Remains of Apartheid

We drove by some of the neighborhoods that had been demolished during apartheid. We drove through and stopped at some of the townships which were where a lot of the informal housing (South African for Shanty Towns) was.

I took a photo of a plaque in front of a museum that memorialized this part of South Africa's history. I have video too but haven't had a chance to edit the videos yet.

It was a bit odd to be a tourist of poverty and legalized oppression. I took lots of videos of just miles of these informal housing-- shacks made with corrugated metal for walls and rooftops.

The South African government is working to turn the informal housing in those townships into more formal ones. The trouble is that it is quite difficult. Not only were there a lot of folks in these townships originally (meaning when apartheid existed), there are a lot of immigrants now who end up settling in to the informal housing "system" of these townships (from within the country, its neighbors like Zimbabwe, and other countries within Africa like Burundi) because so many are poor.

Unemployment is at about 24%. Schooling is also a major problem in South Africa (according to a major international study, the TIMMS, in 1999, they were ranked dead last in both math and science as compared to 38 other countries; they did not participate in subsequent studies). As a result, many folks do not have the skills their industries need. There is a lot for me to process (am still processing it) but my entire trip was all heavy. In fact, it was one of the most touristy (and least "heavy") trips I have taken in a long while. I lived mostly in the rich tourist bubble and had a chill fun time. It is just that I started to reflect on this aspect of the trip now and so a lot of the heaviness is coming to me post-trip.

It seems I can only figure out how to upload one photo to one post at a time. When I try to upload a second photo, blogger seems to freeze up on me. Any one have any suggestions on what to do?

For now I will only post this. So more posts in later days.