Rugby

Rugby is football without pads. Rugby players eat their dead. The local team, the Sharks, enertained us today with their unique brand of misbehavior in a gentleman's game played by hooligans. But Rugby is hugely popular, and can bring people together, as shown in the film Invictus. Go Springboks!

Trees

One of the environmental challenges here is the deforestation of the region for sugar cane production and other agriculture. At a local landfill, they have an innovative program planting a buffer of native trees around the landfill. Rather than just hire some random group to do it, they encourage local residents to grow trees from seeds and plant them in the area. These "tree-preneurs" are paid in goods and services, like housing material and schooling, rather than cash. This seems to work well- the woman here has 1000 trees ready for planting, which will give her 5000 rand (look up the exchange rate) to use for bricks or books. A good deal for all.

Sugar

This isn't sugar, although Kathy, a media specialist from South Carolina, is very sweet. The Durban area is one of Africa's largest producers of sugar cane, the lovely green stuff growing in the background. Originally, thousands of indentured servants from India came to the area to work the cane fields. They and their descendants have made Durban the largest urban Indian population outside of India. Even Gandhi once lived here as a young attorney.


Sugar cane fields aren't fun places to work. If the cane rats, the size of a shih tzu aren't a problem, the black mamba snakes are. Add in summer temperatures around 100 degrees and the challenges are obvious.

If you look in the background, you can see the Indian Ocean

Durban

Durban is located in the KwaZulu-Natal Province. The airport is named in honor of King Shaka, reflecting the Zulu heritage of the region. Durban is the 3rd largest city in South Africa, and the busiest port on the eastern side of the continent. The big news in town today was the beaching of a tanker carrying a cargo of diesel fuel. Apparently the anchor came loose in a storm and the ship drifted onto the beach. Lots of environmental concerns about that.
Durban is also home to a Toyota manufacturing plant, which is the largest manufacturer of cars in Africa. Their annual production of 180,000 vehicles isn’t just for domestic consumption, as 50% are exported. We toured the plant, an impressive display of robotics and human effort on a grand scale. Better yet, we all got free Toyota hats!

Nelson Mandela

Everything I see and read about Nelson Mandela makes him an even more impressive figure. I read his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom (most of it anyway- it’s long!) and am just beginning to fully appreciate his importance to South Africa. His strength of character, charisma, and willingness to forgive 27 years of imprisonment set that stage that is allowing South Africa to become the country that it is. Next week we visit Robben Island, where he spent so much of his life.

His home in Soweto is tiny, a couple small bedrooms, a dining room/kitchen/living room, and a small bathroom. Down the street is the home of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, making this the only street in the world with two Nobel Peace Prize Winners.
Extra credit to anyone who reads his book. Double bonus points for reading Cry, The Beloved Country by Alan Paton. Written in 1948, this novel tells the story of two men coming to grips with the tragic results of racism. Powerful stuff.
More on Nelson Mandela next week.

Soweto Uprising 1976

Soweto was the scene of an infamous demonstration in 1976, known as the Soweto Uprising. Schoolkids marched in protest of a law that required classes to be taught in Afrikaans, a language that few of them spoke. Schools were grossly inadequate, receiving less than 10% of the funding white schools received. When the police felt threatened by the crowd, somehow they opened fire on the crowd, killing dozens of students. Among those killed was Hector Pieterson, the 12 year old boy shown in the arms of a man who tried to help, along with his sister. The museum dedicated to him and the Soweto Uprising is an important part of understanding apartheid and the Soweto neighborhood. Check out the story.

Soweto

Johannesburg is the most prosperous city on the continent, but there are definitely problems. The Soweto township was established in the early 1960's as a segregated community for black residents. Black Africans were herded into Soweto in a severly restricted and impoverished community. While there have been dramatic improvements, there are still shanty towns, made of whatever materials can be found.

Of course, Soweto also gave the world Archbishop Tutu and Nelson Mandela.

No Pepsi Please

Johannesburg is a Coke town, so I feel right at home. We also see a lot of Prii (the plural form of Prius), along with many other familiar makes. SA is the continent's leading auto manufacturer, and we'll be visiting the Toyota plant later in the week. Time to put on my takkies(walking shoes) and hit the streets (in a group of course!).

Johannesburg

Howzit. That's South African for hello, probably understood by everyone in a nation with 11 official languages. Johannesburg is on the high veldt, kind of like Denver, with a climate like San Francisco without fog. We're seriously chillled.

On our way home tonight (we're 7 hours ahead of Atlanta time) we got into rush hour traffic on their version of I-85. This is a busy city. And South Africa is a busy country. Their infrastructural development is greater than that of the rest of the continent combined, and they are listed as one of the BRICS in the wall- emerging market countries that are on the verge of serious economic development. For homework, you can name the other BRICS.

Despite this, there are challenges. Unemployment is at 23%, and youth unemployment is closer to 50%. Almost 80% of schools don't have libraries, let alone internet connections and smart boardes. So there are challenges.

Today we visited the American embassy in Pretoria, the executive capital. SA has three capitals, sharing the wealth with other cities. We also saw the Apartheid Museum, which featured a special exhibit on Nelson Mandela. Very well done, and reminiscent of visiting the King Center in Atlanta.

Sharpsharp (goodbye, thanks, it's all good).

We're Here!

Seventeen hours on a plane and 7 zones later, we're in Johannesburg and it's 35 degrees outside! The world has turned upside down! Since Africa has 11 official languages I should find someone who understands me. Time to go to the US Embassy.

I'm Not Worthy!

Currently in Washington DC. meeting with the folks from the Toyota International Teacher Program and the Institute for International Education. Pretty impressive group of teachers. I'm not worthy to be among them (and I know some of you agree!) but I'll try to represent Georgia well. I'm probably the senior citizen of the group- what's that all about?

Flight time to Johannesburg is about 17 hours. Getting ready for some major jet lag!

Greetings From South Africa

Greetings From South Africa
As some of you may have noticed, I’m not here right now. I’m in South Africa, hanging around with Nelson Mandela (he turned 93 on July 18), entertaining the crowds with my wit and wisdom, and stalking the “Big Five” (lion, leopard, elephant, rhinoceros, buffalo) out on the veldt.



Well, some of that is true. I’m in South Africa as a participant in the Toyota International Teacher Program to South Africa. Along with 24 other teachers from around the country, we’re traveling in South Africa from July 25 – August 10 to learn about the country’s history, geography, economy, culture and environment. As you might expect, I’m very grateful to Toyota for this opportunity, and plan on buying a Prius as soon as we return. In addition, I’ll be sharing my experiences with my fellow teachers and students. Don’t you feel lucky??

In the meanwhile, Mrs. Chenoweth, a former Magnet Teacher and CMS Teacher of the Year for 2010, will have the pleasure of teaching my classes for the first three days of school. She’s so talented that I suspect you’ll all be sorry to see me return.

That’s it for now. Find out what’s going on in South Africa at southafricafromafrikaanstozulu.blogspot.com.


Hamba kakuhle,

Mr. J.M. Donegan