This past week or so I have had the opportunity to learn a bit more about some of South Africa's history. Being school holidays, I have not been working with the school so have been able to get involved in a couple of different things going on. One day last week I was able to go out with Cliff to see some of what he spends his days doing. We visited a couple of small businesses in the local area: these small businesses constitute the majority of the program that Cliff is involved with. I promise I will soon give you some more details of exactly what he does. On another day, Amanda and I had the opportunity to go to Soweto, one of the most famous townships in Johannesburg. Annatjie (prounounced Anakie), an Afrikaner who works here at Refilwe took us with her to Soweto while she was on some errands and gave us a bit of a tour of some of the significant places. Soweto was notably involved in The Struggle against Apartheid in the 1980s and early 1990s. We visited the June 16 memorial site, which commemorates a student movement that began in Soweto on June 16 1976. Over 560 students were killed by police after protests about the right to equal and fair education turned into violent riots. The picture above is of the famous Soweto smoke stacks which bear the largest murals in the world.
As I have mentioned before, there is always something going on at Refilwe! Last week we also had a visit from some local park rangers who brought with them Percy the Vulture. They came with an educational talk about the dangers vultures face and the damage their extinction could cause the South African ecosystems. It was an incredible bird to see up close.
This weekend Cliff, Amanda and I went into Johannesburg to see our friend Boyd perform as one of the Ten Tenors. We were very excited to see a friend of ours performing on the world stage! It was a fantastic show, and even better we were able to spend some quality time with Boyd over the two days. It is always so great to see a friend while overseas- though there is always something quite surreal about it. On Saturday the three of us visited the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg, which was an incredibly educational experience. The tour of the museum is meant to take about an hour and a half, and we were definitely there for over 3 hours! The museum gives a very detailed history of South Africa before and during Apartheid. Having been here for a little while now, it was good timing for us to go and really spend time educating ourselves on the history of this place. While there are many things that we could say are still wrong with South Africa, we realised just how incredible it is that the country has come as far as it has. I'm sure I will write more about this over time! And rest assured that anyone who comes to visit us will be dragged there!
We are already well into another week, and are looking forward to the Easter Weekend coming up. We have some fun plans, which I'll update you about next time!
This past week or so I have had the opportunity to learn a bit more about some of South Africa's history. Being school holidays, I have not been working with the school so have been able to get involved in a couple of different things going on. One day last week I was able to go out with Cliff to see some of what he spends his days doing. We visited a couple of small businesses in the local area: these small businesses constitute the majority of the program that Cliff is involved with. I promise I will soon give you some more details of exactly what he does. On another day, Amanda and I had the opportunity to go to Soweto, one of the most famous townships in Johannesburg. Annatjie (prounounced Anakie), an Afrikaner who works here at Refilwe took us with her to Soweto while she was on some errands and gave us a bit of a tour of some of the significant places. Soweto was notably involved in The Struggle against Apartheid in the 1980s and early 1990s. We visited the June 16 memorial site, which commemorates a student movement that began in Soweto on June 16 1976. Over 560 students were killed by police after protests about the right to equal and fair education turned into violent riots. The picture above is of the famous Soweto smoke stacks which bear the largest murals in the world.
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