South Africa: Soweto

playing soccer

 While we were staying in Johannesburg we visited Soweto which stands for SOuth WEstern TOwnships.

government housing

   In Soweto we took a tuk tuk tour. A tuk tuk is a small three wheeled vehicle that is used as a taxi in some countries. We passed a school right at dismissal so we played soccer with the kids in the street. They won but it was still really fun. after the soccer game we visited the men's hostel. Hostels were neighborhoods where they separated men and women during the apartheid. The men's hostel is quite dirty. We visited the  butcher, he was getting a cow head ready for eating. The smell was really strong, and many roofs were made with asbestos which is dangerous for humans. Near the men's hostel were big, fancy buildings that the government had built so that the people in Soweto could live there, but they wanted the people to pay for it so nobody could afford it. There are still guards today.

   We stopped at a little shack to eat chicken necks and feet, they were really good. Then we visited the women's hostel which was much neater and cleaner. Last but not least we visited the Mandela house, (the place where Nelson Mandela grew up) and the Hector Pieterson memorial and museum, a memorial to the Anti-Afrikaans Soweto Uprising led by schoolchildren in 1976.

houses

                                        I think Soweto was a good experience and it was eye opening
                                        on how different other people's lives can be.