Durban!

So it's been nearly a week since my last post... been a little difficult to get to the Internet cafe... Anyways, let me sum up the last few days we had in Pretoria.

Wednesday: Voortrekker Monument and Freedom Park. One's an Afrikaner monument to the Great Trek, and one's a monument to the diversity of the new South Africa.

Thursday: We visited the Hector Pieterson Museum, which commemorates the June 16th uprising by students in Soweto, a township southwest of Jo'burg. We also visited the Apartheid Museum, though our visit was cut short because it closes at 5 PM! Both were very moving museums, though I thought the Hector Pieterson Museum was much better.

Friday: Visited US Embassy in Pretoria (looked like a prison), and stopped at the Union Buildings.

Saturday: Drove the 7 hours from Pretoria to Durban

Sunday: Walked the beach of the Indian Ocean - our flats are two blocks from the beach!

This week we've been visiting schools. Monday was the Clarewood Primary School for Boys. I got to sit in a 6th grade classroom and listen to a lesson on raw materials, finished products, imports & exports, and trade balance. The second class held a discussion about the xenophobia in South Africa. The teacher kept saying that South Africa needed to be good neighbors to the other Africans, but the kids responded that they were taking jobs, committing crimes, and needed to go home. However, I found out that they love the Chinese... I'm still trying to figure that one out. I signed some autographs and tried to explain where Michigan was using my hand.

Today we went to Summerfield Primary School - a former Indian school that is still primarily Indian, though there are a number of Africans, mostly Zulus. The teacher spent most of her time talking to Ed and I, so we didn't see much in the first class. The second class was in isiZulu, so it went over my head. But the lunch they made us was amazing. South African hospitality is incredible. For a school that considers itself impoverished, it's amazing how much they are willing to spend on a bunch of American kids. No way would an American school return the favor.

South African schools are interesting in that they receive little funding from the government. Instead, parents pay school fees. Schools such as Summerfield charge 200 Rand a year (just under $30), yet they are lucky if they have 20% of the families paying the school fee at all. Richer schools charge up to 16,000 Rand a year. School fees makes it so that education split on racial lines during apartheid has transformed into education split on socio-economic lines in the new South Africa. We're traveling to a former Model C School (white privileged school during apartheid) tomorrow, and the difference in resources should be ridiculous.

I added a bunch of new pictures today, just about everything mentioned in this post is covered, so check them out.

Hopefully I'll post again before another week passes. Saturday is the game park, so I should have some great pictures then, too.