thinks of this city one thinks of crime, car theft, danger etc. What I have learned since my time here though, is that like any city, there are places you don’t go but also some places that are extremely nice. This weekend I am going to a place called Melville, a place people tell me has a similar feel to San Francisco. We will see about this… Anyways, over the weekend my hope is to take in some culture, perhaps see a play, do some shopping, buy a book or two and hopefully, see the SA Apartheid Museum.

Last week this time, I was already on my way, in a car I rented (VW Golf), heading to Durban. This is north and east from Maseru. Six hours later, driving through the entirety of the Free State and Kwazulu-Natal, another province in SA, I arrived. Durban is a crazy city. What becomes immediately clear is that it is an industrial hub. There are huge factories, warehouses, so many lories on the road and a hustle to the city very different than that of Vancouver or Montreal. One area is actually called Toyota City. On one road we were stopped by a traffic controller so that shift-workers could cross the street. We stayed in a place on the beach in Durban which was a little removed from the city core. While the beach was nice, it still didn’t have that relaxed, beach feel that one might expect when walking along a beautiful sand beach with the Indian Ocean splashing around your feet.

On Saturday morning we headed North to St. Lucia. This is a UNESCO World Heritage Site about 2 hours North of Durban, actually very close to the Southern tip of Mozambique. St. Lucia is a beach town. People walk around in surf attire and bare feet and the hostels there are full of back-packers from around the world. In St. Lucia we went to a crocodile reserve as well as an estuary where Hippos and Crocodiles could be easily spotted. This was the first time that I had experienced animals like this just there, not fenced in, but just living life in nature.

We (my Irish friends and I) also visited the game reserve in St. Lucia and Umfolozi Game Park, about thirty minutes from St. Lucia. In both cases we did self-drive safari’s, which means driving a car, sometimes on paved-roads, through forests and over plains, in search of animals. We were not to be disappointed, seeing monkeys, giraffes, rhino’s, various sorts of deer-like creatures, and elephants. Unfortunately, the lion and the leopard remained elusive. One of the funny things here is that while for me, seeing monkeys was a novelty, in SA they are considered “tree rats.” Apparently they are quite a nuisance, harassing tourists, eating garbage, etc.

We stayed in St. Lucia till Tuesday morning and took the day to drive back. This was one of the more beautiful drives I have ever done. The sun was just starting to go down as we hit the Golden Gate Highlands National Park in the Free State, which allowed for some great photos.

A couple of observations I had driving home were: a) that South Africans drive way to fast and very badly, especially Boars, who seem to solely drive BMW’s or Merc’s, no joke b) a favoured driving technique of white South Africans is, first to exceed the speed limit by half c) if a car were to respect the speed limit this social leper would need to be taught a lesson, by having a Boar drive his BMW within inches of his or her rear bumper and then by being passed in such a huff that you would have thought that Boar X needed to get somewhere in a hurry, which is just not true.

Another thing I noted was that in truth, we do not have it bad in North America when it comes to Malls or big-box stores. SA is the king of big box stores and malls. They go for miles. Many of them are also quite new. Apparently this was a result of the end of apartheid. Many white South African were fearful of what might come to be in their country and felt that malls, and guarded mega-centres (restaurants, shopping, cinemas all bundled into one) would be the best way to provide security and fun, all in one.