Our time here was short.  Two days.  We landed at 10am and hit the ground running.  First stop, Soweto.  We stopped first at the Hector Pieterson Museum.  The photo of this young man being carried from the student protest against Afrikaans as the national language prompted the world to notice the deteriorating situation in South Africa. The museum is small so we left well-informed but not overtaxed by the imagery.

Next we visited Nelson Mandela’s house in Orlando, a section of Soweto.  From his autobiography I know he considered owning this home an important milestone.  My notes just say “a small space; a large legacy.”  Nearby, there were outdoor cafés and shops.  The people living here today seem to live well.

Finally, we visited a monument showing the Freedom Charter which was adopted by a variety of protest groups in 1955 and then became essential components of the South African constitution.  At every turn we are reminded that this democracy is twenty years young.  So much progress in such a short time. Under the constitution all are entitled to basic services like housing and sanitation. The City of Jo-burg has built 3.5 million homes in the past decade.  There are three tiers of home ownership – rent, rent to own, own.  Each according to his or her financial ability. Responsible lending programs exist!  But there is more work to be done before all are enjoying the wealth equally.

After Soweto, we visited the Kliptown Youth Program, an afterschool program that supports nearly 400 children with hot meals and homework help.  One of the program directors took us through the school (a CNN Heroes award recipient) and also took us on a tour of the township and his home.  There are 50 water taps for the 45,000 residents living in Kliptown.  We noticed porta-johns everywhere and learned that the city provides a toilet that is serviced once a week and gives each family a key to the padlock on its door.  Twenty families share a single toilet; twenty families with an average size of 6 per family is 120 people sharing a small light-free, 2 by 2 toilet, serviced on Thursdays.  Makes one think twice before complaining about who left the seat up …

The next day Andy went to get his South African pilot’s certification (a future blogpost) and the girls and I took a trip to the Cradle of Mankind.  Christine, a researcher and excavator at the Cooper’s Cave, explained our evolution from chimp to chump.  She also took us to an active excavation site where she and her team (grad students and volunteers) made new discoveries, some only recently published.  We learned how to identify bones from stones in a fossilized trench and saw remains of microfauna, antelope, and lion that are still in progress.  Christine brings palpable excitement to this area of science; by the end of the day I was fundraising for her from the parking lot.  And I’m not exaggerating.  A young professional originally from India but currently “busy making money in Dubai” stopped to ask directions and when he realized who she was, he sought out a tour for himself.  She is so nice that she would have gladly done so had she not had to be at the museum that afternoon.  When he continued on, and on, about being keenly interested in the work she was doing I put him to the task a bit and suggested that he put the money towards his keen interest and then once he’s tired of being a money donor he could come back to be a working donor and excavate with the other volunteers.  An investment in his passion and his future.  It was a soft sell but it got him and he left saying he would donate online. Christine asked if I wanted to stay on and write grant applications.  Who knows, maybe that’s what I’ll do when I get back…but probably not.