Well yesterday we got stuck into the whole tourist caper. Early in the arvo Anrie, Anrie's sister Sanet and Sanet's boyfriend Leon took me to see the Voortrekker Monument, a building built in memory of the Voortrekkers (pioneers) to mark where they stood to make stand against the British and indigenous tribes in the mid 19th century.

The story is quite interesting - the Dutch settled South Africa in the 1600s, but only around the cape, because they were mostly only interested in it as a great place to set up a port for shipping from Europe. A couple of hundred years later the British decided they wanted the cape and came to settle there too. To avoid war the Dutch (Boer - meaning 'farmer') people decided they should move on and they pushed inland, thus becoming the Voortrekkers.
They had some battles with some African tribes, and some peace treaties, and one peace treaty with the Zulus that led to the betrayal and slaughter of the Voortrekker's leader and many of the men, women and children. And somewhere along the way diamonds and gold were discovered and so the British pushed them further away so they could claim the that too. The Boer war broke out around the turn of the 20th century, the British were the organised side building forts and the like, while the Boers were really like underground guerillas.
Before one of the great battles (not sure if it was against native Africans or British), the Boers made a vow to God that if they would win the battle that day then they would forever commemorate that day in thanks and praise. They did win, and now the "Heritage Day" is still commemorated on December 16th every year.
Inside the monument there is a small hole in the high ceiling and a large stone block laid down in the basement level. Every year on December 16 the sun shines through the hole in the ceiling and onto the words on the stone that say "For you, South Africa" (in Africaans).

After looking around and through the museum, we briefly checked out a British fort and then drove through the centre of the city over to the Union buildings which were built (by the British I think???) to run the country from. They have a nice stately design and love lovely gardens out front too. The daily early-evening thunder storm told us it was then time to head home.

During the arvo, as we drove around Church Square in the centre of town a guy started whistling to us and pointing. I asked Leon (the girls were in a separate car now) as we drove past what that was about and he said the guy was directing us where to park, after which he would ask for a fee. I said that sounded a little daft because there were parks everywhere and anyone could see them, so there's no service being offered. Leon agreed but made that point that it was worth paying still just in case you returned to your car to find it scratched.
When we arrived at the Union building there was another guy again trying to point us to park. Leon parked just before we reached the guy, but he still came over to us. I didn't catch everything he said, only heard some phrases like "it's not a demand, just a request". Noone gave him any money then, but when we returned to the car he was over to us again, this time telling us he was begging for money, saying he was already 19 years old and still being oppressed. Sanet gave him some change and Leon passed comment that he should change his sotry and we left.

On the drive home neither car was really sure of the way to go, and we ended up getting split up. Leon and I wound up driving straight past a squatter area (called Mamelodi), a slum-like place that squatters have just taken over and started to camp on, and then to build dwellings on. As we were coming away from the area I mentioned I'd like to get a video next time we happened to drive past one of these areas. Leon said I'd be fairly hard-pressed to find someone to drive me past there again! So I scored a little video of what I could.
Just after that, my phone rang and Anrie asked where we were and Leon said to tell her we were in Mamelodi. It was only when I heard Anrie's shrieks that it hit home the seriousness with which this is taken. She asked if we knew where we going and I said we absolutely did - straight out of Mamelodi!


It felt weird in my previous entry to be talking about "the blacks" in that way, so in this entry I was sure to not mention any colour term. But as an interesting experiment, what colour did you assume each of the people in the stories were? That's all to say, except that if you thought stereotypically then in this case you would be correct.

Anrie's family's residence