Rav's week in Jo'burg was an emotional and reflective time

The week we left for Johannesburg was, I think, the perfect time to leave Cape Town and experience a new city. I was getting almost restless in Cape Town; it was really weird that the giddy feeling of waking up was basically gone. It was almost normal to be living in Cape Town.

Joburg was really cool; the atmosphere was different but similar in ways. It still felt like a city, but everything was more spread out in Gauteng. The cities, like Sandton and Joburg and Pretoria were like 45-60 minute drive away from each other, with a lot of rural areas between. While in Cape Town, it seems like the entire 40 mile radius around table mountain is urban, with rural areas stemming away after that.

In Sandton, where we were staying, it was definitely apparent that it was the richer part around Joburg, where everyone was white and had business suits on. However, Sandton was also the only place I've really seen rich black people. And the shopping mall at Sandton were filled with people of all races that were dressed so nicely and were shopping in expensive stores.

The experiences we had in Soweto and Sharpeville were the most impactful that helped me better understand the history and politics of South Africa. The museums we went to were my favorite part, where I had a chance to walk around and see and read the photographs and personal accounts of what happened during the massacres. The Hector Pieterson museum and the Sharpeville Memorial Center hit me hard. To go to the cemetery where the victims of the Sharpeville massacre laid to rest was overwhelming. Sixty-nine headstones were in a long row. I said a prayer for each one.

The hardest day had to be going to Constitution Hill. I can't even imagine the pain and torture inflicted on political prisoners and even those prisoners that were held there for petty theft. It was interesting to find out that Mahatma Gandhi was held prisoner there. I would like to read more about his time in South African politics and his time spent as a prisoner. I wonder how he was treated.

Overall, the week spent in Joburg was an emotional, reflective time. It really put into perspective how much pain South Africa went through to achieve basic human rights(and still goes through). The week has definitely humbled me, and renewed my energy in many ways to keep pursing a career in social justice and human rights.