South Africa Trip 2017

                                                                     Soweto Pieter, our tour guide, informed us that Soweto gets its name from being the Southwestern Township of Johannesburg. He told us that the Townships were created during apartheid to reinforce segregation, black African families were relocated there and some of the living conditions continue to be inadequate to support the needs of the families living there.  To begin the tour of Soweto we were joined by another local guide named Queen. She is a life long resident of Soweto and was able to provide an in depth and loving perspective of her home. She informed us that since the end of apartheid there have been many changes that have taken place there. Many of the people who had been renters in their homes were able to purchase the properties and are now owners. While 90% of the homes there have clean drinking water and electricity, there are still some families that do not have access to either of those basic nee

                                                           Arrival in Johannesburg... As soon as we got off the plane we were met with signs that read "EF Tours" and "Jonas Clarke Middle School", and were introduced to our guide Pieter.  He escorted us, and our many bags to our bus driver Simon and our tour bus for the day.  On the Bus... Once we were on the bus Pieter began to give us some very interesting and informative facts about the city of Johannesburg. He first explained how the city is named after its two founders: Johann Rissik, and Johann Joubert, and that "burg" means small town in Dutch. He also informed us that Johannesburg was established shortly after the discovery of gold in 1886.   Our first stop was the Top of Africa... The Top of Africa is the tallest building on the African continent and had some amazing views. After the Top of Africa we went to Nelson Mandela Square.. . The sta

From Boston to London... We arrived at Logan bright and early at 5:00 a.m. eager to board our first flight to London on British Airways.                                                      From London to Johannesburg... And landed in London around & 7:30 a.m. with plenty of time to board our next flight to Johannesburg at 9:30 a.m., which happened to be a double decker airplane!  The view from the airplane was spectacular. We were all in awe that we were actually flying above Africa!

                                                            Welcome to my Blog I am Danielle Paddol and I am going to be blogging about my trip to South Africa.  Starting on Wednesday June 28th, 2017 I will be traveling to South Africa with a group of 18 other people from Jonas Clarke Middle School! Our itinerary includes visiting Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Kruger National Park. Stay tuned for some amazing pictures and updates from our journey! Image Source