27. Welcome Home. A Casino. And a REUNION!

Tuesday 30 April
A visit to the Cradle of Humankind

Tuesday morning we left pretty early for our 90-minute bus ride to Maropeng, an area outside Joburg known as the Cradle of Humankind. But early didn't seem early anymore after Kruger and Hamakuya. I guess it only takes 8 days to form a habit.

Along the bus ride, I noticed a few townships; our tour coordinator spoke to us in a really slow monotone and then yelled at us for falling asleep. I felt bad for her, but otherwise it was a rather comical experience. There was a miscommunication and she was under the impression we were completely ignorant tourists who had never heard of South Africa. After lunch, Jacob pulled her aside and told her she didn't need to treat us like that because we were learning all about South African history and politics in our courses. It was a rather awkward experience...

We arrived at the Starkfontein Caves, part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Maropeng, walked around the museum there and read about and saw exhibits on Lucy and Mrs Ples and the "Taung Child" and "Little Foot." Basically all the important landmarks in the evolutionary development of hominids. All of those except Lucy originate from the Cradle of Humankind area, which is the reason why it is called the Cradle of Humankind. Anthropologists believe that the earliest humans originated in this area, so the tour guides at Maropeng all say, "Welcome home!" since we really all came from here.

Check it out if you're interested: Maropeng

We went on the tour of the caves where the remains were preserved, and we went pretty far below ground, climbing down 200 steps or something like that. It was apparently chilly down there, but I'm claustrophobic, so...I had to take my sweatshirt off and was still sweating up a storm. I swear it was so hot down there! There was only one point where we had to crouch, and everyone thought I was going to pass out, but the thought of having to be stuck down there for one extra second than necessary kept me conscious and moving forward toward light and air and space! When we emerged, I put my jacket back on as everyone else took theirs off. Claustrophobe problems...

After completing the caves tour, we went to the Maropeng museum and visitor center, which I think was designed for elementary school kids. We even took a boat ride in a 1-foot deep fake river to simulate the four elements, earth, air, fire, and water. It was really silly. But we had some great laughs.
Then we walked through the rest of the museum, learning about evolution, extinction (they sadly classed rhinos with Dodo birds and Woolly mammoths) and water and food distribution on our planet today, and the possibilities of living in space at some point in the future. It was pretty interesting...all science museums are the same.
We ate lunch in the Maropeng Restaurant...another three course meal. I don't even remember what I ate, but I remember that I opted for the not-prawns choice.

We then drove to a place called Montecasino. I actually fell asleep in the bus ride, my first and only sleeping in a mode of transportation incident of the trip. I was really excited about that. I jolted awake when we rolled up to a really fancy casino and hotel complex. Again, I felt even more out of place. We all looked at each other in confusion...how did this possibly fit into our program? I decided it was a case study on the public health of casinos and the addiction of gambling. I treated it as a sociology experiment. Turns out, somebody, whether at NU or Stellenbosch I will never know, booked a tour with a tour company in Joburg, and they assumed that since we are Americans, we must be spoiled brats with attention spans that would require visiting a casino for mental stimulation after spending our morning in a museum. Oh well! It was definitely a learning experience!

Check it out to understand the level of weirdness I'm talking about: Montecasino

The place was bizarre. It is the Vegas of South Africa. The ceilings of the building are painted to look like the sky. The hallways and facade of restaurants and shops are designed to make it look like Italy. One hallway was sunset, another was night time, another was midday, another was dawn. I was so confused. We wandered, looked at the movies Now Playing in the Cinema to see what's happened in Hollywood since we left the States. We checked out some stores. It was such an odd experience. There were several "American" themed places, but they all seemed as if they were actually themed off Bullseye and Prospector Pete from Toy Story rather than an actual cultural exploration of the US. It was really funny actually. I wondered how many times we in the US have stereotyped a whole country that far from reality.

We ate dinner at a restaurant in Montecasino, another 3-course meal. But this one was different. And I didn't mind how long we spent ordering and eating. Because someone met me there. Someone really special joined my group for dinner that night. My favorite teacher in high school, one of my favorite teachers of all time in fact, was Mrs Amy Canby. Mrs Canby was fun, young, beautiful, interesting, engaging, challenging. She taught me 12th grade AP World Literature. She was actually the first person who really introduced me to South Africa, because she had us read Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton, and along with that we had to learn a bit about South African history.
I will never forget Mrs Canby giving us the news that right after our class's fast-approaching, she would be moving to Johannesburg, South Africa, which we had read about in Paton's book; her husband who worked for the US State Department was being transferred there before the 2010 World Cup began. I remember being really sad; it wouldn't really affect me that much, I was graduating and going away to college in Chicago so wouldn't see her around much anyway. But I realized that even when I came back to visit my high school, which I had every intention of doing, she wouldn't be around. I wrote a goodbye speech for her which I presented at our class's senior dinner. Who knew that almost exactly three years later, I would see her again, for the first time, in Johannesburg, South Africa?!  (And I still haven't visited my high school since graduation.) What a crazy world!

I stayed in touch with Mrs Canby during the next few years; I emailed her to tell her  was interested in studying abroad in SA, was she still going to be there, could she tell me a bit about it, give me tips/advice. I emailed her when I applied to the program and when I got in and a few more times before I came here. And then I had emailed her when I arrived and asked her if we could meet up when I was in Joburg. And Tuesday was the night. When she walked in, I ran to hug her; it was such a great reunion; I think we both grew a little teary-eyed.

It was great catching up with her! She is now the outreach director for the US in South Africa, so coordinates lots and lots of educational programs. She likes it here, but she and her husband are on a three year rotational program, so are being relocated to Panama in June. I caught her just in time! I wanted dinner to go on forever. I didn't want to say goodbye. She walked me all the way out to my bus so I didn't have to say goodbye before was absolutely necessary. It was one of the best things that's happened to me all year. I'm so grateful to her and her husband for taking time out of their schedules to drive out to Montecasino to see me. Important people in your life never stop being important I guess is the take-away there. Thank you, Amy!

[I don't have a picture of Amy and me to post yet, because I left my camera battery in its charger in the hotel that morning so couldn't take any pictures...brilliant. But I did have a friend take a picture but she hasn't given it to me yet. I'll post it when she does.]

Tuesday night, we returned to Melville and hung out for a little while but then I crashed and went to sleep. After a few hours, I woke up and joined some friend as we tried to watch an NHL playoff game at 2am when it was on in the US, but the wifi was kind of slow, and the three of us who were trying to watch it decided to bag it around 3am and go back to sleep. I love hockey, but it simply wasn't worth it. I'm only studying abroad in South Africa once. I can assume that hockey will be around for the rest of my life.