Hooray Tourism!

The scene in Melrose Arch for the Bafana Bafana-Uruguay game





Cooling tower bungee jump





There's a lot of history in Johannesburg, and we took some time off from just going to soccer matches to visit some of the most important and influential places in the shaping of the new South Africa. First up was a trip to the Constitutional Court and the famous Number Four prison.
As the tour guides put it, these two places are deliberately placed right next to each other in order to show the ways in which the new South Africa is informed by its history. The oppression and suffering that happened right next door are constant reminders to the justices of the court of the new standards they must protect. The court itself is constructed partially of bricks taken from the wing of the prison where prisoners awaiting trial were held. I was particularly impressed by the massive wooden door to the court, which is engraved with the 27 principles/guarantees/rights of the new constitution in all eleven of South Africa's official languages. The court is very impressive, and it is genuinely comforting to see a country so aware of its past as it tries to move forward. It would be such an easy thing to try to brush aside, or even ignore completely. However, learning from past wrongs has helped the country progress as it continues to heal. Seeing the manifestation of this growth in person was a really wonderful experience.
The next day, we had a really nice afternoon in Soweto. Though we won't be taking a tour of the township until later this week, we did have an opportunity to stop at a very cool shebeen and take a long visit to the apartheid museum. The shebeen is situated underneath two huge water coolers (think the towers around a nuclear power plant) that have since been completely covered in artwork and converted into a bungee jumping business. Though none of us dared take the 100+ meter plunge on this frigid day (about 38 Fahrenheit was the high temperature), we enjoyed standing around a fire and snacking on some of the native cuisine. After we were all sufficiently frozen, we climbed back in the car and headed to the Apartheid Museum.
We took the self-guided tour, and to be honest the two and a half hours we spent in there wasn't enough. There's just so much to see, from the origins of the racial tensions in Johannesburg all the way through the 1994 elections and the TRC, that we easily could have spent hours in there. In the same way that the constitutional court was a lesson in learning from history, so too was the Apartheid Museum a wake-up call to the horror that occurred in getting South Africa to where it is today. With all the past hatred we had laid out plain in front of us, I cannot help but admire the leaders of the new nation even more than I already did. To forgive and reconcile differences in the name of the greater good is easy to say, but to actually live that philosophy in the wake of such inhuman behavior is something I know I could never do. They took the ultimate high road, and sacrificed retribution and personal satisfaction in the name of rehabilitating a country torn apart. We all could take a lesson or two from leaders like Mandela.
The evening activity was a bit more lighthearted, as we reserved a table in full view of the massive outdoor TV in Melrose Arch. The heat lamp was a delight. The piazza was packed, and the spirit of the people was unbelievable. I don't mind the vuvuzelas that everybody seems to hate so much, and they were out in full force. The fans here have been really amazing so far. The entire country has really embraced their team, and everybody I've talked to who lives here has said that the volume of flags and general national pride has never been higher. On game days the entire country shuts down; people don't go to work, school, nothing. It's all about Bafana Bafana. Unfortunately, they were completely over matched by Uruguay. It looks like they won't survive the group stage, which is really too bad for the host nation. I've been really impressed by the fans, and have been pulling for the team to do well. I just hope their elimination doesn't dampen the country's enthusiasm for the World Cup, which I'm optimistic won't happen.
That's more than enough writing for now. If you read all the way through, I'm impressed. Next on the update agenda is USA vs. Slovenia, followed by the currently in-progress trip to Cape Town. For more immediate (and brief) updates/photos on what I'm doing, check out my Twitter account @dcsibor. Until then, I'm off to watch some soccer for a change!