Around the world in 70 days or so: Stranded in South Africa

Well, I should be on a plane to Australia right now, but I'm kind of an idiot. I went to the airport to fly to Australia last night and realized a bit late that I would need a visa. That means I get to enjoy this fine city til Monday at least. It hasn't been such a bad trip though. I will head to Pretoria tomorrow so that I can get to the Australian Embassy first thing on Monday and hopefully will get out of here by Tuesday...we shall see.

Here are the highlights from Johannesburg:

Last Sunday I decided to go to Faith Ways Bible Church with Hector, the owner of the Transit Guest Lodge. We arrived at 9:00am to a singing, lively congregation. Many of the songs were in Zulu, but I didn't mind at all. Hector would translate every now and again. The music was so powerful that I was brought to tears at least 2 times. I was quite sick that day, coughing a lot and I had a runny nose. It was pretty terrible actually, but a woman 2 rows in front of me showed up miraculously with some kleenex. I felt very taken care of. Then, a woman preacher got up to do her sermon. She spoke with a passion and made her points with her whole body. She preached half in English and half in Zulu. It was amazing. Her message? How God provides in unexpected ways. Here she is driving a point home.

By noon, the sermon was still going on and I was getting pretty sleepy. Hector whispered, lets go and see the Apartheid museum. I enjoyed the service very much, but was thankful to be done with it after 3 hours.

The Museum was great with lots of videos and interesting exhibits. I learned a lot about the history of South Africa.

After the museum we picked up Hector's wife and sister and headed to Nelson Mandela's house. The street in Soweto is in the Guiness book of world records for being the only house in the world to house 2 nobel peace prize winners; Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu. Mandela's house has been converted to a museum as he moved 11 days after being released from his 27 years of imprisonment. It was very cool to be in the pressence of greatness.

After a tasty traditional South African meal, my day ended with an interesting cultural experience at Hector's parents house. Hector's brother just got "engaged" having just paid the parents of the bride and they had a party to plan. I sat patiently as I listened to them negotiate the food and decorations. I loved it and was happy for the unexpected opportunity to witness a bit of the culture here.

Yesterday I spent another day going around Johannesburg and saw a bit more. I went to the highest point in Africa, a whole 50 stories above the earth. Here's the button on the plane and the view of Jo'burg from one of the windows.

Another visit to Soweto brought me to the Freedom Charters of South Africa. 10 beautifully written laws stating that all humans should have equal rights, all Apartheid laws should be abolished, and the government should care for the weakest of the society. Again, cool to be in the pressence of greatness.

After all that history, I decided it was time to play with some baby lions, so I went to the lion park. It's a bit like a zoo, but you drive through the lion cages like being on a safari. Actually a bit cheezy. I did get to pet baby lions though, so that's awesome.