I had to get to a computer as fast as possible after my day. I can't even explain all the things going through my head, much less organize them in some fashion, so bear with me.

Jessie and I did our lonely planet guide book reading about South Africa and Johannesburg in particular. We mentally primed ourselves to be prepared to get robbed, and thanks to my mom, we were reminded via email about ithe country's reputation as rape capital of the world. We were a little heavy hearted coming in on the flight yesterday morning as you may imagine, but like always, we were excited to have made it to yet another country. It didn't help that neither one of us slept much on the way down from Cairo, or that the airline lost our luggage and it was slated to rain for the next few days, and us without anything but the clothes on our backs. We of course took the humorous approach and joked with each other this morning about which outfit we wanted to wear and apologized for taking a long time in the shower since we had to shave and exfoliate (all a joke of course).

We were reinforced in our primed fear of Jburg when our hostel owner had us leave everything but a few rand in the safe before we departed on a 5 minute walk to the local mini mart. She also made us promise not to walk any farther than the market. We both looked at each other and said "where the hell are we?" Nevertheless, we did as instructed and were unscathed. It was definitely a shock to go from the locked down compound right on the edge of the white neighborhood to the local market bustling with people, a supposed threat.

Anyway, as you may tell by my skepticism, I am still unnerved by how recent the apartheid was in power and it is still very obvious, even in one day, to feel the existing tension and unease among people. But that's a whole fish I might have to fry in another blog. I'll try to sum up things more concisely at the moment.

This morning Jessie and I set off to the Top of Africa. Aka the 50th floor of the Carlton building in downtown Jburg and the top most man made point in Africa. We were accompanied by our tour guide Mandla, probably the most well humored South African we will meet in our journeys. Originally from Soweto, he has impeccable English, and kept us entertained and our heads reeling with information as we skirted around the city to what seemed like a million destinations.

He took us to Soweto, the infamous place of student protests in 76 when they protested against Afrikaans becoming the language of instruction. Don't I sound smart and informed? why do you think I had to get to the computer so fast, so I wouldn't forget the lines I was told today! Anyway, Soweto stands for Southwest townships, because it consists of 54 townships southwest of Jburg. From what I'd heard, Soweto is the ghetto of ghettos. We went to Kliptown, a reputable township that has been supported by the NBA to promote education and help feed children in the township. We had another great guide Enka, I'm sure I'm spelling that wrong, but he lead us through the township, explained the systems, showed us where the SKY program was located and enabled us to get a glimpse of something unreproducable. Man my english is bad, maybe that's not even a word. Anyway, I can't even explain the feeling when a boy about 4 ran up to me and looked me in the eyes before wrapping himself aroudn my left leg in a huge bear hug. I put my hand on his head and he remained there for a full minute, both of us enjoying the unexpected treat of a foreign presence in our lives. Not more than20 minutes later, we were greeted again by two young girls atop a roof that shouted, "muyyamba", white people in zulu, amidst smiles and waves. Our guide laughed and grinned as he explained it meant white people, but there was no distaste or ill intentions behind their word, just a simple statement of truth. I could have spent all day in that town, learning more zulu words and listening to beautiful jazz music coming from a shelter. Simply amazing. Made me realize how far I've come from my trip to India where I was mentally sheltered and hesistant to interact or smile for fear of offending people. Now I can't stop myself from making eye contact and saying hello as frequently as possible. And I'll admit, I have been dancing in the street multiple times today, once when Iheard Usher coming from a car as we walked through Kliptown, and another as we walked from Nelson Mandela's house and I heard 2pac coming from a car on the street. I was caught both times of course but the latter situation encouraged the young mansitting next to the car to join in my dancing. We made eye contact and it was another hilarious and unexpected moment of familiarity in a place that I primed myself would be so foreign and uncomfortable. Not true.

Among the other amazing experiences of today were visiting a memorial to a boy killed in the '76 protests, visiting the apartheid museum, and enjoying the sun and wind on my face as I stuck my head close to the open window while traveling on the freeway. Almost makes me tear up at how lucky I am to see such unexpected and amazing things in such a short span of time.

My other strong emotion of the day was disbelief and sickness when witnessing and hearing about all the destruction of the apartheid regime. Makes me wonder about the human race and why we have to always be more superior than something else. Why can't man just be happy to have opposable thumbs and be able to grasp quantum theory and wonder about stars at night. Seems cheesy to say but it's my latest emotion. My spirit was renewed though when I found a kindred spirit had voiced my stance in a wall hanging denoting "All humankind emerged from Africa. Therefore all humans are, ultimately, African."