It is a three hour drive from Pretoria to Sun City. It is a big resort with a water park, casino, entertainment center, hotel, and vacation place out in the middle of nowhere in the mountains. It's beautiful, flashy, and a good family place. We had fun there. The National Park was okay. We didn't see as many animals as I saw with Andy's parents, but we did see warthogs, antelope (a lot of them), wildebeast (lots of them too), a family of rhinos, a giant ostrich right by our car, and zebras. It was a fantastic birthday (thanks to Andy) and we had so much fun, but the most interesting part of our day was the amazing drive!! There are free range cattle and goats along the highway the whole way there. It was a beautiful fall day, and the sky was so blue, so with the mountains along the road it was gorgeous. Andy and I were both in awe of the beauty of the land.
Scarring the landscape the whole way though were huge mines. I don't know what kinds of mines they were, but we passed quite a few of them. You can't see inside them from the highway. It's just huge walls of gravel and dirt, with brief glances of big industry and more gravel walls. Near every mine and along the highway are little villages, you can say. The green African countryside is scattered with tiny shacks, with tin sheet walls and tarp roofs. There are a few brick houses scattered among the tin shacks. Most of the little houses have gardens with corn or other crops in them, and various objects are scattered around, like cars, big tires, and barrels. People walk around everywhere.
As we drove past the settlements men, women, kids, dogs, goats all walked along the road. At intersections men and boys stood selling mangoes and oranges, holding small green lizards up to our windows. At one intersection a few boys stood with cardboard signs that said "Please Donate to our Cricket Team". They had on old shorts and torn or no shirts, one holding a cricket bat and another with one side of pads on one leg. They were visibly dirty, and they looked like ragamuffins. I think they were probably about 15 and 16 years old.
Andy and I figured that the people who live in those little villages out in the middle of nowhere work in the mines. I imagine the men walking to the mine everyday, digging away in the hot African sun for 12 or more hours with his bare hands or just a shovel, only to make a couple of dollars per day, if that. All this not two hours drive from Pretoria, one of the biggest cities in South Africa and the most materialistic place I have ever lived. Ironic? It's sad.
And then I start feeling guily for living in the big city, knowing that these people live like that everyday and thinking about the way we live. We are so lucky to have what we have. I feel very blessed to have such a nice life. Andy and I didn't have electricity for four days, and we thought it was the worst thing ever, and these people are living in 2011, in one of the more prominent countries in the world, without electricity, running water, transportation, internet, everything that most people in America can't go a day without. It's shocking to me.
So, there it is. A first-hand account of the huge disparity in the South African classes today. Living here in this country is amazing, and it is such a unique experience. I'm so thankful I was able to come on this great adventure, and I am ever thankful for the blessings in my life. Being here has given me a clear understanding of how good my life is. I am blessed. There are so many people in this world with problems most of us can't even comprehend. We should all be very thankful.
This quote is from a Yoga instructor. I went to two of her classes.
"If we all threw our problems into a big pile, we would see what everyone else threw in and then grab ours back."
It's true.
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