Nelson Mandela Square

A few nights ago, we had dinner with some other missionary couples at the Nelson Mandela Square where there is a large statue of there of Mandela as well as some billboards and other commemorations. Most people know that Mandela was a famous South African activist who was key to bringing an end to apartheid and also an advocate for human rights throughout the world. After witnessing years of inequality and oppression, he became a member of the African National Congress party in the 1940s. He led both peaceful protests and armed resistance against the white minority’s oppressive regime. His leadership was seen as a threat and resulted in imprisonment for twenty seven years. Even in prison, his influence continued and he became the face of the antiapartheid movement both within his country and internationally. Due to world pressure, he was finally released in 1990 and helped orchestrate the eradication of apartheid. After a life of hardship, he became the first black president of South Africa in 1994 and helped his country transition to a free society. Due to ill health that resulted from his years of confinement, he retiring from politics in 1999, but remained a devoted champion social justice around the world. He died in 2013 at the age of 95. When you drive through Johannesburg, you can see the evidence of the love and appreciation that his country has for him in signs and banners and by the frequency with which his name is used, such as on Mandela Square.

South African Babies

Babies are cute in any part of the world, but the ones in South Africa seem especially so. Maybe it’s because we miss our own grandchildren so much or maybe it’s the contrast of those big bright eyes with their dark coloring. In any case, they are really cute. Here are just a few pictures of some of the babies that have been in the church meetings we have attended.  

Montecasino Bird Aviary

Coming from Las Vegas, we were interested to find that there is at least one very large casino in Johannesburg called Montecasino. We wanted to go there, just to see how it compared to Vegas. No surprise, the casino itself it pretty much like any other. To me, it had the feel of the Luxor because it is felt closed in even though it was very large and in the shop area, it had used the painted sky idea that is used in Caesar’s Palace. There are no pictures here of the actual casino floor because they didn’t allow pictures there; that was interesting.

The real reason we went to Montecasino though, was to see their huge bird aviary. It is he only one like it in South Africa, maybe all of Africa. It had a bird show—sort of like a Sea World show, and then there we were free to walk the grounds with 60 species of beautiful African birds. There were also some reptiles and mammal that were fun to see. My daughter, Amie likes to take pictures of birds. A good memory was sitting with her in our "park" while she waited for pictures of the bluebirds. Because of that, I thought she and her PegBuddy family might like to go along with us on this adventure. The photos would have been much better if the flesh and blood Amie had been along, but these are fun just the same.

The casino with painted sky (sorry having lived in Las Vegas, we're hard to impress with casinos :)

Sophia's friend

and Haley's

Caleb wanted to ride the iguana, but it looked too hungry.

Amie got a little too close to the parrot while she was taking pictures.

and Paris had a hard time getting away from this guy too.

a hornbill

pelican

African owl

pretty parrot

This is their national bird--a handsome guy

and you know this one--he sells cereal on the side :)

Hair

When women go on a trip or prepare to live away from home for a long time as senior missionaries do, they think not only about how they might like their destination, but how their hair will like it J Even though I love South Africa, my hair doesn’t behave well here—it has just enough curl to be frizzy in the humidity and in the front, it does this funny little wave that looks like I’m trying to do an impression of a 50’s film star. I notice that white South Africans wear their hair quite short or they have it in ponytails or tied back in some way most of the time. Black women, though, with their curly to kinky hair, create art with their braiding. I wish I always had a camera handy to take pictures of the many intricate designs that I have seen, but here are a few examples of their beautiful braids. The last picture is a guy so they sometimes braid too.