Meeting Locals and Sightseeing

Today we visited Constitutional Hill (where Gandhi and Nelson Mandela were imprisoned), the Hector Pieterson Museum, Mandela's House and Motsoaledi, Soweto.

This is Mandela's House!


At Constitutional Hill AKA where the Jail Complex was they had this really neat interactive exhibit of sorts where you could move rocks from place to place and write your own personal message on them. This is me and my somewhat failed attempt with my uniball pen, ahha. FYI Uniball pens are not meant for writing on rocks.





Motsoaledi was our first direct encounter with poverty, and it definitely made an impression on all of us, but especially the mentees.

This was our first sight on the bus:



Here is a picture of us with a few local kids. They were all thoroughly excited to take pictures with us and see them on our digital cameras. I was a little bit uncomfortable when they all asked each of us for money, but realized it was just because of their exposure to tourists, and their high expectations from us. All of our kids don't carry money, and I guess it is good to teach them how to manage their money, or else I'm sure they would all have extra empty pockets right now! The kids asking for money was no different than the kids asking for money from tourists in New York City.



I interacted the most with a local named Bheki (his English name is George). He adopted his son Edgar when Edgar was 3 years old. He was already confirmed HIV positive. Bheki told us the story that Edgar's grandmother and Edgar were walking around in the same area as Bheki when Edgar ran up to Bheki. Bheki said it was absolutely love at first sight, as Edgar just clung onto Bheki. Today, Edgar is 10 years old—strong and healthy.

This is Bhaki and Edgar



Marie and Jasmine both noted how happy people were considering how little they had. The most surprising thing for Marie was the home we visited today of the mother. She had four kids, one bedroom, and a very small common space. During our debriefing, Marie asked if we could help the mother specifically, and Malaak responded that we would be helping many others similar to that family. Similarly, Karen mentioned how we can't necessarily help everyone. It was heartbreaking for a lot of the mentees, and Malaak took it into consideration. Hopefully, for the next Journey for Change. Even the mentors were a bit disappointed.

We ate at Wandies which is apparently a famous restaurant here for local cuisine. It was very delicious! Most notably, however, were the box of condoms we found on the floor. I have seen condoms in public bathrooms in other countries, but still find it extremely notable. The condoms were free, and you could take a pack of 6, or a single one. The only other place in New York that I regularly pass by that is like this is probably NYU's medical center, and oftentimes the RAs of dorms. The girls were a bit embarrassed to know that I was going to include condoms in my blog, but I guess it is one of those things that I personally found interesting, and when I explained it to them they totally understood. (After all, with such a high concentration of HIV/AIDS positive people in one country, it makes sense that they would try to encourage safer sex in any way possible!)

I had some really great talks with my two girls about how I am not their counselor, but rather I am their mentor. I guess a lot of them don't realize how seriously the mentors take it. We are here for them. We are only committed officially for a year—but I know that our bond will last for much longer!