So much to talk about, with so much sleep to catch up on. Reporting from a hardline computer with no access to my own photos, so I'll post them later. Here we go.
Most of the morning consisted of "our first [insert noun] in Africa!" We arrived to our first African sunrise. We caught our first breath of African air as we hailed our first African taxi. On the way, we talked to our first African acquaintance, and noted approvingly that the soil was really as red as we had imagined when we had our first dreams about Africa.
With nowhere to rest -- our gracious host Diana needed her room to write a 10 page paper due later today -- we headed out to explore the city everyone had assured us we'd be murdered in. (Mom, stop reading here.) Johannesburg has one of the highest crime rates in the world, especially violent robberies, so we've been receiving advice all week on how to avoid scams, gangs, and other perilous situations. Our cab driver dropped us off in Newtown, one of the recently revitalized districts.
"Don't go past that block," Simon said -- yes, his name was Simon. "I'm not saying it will happen. But don't go down there." We didn't.
A recurring theme throughout the day: South Africans are getting really amped up. According to a few people we talked to, we're part of the first batch of tourists to arrive, and everyone from street vendors to customs agents seemed genuinely excited to have us there. Everywhere we went, they wanted to know: "You here for the soccer?" "You here for the World Cup?" One lady wanted to know if we were there "for the 2010." We told her we were, and continued to ask her questions about her muti, or witchcraft, shop. Apparently people regularly stop by, as they would in a supermarket, to buy sticks, roots, bones, hooves, and other parts of dead things, and grind them up into a fragrant incense to ward off evil spirits. They inhale the smoke to protect themselves. Oh, and the store was packed. Yeah. It got a little real for us.
South Africans are also really getting into flags. It was rare to see a stretch of more than 3 cars without a South African flag flying, or at least these awesome sideview mirror covers with the flag design on them. At one point, we picked a cab solely on his patriotism, and just hoped the flag taped to his hood wouldn't fly up into his windshield and get us all killed.
Another lesson learned today: Johannesburg has a lot of museums, and all the ones we saw were really, really good. The Origins Centre is dedicated to tracing humans and their ancestors back to southern Africa, and had lots of interactive language exhibits and touchable fossils to prevent it from being a straight-up archaeology lesson. The Workers Museum invites guests inside an old living compound for black workers, while tying it in nicely with the political environment that created them. And it's free!
One more cool thing about Jovi -- a thriving arts scene. Who knew? The Market Theater, famous for protest theater through the 70's and 80's, is still in operation and has multiple stages. Tickets are always less than $20, and new shows come in about every month. We also stumbled into The Bus Factory, a warehouse with its garage door half open, only to find it was an art gallery and workspace for dozens of local visual artists. One of them, with an impossible name we couldn't pronounce (but for real -- there were throat noises we don't know how to make), showed us a project the collective had been working on called "AfriCAN." The main materials were soda can tops, and they were pretty freaking sweet. Pictures to follow, of course.
And the best part of the day occurred as we were staggering home, eyes bleary from 4 hours of sleep in 36 hours. In our mental state, we were sure it was an optical illusion. There couldn't actually be 12 foot tall people roaming around on the quad. That's when we figured out they were puppets. I squealed, pulled out my camera, and asked the nearest person who looked like they knew anything what was going on. We found the right guy -- Nathaniel was a puppeteer and designer who had helped create this piece, which would take a trial run at a festival this weekend...before being part of the World Cup opening ceremony. While we took pictures with a 4 meter tall scary grandma, he told us we could come by and watch the designers put on some final touches in the workshop tomorrow.
So now that you know where we'll be tomorrow, I'm going to pass out. Successful Day 1.
