Johannesburg

"Jo'burg" is a large city, but usually there's a good thing about being large: there are theatres. We decided to seize the opportunity and over the weekend caught a musical and a play. The play was better. Titled "At her feet", it was a unipersonal about muslim women in Cape Town. We missed a few inside jokes, but otherwise loved it. It was along the lines of Sarah Jones' Bridge & Tunnel. Sometimes I miss NYC, you see?
We also managed to visit the main tourist sights: the top floor of the tallest building in Africa, Constitution Hill (ex prison converted into museum and Constitutional court), Newtown (revived downtown area, see picture), the Apartheid Museum that was extremely educating, and a guided tour of Soweto, an infamous township mainly due to a black student massacre in 1976. The tour felt strange, the locals were extremely friendly and a guide took us around a couple of blocks, and even into a family's house. Very clean despite no running water, inside toilets or electricity. Just the corrugated iron walls and roof, basic furniture, and a charcoal stove to keep them warm in the winter. The lady of the house told us that she's been living there for 15 years waiting for the promised government relocation to new public housing.
South Africa's general elections will take place next week. The ruling party, ANC, held various events rallying the crowds this weekend. Everybody we talked to sounded enthusiastic about the process.
Now we are at the airport waiting for our flight to Cairo, and the beginning of the Middle East section of our trip. We expect to arrive at 6am, so I hope for a good plane's sleep, and an early check-in at President Hotel to sleep a little more.
Mercedes