January 9

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The Union Building 

This morning we started at the Union Building, which was described as the equivalent of our White House. It is the official seat of the South African government and also houses the offices of the President of South Africa. It was very cool to see given the architecture and history of the building. Since it sits on a hilltop, it overlooks a beautiful garden, with a statue of Nelson Mandela, and has a panoramic view of Pretoria. Molefe explained to us that after 1994, there was a lot of controversy on whether the building should be torn down or not. The site is preserved and is now a symbol of unity and reconciliation. 

Freedom Park

    From the Union Building, we got the opportunity to visit Freedom Park. Our tour guide gave us a lot of insights into the different perspectives, controversies, and views of the Park. We started at the Wall of Names which was a memorial to those who lost their lives during many of South Africa's conflicts, from early wars to the liberation struggle. The scale of the wall was very jarring to see the large number of people who sacrificed in the hope of justice and equality. As we moved throughout the park, we also got to see a spiritual area and ended in a museum. Overall, I think this site really underscored the complexities of South Africa’s history. 

Lunch

    For lunch today we stopped at the Freedom Park museum restaurant. We had a very nice buffet of a variety of food and drink. It was very nice to eat together as a class and get a short break after our long excursion around the park. It also didn’t hurt that this was arguably the best food of the trip so far. 

    The social committee also surprised Linnea with a cake for her birthday. The cake was a very good carrot cake with a great frosting, but yet again was too large for the class to finish in one sitting. Successful lunch!

Alexandria and Sandton 

After lunch we began our trip back home from Pretoria, but we made sure to stop in two places on our way back. First we stopped at the Alexandria townships in the Sandton area. This township is mostly made up of the South Africans who work manual labor in the upper class neighborhood of Sandton. The living conditions were well below ideal, and the roads were very filled with terrible potholes. It was quite sad to see the conditions that so many South African people have to live in.             Then we drove 3 blocks further away from the freeway, and it looked like a different world. The wealth was almost blinding, if this isn’t a strike example of wealth inequality I don’t know what is. We stopped in the Sandton mall which multiple students said reminded them of Beverly Hills. We drove around and saw a lot of very nice houses including the estate of a former South African President. It truly was a different world from the Alexandria townships. Overall today was successful, and worry not we made sure to stop for the bathroom any opportunity we had.

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