Grooms Globe Trek . com – Kids

Soweto or South Western Township is a town near the big city of Johannesburg. After reading a lot about the town of Soweto we thought it would be a good place to see and take pictures. We figured that taking a private tour that lasted half the day would be a good idea.

The first place we went to when we arrived in Soweto was the Apartheid Museum. Our guide said he would give us three hours, to go look through the museum. “We said no, no it will only take us one hour.” But in the end the museum was so well done to rush through. It had art done by kids, videos, and displays ranging from letters, to police vehicles used to kill black protesters. The Apartheid museum also had a display on slavery in the USA and the struggle involved.

Once we were done with the museum we hopped in the car and were on our way to the school that the tour guide recommended. While driving the guide explained that like everywhere else in Africa, South Africa’s towns and cities all have the good, the bad, and the ugly. South Africa has some places where it is cleaner and more modern then the United States. It also has places that are worse then the worst parts of America.

Before we stopped at the school we stopped at a little market to purchase some apples and oranges for the kids at the school. We did not get enough fruit for all the kids though so before we entered the classrooms we turned the fruit into the office so they could give the fruit to the kids that they think deserved it. Then we went from class to class, taking pictures and watching the kids of each class sing and dance like the younger kids in Zambia.

The schooling in South African schools is a little different then in the US. If you moved to South Africa, you would have to learn a second language depending on the part of South Africa you moved to. For example if you were from the US and only could speak English, and you came to Cape Town, you could choose to learn Zulu a tribal language, Afrikaans, or maybe even German for your second language. By the time you got to middle school, you would have to start a third language.

After the school we went to a village, or township, that was considered ugly, in order to take pictures. When we arrived someone that lived in the village showed us the daycare center of the village. We pushed open the one-foot high, rusted fence and entered. At the daycare center there were about twenty little kids from the village that were looked after by one woman. The daycare center consisted of two little shacks each 20’x 10’. In one shack the babies and the lady that watched over the kids stayed in. The other shack was where the older kids played, if they wanted to play inside. Outside there was a sand pit to play in. Most of the kids were outside playing. When they first saw us they started hugging our legs and saying in their language “brother, brother.” They also followed us everywhere in the daycare centre making it hard to take pictures. We took pictures around the daycare center, but before we left all the kids touched our hands. It was their way of saying goodbye.

The day was almost over and had passed quickly. The words we are lucky to be who we are, and have what we have, echoed in our minds, after this experience.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 1st, 2005 at 1:25 pm and is filed under South Africa, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.