March 9 Southern Africa

Hello fellow world travelers,

I am in southern Africa with 100 passengers. We started our journey in Johannesburg, South Africa. In Johannesburg we learned of the culture and the Apartheid era and movement against Apartheid. We visited Soweto, an acronym for south western townships. this was the place that black South Africans were forced to live. Today all South Africans can live anywhere of their choosing but many choose to stay in Soweto. We visited Winnie and Nelson Mandelas house, the Hector Peiterson Memorial, the Apartheid Museum and we had lunch at Wandi’s. Wandi’s is a Sowetan Soul Food Restaurant in the heart of Soweto.

Also, during our visit we donated food to the Motswaledi Informal Settlement. We selected 100 families most in need and we handed out food parcels. We then stopped by one of the grade schools and donated school supplies. Thanks to Pam Nelson & levy Home Entertainment for their donation of 4 cases of books and 1 case of copy paper. A special thank you to Cherly Burton for her donation of a computer for the school.

We then proceeded over the river and through the woods to Botswana. We arrived at the Zambian Airport and transfered by ground to the Zambian Border and then across the river to the Botswana border. By Landrovers we transfer to our lodge, the Chobe Safari Lodge. Our accommodations were rustic but far from roughing it. We did 2 land safaris and 2 boat safaris. On these safaris we saw lots of elephants, giraffe, lion, kudu, impala, hippos, baboons and other wildlife. We continued our journey to Zimbabwe and visited Victoria Falls, one of the natural wonders of the world. The falls were specatular and yes we got very wet. The adventurous of the group went bungee jumping.

We finished our time with a Namibian Village Walk. we learned about the culture of the village.

Now we are in Durban, South Africa, our last stop. Our first day we went to the Valley of 1000 hills, and as the name suggest, we saw rolling green hills and beautiful landscape. we also went to a crocodile farm.

Today we went to Shakaland. This is the movie set where Shaka Zulu the movie was filmed. It is now a living museum. We learned about Zulu culture and the different tribes of the Zulu nation and of course the story of the famous warrior Shaka Zulu. We participated in the dances. What a time.

Tune in the 1690 WVON or online http://www.wvon.com/ to listen to the discussion of our trip.

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