Formule 1 Johannesburg East Benoni

We landed in Johannesburg at 6am, after a long and turbulent flight, so were very pleased to see that our hostel was a traditional backpackers, complete with sofas, DVDs and a kitchen- a huge novelty after the guesthouses of Asia which have no self-catering facilities. A quick trip to a local supermarket and we were happily munching marmite on toast and drinking Rooibos tea, in front of the Test Match, live from Lords. Heaven- we could have been in our own front room! By ...

... wait too long to marry get too established in their ways and find it more difficult to compromise. There are many other cultures around the world who have similar beliefs about marriage, and their rates of divorce are much, much lower than in the U.S. Additionally, the dearth of family structure is also apparent here. In the townships of South Africa as in the inner cities of the U.S., marriage is the exception and the outcomes are tragically similar. My ...

... We also drove past Desmond Tutu's home in Orlando West, a neighbourhood in Soweto, and Winnie Mandela's home (the ex-wife of Nelson Mandela). Nelson Mandela's former home in Orlando West has become a museum and we also stopped there. I also went to the Apartheid Museum in the afternoon after the tour and it is a great museum to go to understand what people went through during that period of time. When pay the entrance fee you are given a ticket that states ...

... at Sun City and the cricket team was banned from international competition. The thing that gets me is how it could have lasted for so long. It's only been 12 years since the Nelson Mandela-led African National Congress party took control of the country with a new constitution. Of course things don't change overnight and there are clear racial divisions with many of the whites still coming across ...

... load of laundry, we headed straight to bed. October 12 - Jo'Burg and Soweto 6:30 came quickly, but we were excited for our tour of Soweto. At 7:30, we began our tour which included all sorts of information about Jo'Burg as well. This city has some very important history: gold mines, Rivonia Treason Trials, fall of the economy during the sanctions, demonstrations...the list goes on and on. We stopped briefly at a traditional pharmacy. There were all sorts of hides of animals hanging ...

... won't come with me, necessarily. Huh. But I do want to go to Mozambique. I texted Tom (of PT, currently in a project out in the sticks near Umtata) and he's up for that. So maybe. Anyway, back to my early morning. To get involved in the village more I am getting up at 5 and going over to Sugarbush (mixed-sex youngest house, with Mom Tiny in charge) to help get them all up for school. They need to be on the transport by 6.30. 16 kids need to be woken, washed, dressed ...

... a highlight, but certainly something odd. On a trip to the bathroom at the Centre, I reached for the toilet paper roll, only to notice a piece of print in it. I guess it's made of recycled paper or something, but I would have thought any ink was removed... Either way, the word 'Moses' was clearly there on my loo paper. How bizarre.

So, this is how my day goes at the moment: Up at 7am to wait for the transport. By transport I mean that bakkie from my First Day entry, or the pick-up (for the extra wind-blown look). Sometimes it smells of fish, sometimes you slide around on squished vegetables, and sometimes there is a bed or washing machine in there too. Anyway, that's the transport, which, I might add, can turn up any time between 7.30 and 8.30. It may be falling apart, but somehow it manages to come and go very ...

... schools: Lee Rand, Felicitas, Hans Moore, Northmead, Lesabe, ???????, ???????. Lee Rand is only round the corner so Terri goes and walks them back to the centre. The bus picks up from all the other schools and brings them back to the centre. When it stops, the kids from Lee Rand jump on before it goes to the Village. We walked back to the village and did homework. My first solo lesson! It went fine, thankfully. I had to ring Sunshine to make Ralph send Siphiwe across. For ...

I woke at 6.30 this morning. I can't blame jet lag, as British time would have made it 4.30am. At a more sensible time (8.30am) we took a rather uncomfortable ride to the Centre (the collective name for the offices and Bridging School) in the back of a truck, called the Bakkie. The floor was covered in what looked like vegetables, and smelt like rotting vegetables. Avoiding contact involved squatting on open floor or perching on the wheel bumps ...