track our trek

we went on a day trip to soweto the next day. mandla escorted us first to the "top of africa". at 50 stories, it is africa's tallest skyscraper, & from the lookout at the top, we got our only look at the full city of johannesburg. then we headed for soweto, joburg's largest township. we met thulani in kliptown, a sprawling shantytown that's representative of the poorest sections of south africa's townships. it is very sobering to see people living in acres and acres of shacks made of scrap metal and corrugated tin. with no electricity throughout most of kliptown, people use car batteries to power small appliances. with only 12 water taps in the whole settlement, one tap serves about 50,000 people!! dozens of families share one port-a-john...thulani grew up in kliptown and now works with SKY (soweto kliptown youth organization), which runs programs to provide meals for children, teaches classes in computers, and offers a small library where kids and adults can come and do schoolwork. from kliptown, we drove past winnie mandela's sprawling house on the way to the nelson mandela house and museum. a stone's throw from kliptown, this section of soweto is full of modest houses w/ plenty of german cars parked in driveways...the mandela museum is housed in the house nelson and winnie shared before he was sent to prison. there are some interesting artifacts, but the house and its displays are in dire need of some restoration. letters and certificates on display are damaged and faded from sunlight. it's a bit sad to see. by contrast, the hector pieterson museum is a clean, modern building with lots of photos and information about the 1978 soweto student uprising. south africa has a a fascinating history of political activism in the last half century, and the changes that have taken place in the country in the last 30+ years are interesting to see...