An evening in Johannesburg

Today was my first full day in Johannesburg. I spent most of it sleeping. D'oh! Jet-lag is a bitch. I fell asleep around 10:30 PM and woke up at around 4:00 PM the next day. I woke up a couple of times in between, mostly because of Vicky crying, but I fell right back asleep. I kind of feel bad that my hosts were hoping to show me around all day but only got an evening. They said not to worry about it, though, and had a good time showing me about.

Henti, Bronwen, and Vicky took me to a casino, where we didn't gamble, but we window-shopped and ate out. It was a good time. They had the ceiling painted to look like a sky and the architecture of the place made it look like an old European village. Mostly I just liked chatting with my hosts about South Africa and the differences between here and America.

Not to sound like a complete American, but some of the stuff they said about the way things are here just seems really backwards to me. For instance, after we left the casino, we went on a drive around Jo'burg, and in that drive, we passed a fairly large shanty-town. These are places, villages, made up of shacks that are thrown together from whatever materials a person can find, where families of ten to twelve people inhabit a hut not much bigger than a car, and have no running water, but there's a satellite dish on their roof, or a BMW parked outside the hut, and chances are the people have the latest cell phone and flat-screen TV. It just doesn't make sense to me. And the people who live there have no motivation to get out and better themselves because what's emphasized is not quality of life determining status, but owning consumer products. And nobody's doing anything to change it, because the government, who has the power to enact this type of change, doesn't want an educated, free-thinking public, because then they'd lose power. It's all very bizarre.

The fruit I couldn't remember the name of last night is called naartjie. It's delicious. Also, today I had a monkey gland burger. Despite what it sounds like, it was actually pretty good.

Vicky is an adorable child. She was so good while we were out today, and Henti and Bronwen let me sing her to sleep when we got home. I love having conversations with my hosts about their country and about mine. It's such a great thing, going to another country. I know this next sentence is probably going to make my dad go slightly more gray than he already is, but I like traveling, and I want to travel more.