Day 3

 Sabonyo!!! (that is hello in zulu)
Today was another very interesting day. We began the day by going to St. Martin School, a semi-private school in Soweto. It is the highest achieving school in Johannesburg. We got to hang out with students from grade 9 to grade 12. It was a really great experience. We went into classrooms as groups of four and introduced ourselves. Then we sat down with a bunch of the kids to just talk to them. They would ask us questions about the U.S., what we were studying, where we came from, what languages do we speak, what celebrities we have met?. In one class which I believe was kids from grade 8 asked us about the U.S. economy and what the money looked like which was very interesting. Also all the kids in this school seemed really grounded and driven to do something like they all knew exactly what they wanted to do when they went to college. Even many girls said they wanted to do engineering and physics, which is the complete opposite of most girls in the U.S. I definitely did not know what I wanted to do during high school and as a matter of fact, I dont know what I want to do now even. It is sad that so many of them want to go to college but they cannot necessarily afford it and loans have to be paid off right after they finish college, unlike the States were there is a grace period before you have to pay.

Then after that we went to The Walter Sislulu Square, where there is a monument of the Freedom Charter. The Freedom Charter was like a constitution written in 1994, but unlike our constitution it was never put into law. It is really just an idea that most Black South Africans wish would be implemented. The government, ANC or the African National Congress promised the Black South Africans that they would provide housing in the area around the square, which is a township of Soweto called Kliptown, but the houses built were never given to the poor blacks because they could not pay for it. Kliptown has been so far the most impoverished area we have experience thus far. We got to walk a little around it but then ended up driving through most of it in our vans. It was sad to see all these people living the way they were. Small crowded shacks with buckets in the front yards that are toilets picked up by the government every week. We also learned the government passed a law the all South Africans get like 6000 liters of water each month for free. But that is nothing if the water has to be used for families. An Anti-privitazation forum activist took us on a tour around Kliptown but it was really hard to hear what she was saying so I didnt really understand somethings happening.

Right after going through Kliptown, we went to have lunch at this mall called Maponya Mall. This mall was such a contrast from being in Kliptown. The mall is very high-scale and has many posh stores. The mall is meant for the middle class in Soweto but that is only like 10% of the population. It is really ridiculous. We dont know if that was intentional to go from Kliptown to the mall because there are not many places to just go and eat around us.

After that, we had another speaker come talk to us about Africa's political economy. He is a White American born in Zimbabwe and studied in the U.S. for 10 years and now has been in South Africa for 24 years. It was part of the liberation struggle. He was an amazing speaker so knowledgeable about the politics and economics of South Africa and really all countries political economy's as well. He is very left and radical in his views.

Then we had a debriefing session where we just talked about our experiences thus far and if we had anymore questions.

I will post pictures soon. It takes a long time to load them.

Bec