Just-in Africa Day 4 - 14 June 2010

Off to the Pilansberg – my original game plan was to get out early go to Sun City and then check into the game park.  But as life happens, that did not materialise.  Justin spent some time doing Uni work, I packed the car and got roped into taking an estranged acquaintance to the mechanic - sometimes being nice doesn’t pay off and just perpetuates an unhealthy situation your tying to get out of – silly girl.

En-route we went past the shops to buy Justin a costume (swim/bathing suit) and he promptly informed me, “I don’t care what’s acceptable to wear here, but I’m not buying a speedo”, my reply “Thank goodness, no one should EVER buy a speedo” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0--6l4IhHvw&feature=related I say that with sincerity, please heed my advice, NO one wants that imagine seared into their mind, wear swim trunks/board shorts.

We drove out to the Pilansberg.  The scenery of the previous day was relatively level, compared to the mountainous and hilly area we drove through today.  The Pilansberg is a mountain range that extends through the central NW of the country.

Arriving at our game farm, Justin and I unpacked the car and set off on a game drive.  In South Africa our wildlife are confined to nature reserves where they are protected from poachers.  As Justin in one of his email correspondences pointed out the nature preserve (between friends its really funny and cute) had the big 5; rhino, lion, leopard, buffalo and elephant.  We saw 3 out of 5, unfortunately we saw none of the cats.

Driving through the reserve down a long straight road I looked out ahead and saw a large grey van coming closer to it and with it still a bit far away I casually mentioned to Justin “is that an elephant?”  Standing in the middle of the dirt road was an elephant, just staring at us, he eventually crossed the road and stood amongst the trees eating dinner.  My Africa!

As our late arrival rendered us unable to go to Sun City during the day we decided to head out for dinner that night.  Sun City/The Lost City, is a hotel and casino resort with a water park and the Gary Player golf course, built to attract tourists to the NW Province, where there is nothing, the Sun City Superbowl (concert hall) has seen the likes of Michael Jackson and Elton John performing there.  We ate dinner Justin had a meat platter, you name the meat it was on there and I opted for the more lady like meal, as approved by the Queen, ribs!  Which I did eat with my fingers – I’m just that kind of classy.

After dinner we played on the kids arcade machines – a game of air hockey, my favourite sport, which Justin and I tied on.  Unfortunately there was no chance for a best 2 out of 3 because the machine swallowed the disc and wouldn’t give it back.  We collected our winnings and like the mature adults we are got sweets for them – Gobstoppers and Nerds.

We did make it for the shaking bridge – which is lame, but as an advent of the 70’s you can’t expect much.

Justin’s version of events

http://nogimmickneeded.blogspot.com/2010/07/south-africa-trip-days-5-6-semi-safari.html

Just-in South Africa Day 3

Sunday 13 June 2010

“Where to today boss?”

“A 45 minute trip out to the Tswaign Crater!”

Setting off at 8 am to go and see a crater, created by a meteorite about 220 000 to 52 000 years ago. We drove and we drove down the highway past a toll gate, looking at the gorgeous African landscape, that I love driving through, imagining it before modern man inhabited the continent, the wildlife that would roam the plains, then thinking to the original Koi-San (Bushmen) that lived here, to the tribes that drove them out of South Africa and then to the Dutch Voertrekkers or the Boers that moved up through this area to settle as they tried to evade the British that had taken control of the Cape. Thats where my mind goes on car trips.

We drove through a township that smelt like a public bathroom. Stopping at a local Spaza shop (corner store) to ask for directions and ensure we were heading in the right direction.

We got to the crater and hiked up over the top to look out over the crater and then hiked down into it. There is a salt dam at the bottom. Despite the traditional story of a meteorite hitting the earth – who would believe that Justin and I used our logical sense to determine that the crater was infact created by the mother ship when it came down to earth to drop off the lasers for the building of the pyramids, yes South Africa is miles away from Egypt, but they were also using google maps to navigate, enough said!

Our next stop the Union Buildings. The gardens are beautiful and the architecture of the building is amazing, however you can’t go inside because the building is not open to members of the public. Justin and I got to meet Zakumi and take a photo with him, and according to Justin and his command of the Spanish language I had a few Mexican admirers. I should have paid more attention to my Spanish cd’s when I was living in the US. Ola!

There is a central square in Pretoria modelled on Trafalgar with the coolest buildings around the square, the old architecture style is beautiful, and makes you feel like your in Europe. It’s inspiring to see heritage like this in a country where Europeans often feel that their heritage is something to be ashamed of.

Our final Pretoria stop was the Voortrekker Monument, my Oupa (grandfather) would bring me and my sister here. Its a monument dedicated to the Dutch that moved up from the Cape (to get away from the British) and find their own land in Africa. My fear of heights and uncertainty of the spiralling staircase forced us to take the elevator to the top. The Voortrekker Monument provides a great view of Pretoria. A small skylight in the roof allows a ray of light to shine down onto a tomb, once a year on December 16th, the sun illuminates the words We For You South Africa.

We finished our day off with a trip to Sandton City, crowded with soccer fans and insanely busy. We went to watch drumsticks, an interactive African Drum show. It was different to be able to play musical drums with the ‘cast’ I did however expect more but nevertheless it was still good.

Justin's version of events.

http://nogimmickneeded.blogspot.com/2010/07/day-4-south-africa-trip-off-we-went-to.html

Just-in South Africa Day 2b - Saturday 12th June.

...continuation

Following the power of google maps, Justin and I set off for Soweto from Gold Reef City. The sketchy directions lead us to BP where we asked a local petrol attendant how to get to Soweto. The attendant proceeded to tell us “Its so easy.” Where by he gave us awful directions, which he kept changing and finished off with “Eish, I don’t know – ask someone else, its so easy.”

We came into Soweto past the Chris Hani Baragwantha hospital, the largest hospital in the world. Driving past the Orlando Power Station, now decommissioned, the power station supplied electricity to the rich Northern Suburbs in Johannesburg, whilst the people of Soweto had no electricity. Then down to Vilakazi Street, the only street in the world where 2 Noble Peace Prize Winners have lived – Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Walking down Vilakazi Street there were a group of Dutch tourists dancing with some locals dressed in their traditional Zulu outfits.

We went on a tour of Nelson Mandelas house, where he lived with his first wife Evelyn Mase and later with Winnie Madekezela Mandela. The house was redone about 2 years ago, having seeing it originally in 2004 and 2006 the renovations now make it seen impersonal. Originally the main room had a double bed in it with a jackal hide bed spread, which show cased Mandelas clan claim to royalty, and among other things a chest with a pair of Mandelas boots. Now the room holds a single bed and a photo of Zindiziswa and Zenani (Nelson and Winnies daughters) as adolesecents reading on their beds. The ‘new’ house is apparently a better reflection on how Nelson and Winnie lived, but for me its lost something that was originally magical about being in Nelson Mandelas house.

We then went to the Hector Pieterson Museum. In 1965 the children of Soweto protested Bantu education – the apartheid government had imposed Afrikaans as the medium of education for all black children, regardless of whether they knew the language or not. The protests were supposed to be peaceful but something went wrong and the police opened fire on the children, Hector Pieterson was the first child to be shot. The image of him being carried by another boy with his sister running next to him is the iconic symbol of the national holiday know as Youth Day where we remember the children standing up for their rights.

Justin and I having finished off our day with out breaking for lunch – a new habit that would leave me finishing the week off thinner than I had started it out. We went to Melville to eat at Soi, a great Vietnamese restaurant, to my shock and disappointment it had closed down. Justin and I settled for Melon, I couldn’t tell you what the cuisine was, or what we ate, but I think the food was good. The wine was definatley good. After dinner we went to the South of Joburg to watch the American vs England game. Yet another trip that rendered us lost and driving around in circles.

Justin's version of events
http://nogimmickneeded.blogspot.com/2010/07/south-africa-trip-day-3-jozi-tourism.html

Just-in South Africa Day 2a - Saturday 12th June.

Justin’s first day of waking up in South Africa, to an itineraized day - as mentioned earlier, I had the whole day planned by the hour, roughly. I had the prices and contact details of the places we were going to along with maps from Google and relevant pamphlets I had picked up, all packed neatly into my flip file. I don’t think I’ve ever been more organised for anything in my life. But no matter how much you plan something, the gremlins get in and things get thrown off course.

Our first stop was a tour of the gold mine at Gold Reef City – fitting as Johannesburg was founded due to the discovery of gold. Nicknamed Egoli (meaning gold) by the African migrant labourers that worked in the mines. We were set for our tour at 9am (as informed by the website), problematic as we would discover Gold Reef City only opens at 9:30, and the first tour starts at 10:30. Thrown off by an hour. Standing in the queue to buy tickets Justin passed a comment about the kids with bare feet, I believe it was “They should let you in for free if you’re brave enough to go to a theme park with no shoes on.” Surrounded by Afrikaans people I decide to leave the comment and insight about the type of people who don’t wear shoes until we were in an environment that proved to be less offensive to anyone in earshot.

The architecture of the original buildings in Gold Reef city is awesome, sending me down the nostalgic road of Bourbon Street, New Orleans-a city I love (hmmm, blog about this to follow). We went on the tour of the gold mine, with two British people and 3 Chinese men; equipped with hard hats, issued with mining lights and into the elevator (is there mining jargon for the lift that goes into a mine shaft?). We went down to level 5 (225m), all the levels below this are flooded (it's a 54 level mine – I think). I have realised I’m a decent height for mining; I don’t need to bend down in the low roofed sections. Fast facts, I believe and if memory serves this Crown Mine is the deepest mine in the world, in addition to it housing a bar/pub on the 5th level, the deepest pub in the world; it can be hired out for functions. So if you’re looking for a unique wedding or party venue I’ve found it for you! It’s my pleasure.

Justin and I then went to the apartheid museum. Issued with Identification Documents that label you as Black or White, you’re segregated into the museum through a white’s entrance and a black’s entrance. This simple instruction drives home the feeling of what it might have been like to live in a world that was segregated, to elevate one person over another based on the colour of their skin. We went to the temporary exhibition of Nelson Mandela which was great but by the time we were done with that and entered the museum, we were museumed out, thus the apartheid museum lost its true effectiveness in translating the shock and horror of what apartheid meant to South Africans.

There are some powerful images in the museum a room with nooses hanging from the ceiling, communicates the number of lives lost for those who fought the regime. A huge Casper the police used to enter townships, complete with bullet holes in the windows. Stories of people being necklaced (a man gets put in a tube of rubber tyres that are set alight and he burns to death) because he’s suspected of being a spy for the Nationalist Party (the political party in power during apartheid) and various other atrocities shown on video, I can’t name them because it was too horrific for me to watch – how can people do that to each other, how much rage and hatred needs to fill your soul to be able to hurt each other like that? I don’t understand it. The thoughts and images of the pictures and footage I’ve seen spring to mind.

....to be continued

The power of Music

Its amazing how a song can take you back to a place, when I lived in the USA I had 1 cd downloaded from a friends myspace page www.myspace.com/russellmichael when I listen to the music now, it transports me back to life in the USA fills me with a sweet sense of nostalgia.

“hate me” my first, Russell Michael song and the first song on my pc! Living in northen California, that tiny room with the day bed and sliding doors onto the balcony that overlooked a horse paddock and the beautiful countryside of Cool, CA.

"have you ever" we're in Cool, CA and I'm watching a home made music video of this song - makes me smile everytime.

"easy road" for me paralles the beatles 'long and winding road' ethereal and hypnotic - driving through the canyon and up the mountain pass through the tree covered roads of NoCal, the sun breaking through the trees onto the road, as the shadows pass over my 2005 VW Jetta.

“your my first thought in the morning my last one at night” living in Haymarket Virginia in my basement room.  Putting album 45 into the cd player and climbing into bed, to have this song lull me to sleep.

“dont stop keep on going” driving my ford explorer through Virginia, to swimming practice, the library, the metro or on an outing with Ryan my 6 year old aupair kid singing in the background.

"physical - i love to just look into your face" because this post would be incomplete without mention of it, mid afternoon and late night skype video conversations an intangible friendship multiple time zones, continents and oceans apart, a friend with a virtual shoulder to cry on.

“Sometimes societal expectations make me sick”

This status is loaded posted by a girl who is sick because of the expectations our society places on woman. The expectation to be skinny, because thin is beautiful – really?
If I drop a kilogram or two below my current weight I look awful and sickly, people literally come up to me and question if I’m eating or if I have an eating disorder. Now I don’t diet, I eat and drink whatever I want and really don’t worry about it, in addition to avoiding diet soda like the plague – if I’m drinking soda I want real sugar.

I am unable to identify with what goes through the head of a girl with an eating disorder – why she feels the need to eat excessively and the throw it up, or exercise to a point where she burns more calories than she takes in, avoids food altogether or diets excessively. Its just something I really don’t understand.

The irony of the girl who posted this is she’s anorexic, excessive exercise, bone thin to the point where she is bordering on being skeletal. She definitely has body dysmorphic disorder, when she looks at me and compliments me on being thin, when she doesn’t have an ounce of fat on her teeny tiny body.

An eating disorder is the scariest I’ve ever seen – to be so fixated on meeting a standard that you’ve set for yourself – a warped unattainable goal that will kill you because you’ll never reach it, because every time you look in the mirror you see fat and ugly. My heart breaks for her, especially as its not something anyone around her can fix she needs to fix it but she needs professional help to get it right.

I imagine it’s physically painful to be that thin and emotionally and mentally exhausting. The issues she deals with daily that make her stick to her regimented training and eating programme go beyond meeting a beautiful worldly standard. I don’t know what psychological forces drive her – acceptance, love, admiration, praise?

I’m at a loss, because I don’t understand it, I don’t know what drives her struggle and I’m not equipped to know how to help her – 4 years of studying psychology have clearly not paid off.

Love

We are all flawed and love as best we know how.

(more thoughts on this to follow, when I havent been awake for 22 hours straight)