Non Sequitur: Adventures in the life of Kirsten: Touristing in Pretoria

***UPDATED Sunday November 29, 2009***
Realizing that my time in South Africa was quickly passing me by, two weeks ago I decided to see as much as I could before December 16th rolled around. This started with two weekends of being a tourist in Pretoria for two weekends. These are some of the highlights

Pretoria Botanical Gardens and Zoo
I know what you're thinking, "Kirsten, you're in South Africa, You have been to several game reserves, why on earth would you go to a zoo?" The Pretoria Botanical Gardens and Zoo is the largest zoo in South Africa with animals from Africa, South America, Australia and the occasional animal from Asia and North America. It is beautifully laid out and most of the animals are not in cages rather wise open spaces.
So after a game of soccer with my friend Dan's church group (in which I got hit really hard in the face, OUCH!), he and I headed for the Pretoria zoo. Getting there proved to be a bit interesting as we had to walk through Pretoria Central (the downtown area) which doesn't have the best reputation, although I have been there several times on weekdays without incident. Everything was fine until we were about 10 minutes from the zoo and a street vendor came to try to sell us something. He put his arm around me and his merchandise (which was just a bunch of toys in front of me) and continued to insist that I should buy something from him, to which I replied "no thanks". Unfortunately he kept up this behaviour despite Dan and my protests and eventually Dan gave him a little push to get him on his way. I have to say I was a bit surprised by this as I hadn't really felt threatened by the individual, just annoyed, but it seemed to do the trick.
When we arrived at the zoo we had some lunch and I tried to deal with my ever worsening sun burn. We then proceeded in the direction of the lions which Dan really wanted to see, only to realize there was a gorilla exhibit which I was really keen to see having never seen gorillas before. Unfortunately the gorilla was out being treated for diabetes, but we did see several varieties of antelope and rhinos on the way. (Note the South Africans have about as many variety of springbok as the inuit have words for snow).

Following our search for the gorillas we headed for the big cats and bears and saw lions, Siberian tigers and some bears. The enclosures which they had for the big cats were quite interesting. They were sloped with cave areas built underneath the footpath and were surounded by what appeared to be a waterless mote where the cats could run. They also had a grizzly bear and a kodiak bear. I have never heard of or seen a Kodiak bear before but apparently they live in Alaska.

We then moved on to the monkies which were a little bit harder to view as they were in cages as were the birds at the zoo. I really enjoyed seeing the marmosets which are essentially pocket sized monkies who are very friendly. When we approached their cages they would climb on the wall of the cage closest to us and extend their hands through the cages. Perhaps they were looking for food. The highlights of the zoo for me were the marmosets, elephants, giraffes and this bird (whose name I can't remember) that had a call that sounded like a crying child.

Elephant

Oh I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas...

Some kind of Antelope

Marmosets

Giraffe

Transvaal Museum

Transvaal is the former name for the region of South Africa which encompassed Gauteng (the province where I am living which houses Pretoria and Joburg) as well as all of or part of the two northern province (I am not sure). Today the name only remains as the name of one of the biggest museums in Pretoria, the Transvaal museum.

The Transvaal museum is natural history museum not unlike the one in Ottawa with a room displaying mammals and a room with invertebrates, although it does have a more comprehensive collection of African animals. It also has a room with rocks and minerals in it which exhibits common minerals and what they are used for and explains a geological history of the world which is quite interesting.
I went to the Transvaal museum the day after I went to the zoo with my friend Arne who lives in the same accommodation services as me (although in the house down the street) and some of his German friends (Arne is from Germany as well). We had a nice time and I also met a young man doing an internship at the Brazilian embassy who had just arrived and was eager to make new friends. As it would happen he was interested in visiting Soweto and the Apartheid museum, which were high on my list of places to visit, and where we would head the following Sunday.

Jo'burg, Soweto and the Apartheid Museum
So this past Sunday, Fabio (the guy from Brazil) and I headed off towards Soweto and the Apartheid museum with a private tour guide who was quite congenial (although I have no idea how to spell his name) To get to Soweto and the Apartheid museum you have to drive from Pretoria through Jo'burg. So we stopped in a couple of locations along the way, including a hill from which you can see most of the city, outside Nelson Mandela's current house and we drove through the areas of Hillborow, Center and Sophiatown (aka new town)
We then headed to the Apartheid Museum where we discovered the power was out upon arrival and that they were not admitting anyone into the museum. So thinking on his feet our tour guide for the day suggested we head straight for Soweto which we did.
Soweto is a township. For those of us Canadians who do not know what a township is, a township is where black people were sent to live during Apartheid as they were not allowed to live in the cities. Townships have a reputation for being poor although they really have a range of different income levels and resemble cities with commerce and populations often of over 1 million. Soweto is South Africa's largest and most well known township. Even after apartheid many people continue to live in townships as the cost of living tends to be cheaper than in the cities.
Traveling to Soweto was quite a new experience for me. It certainly demonstrated how much poverty exists alongside to the development and prosperity which is often observed in cities. Soweto has a variety of styles of living ranging from houses which we would consider large by Canadian standards of living, to hostels, newly developed apartments and informal settlement. Below you can see three pictures taken from one street corner where you could simultaneously see some of the largest houses in the township, some hostels and some of the newly developed accommodations.
While we were in Soweto we also went into an informal settlement. Informal settlements usually contain shacks built by the people living in them (or in some cases built with the help of a not for profit group) which are made out of tin siding, in close quarters with no paved roads, and in some cases no electricity (see pictures below) I had initially been morally opposed to the idea as the idea of going to look at someone else's hardship, however I was also curious. I reconciled my curiosity by remembering that by witnessing the conditions in the township I could create awareness about the struggles of others.
As it happened at the informal settlement that we went to a group of youth had actually come together to offer tours to tourist in return for a donation which would go to help provide food packages for the people who were the least well off within the settlements. (I learned this week that most of the security guards who work at UNISA where the Bright Site Project is located also live in informal settlements as they make less than CDN $180 a month and they all have families). Our tour guide, Eric, took us down the main road of the township past the shacks which were surrounded by barbed wire fences. (it really amazes me here that even the smallest most squalid living quarters are surrounded by such fences, I haven't personally observed that much crime here but it is a very strange phenomenon). While we were walking some children started to follow us, they would ask us to take their picture, look at it and then ask for money. I only made the mistake of taking two such pictures. One of the most interesting things that Eric explained to us was that a lighting system had been put into the settlement by the government but individuals from within the settlement had started to make illegal connections with the wires, which is very dangerous, and that the power had been cut to the lighting as a result. He said that the lack of light during the evening significantly contributed to and increased rate of time. Eric also explained that most shacks did not have water but that people could access clean drinking water from taps found every few hundred meters.
After our visit to the informal settlement, we had a buffet lunch, which was sadly ironic considering the poverty which we had just witnessed. The place where we went was on the same street as both Nelson Mandela's and Desmond Tutu's child hood homes. Interesting that two Nobel Peace Prize winners group up on the same street. We then went to a memorial for the youngest child who died in a youth uprising which occurred in 1976 by students against Apartheid which ended when police opened fire on the group. The memorial was very touching and well put together.
After this we headed out of Soweto and back to the Apartheid Museum where power had been restored. The museum is very well put together and very informative. When you enter you are given an ID card, similar to the ones South Africans were given and forced to carry during Apartheid, assigning you a race (either white, or non-white. I received non white so the side which I entered detailed the plight of black Africans during Apartheid, which eventually met up with the other entrance to an interesting configuration of mirrors with pictures of people on them which if looked at on the right angle looked like you were standing among a crowd of many races. An exhibit inside explained that all of the people featured in the photographs were individuals whose relatives had fought against Apartheid. Inside the museum the exhibits explained the Apartheid regime and its human cost. While visually stunning there is a large amount of information on the walls which at times reads like a textbook, and is somewhat difficult to contend with when you are already tired from walking around Soweto.

Unfortunately you are not permitted to take pictures within the museum so most of the photos are from Soweto.

Until next time, enjoy the photos!

The Johannesburg Skyline

Hostels in Soweto. Our Guide explained to us that even visitors from outside South Africa were subjected to the Apartheid regime and that black visitors from abroad would be forced to stay in townships. These hostels were where they would stay while they were there.