…which has given more to me.
There is so much more, so much more I need to know.

So now my thoughts that I promised I’d commit to writing on South Africa.
Upon arrival in South Africa I was greeted by an extremely westernized waterfront, western dressing people, stores I was familiar with. All in all, it didn’t feel foreign, not at all what I was expecting. It wasn’t until I returned from safari that any of that truly changed. When I started talking to some locals in the bars and restaurants, and finding out how much different things are outside of the tourist area. I also learned quite bluntly, how deep harm from the past really is. One of the afternoons after safari, I randomly started talking to a taxi driver, and the townships came up and how I wish I had time to see them up close. I soon discovered that he lived in one, and wanted to show me how life really is for some South Africans. So, he drove us through almost every street of the township and what I saw was more than I expected. Among some of the poorest of the poor in South Africa, there was this overwhelming sense of pride. I had my camera in hand, but was too awestruck to even put the viewfinder to my eye. The utter poverty was apparent, yet everywhere he drove he pointed out friend’s shacks, and told their stories. Eventually we arrived at what seemed to be one of the most pitiful of dwelling I had ever seen, with a roof made out what looked to be old aluminum siding, and walls of corrugated steel and plywood. With an utterly overpowering sense of pride, he told me this was his home where he, his wife and his three kids live and that they hoped to one day have a house from the government. I began to realize that this is a side of the country tourists never see and I could no longer continue on this as a tourist, as then I am still a complete stranger to the diversity of the places I go and I have to make an effort to do more than visit. I have to see beyond the exotic landscapes and people.
There is so much more to the events and the experiences that I just cannot express in writing or even in coherent English. The contrast of the utter poverty and the waterfront side by side, the pride in his voice and his words, the sorrow of the past and yet his hope for his children’s generation all amount to a realization in me that this voyage has already begun to change me. It has begun to change way in which I view this world, its as if I was focused on something close up and the background is just starting to come into focus, with each passing day more and more does. Yet now as I sit writing this one day away from Chennai, struggling to put my thoughts into words, I honestly wonder if this extremely personalized tour of the township has had this much of an effect on me, what I am in for when we reach port tomorrow.