Joburg and Friends

Hello from Johannesburg, South Africa!! AT and I set out on our one-month journey around southern Africa and so far so lovely! We had a lengthy trip here that went something like this:

Wednesday, 10am in Atlanta boarding our flight for Cairo*

Thursday, 4pm in Cairo on our 12-hour layover, enjoying some museums

Friday, 4pm in Johannesburg, finally arriving at our hotel**

But we are here now, so it's fine! We've loved touring around Johannesburg and taking in the sights. We had a walking tour of downtown that started us down South Africa's history, including monuments to the mining history, Nelson Mandela, and the women's rights movement.

Oh, and also wildlife, architecture, and ATs.

We've also had the chance to visit some of the museums reflecting on South Africa's history of apartheid. They were heavy*** but refreshing to see how the country has embraced changing such a horrible past and how they are optimistic looking forward. The pictures below are from the Apartheid Museum and from Constitution Hill. Constitution Hill is the site of a former prison, the current Supreme Court, and a fort.****

The symbolism in the Constitutional Court is to the extreme. It reflects where South Africa has been with testaments to their now-inclusive constitution. Some of my favorite details were:

• the windows along the brick wall show only the feet of people walking by- it is impossible to tell the race, gender, sexuality, religion, etc., just from someone's feet. 
• the public may sit in on any session of the court and sits at a higher level than the justices, with the highest level reserved for the press
• there are eleven members of the court, as are there eleven official languages of South Africa. The court can precede in any of the eleven languages.

We've capped off our time in Johannesburg with day trips to Swaziland and Lesotho.***** Lesotho is completely within South Africa and Swaziland borders South Africa and Mozambique. We didn't have much time in either place but we managed to see some scenery and eat a lovely lunch.******

First up was Swaziland, or as you might know it, Eswatini.******* AT is pictured pre-pizza and I am pictured with my new favorite plant that was everywhere.

Next was Lesotho. We had lunch at a hotel/convention center/restaurant/football field that uses #sport as an entry for troubled youths and also provides them education and training opportunities. We were super into it. The last picture is the best I could do to give you a scenic overview mountain shot.******** 

Tomorrow we are off to the deserts of Namibia! More to come!

-KT

*Ah, how young and fresh we once were.

**Statistically, flying is still more on-time than when I drive places.
***And my brother.
****Because of course.
*****Points, #duh
******"Give me liberty lunch or give me death" -Me
*******Kudos to you if you did but we're all betting you didn't.
********I apologize because it's from the plane window and I hate when people post plane window pictures. Sorrynotsorry, if that's you and you've bothered to scroll this far. At least plane window photos aren't as bad as fireworks photos. Ugh. They're the worst. I avoid social media on July 5th for this exact reason. If you're a person who posts plane window and fireworks photos, I understand that our friendship is over. It was time anyway.*********
*********But thanks for reading! You were always the better friend. Even I, a monster, can appreciate that.