The Jo'burg Round-a-bout

I had everything worked out in my head - no problem. I had the car, I would pick up Arianna at the airport, we would get to the hostel before dark and then promptly make plans for our immediate 'escape from Jo'burg' en route to Mozambique. However, the first glitch came when Arianna's parents arranged for her private transportation to a five-star accomodation in a ritzy burgh of Jo'burgh. Initially, I was a little perturbed, but staying in this lap of luxury called Parkwood has been a nice retreat. Two days in and I was on my 6th pot of french press. I guess I have never stayed in a 5-star get-up before and it is all a little bit overwhelming. This little oasis of fountains and verandas makes you feel like you are exactly anywhere but a place that has the preconceptions of what you expect from Jo'burg. Servers seem to materialize and dematerialize at your own unvocalized will. Oh, and free internet. That's a first. So thank you Hoffmanns!
Needing to add a little contrast to Parkwood, we jumped in the go cart yesterday on our own self-guided tour of Soweto, the colonial established 'dwellings' for black workers during apartheid. With atlas in-hand, Arianna navigated and I drove the maze of Soweto. First stop: Nelson Mandela's house. I am not sure how we decided to go here because it is not in the guidebook and it only recently opened up as a tourist site March 19 of this year (we think). Not surprisingly, it is a small 500 sq ft house of 4 rooms, no plumbing and no electricity. The confined settings do not offer too much for a tour but there are a few pieces of furniture remaining and walls decorated with key events in the Mandelas' struggle for South African liberation side by side with numerous awards and honorary degrees for he and Winnie's efforts. The tour itself was a bit shabby and you could tell they had not worked out the kinks yet, but it made for an interesting visit. Currently, Winnie lives in the house directly across the street and Nelson comes to visit the old house periodically. Apparently, he donated his favorite chair to the exhibit and he makes a point to sit in the old leather chair every time he comes back. As it is "Nelson's Chair", a kid on the tour was promptly scolded by the tour guide for sitting in it. It was also interesting to see the tree in the front yard under which all the placental cords of at least 3 previous generations of Winnie's mother's family had been buried. Apparently, this is a fairly widespread African tradition, but to what extent I'm not sure.
We spent the rest of the day trying to find our way around Soweto, getting lost and then finding our way out, only to get lost again. It didn't really matter, everyone was incredibly friendly as we drove and walked around the neighborhoods that ranged from near slum-like conditions to small suburbanized blocks with a few sprinkler-fed lawns here and there. What was most surprising about the area was the degree of activity. People were flooding the streets, listening to music, playing sports and generally socializing. It was just a Sunday, no parade, no celebration, just the activity of a very vibrant community. Some have suggested that despite Soweto's checkered past, ironically, it is becoming the cultural, artistic and maybe even economic leader that will revitalize Johannesburg in this post-apartheid era.Soweto also offered me another thrilling experience. It has been brought to my attention on more than one occasion that, while my China postings focused much on food, I have made no mention of local South African cuisine. This is simply because all the food I have encountered has been western. I bear some responsibility in not more actively seeking out the food. But in my defense, most of the places I have gone in S. Africa are based around some sort of site or attraction and thus everything is catered to westerners or other foreign cuisines. And, of course, all this is enhanced by colonialism. But in Soweto, we did find a restaurant (a pretty upscale one to boot) that served some local dishes. I ordered the baked wild chicken with creamed spinach, yams and a very dense bread. I guess it does not all sound too foreign on the surface, but the combination of (mild) spices and manor in which it was all cooked made for a delicious meal making me miss the daily experience of new mysterious food!
The Soweto experience was great, but we were ready to move out of Johannesburg and get off the beaten path. Monday morning we wrapped up Johannesburg with a walk downtown in the Newton district. The plan was to hit a museum or two, but unbeknownest to us, it was Freedom Day. While there were tons of people out and about, nothing was open. So we settled for some good people-watching over a beer or two. And by the way, my apologies, but I just did not take many pictures. Those that appear in this posting are all I have of Jo'burg.
The original plan was head to Mozambique via Kruger NP. But as Jo'burg was began with an immediate deviation from 'the plan', it is only fitting it would end in the same manner. It has become apparent to me over the last few weeks that transit difficulties in Mozambique will likely sap much of the time for Malawi and Tanzania. So we canned Mozambique and bought a flight Monday morning to Lusaka, Zambia. Ten hours later, we were in Lusaka. I think we found what we are looking for, but more on that later.