I am pleased to announce that my flights to Johannesburg were uneventful and even quite pleasant! Despite being quite long (10+ hours) from Heathrow to Joburg, the plane was rather empty and I was able to sprawl out across the three seats next to me. The food was good too! We arrived in Joburg around 9:00, collected our luggage and called Rob, the owner of the Shoestring Lodge to pick us up. He came promptly around 10:00 and within three minutes were in the homey Shoestring Lodge!
The lodge is basically a hostel with a very homey feel. I am staying in a nice room with eight others; there are sixteen of us total. While we waited for our directors to arrive, four of us took the tram to Mandela Square where they have an Apple store. Consistent with the theme of electronic problems, a fellow student's computer crashed in the airport. Its still there now and hopefully will be better soon. The mall was ridiculous and was nicer than most shopping centers in the U.S. or Europe that I have been to. It had everything from high end restaurants to Gucci stores and so on. We kept saying, "where are we?!!" Coming from Kenya this seems like a completely different world. It is so bizarre how evident the vast socio-economic inequalities are. I expected it, but I didn't realize how seemingly normative it would be for locals. Rob told us that the Mandela Square area is one of the richest areas in South Africa.
This makes me think back to some comments I received when I decided to come to South Africa for the fall semester. While I got incredibly different responses, oftentimes people would question my choice, saying that South Africa is basically like going to England; why don't I go to "real" Africa? I thought about this again today, whilst walking through this deluxe shopping center. I came to the conclusion that the reason I was so determined to come to South Africa is because of this entirely false perception. While places like the Mandela Square exist and are wonderful, the impoverished populations in South Africa are vastly and often entirely overlooked because people consider South Africa "developed". Despite having a large GDP, South Africa's GDP per capita displays vast economic inequality. Further, they are facing healthcare problems that even countries far more poor than South Africa are addressing. For examples, maternal mortality rates are rising in South Africa, despite huge funding efforts to address MMR. There is a substantial disconnect between a country's economic prosperity and their ability to provide adequate healthcare to its citizens. The question remains, where is the disconnect? The social determinants of health? Racial? Cultural? Poor funding patterns/structure? I have no idea, but hopefully I'll begin to find out. My guess: a mix of everything. As per usual with public health, I'm learning: everything is interdisciplinary.
So far, the group seems very nice although I have only met half of them; the other half are arriving around 18:00. Our academic director, Zed, is great! He seems quirky, fun and very intelligent . He told us that we can refer to him as Zed or "ultimate professor". :)
Being in Johannesburg is like another world from Kenya and honestly feels as though I am in NYC. It's quite bizarre. The weather is COLD! I bet it is about 50 or 55 degrees F. I can't wait to get to Durban where there are two seasons: summer and summer! We are staying in Joburg for four nights and have our orientation here until Tuesday, when we drive to Durban!
We have already faced several minor obstacles. Upon leaving to meet us at the airport, someone attempted to steal SIT's van and badly damaged it. Now, to get us all back to Durban on time we have to squeeze into a smaller vehicle and three people are flying to Durban. Also, one of the program directors has the flu and couldn't make it and another had to stop for three hours to fix a flat tire on the way here. Such is Africa!
Anyways, I'm exhausted and jet lagged- time for bed! More tomorrow, hopefully.
XO
Also- Apparently I am living with a single mother, her sons Minenhle (29), Aslam (20) and daughter Simunye (9). Eek!
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