Haai and Sawubona, my name is Jenny El-Fakir and I am the Glee Club Alumni Liaison. I am a sophomore and majoring in history! So far this tour has been amazing and eye opening.
Today the Glee Club experienced two amazing and thought provoking places in South Africa. We started off our morning with a visit to the Apartheid Museum, in which students were randomly assigned tickets that were “white” and “non-white” and had to enter the museum through different doors and take different paths to arrive at the exhibits. The Museum told the story of the rise and fall of apartheid, showing black and white photographs and videos of speeches. We followed the zig-zagging route of the museum exhibitions from the beginnings of apartheid in 1948, to the forced removals of the 50s, to Mandela’s televised interview just before his arrest in the 60s, to the violence of the 80s, and then to the peace process and the democratization of South Africa. We not only learned a lot about the struggle for freedom and the apartheid government, but we also got to hear and see first hand accounts of what life was like under apartheid. It was a truly eye-opening experience.
After the Apartheid Museum the Glee Club set off for Pilanesberg National Park to go on a game drive. Along the way we stopped off at a small market and lunch spot where some of the Glee Club tried their hand at bargaining and negotiating in a market for the first time. Many were successful and all came away with some great gifts for their friends and family. After our delicious lunches we continued along our scenic route through the North West Province to Pilanesberg where we went on an amazing game drive.
The Glee Club split up into four groups and drove around the game park for three hours during which we saw lions on the hunt, herds of zebra, many wildebeest, a mom and baby rhino grazing, impalas jumping and running, giraffes eating and posing for some great pictures, and some water buck. We even got to see a leopard up close. One bus got to see two leopards. Apparently the Glee Club is really lucky because it is extremely rare to see a leopard, maybe 1 every 6 months, and we saw two. We also got to see a beautiful elephant and two baby zebras playing with each other. In the end everyone saw four out of the big 5. When night fell we set off for a Braai BBQ in the game park and enjoyed sitting around the fire after dinner singing a couple of songs.
It was a great day!!! Shap-Shap!!
How I want to end my day.....every day. Serenity.