South Africa Trip 2017

Mandela Home While we were in Soweto we visited the former home of Nelson Mandela. When you first walk into the property you are in a small courtyard with a garden, and in the garden is a tree that Nelson Mandela planted himself.     It was pretty amazing to be walking around his home and to view some of his personal correspondence, family pictures, and other memorabilia from his life.  

Hector Pieterson Memorial and Museum This memorial was named after Hector Pieterson who was a boy that was killed on a day the South African people call the “Day of the Uprising of the School Children”, which happened on June 16, 1975. It was a nonviolent protest by the school children against the use of Afrikaans as a medium of instruction. During the protest there was a confrontation with the apartheid police that resulted in the loss of many students lives. Our tour guide Queen informed us that the Memorial has many symbolic meanings. The different colored rocks that surround it were chosen to represent the different races in South Africa and how they all coexist together. The water was placed there to symbolize the blood that was lost in the uprising, and also the tears of the parents of the children that were killed. Lastly, the olive trees that are planted around the Memorial are there to symbolize peace. In the picture above, you can see that th...

Safari Day Two Our first day on safari was an incredible experience and we were lucky to have seen so many animals.   It was hard to imagine that our second day could equal or top the first. Our goal was to see those final two members of the “big 5”. Day two felt different than day one. We were able to enjoy and watch the animals more without feeling the pressure to move on and see what else was out there. Some of us were talking afterwards about different patterns and concepts we picked up on. Carolyn Shield was able to summarize them in a list of three: 1)    Helping each other We were able to see that animals, like humans, help each other by offering support. This was especially shown when we would see Zebras, Impalas, and Wildebeasts, for example, all eating together in the same area. Our guides explained that they do this because they are all prey and the Impala has the best vision and hearing of the three, so when an Impala calls out to the herd t...