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Today was an interesting day. We had the opportunity to tour around the city of Johannesburg and learn about the history. We started the day by touring the Township of Soweto. Soweto is about 20 minutes away from Johannesburg. We saw many things there. We went to an informal community, this informal community was an impoverished neighborhood. This community was two minutes away from one of the biggest malls in the Southern Hemisphere. It was sad to see how this neighborhood was situated in the middle of a developed area. The informal township was an interesting experience. The people decided to give tours of the area to earn money to help make a living and raise awareness about the community to others. They said we could take pictures and ask any questions we may have. It was so hard to be in such an impoverished neighborhood as a tourist. I just wanted to help out in some way. It did not feel right just walking through this neighborhood and doing nothing to help. At the end of the tour I was saddened to see a KFC across the street. It was cool how they were willing to give tours so they could make some money for the community.

We continued around the township of Soweto, and went to the Hector Pieterson Museum. Hector Pieterson was a boy who was shot during the time of Apartide by the Police. The Goverenment wanted make Afrikaan the country’s second language, the language they would use formally, and the people wanted the language to be English. The police began to get aggressive, in turn the students got aggressive. The police began to shoot guns which ended up killing Hector Pieterson. It was interesting to learn about the apartide. It is similar to the segregation in the United States except South Africa segregated tribes and the United States segregated people.

We ended the day by going to the Voortrekker Monuent this was an incredible monument, but also extremely controversial. It celebrates how the South Africans conquered the Zulu and the Dutch and now had control of the country. However, this also represents the white supremacy that took place during the apartide. There is debate whether the building should still be torn down or it should be embraced for other reasons. With that said white people are a major minority here in South Africa, everywhere we have gone there have been far more black people then white people. The only black people that were in that memorial was our Professor and our Student Life Coordinator, Reegan.