Wilgespruit

Don't bother with the name of the post, it's Afrikans and it's the name of the place we stayed in Joburg before driving on out to Bushbuckridge. It was a wonderful little spot on the hillside in a suburb of Joburg, and the staff were really nice and warm people. A Christian institution, it played a large role in the struggle for equality and enfranchisement in South Africa and has been touched by many important figures in South Africa's most recent history, since 1950.

Jan, our new country coordinator, lined up some great speakers. He even managed, through some contacts, to work with Wilgespruit and line up a former minister of Law and Order from the apartheid regime, even though as a speaker he wound up being a nutty blabbering missionary, in effect.

We went to two particularly memorable museums, the apartheid museum and one commemorating the student riots in the mid 1970s. Both of them reminded me of Holocaust museums in their presentation and style, which was interesting and unexpected. Fun fact: as in the States, the Jews of South Africa played a major role in struggling against apartheid.

Now I've been in South Africa for almost a week, and the broader arc of the trip is beginning to show itself in a very cool light. The towns around here are quaint to be generous, and hospital access, while present, is not necessarily close. Also, today we had a briefing that essentially listed all the animals and microbes that could kill us, and coupled with poverty this created an intriguing situation. My goal has changed from not getting sick to not being bitten...

But the drive to Bushbuckridge was beautiful and the area itself is amazing. Today, for instance, we saw an elephant just wandering on the side of the road. How pleasantly surprising... and totally not possible in Chicago.

The group is getting more close knit and the plethora of intellectual backgrounds represented on our program is beginning to show in the understandings people bring to the table. I'm still waiting for the South Africa aha! moment, but I know it's coming and in the mean time I'm enjoying the ride.

Adios.