getting around. .

..if there's one thing that lacks in joburg it's the transit factor. it is so difficult to get around because the buses stop running early and there's not many of them.

there are plenty of van taxis or combies that you can catch and taking these are an adventure in itself. for one, they dont have physical signs on them so what people do here is they communicate with the drivers through sign language. if youre going to fourways (where i'm staying) you give them them the '4 sign, or if you're going to diepsloot (township) you make this wave gesture with your hand (they tell me it's bc diepsloot is a bumpy township), if you're going to orange farm you make this cupping gesture with your hand like you're holding an orange (luv it!), cosmo city you make a 'C sign, if you're going to downtown you point up with your index. it's all through sign language so if you're a foreigner it's confusing as hell to learn what these all mean.

another thing is that these van taxis idle in designated areas and wait until the taxi van fills up..so in actuality you can wait anywhere from 2 min to 45 min. i was thinking 'how to people get to work on time? my friends tell me they just leave early...you take your chances i guess! a funny thing too i've noticed is when you wanna get off, you just say to the driver you wanna get dropped off before the robots or after the robots. it's all about the robots here in joburg!! below is a pic of a van taxi. just ignore the bullet blasts on the side. i thought it was just really dirty at first, then saw it upclose. really it is safe in this city and this taxi van was an exception. i swear!


some notable places that i've checked that i've taken via van taxi are: sandton city; this area is a big business area that has money and has this poshy and decadent mall called sandton city mall that holds this grandiose statue of nelson mandela. im not sure who designed him but he is very unproportioned...just sayin! it's crazy because it's adjacent to alexandra which is a very impoverished township.


the apartheid museum took a couple of van taxis to get to and the location of this museum i hear is strategically situated beside this amusement park called golden reef city. in order to up the number of visitors at the museum, the city hopes to attract visitors coming in and out of the amusement park. i dont get that bc people should want to go see this museum anyway!

the apartheid museum is a must-see. it would be such a dirty shame to visit SA and not get schooled in some way on what this country had to endure during the apartheid era. it was truly an all encompassing FCUKED up time from what i've ingested. i've only scratched the surface with knowledge and talked to some people about it through this museum experience. this museum really opened my mind but really i'll never be able to properly fathom and fully comprehend what it meant to be oppressed, simply by being black or 'coloured, they still use that term here - which is strange to me! not unless i've gone through it myself during that time. i can only imagine. in fact i don't even want to. we're one. and equality, justice and respect is our basic human right.

mandela is THE man..among others who have brought this country to what it is today. another person i kept hearing about was this man named steve biko. he was an anti-apartheid warrior who was a revolutionary leader just like che guevara. he was instrumental, too, in bringing democracy to SA. he had a tragic ending unfortunately..but it was all in the name of the people's freedom. im inspired. these are some pics from the museum.

speaking of freedom, another place to see is constitutional hill. it once was the home of a prison that detained ghandi and mandela. visiting this prison and hearing the stories of what black prisoners went through during the struggle was so inhumane it shook me to the core. this tour will pull at your heartstrings...but the redeeming factor now is that the hill is now the site of the constitutional court, the highest in all of SA which deal with trials that involve the infringement of basic human rights and freedoms. there's these long windows in the courtroom so the public has access to view these cases. anyone can come and witness what's happening to ensure what happened in the past NEVER happens again. this open-concept courthouse is also beautiful because it was designed by artists, so this space is a whirlwind of creativity.



...after this insightful visit to constitutional hill, it was all about waiting for a van taxi once again. i had a charming experience with some elementary school kids. it was raining like a mother.. as it seems to be common here during this season. me and my friend simphiwe were stranded under this shelter waiting for the pouring rain to stop so we can go out and grab a taxi. so in the meantime - heavy rain, me, simphiwe and a bunch of 'lil kids in their uniforms underneath this small shelter. i had my hair in a ponytail, so these two little girls behind me kept touching it and when i would turn around they would cover their mouths and giggle. it was cute. i was hoping they would braid it!

then this little boy comes who is being scolded by his older sister saying, "she's too old for you!" i found out the boy is 8 and there was this 18 yr old girl there at the shelter who he was trying to mack. he responded by saying "love doesn't know age..i love her!" the 18 yr old grl's facial expression was priceless. im thinking i've already had a lot to take in today and watching this romance unfold before me in a bus shelter in the pouring rain was too much! this 8 yr old was beyond his years. he was relentless and i was impressed. 'the people of africa..im thinking hehe. this made waiting for a van taxi worthwhile. what a day..

lessons learned after 1 week....

....so when it rains in joburg it pours! i've never seen weather so schizophrenic before. when the sun is beating and shining one minute it will abruptly turn on you and rain like no tomorrow. you think it's going to last for the rest of the day but it'll go on for about 20 minutes straight and then the sun instantly comes out like nothing ever happened, as if to say, 'just kidding! this has happened quite a bit since i've been here. hello south african summer!

i'm in the company of a good group of guys who have been my lifeline here. i'm living with some of them for the rest of my stay here in joburg. they're all funny characters and they treat me well. one of them, nhlanhla had the best pick up line i've ever heard in my life. he tells me "...only in africa you will find the greatest love, it is here i can provide you with a family and 30 cows!" i giggled at first because how else do you react to that? and then i bursted out in laughter realizing afterwards he wasn't kidding. apparently nhlanhla's family owns a lot of acres of land and has livestock. i told him that if i did't want to live in canada so much it was something that i would possibly consider. i mean nhlanhla has a lot going for him, he's intelligent and i genuinely like him as a person, he knows how to have a good time and 30 cows would have me set for life!! then i told him how i can't cook very well-then that was it. all bets were off. there is no way he could marry someone who couldnt cook. he has an old world mentality but i still think he's mad cool!

being around a bunch of jocks i've learned that cricket, rugby and soccer (they say soccer not football) are the holy trinity of sports here. cricket season is now, rugby season starts in february and world cup is in june and july. world cup season in south africa is gonna be ridonculous. they tell me as a tourist i shouldn't worry so much of bad things happening to me because the last thing this country needs is for 'tourist incidents taking place before world cup. they want to uphold a better and safe image as all eyes of the world will be on SA during the world cup. regardless im still stringently cautious.

in this country, there are 11 official languages. the most spoken here are english, zulu, xhosa, afrikaans (what the white south african's speak that have dutch influence) and the others i cannot spell or couldn't even name! one of the first things i noticed was when i was at the airport on arrival and waiting in the customs line, one of the security guards was calling out to a woman to move forward and he called her mama. i was like that's crazy that a security guard at the airport would use that kind of urban slang on an older woman. but then i was taught that blacks use words like: mama (mother), baba (father), sisi (sister) and bhuti (brother) as a sign of respect. they're very community-based and everyone in the community is your mother, father, sister and brother. it makes sense..

some terms i've picked up: when people here speak of jay-z it is not the rapper. they are referring to jacob zuma. he is the president of the country who is zulu and has 4 wives. in zulu culture, polygamy is acceptable (i dont personally agree but who cares what i think!)

traffic lights here are called robots. when i kept on hearing about broken down robots, i was like 'what fu-shnicken robots are you talking about..where are they??' then i was schooled that traffic lights = robots. aha!

how are you? they say how zit?

i hear a lot people say what what a lot. they'll use it at the end of a sentence when they're rambling and it means "etc...or blah-blah.." like "christine is learning a lot of south african slang and what what!" lol.

another one is eish that they say a lot. i think it means damn. like they'll say "eish, it's hot" or "eish im tired" or "eish, is that what it really means? eish!"

i've eaten chicken everyday i've been here and i believe it's a staple. there's this other food that is a staple that is very south african and it's called pap. it's this corn meal cooked with water. everyone who cooks in the house im staying in will usually prepare pap. it's good but you cannot eat it alone because it's so starchy.

the popular fastfood joints here are: mcdonalds (i dont bother), nando's (equivalent to swiss chalet..great chicken!) and steers (which is like a mcdonalds but they serve better meat, so i'm told!) and debonairs pizza (kind of like amato's)

grocery shopping: checkers and pick 'n pay, they're all over the place..

drinks: castle lite beer and hunters dry (that has cider in it). i swear by these two drinks for now. they are so good and smooth..but i've yet to try the others..

these are the main things i've picked up so far...im sure i'll have a longer list by the time i leave. i have to say im having a great time. im clearly a minority here but the people i've met have been gracious, welcoming and kind-hearted. so far, i can say that joburg is not the gangster city that i envisioned. some people and the media blow it's rough image out of proportion. i know that crime and killings do exist but it's like any other big city. i steer clear from the townships (not unless i'm with people who know it) and i got common sense. really, i know i'll be just fine.

welcome to south africa...

so after 19 grueling hours including a layover, im happy to say that i arrived in joburg in one piece! i flew with KLM (a dutch airline) and my seat wasn’t the most comfy, so needless to say my body was achy..i was the last to leave customs because i decided to freshen up in the ladies room and luckily for me 3 security dudes would not let me leave until they checked my luggage. they had this machismo attitude from the get-go and would talk in a militant manner without even looking at me. they made me feel a little uncomfortable because i was the only one there and it was late. one of the guys was fascinated by a bag of canadian souvenirs that i had so i offered him one, then the other guys..and next thing i know they’re letting me pack up and I find my way out the door. i don’t want to call it bribery, but more of a gesture of canadian hospitality if you will.. hehe.

my friend thisile was there outside waiting for me THANK GOODNESS! he was worried and wondering what the hell happened to me. i told him the story and he was apologetic on behalf of those dudes. thisile and his 2 friends picked me up in their car and i was feeling pretty wonky. it was the time difference, the warm weather, how they drive on the right side, in awe of being in africa, body aches, security rattling me, and then thisile telling me to watch out for the lions and giraffes that sometimes run amok on the highway. i actually believed him for a split second. he’s such a joker but i really needed to laugh!

anyway, i arrived alive at thisile’s place where he lives with flatmates including some guys and some girls. it’s a spacious transient house where people come and go. the people i met are so friendly and all gave me a warm welcome. im staying in a gated area in a suburb called fourways where there are electric fences and its uber safe. it’s a very nice and peaceful place.

they warned me of places not to go alone and the two are: alexandra and diepsloot. these places are townships. townships are equivalent to the ghettos, shantytowns or favelas where a lot of shiet goes down. i take note and then next thing i know i'm invited to go for a beer run and told in the car that im going to diepsloot. i was kind of freaking because they were saying that they burned a guy there because the residents were xenophobes, but said it was ok for me because i was with them and the dude they killed was black from another country in africa.

they didn’t like him because he posed as a threat, as they see foreigners stealing jobs from them. regardless, that did not make the situation okay for me. my intuition told me to stay in the car; making sure all doors were locked, crouch down and hide my face with my hair. the reason why we went there was because the legit beer shops close at 8pm and the townships sell beer around the clock and it’s much cheaper. they wanted me to see what the township was like and listening to the blueprint 3 blasted in the car just made the sitch even more surreal.

later that nite, we went to thisile’s friend’s pad. his name is nhlanhla. his name is apparently very common, yet so hard to pronounce. there was a group of us where we drank beer, listened to music and danced a bit. nhlanhla's musical catalogue includes jay-z, the dream, kanye, lil wayne, drake, r kelly, chill house music, kwaito (south african house kinda style –which I like) & michael buble (which really threw me for a loop!!) we were just chillin’ and it was wicked because i felt like i was hanging out with an african version of my friends from home where we more or less do the same thing.

i was still getting my bearings since my system was still trying to adapt. i kept telling myself to get over it. i was happy to be there and tried the best i could to enjoy! i did, even though i was super tired. thisile and his friends saw that i was exhausted and took me back so i could sleep. they’re all mad cool and i feel grateful that they’re good people. i felt so good that i was able to have a good nite’s sleep where i was able to stretch out my legs and not feel like a pretzel. my first nite in joburg wasn’t so bad to say the least..and it’s only the beginning….

btw, here is a link to some pics i took already (i hope you can view): cricket

jo'burg bound.

i thought it would be a good idea to chronicle the events of this trip. i figure if i document the names of people, places and the things i learn, it would be beneficial and useful for me and others in the future in some way, shape or form.

i've always wanted to go to south africa. i'm not sure exactly why but something about it is so compelling and i'm drawn to go the other end of the world to see what's goin' on. so why not drop everything and take off for africa dave chapelle stylez!! my first stop is johanessburg. i hear it's pretty gangster like 'city of god meets 'boyz in the hood meets 'nightmare on elm st, so we'll see if this is true-if i live to tell you that is! *knock on woooood*. despite what i read and hear im still not deterred from going over, i'm a ridiculous risk-taker and no matter what- no regrets, that's how i live it up and sometimes risk taking is required.

i have no set itinerary, and i like it that way. i don't like to plan things and follow a timeline because it's restricting and unneccessary. i'd rather be a do-er and be free by living in the moment and just let life happen. in fact, i don't even want to know what day or time it is while i'm there, it'll be irrelevant only if i have to catch a bus or plane. i want to immerse myself in the culture: learn about their rich history, do things i've never dreamt of doing, eat strange food, meet new and interesting people & just go buck wild...in whatever order these things come.

my only wish is to jump out of a plane. i don't know about the logistics but i will make it happen at some point. i'll be sure to keep you posted and there will be pictures...oh yeeeeeeeah!

it'll be interesting to be completely disoriented in a strange land again. i've done little research and feel ill-prepared. but all i know is that it'l be great for me to be in a new mind-set. being out of your element is exciting and scary at the same time but i look forward to it.

my flight is 17 hrs with a 3 hr layover in amsterdam. i wish the layover was longer so i could make a cafe pit-stop in the redlight district ;] but it'll have to be for another time :[ i will meet a friend by the name of thisile at tambo international in johanessburg. im flying in solo in the late evening so let's hope he shows up because i gots no plan B!!.........*crosses fingers**

meh..i'll be good.


by the way, i saw the movie invictus and morgan freeman plays one wicked nelson mandela and i even liked his veneers!