From "the Coldest" to "the Chido!"

After almost four of the most memorable weeks of my life, we have left the western cape of South Africa and one of my favorite places, Cape Town, to visit the rest of the Country. As I have learned in these past five days, although Cape Town is marvelous, beautiful, and impressive, it really does not encompass the true reality and identity of the rest of South Africa. Don’t get me wrong, I loved it, but it is really different than the rest of the country. Our trip followed almost the exact same root that, hundreds of years earlier, the Afrikaner Voortrek(k)ers did, going from Sutherland, to Kimberly, and then finally to Pretoria where the Voortrek(k)ers made their most monumental stand at creating Afrikaner nationalism. We have had limited internet access the last couple of days, so this will be a long one. Get some popcorn or chicharones! Unfortunately, this damn computer won't let me upload pictures, so I will show you all later.

Sutherland was, literally, an out of this world experience! Sutherland is a small town about three hours away from Cape Town in the middle of the Karoo semi-desert, which is arid place with little water and rocks everywhere. Although Sutherland is known for being the coldest place in South Africa, damn it was cold!, it is also a popular tourist destination because it houses the biggest telescope in the southern hemisphere, Southern Africa’s Largest Telescope (SALT). Not only does Sutherland have SALT, but it also has a really impressive conglomeration of other telescopes. Being the VIPs that we are we were able to get a private guided tour of the skies. I have never seen a sky so dark and full of stars; the Milky Way was so clear and the stars so bright—it was insane! Funny story, as we huddled to keep warm (remember, coldest place in SA) someone tried to take a picture, but it was so dark that the flash blinded us all for about 2 minutes—that’s how dark it was! Unfortunately, we weren’t supposed to take pictures, so I don’t have any of the amazing sky. But, to make you even more jealous, we got to see in the telescope! We saw a group of stars 17,000 light-years away, that means that the image I saw is 17,000 light-years away, crazy! We also got to see Jupiter. Not a picture or digital image, but the actual thing. It was an amazing experience I won’t soon forget. Seeing something so big really makes you humble.

After our trip to the coldest and coolest place in the universe (corny!), we made our way to the “bling bling capitol of the world,” Kimberly. If you know anything about diamonds then you have to know about Kimberly. Kimberly is the host town of “The Big Hole,” the biggest man made hole in the world (215 meters deep and 1.7 km wide) which was actually a diamond mine. Although “The Big Hole” is now closed and flooded, in entirety it produced 14,504,566 diamonds, weighing 2,722 Kg. That’s a lot of bling ya’ll. This is also were the De Beers diamond company started, aka the top dog in diamond sales. In the museum we got to see actual diamonds as well as replicas of some of the largest “rocks” in the world. I am not a generally a jewelry or diamond fan, but DAMN these rocks really made my jaw drop. Wholly cow there were some giant diamonds in that place. Funny to think that the first diamond in this place was found by a random kid on the river, which was later given away to by the mother who assumed it was just a simple worthless rock. I bet she felt stupid. Its funny how many things in history occur by chance. One thing I did notice in the museum is that it largely ignored the history of oppression and violence toward the black mine workers. I guess it makes sense that this museum is sponsored by the largest diamond company in the world.

After Sutherland we made our way to our next destination Pretoria, the smaller sister city of the notorious Johannesburg. I would have preferred to stay in “Jo-burg,” but I hear the crime is quite...challenging. Anyway, we will be in Pretoria for the next couple of days (until Thursday to be exact... thanks Darrell). Our first day in Pretoria was quite mellow; we got here at nine, so I went straight to bed after a cold dinner. Our second day, however, was probably one of my favorite days on our trip so far as we visited the Nelson Mandela Foundation (NMF) and the South African Congressional court (both in Cape Town). The NMF is the organization that organizes Madiba’s (Mandela) public life and it is also the place where he has his office! Being in this space really made me like I was getting to know Madiba on a more intimate level because not only was I hanging out where he works and is on a regular basis but I got to see the gifts he gets and the actual journals he wrote. I got to see his hand-writing. This may not seem like a big deal, but for some reason seeing the physical spaces he inhabits makes him seem more real, more intimate.

After visiting the NMF, we made our way to the South African Congressional Court. This court is nothing like I have ever seen. It integrates African history and new world order; it really is a symbol of the way South Africa has healed and reunited after Apartheid. The building itself is inside an old Afrikaner fort in Jo-burg, so even though it is inside a colonially historical space, the building itself is meant to represent the African justice system, which took place under the largest tree of a village. Nothing in this building is taken for granted. The art, the structure itself, even the chairs all mean something, namely equality. For example, there are 11 justices in the court each of which has a distinct cow hide to represent that they are all different but still come within the same herd. The building also doubles as an art Gallery. Right now they are showing some pieces which commemorate Madiba’s 90th birthday. It really is aesthetically and ethically pleasing place. I have never been in a more inviting space.

Our second day in Pretoria was a mixture of joy and astonishment, like a really unexpected surprise. Our day began at the University of South Africa, UNISA, the largest distance learning university in South Africa, and were Madiba gained his education while imprisoned in Robben Island. We learned about the intervention professors at the University are making in disadvantaged schools to increase literacy rates, and afterward we went to two of their schools. The schools themselves were interesting. They weren’t necessarily destitute, but they were also nothing like schools back home. At both schools we were greeted with happiness and excitement gratitude; however in the second school we received a surprisingly large welcome. The school sang song for us and we sand songs for them, including “ain’t no mountain high, ain’t no valley low...,” some of us even danced till exhaustion (Justin?, ha! j/k). I must admit I was really really taken aback by their welcome. As we were in the library we were told that the school was waiting for us and all of sudden I turn a corner and B.A.M. the children are singing and dancing. Although I was weary that they were performing for us I really enjoyed dancing and sing with the children later on. It was really a great experience.

After our trip back to elementary school, haha, we went to the Voortreker Monument. This monument is a HUGE building commemorating the contested history of the Voortrekers, the people that traveled from the eastern and western capes of South Africa into the interior. This monument is crazy. Not only is it huge, but it is really controversial because it is based on a lot of mythology and because it helped created Afrikaner Nationalism. The reason Afrikaner Nationalism is so controversial is because the Afrikaner dominated party, the National Party (NP), was who implemented Apartheid. Apartheid, as I hope you all know, was the government sanctioned physical separation of people on races, which was abolished in the 1990. This system was incredibly harmful to people of non-white races as they were all restricted access to cities, neglected by the government, as well as other forms of oppression. I won’t go on. Although the monument is beautiful, as you can see from the pictures, while walking through it I felt a chill up my spine thinking of the harmful and disastrous events that originated from the same ideology that built it. I am trying to think of a parallel to U.S. history, and although I haven’t found one, imagine a huge monument to the confederate army or a monument to the Nazi government of Germany.

This blog is already incredibly long, but I didn’t want to cut your vicarious experience short; however, I have a couple of words left in me. Driving across this country really has opened my eyes to South Africa. I have left the rich and tourist infested Western Cape to the historic and contested northeastern area of the country. I am not sure how often I will have internet access, but I will update you as much as possible. I have only two more wonderful weeks in this amazing country. I will make them memorable!