My first full day in Johannesburg

06:05
Waking up the first morning abroad, leads always to confusion in time and place. In a split second you feel lost, but after that, it becomes all clear: I’m really in South Africa! The sun is shining and the birds are singing (what a terrible beginning of a sentence, it sounds really like a cheap commercial on TV, but this is true), a big contrast comparing with my dark and cold mornings in Holland. I can’t sleep anymore, so I take a bath and put my clothes on.
12:00
I arrive at Eastgate, a shopping centre near by my guesthouse. Somewhere in this huge building I will meet three people for lunch, Wayne, Lindi and Judy. They helped me out organising these debates here in Johannesburg. One of the reasons for planning this lunch is to tell them how grateful I am for their effort; the other reason is less emotional, just preparing the debates (what time, when and who) After an hour we’re sitting here in a restaurant in the middle of this shopping centre. It feels like a blind date because this is actually the first time we see each other. Next to us are sitting three Chinese men, drinking wine. I ask one of them to take a picture of us, the only problem is that his legs are a little bit unstable - I think because of to much wine- so the picture is not that sharp…but anyway, it’s a good memory.
16:15
I’m walking through this never ending Eastgate, and notice something I would never have expected here. The last fifteen minutes I saw more women in burqa’s than I’ve ever seen in Holland.
17:20
I’m sitting in the taxi and the driver’s name is Enoch. When I ask him how dangerous Johannesburg really is, his answer is short, “It depends where and whit who you are.”
But after a minute I can see that his head is still thinking about my question. He continues,
“In the past we had Apartheid, but nowadays there is an other clash: the Africans versus the immigrants from Zimbabwe. They are very aggressive and kill you for nothing. But this aggression is the fault of our government. They promised to give people a house if they vote for the ANC. Instead of us, these people from Zimbabwe got these houses.” We are both quiet. I think this is really an interesting subject, so I will ask him tomorrow to tell more about this conflict ( and will film this) Tomorrow nine O’clock in the morning he will pick me up and bring me to Soweto…the first debate here in South Africa