Week 1 — immersed in South African culture
This week has been a little busy! Last Sunday we got immersed into the complicated South African history by touring the Apartheid Museum.
Even though I kind of knew what to expect, it was distressing in some sections. It illustrates the entire Apartheid period with pictures, videos, and words. It also reminded me how a bad political idea can get weaved into a country’s culture as if it was normal and accepted, even if it was divisive and exclusionary. Not unlike some areas of the first world today.
Then we went to visit Soweto, a township in south western Johannesburg (the name indicated this if you look carefully). Townships in South Africa were built by the government during the apartheid era to segregate the blacks into certain areas. There is a thriving tourist industry in Soweto as it has such a rich history. Soweto is kind of unique in that it contains a wide variety of residents from poor to very wealthy. We ate some delicious African style stew and pap which is made from Maize. Then it was onto the tuk-tuk’s to tour around the township. We saw many of the famous sites in the area, including Nelson Mandela’s home, Lillian Ngoyi’s home (she was a famous black activist who campaigned for womens rights and was placed under house arrest for 11 years) and also Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s house. All the people who live in the township were friendly and are always excited to see visitors from all over the world, especially the kids.
On Monday — we had a kickoff of the CSC program at the City of Johannesburg municipal offices with IBM executives, senior City Officials and our respective project sponsors followed by refreshments and a chance to mingle and learn more about the complex challenges facing the city.
In the afternoon, and for the remainder of the week, we spent time with our project teams and our customer absorbing information.
As part of our project, which is contributing to the office of the premier of Gauteng province initiative Tshepo 1 Million, we are collaborating with IBM Research.
The highlight of the week was visiting the IBM Research Lab in the centre of Johannesburg in the Tshimologong Precinct which is a Digital Innovation Hub for startups linked to the University of Witwatersrand. It is the second lab on the African continent (the other is in Kenya). They do a lot of research in the Healthcare, and Astronomy domains and there is a maker lab (including 3D printer) as well where staff experiment on different initiatives.
Concluding the week on Saturday we went to the Cradle of Humankind world heritage site — the site is well known for being the location of around 40% of the worlds human ancestor fossils. The visit included a walk through the Sterkfontein Caves which is famous for where little foot — a nearly complete Australopithecus fossil skeleton — was found.
Then on Sunday we visited the Rhino and Lion Nature Reserve which is a privately owned safari style facility with a huge amount of open land where the animal roam free.
We spotted Lions, White Lions, Antelope, Ostriches, Rhinoceroses, Wilderbeasts, Zebra’s and wild dogs just to name a few. Also, I got to pat a 5.5 month old tiger cub. I kept trying to tell myself it is just like a little kitty cat…
Unfortunately there was a small rumble…. i came out a little worse for wear.
It was an exhausting first week but also very productive and as a team we have learnt a lot and ready to power on to week 2!
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