Shona found many valuable moments that made her happy she had this opportunity

Being able to travel to Johannesburg and Kruger for a week was a nice change of pace from the Cape Town life, though there is no comparison. Cape Town is still my favorite, and by the last day of the excursion, I was feeling home sick for Cape Town's breeze and Table Mountain out of our front door. But the trip held many valuable moments for me and I am very happy we went. Kruger was incredible and I am very happy I did all of the game drives that were offered, but this post is going to focus on Johannesburg. 

Johannesburg was a different kind of scene than Cape Town. I felt much the same entering the city as I had felt entering into Cape Town, and that is that they are not that different from cities you see in the U.S. or in other parts of the world. I expect something that feels like I am far away from that, but it never seems to be the case. In comparison to Cape Town though, it was very different. The vibe was different, but I can't quite say how. The poor areas of town looked different, and because of the flat geographical situation, it all seemed smaller somehow, maybe even shorter in a weird way, than Cape Town. But it was still a metropolitan area, and the skyline gave that away. It was a mostly "a plain old" city. 

Hector Pieterson Memorial

I think that the activities planned for us were really valuable in coming full circle with our studies in Vincent's class. Seeing the Apartheid Museum, the Johannesburg Prison, and the Hector Pieterson Museum were what I found the most enjoyable. The Apartheid Museum really provided a huge amount of information and real life examples, pictures, artifacts, and so on to allow the Apartheid to come alive at your fingertips. Seeing the "Free Mandela" propaganda was my favorite, because it really showed the amount of support and anti-Apartheid sentiments there were in the country. I found the Johannesburg Prison really powerful because of the famous historical figures who were kept there, and because of the hierarchical dynamic that existed between prisoners and gang members. I didn't realize that there were so many unspoken rules in prisons and among prisoners. I especially thought the Hector Pieterson museum was powerful because of the visuals that made up the entire museum. I am personally a visual learner and found it most important seeing the pictures of the uprisings and even Hector's body being taken from the scene. I felt like I learned the most from this museum because we were allowed to tour it on our own and gave us the opportunity to read everything and explore at our own pace. 

Something that struck me the entire time we were there though was how unassuming all of these museums looked. It was history in plain sight, and if you weren't looking, you probably wouldn't have seen any of it. I think that it relates back to what the women were saying on our Slave lodge tour, is that you can pass some really important places in history, and not even know it. And that is what I took away most from Johannesburg, is that the most obvious things can be what you're staring at, but if you aren't really looking with intention, you'll never see anything.