Day 7: March 18th
Today was a very cultural learning day for our group! Our first stop in the morning was the Apartheid Museum in Pretoria. The museum included many different views of how people were treated and artifacts from the time of Apartheid. It also had an exhibit about Nelson Mandela, his roles in Apartheid and how he became president of South Africa. We also got to experience and watch videos from people who were a part of movements to stop the racially segregated laws that were put into place and to change the way the government was run. In a small part of the museum they showed what was happening around the world during Apartheid like when the US first got a man on the moon, and when JFK was president of the United States, along with other world events. The museum also included an exhibit towards the end where they showed different artists who created artwork about how Apartheid changed South Africa in the past and how the future is affected as well. After going through the museum we ate lunch which was very good.
For the second stop of the day, we went to the Voortrekker Monument. The walk up to the monument is a large climb of stairs with many cool views and beautiful gardens. The monument at the top of the hill is a large square building with amazing engravings inside and out. While entering the floor level of the building, the room is square shape with engravings the whole way around telling the stories of settlers and different tribes that came to South Africa. The stories are about how many different peoples got to Africa, who they worked with to survive, and who the battles were between them that still shape African culture to the way it is today. After listening to our tour guide talk about all the engravings, he set us loose to go explore the rest of the museum. A lot of us went to the top of the monument to look out over the town of Pretoria. Here, there were many ledges you could step out to see many different views of the country. There was another set of steps that put you at the middle and top of the monument where you could see a tomb on the bottom floor. This gave many of us a stomach wrenching feeling as it is a long ways down.
Under the floor level of the museum, there were two more floors underneath. The first basement had many paintings and sculptures that told everlasting stories of South African history. There are no words that could ever explain the meaning and the beauty of these paintings and sculptures. A lot of the paintings were for sale which many of us found interesting just because of the meaning of these paintings and how nice they were. In the next floor below there was more of a walk-through story. There were many scenes we walked through where they had mimic set ups of older times. There was also a very cool souvenir shop on this floor where many of us decided to grab something. You could exit out of the museum here as it was cut out of the ground in the back. The gardens and sidewalks had wrapped all the way around this large building and it was amazing. We were assigned to meet back in the front of the museum at a set time where we found another souvenir shop off to the side. A large majority of the students went on to buy safari hats and plan to wear them tomorrow. This souvenir shop was very similar to the one underneath but with a few more items.
This happened to be the last stop of the day. From here we got on the bus to head back to the hotel. From here we had choices on where we wanted to eat. Many of us split up into groups to go to the mall and eat or here at the hotel. Tomorrow is our last day and we will go on a safari!
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