Johannesburg, South Africa 8/18-21, 2006

The Cathay Pacific flight into Johannesburg has been very nice.  The service very good.  We have both slept quite well for a plane.  The seats are somehow more conducive to sleeping and the leg room pretty good.  Janeen has used he mask for sleeping and I think it has helped her.  The plane was a little cold though and I should have had some warmer pants on.  I had to put on my jacket, had problems with the TV and couldn't get the movies I wanted.  Did watch RV with Robin Williams and it was pretty good.  Saw the end of the movie with Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton but could not get the beginning.  Watched almost all of the Firm with Tom Cruise and Jody Foster or it was the actress from Piano, I get them mixed up.  This was a looooong flight!!!!!  We're into Joburg, as they call it here, about 6:30 a.m.  I leave my black silk bag on the seat of the plane above where I stored the pack, which was not above my seat.  I had set it down to get the pack and forgot it.  I realize it waiting for the bus to take us to the terminal standing on the tarmac.  I go back up the stairs to the plane, thru all the people coming off the plane.  The flight attendants have my bag.  They comment on how I look.  I have my Aussie hat, Buenos Aires leather jacket, St. Kilda top, India scarf and silk pants, tevas and my whale bone earrings from the South Pacific that I bought in New Zealand.  The customs line is slow from many planes arriving and we move over to one we think is moving faster.  There are lots of people going thru customs.  I take my scarf off and then notice one of my earrings is missing.  I look around and can't spot it.  I should have left the line and looked where we were.  I get thru customs and ask a guy out in the baggage area about my loss.  He sends me to the counter with the attitude it wasn't too important.  I am bummed!  The people at the counter have the same attitude.  I go back and ask him about the customs agent and he says for me to talk to the supervisor who is on a cell phone visible to me.  I wait and she sympathies and lets me back in to the customs area to look for it.  I find it on the floor, undamaged in the area we were waiting originally.  I am elated, go out of immigration and hug the supervisor.  Put them in my pocket where I had them since the bathroom trip on the plane when I found the one stuck on my clothes!  Then foolishly put them on as I debarked the plane.  I have lost so many earrings and I don't want to lose them.  Into the airport and over to the tourists counter where Mpho finds us a room for 350 Rand ($53.85) at the Sandton Park Plaza weekend rate.  The money here is 6.5 Rand = $1 US dollar.  Mpho means "gift" and I tell her that is what she is to us!  She had looked and called in an area of guest houses but no availability.  Then found us a hostel called Ritz which was cheaper but only for tonight and the Park has the room available unrestricted.  She also finds us Kruger National Park for 3-nights but we are too jet lagged to take it now as it would leave tomorrow.  We get some money (3,000 Rand) at the airport and buy a calling card.  Negotiate our taxi to the Sandton Park.  The shuttle was 100R a piece and didn't leave till 10.  The taxi is 280R but he agrees to take us for 100R a piece.  The hotel is nice and out in a suburb like Schaumberg or Oakbrook of the Chicago area and it appears you need a car.  We get into our room about 10 a.m.  We regroup and lay down for a bit.  I call Amy as it is 6:38 a.m. yesterday at home and I figure she should be up.  We have a great conversation.  Amy and I have grown closer on this adventure of mine.  Maybe it's my putting my trust in her with my finances.  Not sure but am so pleased about it.  Makes me very happy.  We talk for quite sometime.  She tells me about the table pick up and how they really like it.  Bob jokes about putting it on eBay and she tells him "no way".  I talk about Harris Bank, as they have bought Mercantile Bank in Indiana where my mortgage is on the rental house in Ogden Dunes, and will let her know more what to do.  I can no longer use the debit card from that account as a new Harris debit has been issued and I do not have it, Amy does.  I try to sleep and can't so take a walk to check out the Park.  Janeen is sleeping.  Back to the room and we'll go for some food.  Go to the bar lounge and get a bagel sandwich with cream cheese but the cheese turns out to be a goat-like wonderful cheese.  I ask for more as there is very little on the bagel.  It's pretty good with tomato, onion and lettuce and capers and I have 3 glasses of wine.  Good wine too!  Sitting outside and it's beautiful.  Cooler here though 22c or 71f in the day, cooler nights and mornings.  It's August and really the end of winter here in the southern hemisphere.  I put on a warmer top and boots with my jacket, hat and scarf.  The wine is very good and 15R ($2.31) a glass and now I'm tired.  Back to the room and I'm gone @ 6:30p.m.  Janeen is watching TV.  I sleep till midnight, get up and pee, never brushed my teeth or called Kathy @ AG Edwards.  Up again @ 3a.m. to pee and brush my teeth.  Drinking lots of water.  Can drink from the tap here as well as in Singapore.  Back to bed and awake again after 6 a.m. and finally up.  Janeen is awake too.  Up and shower.  Laugh about our jet lag.  Go to breakfast.  Sit outside with my coffee and bum a cig from a British woman.  They just got in from London and told about the flying hassles now.  Their son and daughter-in-law picked them up as they live in Uganda.  Back to the room to regroup.  We're going to the mall.  I call on the tours as we discuss what we should do.  I get no answer on one of the brochures I picked up in the lobby so call Mpho again.  She gives me the name of the tour people for Kruger and I call them.  She will put tours together for us for tomorrow here in Johannesburg.  We would like to go to the caves, diamond mines, gold mine, Soweto and some of Joberg for the Apartheid history.  Yogi at the Kruger tour company says we are all confirmed and they will pick us up early Tuesday.  They will call us Monday evening for the exact pick up time.  Janeen and I get into an argument about the distance to the lobby walking inside or outside.  It is ridiculous.  I get annoyed because I'm planning everything and we get into it about that too.  I am wrong about being angry with her for the calls, as I used my calling card and I make the calls.  I really should have just ask her to do it and then washed my clothes.  I decide to go to the pool to catch up on the journal and relax by the pool.  It's too cool to swim but the sun is warm.  She will do the same and we'll "cool off".  She goes to call Tammy.  I catch up on the journal, read some of the book and then Janeen is back.  I go to the room and call Nancy and Gary with the bit of time left on the calling card.  They are not home but I leave a message.  We get stuff together and walk over to the mall and Nelson Mandela Square.  There are lost of restaurants around the square and a huge bronze statue of Nelson Mandela.  I take a few photos.  We go into the mall and find the Internet.  I write the last of Australia on the Blog and then upload pics to the Blog.  It goes fairly well and the computers here are fast.  I have a problem with one of the Cd's and the pics not opening so move on to another.  I'm able to upload the last of India with great shots of the camels.  The Internet was 100 minutes for 90 Rand ($13.85), a bit expensive, but I want to get these done.  Need to check my personal tomorrow.  We leave and go to dinner at The Butcher Block, sitting on Mandela Square .  They have wonderful steaks and wine.  The waiter brings beer sausage pieces to the table, bread, butter and dipping sauce.  The sausages are very good.  Surprised me because I'm not that crazy about sausage.  We split a Roquefort salad, have a T bone and baked potato.  The food is very good.  I have a glass of Shiraz and a glass of Cabernet.  When the bill comes I do the dividing wrong and ask Janeen to correct.  Somehow we get into a disagreement again.  The waiter comes with the bill split, I don't look at it.  Janeen says its OK and I end up paying what was originally figured.  It was a bit embarrassing and I've had 2 nice BIG glasses of wine  We walk back to the hotel and Mpho has left us a message.  Janeen calls her back with what is left on my calling card and asks her to call us back.  We will go with her tomorrow @ 9 a.m. to Soweto, Johannesburg and Gold Reef City for about 605 Rand ($93) a piece.  We're down for the count.  I'm up about 7 a.m.  Write in journal.  Have half of the steak that is left over from last night's dinner, the potato and salad for breakfast.  Mpho picks us up about 9 a.m.  We head for Soweto.  Mpho has a white PT cruiser and she is dressed in a beautiful, bright hot pink printed skirt with a nice black blouse.  She looks very nice.  We make the first stop in Soweto near the hospital and she tells us lot=s of info in route.  The cactus-like tree that is blooming is called an aloe and looks similar to our aloe but grows in a tree form.  In 1886 gold was discovered here and that is how Johannesburg began.  The yellow mountain around Joberg is what is left after they have extracted the gold.  There are 609 suburbs and 3m people living in Joberg and the suburbs.  Mpho lives in Ormondo, a new area and she has been there since 2002.  In 1896 100,000 blacks worked in the mines.  In 1904 the removal of the black people happened with the "apartheid" politics.  8,000 people were moved to empty land called "the township".  This went on till 1950's.  Diepkloof high school of Soweto, abbreviated from "South Western Township, it's an acronym.  In 1977 the uprising happened here to Soweto.  The students were protesting against the decision to teach in "Afticaan", the language of South Africa, in the black schools only.  Hector Pieterson was the first child to be shot under police fire protesting Africaan as the language of instruction in African schools.  He was 13 years old.  There were 500 children or more killed in this uprising.  Hector because famous thru this action and there is a memorial in Soweto depicting the whole incident.  They took refuge in the cathedral and also used it for meetings dressed for a sports game so the authorities would not think they were discussing the politics but instead the sort.  In 1993 black-on-black violence began with a death force of corrupt police in 1995.  These police would give money to the poor black men living in hostels to kill the people in the black homes.  There are 2 parties, African National Congress (ruling party now) and Inkatha-freedom, Zulu word meaning togetherness.  There are "match box" houses built by the government with funds from mining.  99.9% of children attend school with free eduction and free health care.  40% of the people are unemployed in Soweto.  We pass by Freedom Park famous in the 40's and 50's.  There are "elephant houses" which have roofs that look like an elephant's back, 3 residences in one building.  The residences on either end have 2 rooms and the middle has 3 rooms.  Chris Hani Bragwanat is the biggest hospital in the southern hemisphere and in Africa.  This is the hospital located here in Soweto.  It has 3,200 beds, 600 nurses and 250 doctors.  Started as a military hospital in WWII.  The university was called Vista but is not the University of Joberg.  Electricity came to Soweto in 1980.  In 1994 the black people were first allowed to vote.  They had their first black president, Nelson Mandela, a political activist from the royal family in Tembu.  There are also squatters houses built of left over lumber and corrugated steel here in Soweto.  We park the car and get out walking over an overpass taking you to the hospital and pass the people selling various foods, herbal products and guys taking the meat from huge cow heads and making a soup/stew from them.  They are whacking at them to retrieve whatever meat there is and they have huge pots boiling to cook this meat into some sort of stew sold to the people.  We stop and buy some fruit and juice and some silver cleaner from the various vendors.  Give some kids loose coins and get back in the car to stop at Hector Pieterson Memorial.  Then on to Nelson Mandela's house where he lived with Winnie.  Took a tour of his home and bought a Masai Mara bead-work necklace outside of bright African colors and also some postcards of Soweto.  We then drive past Winnie Mandela's gated home.  Many of these dignitaries have kept their houses in Soweto and moved in 1994.  Nelson Mandela's house is owned by the government now and there are daily tours.  From here we go to the Gold Reef City, which is actually an amusement park with an old gold mine that we tour.  This was the main reason for going to Gold Reef City.  We go down into the mine that is no longer working.  The levels are all flooded now below where we are and will never be used again as it is too costly to remove the water.  We are given miner's hats and lights as some portion of the mine is without electricity.  We tour the mine and he shows us where gold is found.  After the mine tour we sit on a park bench in the park and eat our left over steak for lunch.  Up on top I ride one of the roller coasters.  Janeen rides the tilt-a-wheel with me.  I get buy 2 yummy donuts with cinnamon sugar reminding me of Mrs. Smith's (Janeen's first mother-in-law) donuts.  We're late to meet Mpho at the entrance to the park but she is there talking with a friend and OK with it.  We pay her for the tour $67.86 which proved to be cheaper than she had originally quoted us. We've had a wonderful day with Mpho.  She is truly a gift to us.  Another wonderful day ended happily.  Slept in and to breakfast late.  Went to the Internet at the mall again and met Janeen @3p.m.  We went to the travel office to book our flights to Capetown, rent the car, the flight back to Durban and then on to Nairobi.  Janeen finishes with the travel girl and I go to the Incredible Connection to get the memory cards which are full put on Cd's.  We meet there as they were closing and I had to get the Cd's done.  We get some money and Janeen's transaction at the ATM only gives her a receipt, no cash!  She wants me to go with her to phone the bank.  She is assured by the bank that the funds have not been withdrawn from her account and makes another transaction getting the cash she needs.  At the phones I find a woman's purse sitting on the phone shelf.  I do not open it but take it into a shop and leave it with a clerk there.  I go back to the Internet to use up the money I have still on the card and then back to the room.  We use room service this night for a good salad and terrible pizza!   I had bought a calling card and tried to use it only to find out it had no rands loaded into the card, a problem I will have to take care of when we get to Kruger tomorrow, or in route.  To sleep as our pick up tomorrow is at 5:20 a.m.  Tomorrow is.......Kruger National Park.....and the next 3 days......Kruger.........