joburg: here we come!

On Monday 25th, we went to Sci-bono discovery museum. In the entrance, there was a pilot jet and a climbing wall .

The guide led us upstairs and he explained about new energies and sustainable sources and we rode a bike to turn on a light. 

We went into a laboratory and a scientist made some experience like changing the color of a liquid, or blow into a ballon with a liquid mixture. 

We rebuild a jigsaw puzzle of the African lands, also did a brain teaser and a test for color blindness. 

During the afternoon, we stayed at the hostels, chilling around the pool. 

Théo and Corentin 

This morning, we woke up at 6 am after a strong thunderstorm night. 

After 3 hours of bus we arrived at Pilannesburg Safari. It is a natural reserve of 453 kms square located in an old volcano. 

When the park first opened, they introduced 6000 animals, but today they let them live and reproduce naturally .

We saw 2 of the Big Fives: elephants and rhinoceros. We also saw giraffes, snakes, hippos, chacals, impalas, gnus, zebras, kudus, tortoises. 

The guide, Nico, was very experimented and he pointed a snake attacking a bird nest. 

After eating, at 1pm, we went to Sun City: it's the Las Vegas of South Africa. 

There were palaces, golf, aquatic park, waves swimming pool, casino, ...

We enjoyed the swimming pool and the refreshing games . We enjoyed sensational slides!

Matteo and Erwan

This morning, we went to the Apartheid Museum. 

There was non-whites and whites entry on our tickets. There three benches at the beginning on which we couldn't sit because they were part of the non-white history. 

On top of the Museum we saw the seven pillars of the new Constitution. During the visit, we took colored sticks to represent the quote from Mandela that moved us the most. 

After lunch, we went to a shopping mall and bought food for tonight: we are in charge of the meal!

In the afternoon, we visited the FNB Stadium. We walked among the 90000 seats, especially the President's one. 

Raphaël and Sylvain

At 10am we left the hostel for a visit of Soweto (SOuth WEst TOwnship). On the way we stopped for some petrol (14R/L). Unlike in France, the employee filled the tank. Afterwards the guide showed us the FNB Stadium that hosted the first match of the 2010 Soccer World Cup. Its location is symbolic because soccer, contrary to cricket and rugby, is for Black people. 

Soweto has a rich area, a middle-class one and a poor one. We walked in the slum where a woman invited us in her house. The roof was made of tin. There was no electricity and the people got their water from a common tap. Soweto is the biggest township in the whole Africa and 80% of its population are unemployed. 

Next we visited Nelson Mandela's house where he lived before he was imprisoned. It was a typical three-room house with toilet in the back. In his street lived a second Nobel Peace Prize: Archbishop Desmond Tutu. 

Then we visited the Pieterson Memorial which commemorates the death of students during the 1976 Soweto uprising. They had refused to be taught in Afrikaans, Afrikaaners' language. 

Tiphène and Liliana