My First Couple of Days in JO-BURG

Hello All!! I realize I have been absolutely awful with updating this blog recently; however, I had been busy frantically studying for my final exams and then hardly a second to pack before we were off on our excursion! This past week I spent 4 days in Johannesburg, one of the other major cities in South Africa, and then three days at Kruger National Park where I went on multiple safaris!

While in Johannesburg we visited many museums and did lots of sight seeing in the area. Jo-burg is quite a drive from Cape Town so we took a two hour flight to get there. On our first night we checked into our hotel called the Westford Suites, which I have to say was luxury land compared to the pool house where we stay in Cape Town! We had AC, comfy full beds, and a bathroom with a mirror in it! Oh not to mention lots of hot water to take showers with! Needless to say we were spoiled! That night we had dinner at Trumps Grill in Nelson Mandela Square where there was tons of restaurants and of course a giant statue of Nelson Mandela to pose in front of, lots of fun!

The next day we hit up a bunch of museums incluidng the Hector Pieterson Museum and the Nelson Mandela Family Home. The Hector Pietereson Museum is a museum honoring the Soweto Uprising and the death of Hector Pieterson, a 13 year old boy, who was shot and killed during the protest. The Uprising occurred in 1976 and happened because students refused to be forced to speak mainly Afrikaans in schools because it was an oppressive language and associated with apartheid. It was so heart-wrenching to see the pictures and videos of all the violence that occurred during this time period, especially because it was not so long ago. Definitely an emotional experience.



After that we visited the Nelson Mandela Family Home, where Nelson Mandela and his family lived from 1946 into the early 1990s. Inside the home there were many different artifacts that Mandela and his family used throughout the year along with pictures of the family. It was definitely a once in a life time experience to actually step foot in the home of a Nobel Peace Prize winner!










Today I had one of my most favorite meals here in South Africa. After a morning of touring the Hector Pieterson Museum and visiting Nelson Mandela’s Family Home we had worked up quite an appetite. Vernon took us to “Wandi’s Place,” a delicious buffet of traditional South African food. The buffet consisted of spinach, beans, butternut squash, mashed potatoes and various different meats including spicy beef, beef, chicken and lamb. Also, the traditional South African “pap” was served which is pounded yam and quite delicious! The meal was great, but the most unique part of Wandi’s was that the walls (and ceiling) were completely covered with different signatures and business cards from restaurant goers over the past ten years. We found the signature of the Uconn nursing group that had come before us and of course had to leave our mark next to theirs! Hopefully the next group will find our signatures and continue to carry on the tradition!


After lunch at Wandi’s we had a tour of Soweto/Kliptown where we were allowed to walk around a bit and see the exact place where the Freedom Charter was established which is today called Freedom Square. The Freedom Charter was written by the people and is the base of the Constitution that is used today.