A different Africa.....

Arrived Friday evening after a bumpy flight but smooth on the details: no lost luggage, no delays, seamless pick-up. Slept like a log the first night and have now spent two days touring urban Jo-burg and Pretoria, the administrative capitol of South Africa, with our very congenial group. Highlights: the Apartheid Museum (feels like a spooky Holocaust Museum), the Vortrekker Monument in Pretoria (reminiscent of the Mormon Center in Salt Lake City - there are similarities in the religious zeal -and the covered wagons-that drove Mormons west and the Vortrekkers north), a visit to a deBeers diamond mine (lots of cameras to make sure we didn't pick up a stray piece of the matrix which might still contain a diamond), and lunch in a Soweto shebeen. Learning lots of history and seeing many positive signs of a nation in the process of healing. They are also polishing up for the Soccer World Cup which is being played here this summer - and the Jo-burg stadium was built to resemble a Zulu calabash! So far, this is a very different Africa from the very rural Africa I so enjoy. High rises, four-lanes, traffic, but tomorrow we head into the bushveldt!

For a map and a picture of the South African flag, see http://www.theodora.com/wfb/south_africa/south_africa_maps.html