Day 5: The Curse of the Black Stars

After an adventurous day, we took it easy on Day 5. We took a while to get going and eventually headed to the former home of Nelson Mandela, where he lived with one of his former wives, winnie (A strong woman herself), and which has now been turned into a small museum in Soweto. The house was small but very cool.

The 'zeys in front of the Mandela House. Courtesy of Alli.

I've now had two chances to stand where this man once stood, and I gotta say it feels different. Kind of a range of emotions. Fear--when you see a metal trashcan lid with holes that was used by students to shield themselves from police bullets during the famous Soweto Uprising. Or the bullet holes in the walls and charred brick that stand as evidence of the various intimidation tactics used by the police during his lifetime. Empowerment--when you see the wall covered with certificates, honorary diplomas, official government apologies (which the US government refused to issue even though the CIA assisted the South African government in Arresting Mandela). These stand as the most superficial indications that incredible persistence has created change that reached the entire world. Love--pictures of his children, all but one of whom Nelson Mandela has outlived for sometimes bizarre reasons. Tradition--the family buried the umbilical cords of all the Mandela children under this tree in the corner of the yard to as a traditional custom to connect to the family ancestors.

Tree where children of Nelson Mandela have their umbilical cords buried.
This is a traditional custom in some African cultures
that aims to connect with the family ancestry.

The tour was short, as the house was very small--probably the size of a one car garage. We then walked down the street to just get a picture of Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu's family home. This is the only place in the world in which two Nobel Peace Prize winners have lived. I'd say that Soweto owns the world in neighborhood per capita Peace Prize medals. The street was crowded with tourists, so naturally there were many street vendors and there was also a group of children in traditional tribal dress performing dances for cash.

They dressed and danced for tips. Not sure about the origin or meaning of these dances.

Here we bought some of those annoying but obligatory vuvuzelas and we all got Bafana Bafana jerseys. Alli bought a cool elephant made of beads and wire. I learned how to haggle...sort of. I just sat there trying to do the math conversion in my head to figure out how much it would cost, and he thought I was driving a hard bargain. So, he kept pushing the price lower. Got a pretty good quality jersey for 200 Rand just because I'm slow at dividing by 7.5 in my head. Silence is golden.

Alli and I in our awesome new Bafana Bafana jerseys!

We sat to have a beer. I noticed that Castle beers have a promotion for the South African soccer team that prints a profile of one player on each can or bottle. Smartly, we ordered 6 Castles, only to be foisted by six bottles all depicting the same player.

Then we headed to the Sandton Fan fest where we ate again at Mythos and then took the far walk to watch Ghana against the US. The park was MUCH emptier than the South African game we saw a few days earlier, and the US fans didn't come out in force. As the last African nation alive in the world cup, the fans were against us supporting "The Black Stars." We lost 2-1 in overtime, to the majority of the crowd's delight, and headed home hoping that in four years we won't have to play Ghana again. This is the second time in consecutive world cups that Ghana has ended the USA's world cup run.

Day 4: Safari Time! (June 25, 2010)

What better to do when in Africa than hit up a safari. While initial plans fell through to get to Kruger National Park, where the most epic nature battle ever captured by an amateur was filmed, our hosts here in Nigel suggested we head to Pilanesberg to a game reserve on which you can drive yourself. Kruger would have required a six hour drive, and unfortunately we just didn't have the time. So. we loaded up the car with snacks and sandwiches, got an early night's rest and headed out at about 4:15am.


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Now, I've already mentioned in an earlier post one of the pitfalls of relying on GPS navigation. Here we hit a much more serious one. I read in my South Africa travel Guidebook that carjackings are such a problem in that there are standardized roadsigns indicating stretches of road that are at high risk for carjackings. Well, I got my chance to see one when our GPS led us off the highway.

"Over the river and through the woods, to grandmothers carjacking spot we go!"

As much as I wanted to get out of the car to take a picture of one, you can see where that would have given my mom a chance to have said, "I told you so," so I resisted the temptation (I hate it when Mom's are right). So, I found this picture online. The one we saw at 4:40am looked much more reflective and menacing. It was probably a hotspot because the road was secluded, windy (try fitting a semi truck and a minivan going opposite directions on one lane bridge. My dad was sure it was possible. And it was...barely), and narrow. We were all sleepy, but when we saw this sign, you could say we all kind of perked up. To make matters worse, we were running low on gas. Had we sputtered to a stop in the hijacking hotspot, this post would be a lot more interesting.

Once we safely reached a gas station, we gassed up and continued our journey along the highways. Along the way we were graced with a beautiful--and welcomed--sunrise. Alli's already posted some great pictures from the safari, but here are some more. The highlights were the elephants just as we headed towards the exit of the preserve, disappointed that we hadn't seen Babar yet.

Laughing zebra. Mr. Ed's cousin. Zebras were our first safari sighting!

Baby Chacma Baboon. A whole troop crossed the road as we drove by.
This cute little guy paused to eat a stick. He won't be the alpha male.

Giraffes! We got pretty close and the baby was nursing while we watched!

We asked a guy at one of the hides about elephants,
and he said he saw them on his way into the park.

Then we headed to Sun City, the "Vegas of South Africa," where we watched the Brazil vs. Portugal game on a HUGE screen inside what the casino called the Super Bowl. We headed to the Lost City which is apparently a touristy recreation of a traditional African village with shows and stuff, but it was closed. So we ate some food and headed back satisfied, and tired. We kept to the main roads on the way back, but still couldn't avoid adventure. When we exited the freeway about 15 minutes from our place in Nigel, we saw an enormous brush fire that blazed literally up to the shoulder of the highway. I've mentioned this in earlier posts but it seems that no matter where we've been, there have always been at least three billowing plumes of smoke visible.

The next morning the entire field was charred and the flames were
working their way up the mountains almost a mile in the distance

Day 3: Going Home

On day 3 we visited the Cradle of Humankind still in the state/province of Gautang.


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Now, Alli already posted pictures, and shes much less verbose than me, so you could scroll down to see them. But for you readers, here's some explanation:

The museum is called Maropeng, which means something like "to return to ones origins" in the Setswana language. In the museum you walk through one of those epic geological time scales that make you feel so infinitesimally small and insignificant that you wonder why we exist at all. But that's a whole 'nother discussion, and I ain't gonna open no can a existentialism worms here, so I'll continue...

Within the same land complex, but some 5 miles away are the Sterkfontein Caves within which one of the oldest and most complete hominid skulls, STS 5, or as we affectionately call her, "Mrs. Ples," was found. Interesting note: One of the reasons scientists initially called her Mrs. Ples was the fact that it had a smaller cranial cavity. Just sayin'. In fact, no one knows if this over two million year-old fossil was in fact a male or female because they never discovered the pelvis, which would have been the most helpful in determining the sex of the early...let's see if I remember this correctly...austropithecus africanus...dang it...it's actually Australopithecus Africanus. After the cave you reach a boardwalk where you can view the valley where apparently over forty percent of ALL fossils ever discovered are from. Truly, the cradle of humankind. So, I can say, I feel like I was at home there.

Choose to either rub the nose for luck, or the hand for wisdom.
We both chose to pick the nose.

Y'ello!

Just so Rami isn't the only one adding to this blog, I wanted to add some pictures from our explorations!

Elephants at Pilanesburg Nature reserve. We counted 6!

Lovely lake at a hide that we could get out of the car and walk around.
Many interesting birds, like the Sacred African Ibis and an eagle.

At a Fan Fest where we saw SA vs France. This celebration was after their second goal.

At the Sterkfontein Caves, the cradle of humankind.
We were 60 m underground and had to squeeze through some tight areas.
Here we all are waiting for the rest of the group to catch up.

Fan fest again (I can't figure out how to reorganize photos without having to reupload).
Free hat from the cell phone company MTN!

Til later!

Day 2: Drinking and Driving

Day 2’s legacy will consist of driving, driving, and more driving, which would seem like an uninteresting campaign, but when you’re driving on the left side of the road in a foreign country there is an adventure at every turn. We had four tickets to the Germany vs. Ghana match later in the day, but we still had time to do other fun stuff. Much to Tariq’s chagrin, that fun stuff involved alcohol consumption at the SAB World of Beer! We sampled traditional beer, which isn't carbonated and looks like muddy water, but doesn't taste all that bad. The best part about the tour was that for about $4 we got an awesome 1.5-hour tour and two pints of Castle Beer on the patio overlooking Soweto.

Drinking beers and eating at SAB World of Beer

After taking our time to chill on the patio, get our complementary pints, and grab some grub, the adventure began. We bought a GPS and updated it with the latest maps when we arrived, but the roads that were built around the World Cup venues are so new that none of them appear on travel maps, or in our travel books, and the materials we got were pretty oversimplified with schematic diagrams showing how easy it was supposed to be to get around the stadiums. To add to the frustration, when we finally got to the stadium we were told we needed to have pre-purchased a parking ticket, so we got the runaround from all the security at the parking facilities. This drive took us through some...interesting...parts of the city that were not where one would typically find tourists. This whole process took about 4 hours...in a 7-person car...with 8 people in it...all with different opinions. When Tariq, Nidal, Rena, and I arrived at the Stadium, it was all I dreamed it would be. The Soccer City stadium is designed to resemble a calabash.

Soccer City Stadium on 23 June, just before Germany v. Ghana

I love these new stadiums! Like the Bird's Nest stadium used at the Beijing Olympics, these stadiums really raise the bar for design. They're no longer simply megastructures. Here are some pics from the game, which ended in a Germany win 1-0.

The kids, post game. Nidal is behind the camera.

Day 1

You know when you wake up in the morning and immediately reach for your cell phone to check the time? Yeah, doesn’t work here. Groggy and confused, I reached to the bedside table and realized then that I need a wristwatch. After lying in bed and staring at the ceiling everyone woke up and got ready for our first day. Destination: Apartheid Museum, Johannesburg. We hit the supermarket for some bread and cheese (any traveler’s perfect travel food) and headed into town. We hit accident traffic but arrived easily at the museum, which was crowded with visitors, no doubt due to the World Cup. What an amazing museum.

We trudged through it in 3 hours or so, breezing quickly over some stuff. I admittedly took a while to get through and met up with the rest of the party at the exit. Maybe I took too long because Rena was able to slip in a 45-minute nap while she waited for me to hit the end of the museum, and Alli gave me the, “what took you so long?” look. We still had to go back and extract Dad, who won’t let a word get past him in museums. It was hard to understand the intricacies of the politics of a country with which I am not familiar, especially in the context of Apartheid, but I learned a lot. For instance, I found out the origin and significance of the Ubuntu concept (roughly, interdependence, cooperation and humanism) and how it shaped the early childhood of Rolihlahla “Nelson” Mandela. Now it makes sense to me that it’s also the name of an open-source operating system!

A few things struck me about the museum. Some images of life under Apartheid were similar to what we saw here during our own system of apartheid and Plessy v Ferguson era; some were disturbingly worse. The ignorance of Apartheid politicians advocating for these systems was striking. They mentioned in television interviews that they had a duty to create legislation for the primitive natives who didn’t have the capability to do so for themselves. Those who know me well will realize that some of the strongest feelings I felt were the similarities to the current living conditions of the Palestinians. Relocating citizens by force to change demographics, assigning separate facilities based on race, and on and on. It’s amazing that so recently the world chastised South Africa with divestment, sanctions and unified international pressure to protest that system of Apartheid, but we turn a blind eye to a similar situation in the Middle East today. If we don’t move to prevent the horrors of prejudices in the world, then I can sadly conclude that this museum might as well be a pile of rocks and we have learned nothing from history.

Through the entire museum another thing I took from it was the power and the will of the leaders of the African National Congress headed by Nelson Mandela, the "Madiba." I stood in an isolation cell similar to those in which many of the anti-apartheid leaders were confined. I entered the cell and began to close the solid door, but couldn’t go through with it. I immediately began to witness the feeling of stepping into my own grave. And in stepping in, I checked my spirit at the door. The cell spanned about an arms-width and had enough length for an average person to barely lie down. No windows, the only source of light being a skylight above you. Seriously, looking up made me feel like I was already six feet under. How Nelson Mandela’s ideals and ultimate vision remained intact for one day, let alone the length of his incarceration is a testament to the personal strength and vigor of a living Saint. “To be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.” Awesome.

After our trip to the museum, it was time to hit something a little more light-hearted. We intended to head into Soweto to watch the final group-stage game for Bafana Bafana, the South African National Team, at a FIFA Fan Fest (huge screen venues where you can watch the game for free), but a helpful driver next to us advised us to stay away. Generally speaking, he said, the Soweto township area can be confusing even to locals and not entirely safe for tourists. So, he advised us to hit Sandton instead, for the Fan Fest there. At a capacity of 20,000 it’s still only half the size of the one in Soweto! We knew we were close when we all were quieted by a strange noise. We opened the car window and heard the sound of vuvuzelas. Generally, I’m not a fan of them when watching on TV, but hearing the buzz of enthusiasm at the epicenter of the Fan Fest gave me a feeling like no other. I instantly became a fan of Bafana Bafana, which means “The Boys.” With a shot of national pride in my veins for a country I’m only visiting, I headed to the Fan Fest to cheer with the rest of the thousands of locals and tourists. All the pictures here were taken by Nidal.

As we approached the Fan Fest from the side along a busy street and before we entered, we saw the home team score their first goal. The reaction was ridiculous! The people went nuts, and IT. WAS. AWESOME. Cars were honking, as they no doubt were following the game on their radios, the buzz from the sound of vuvuzelas skyrocketed, and national flags waved everywhere. It was so cool! We got there just in time and I’m thankful to have witnessed it. Just as we entered the Fan Fest, we saw another goal. I could honestly have that feeling forever and it wouldn’t water it down at all. People were dancing together and celebrating like no other place in the world at that very moment. Simply put, that’s why I love soccer. There is nothing better than feeling national pride, and the World Cup is the one time when every single person in an entire country can share it more intensely and with a warmer heart than during any other experience.


We headed home, but not before grabbing a bite to eat and a few sips of wine at a Greek restaurant called Mythos. Exhausted, we watched the final game of the night at home.

Arrival

Landing at Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg signaled just the beginning of our journey. After we picked up all the luggage, customs was a breeze (took about 30 seconds), and we were so-far, so-good. Next challenges: get money, cell phone, and game tickets (I wish they were all this big)!


We met our contact and host in South Africa, Warren, who was such a cool guy and helped us with everything. He escorted us to our guest house and his pickup truck was a life-saver when you consider we rented a 7-seater Toyota for eight people and luggage (Don’t worry, Tariq enjoyed riding on the roof).

Dad hit our first cultural barrier by opening the door on the left side of the car. I admire his enthusiasm, but it’s awful hard to drive without a steering wheel in front of you. So he hopped into the right side and then learned the new controls. I think he’s used to it now, but there are artifacts of his left-side-driving ways. For instance, every time we want to turn, we indicate it to South Africans by turning on our windshield wipers rather than our blinkers. The humor in it probably won’t get old to us any time soon. So, driving on the left side of the road offers some challenges, but Dad’s doing pretty well.

We drove about an hour outside of Johannesburg taking slow and arriving at our guest house in Nigel, an area known historically as a gold mining town.


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Unfortunately, we arrived late in the night and we were all hungry, so we hit up KFC for our first authentic South African meal. The first thing we learned is that most (if not all) shops close here by 8 PM at the latest. Along the way, I felt very at-home. The highway signage is similar to the US and the road system is just as good. Suburban roadways are lined with shopping centers, strip malls, and McDonald's. Everything is in English, though South Africa officially recognizes a host of languages (IsiZulu, Afrikaans, and many more) due to the history of the region and the diversity of cultures living together in this country. We noticed the smell of burning trash and a roadside brush fire. Warren informed us that these are pretty common. Some are controlled burns and sometimes brush fires spring up, as is common anywhere with dry grasses. The smell of trash reminds me of trips to Lebanon when I was younger, and the brush fires are nothing new when you live in Southern California. After tearing through the KFC like hungry hungry hippos we hit the sack. My laptop wouldn’t work because my international adapter didn’t come with the correct attachment. It feels like I’m plugging in a nuclear reactor the plugs are so big.

Flying High

WHOO! Greetings from the flipside, and yay for jetlag (I woke up at 4:00 AM)! Wow, where do I start. Let’s split this up. Brace yourselves, this will be a long one. I’ll post it in pieces.

Transit: After a day hanging at the Spy Museum in Washington DC, we rendezvoused with the rest of the ‘zeys at Dulles and hit the skies for our sixteen hour flight. The flight was split in halfzies by an hour long stop in Dakar, Senegal where we got to stand-up, stretch and wait for the plane to be refueled. Unfortunately we couldn’t deplane, probably for customs reasons, but the break from the ambient jet engine noise was welcome. The food…eh…chicken, meatloaf, pasta—standard fare. All-in-all sixteen hours in flight was not so bad, probably because to me, air travel is still awe-inspiring.

Testing...testing...one, two (cough cough)

Is anyone out there? I'm staring at my shiny new blog and realizing that something is not quite right...It's completely empty. While the absence of posts makes the background of the blog much easier to see, I'm assuming that's not the reason you're here. I'm also what techno-geeks would probably consider to be a blogging noob (...a bloob?). So, not unlike the soccer players I'm about to see in Soccer City, I've got to do a warm-up post to get my blogging fingers limber.

I've spent the last three days at Alli's house in San Jose and had a wonderful time. Watching soccer over the past week gets me more and more excited to hit the skies for our trip to South Africa! I'm sure the Sih's will be happy to be rid of my couch-surfing ways. My 7:30 AM cheering sessions have been waking them early, and my red, white and blue face paint has been smearing onto their pillow cases. Needless to say, I'm excited. I originally commissioned Rena and Tariq to create the name for this blog, but they were lazy-pants and didn't come up with one. (With all due respect, Rena was busy graduating. Congrats to my little sis! But Tariq, you have no excuses). So, as I dozed next to the golf course (amid cursing golfers) and the pool in Alli's back yard, I thought, "It'll be nice to catch some Zs before the trip." And there it was that inspiration struck like a lightening bolt. Catchin' Some 'zeys OverSihs was born! So, join us as we embark on our exciting trip to South Africa. Along the way we'll create posts (blog), add videos (vlog), pictures (plog), and thoughts (thlog...ok I'll stop). You'll hopefully hear from all of us. Together we are known as the Eight-Team, a little less creative name that includes all six of the Hamzeys and two of the Sih daughters, Alli and Tiffany.

Tomorrow we're off to DC where Alli, Tiffany and I will spend the full day before a rendezvous with the rest of the 'zeys. From there we'll head to Johannesburg but not without first skipping through Dakar, the capital of Senegal and the westernmost point on the African continent.