Bob’s Bunkhouse has been wonderful. Both Bob and Joan spend as much time as needed getting us sorted out. Joe and I have a double room with an en-suite and the boys have a room to themselves with twin beds. We’ve met some wonderful people – Anna from Scotland and a punk band from the Netherlands, ‘No Turning Back’. We stayed up late chatting as a group. None of the guys in the band drink alcohol, whatsoever, and all have girlfriends – beautiful guys who the boys looked up to with great admiration. Apparently they have quite a following in Europe and Japan. And although they haven’t made it big, my guess is that they will someday. They have their heads screwed on right and are quite ambitious. I told them the story of travelling in France and while hiking near Lyon we coming across a small outdoor amphitheatre where a band was setting up. My cousin, Wayne, and I went up to the lead singer and asked him his name. “Bono” he replied. When I asked him the name of his band he responded ‘U2’. We had never heard of them nor, at that time, had the rest of the world. We chatted with them for quite some time and listened to them playing a variety of songs and doing sound checks, etc. We were surprised when we eventually learned that the we had spent some quality time with a band that was destined to be one of the greatest of all time. The guys were inspired.
We were up bright and early to go on our tour to Soweto and the Apartheid Museum. Our guide was a South African who grew up in Soweto by the name of Jabu. We also had a driver, David, which was great as Jabu sat in the van with us and related story after story about the townships and the history of Soweto. His tour was so rich – it was next to impossible to process the amount of information that came our way. We toured only the street with two Nobel winners (Mandela and Tutu are neighbours). We toured the church that Tutu used for the Truth and Reconciliation hearings, the hostels remaining from the gold rush days and were toured by a local representative of the “informal” immigrant township (in most countries, this would be a refugee camp!). Poorest of poor. From the richest of the rich to the poorest of the poor, the model that Soweto (an acronym for South West Township) offers is now being used by the world. Blacks and Whites and non-whites all have addresses here. 2 of the biggest soccer stadiums are also here (Orlando and a new one under construction to set 125000 being built for World Cup 2010) and add a cricket stadium and 15 shopping malls, car dealers and you have a city of substantial proportions: 1 million residents, ZAR3.2 billion annual buying power. Hardly a stereotypical township!
Our next stop was the Apartheid Museum. Unbelievable! So matter-of-fact, non-judgemental, taking you through 2500 years of African history leading to the rise and fall of the Afrikaans apartheid regime from 1948 to 1990 and then the 1992 ANC democratic election victory through to today. There was also a special exhibit on Nelson Mandela which often brought a tear to many a visitor – including Joe. Deb an Joe learned so much about the impact of gold on the Johannesburg (discovered by the 2 Georges – Johannes in Afrikaans, hence Johannes-burg), then the discovery of diamonds, leading to the Boer War, then rule of Anglo-Boer in the Union of SA in 1910 agreeing to disenfranchise the blacks) leading to the post WWII election of the apartheid regime in 1948. What a lesson for mankind!
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