A Small Breath of Africa: Scott Fry: South Africa's Most Wanted

It's been an eventful few days.

Licensing Department Strikes Again: On Thursday afternoon I received an email from the company that I bought my car from. They told me that they received a speeding ticket from 14 February (yes, they just received it), at 6:20am, as I traveled to the licensing department for the last time to get my car registered in my name (7). Due to a high collision-rate in South Africa, the government is cracking down on speeding, assuming that if you go 5 or 10 kph over the legal limit, that you are more likely to cause a crash. Failing to acknowledge the large number of 1) un-roadworthy cars, 2) rampant running of red lights, 3) total disregard for any motor law (except speeding, of course), the government decided to set up manned speeding cameras. Gerhard informed me that they used to have automatic cameras, that were set up temporarily and the police officers would retrieve them at the end of the day…but many times the camera's "walked away." In any event, I had to pay for my speeding ticket, the only problem being that the ticket was issued to the prior owner mere hour(s) before the car was officially in my name. This meant that I could not personally pay for the ticket in the post office or online. I trekked across the city on Friday and paid the company, so that they in turn, could pay for the fine.

The criminal caught in the act!

I came home after running some errands (no, no speeding!) on Friday to a piece of mail… another ticket (5km over - $20). The same police officer caught me two days after issuing the first ticket (mid-February). I take full responsibility for breaking the law, however, I would have appreciated knowing when I committed the infraction, not finding out about it six weeks later (particularly when I got tickets two days apart from one another). Bottom Line: Two days in Johannesburg = more tickets than I received in eight years of driving in the US!

Weekend: I was really looking forward to this weekend and it did not disappoint! Two of the ETAs from Bloemfontein (Nick and Andrew) came in for the weekend, arriving Saturday morning. I picked them up downtown (they took a bus from Bloem), picked up Rob (Pretoria ETA) from a different train station, and picked up Mariann (Jozi). We went on a tour of Soweto in the morning, which was fascinating. Soweto is a former black township, with over two million inhabitants. It was settled at the turn of the century near Johannesburg for cheap labor (its about 20km south of the city). It is home to many of the anti-Apartheid resistance movements and notable residents, Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu (the two Nobel Peace Prize winners lived on the same street!). Interestingly, after the end of Apartheid many families stayed in the community, so there are really nice homes (even up to $500,000), as well as state-built homes, and even squatter settlements. Our tour guide, who lives in Soweto, took us to the different neighborhoods, he explained the history, we walked through a squatter settlement and then went to the Hector Pieterson museum (he was a student killed during the protest against the teaching of Afrikaans in schools).

In the afternoon, we went to the Melville Koppies Park and Johannesburg Botanical Gardens. It was nice to "decompress" after an eventful morning… it also gave us a chance to all catch up (the last time we were all together was at the orientation in Pretoria). After a nice stroll through the park we went downtown to the SAB Miller brewery for a tour and then at dinner at the brewery. Its an atypical brewery tour, focusing more on the history of beer in Africa/South Africa, and then the growth of the company (rather than just showing you the vats and the production lines). Fascinating! After the tour/dinner, we went to Ellis Park to see the Golden Lions Rugby team play the Cape Town Stormers. It was exciting to go to a professional game and soak up the atmosphere - the Lions (notoriously bad) unfortunately lost!

On Sunday morning, Nick, Andrew, and I went to the Regina Mundi Catholic Church, in Soweto for a service. It is the largest Catholic Church in South Africa, but more importantly, it was the cover for many anti-Apartheid movement meetings (read: Regina Mundi). The service was in Zulu and English and was very different than any other Catholic Mass I've been too - much more contemporary (and much longer >2.5 hours). The singing was beautiful, however, and it was a powerful experience. After the service, we went downtown to Market on Main, which is a Sunday art and food market. It is in an old warehouse, in an industrial part of town, but is very eclectic. The food was wonderful - they had Indian, Chinese, Mexican (!), Ethiopian, French, et cetera that you could choose from, each stall set up by local chefs. They opened the art galleries to the public, had a courtyard for lounging, and it was a "cool" place to hang out. Sunday night, I made tuna pasta, with zucchini, a nice salad, a fruit salad for the three of us (and my roommates). Fun weekend! It was great to catch up with the other Fulbright ETAs and I was able to experience new things in Jozi. : )

Fun Fact for the Post: There is no isiZulu word for "late"

Soweto Tour (looking out over a neighborhood)

Squatter community

Former power plant turned into bungie jumping station!

Hector Pieterson protest poster

"Quarter" - a traditional South African food. A quarter of a loaf of bread, hollowed out and stuffed with fries, egg, achaar (mango salsa), cheese, and tomato. Looks terrible, is terrible for you ... had to try it though!