First Day in Johannesburg

So today we woke up and ate a pretty normal breakfast of cereal and yogurt and what not. Then we did some group bonding activities some name games if you will. After that we took two vans and one truck to Soweto where we visited the Hector Pieterson museum which is basically a museum documenting the anti-apartheid efforts. Then we went to lunch at Wandies which was a local place in Soweto where they had a buffet in which there was the normal South African stuff like chicken some beef rice and potatoes as well as some other stuff and their signature dish of cow intestines…which I tried. And when I say it was cow intestines…it was like legit cow intestines like you know in Bio when you dissect the cat or what not and you uncoil the intestines yup this was all coiled up and we ate it straight up. Most of us agreed it would have been tolerable if it had been fried…I don’t believe South Africans fry stuff though, bummer. While we were there these two guys came with a guitar and played us the South African version of the In the Jungle from The Lion King which was wayyyy better than our version…and some other songs as well. It’s so funny how we stick out to some of them because after that they started playing this song about finding the spirit of Obama. After that we drove to the Mandela House which we would have walked to if it hadn’t been raining. Anywho the Mandela House was legit it was the house Nelson Mandela and his wife Winnie lived in for 40 years…well when they weren’t in imprisoned. It was really cool because his house is in the middle of Soweto and you wouldn’t ever know it was a “monument” like you do in the states.

Then we went to the mall, which is kind of like the malls in the U.S. but not at all. We were there mainly to buy phone minutes but some of us pick up some other goodies as well. We then came back to the Shoestrings Lodge where about 20 of the 27 of us went running, including me. Maybe it was cause we have an overly active bunch or maybe its like the personality of the people who choose to come to this program..I don’t know but we are trying to continue this theme.

Now it is about dinner time..and who knows what is for dinner but definitely some carbs and meat.

Tomorrow we are taking care of the legalities of everything, health and safety and what not…the boring stuff. So I don’t believe I will have anything to say tomorrow.