DAY 138

Before I go any further I would like to wish my daddy a very happy birthday, with many hugs and kisses. So before going any further please sing along (you can sing in you head if your to embarrassed)
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR DADDY! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!!
Today I went to MuseuMAfrica, Constitution Hill, and the Apartheid Museum. MuseuMAfrica is a museum about everything and anything to do with Africa. We start at this one exhibit that has a video and then photos of the birth of Johannesburg. From drawings of the first settlements, to a town that looks like it came from an old Western, to a little bit more civilized town and how it all revolved around the market were the cattle were sold. I think that’s funny a whole big town revolved entirely on cattle. Then how it just kept on growing to what it is today. The pictures in the middle were really cool looking and then in the middle of the room where photographs of different places and people taken around Johannesburg and its suburbs, these photographs were amazing, they were so beautiful, had with lots of impact. Then there was also this exhibit on some of the South African tribes. That was really cool since they also have some of the artwork of these tribes. Then the rest of the museum was just other exhibits of different African things, but the aforementioned were my favorite. The next place we went to was Constitution Hill. Here besides the obvious, things like the court house, etc… there is also a prison there, both a women’s and a men’s prison, all here in the middle of the city. Though they aren’t used anymore, they are now open to the public. Now you probably wondering why on earth would someone in their right mind want to go to a prison on their own free will. Well here is your answer: there have been many politically famous people who have made these prisons there home for a while. One of the more famous of the lot was Gandhi. It was really neat I got to be in the same room that Gandhi made his bedroom, were he ate and were he went for his daily dose of fresh air. IT WAS AWESOME! On the was up to see the courthouse, which I was looking forward to seeing, since apparently it has a really pretty interior, but it was closed, we saw something that we were totally not expecting. So my guide and I were walking around the corner and we saw 7 or 8 men all dressed up in very nice suits standing face towards the brick wall and a small group of people taking their picture. You could tell that this was a professional shoot, because of the camera equipment that the photographers had. But there was just one thing that was off; all the men had their pants dropped. So when I tell you that what we saw when coming up to the courthouse, you now see why. My guide said that the picture was probably some sort of modern interpretation or something of what happened to the prisoners. See one of the things that happened in the prison was that everyday the prison guards would have all the prisoners line up against the wall, butt-naked and then one-by-one have each one do something embarassing, well even non-embarrassing things become embarrassing, when your but naked and being humiliated by the prison guards. Well after finishing the visit, we went to our last stop of the day, the Apartheid Museum. Well this one one of the coolest museums ever. After paying we get two cards, my guide, who's black get the card that say European (white), and I being white, get the card that says Non-European (non-white). Our first place we go to there is a security gaurd that looks at our cards and shows us which door to go through. This was done so that you could get a feel of what it felt like haveing to go through seperate doors just because of your skin color. Now even though we had to go through seprate ways through the first exhibit, they were the same things that we saw. We then went up this large ramp with the huge, life-size mirrors, with people on them. These people are people who were around during the Apartheid or ar decendents of people who were alive during the Apartheid. Oh, forgot the first part was inside and the ramp was outside. We then take these spiral stairs down one floor and into the main museum. We walk in and go to our right, well we can't go left because it's blocked off, so our only option is to go right. We entered this small circular room that had about 20-25 posters. Each poster was hanging from the ceiling in an outside circle and then an inside circle. On each poster would be a picture of a white, colored, or black woman on it with a brief story of what she did to help stop the Apartheid where she was. If you hadn't already guessed, all these women were some how in politics, either it be themselves, a spouse or family member, or even a friend. In the next room over, which was much bigger there was a picture gallery of the Apartheid. Through the years, throughout the countyr, and in all different points of view. The part that I thought had the most impact was the different points of views. You would see pictures from the blacks and colored's point of views and the next to it would be the same issue but in the whites point of view. After this we went into this small auditorium and watched a brief movie about the Apartheid. From there we went to the rest of the museum,which is a whindy pathway in and out of different rooms. This part of the museum, had pictures, movies, 3D sculptures, and even real artifacts from the time. The neat part about this was that it was like walking down a timeline. After this experience, there was this one last little room with recent paper clippings, from all different types of newspapers from South Africa. All these paper clippings were from things that happended that has some link to the Aparthei or is Apartheid-like in nature. When I ssaid that these were recent clippings, I wasn't kidding, they were todays papers. At first I saw the date and said, wow look it's the same date as today, November 12 isn't that cool. I then blinked and said "Wait a second, that's also the same year. Holy shit, these are today's papers!" This room led into this small, but very tall room, that had these huge boulder-type rocks and then on the wall had a huge South African flag, and on the opposite side of the room a large glass wall, with some peace poem in frosted letters. After this I was taken back to Guinea Fowl Lodge.