Townships

A "township" is a term from the Apartheid era, and refers to an urban area where none-whites live. I guess the term itself can be used as a synonym for ghetto, favella, borough, shantytown maybe even slum... because they are all very alike.But if you look closely at the description, you'll notice that a township has nothing to do with the type of houses. Indeed townships can have the whole range from normal brik houses down to little shacksout of plates of corrugated iron. A squatter camp is different in the sense that it is illegal: people moved there and started living there although it was not approved by the goyvernment.Most cities have townships, and they vary from well organized - having tarred roads and electricity, running water, sewage, garbage collection - to not organized at all.Gugulethu is one of the biggest townships of Cape Town, housing mainly Xhosa speaking South Africans. The name is a contraction of "igugu lethu", which is Xhosa for "our pride".

Mozambique

Mozambique is a neighbouring country to South Africa, bordering on the north east. The capital is Maputo, and lies in the far south of the country, about an hours drive from the Kruger national park. Mozambique became independent in 1975 after a 13 year long lasting war between the guerilla forces and the Portuguese army. The Portuguese had occupied parts of the land along the coastline for around 500 years, mainly serving their lucrative trade with the far east. The civil war was not the only evil that struck, natural disasters and economic mismanagement deepened the problems. This leads to a low average annual income of $ 370 per capita for the 23 million Mozambiquans. Official language is still Portuguese (next to other languages), and the majority of the population is christian, clearly showing the influence of the colonists.

AWB leader murdered

Eugene Terreblanche was the president and leader of the Afrikaner Weerstand Beweging (AWB). The political party is extreme right and very racist. He pleaded to re-install apartheid and was a forefighter of racial discrimination. Back in the '90s he had quite some followers, but the last few years the number of followers were like his ideas: marginal. He saw himself as a new Hitler, and was not afraid to say so. This can be seen in the flag the AWB has (see picture), very much like the Nazi Swatsika.

He was brutally murdered by two of his black domestic workers, one 28 years old, the other only 15. They jumped him in his sleep and bashed his skull withand iron rod. Their motive was that they had not been paid for their work since December 2009. Some argue that this murder was inspired by the hatespeech of Julius Malema, the ANC Youth president who has been trying to get the "Kill the Boer" song registered as national heritage. That song was used by black anti-Apartheid fighters in the 90's and calls to kill whites. It says "one Boer one bullet"; A "Boer" means peasant aka white South African.

South Africa's constitution

South Africa's Constitution was the result of remarkably detailed and inclusive negotiations - difficult but determined - that were carried out with an acute awareness of the injustices of the country's non-democratic past.
It is widely regarded as the most progressive constitution in the world, with a Bill of Rights second to none.
Human rights are given clear prominence in the Constitution: "a society based on democratic values, social justice and fundamental human rights". These are then further spelt out in detail. Very important ones, especially compared to other countries on the continent are: freedom of sexuality (often also seen als sexing freely) and freedom of expression. The latter entails that South Africa has free press, which can be a very strong weapon against bad gouvernment.

All in all, with so many good intentions aligned in one text, a good reason to have a day off and do nothing... because everyone feels to have that right now and then.

Eikestad

Stellenbosch is considered to be one of South Africa’s most beautiful villages. Located at the foot of the mountains in a fertile valley, the scenery couldn’t be more beautiful. The place is named after it’s founder, the Dutchman governor Simon Van Der Stel, and meant “Stel’s bush”. Back in the day, people did not think this had a double meaning (you perv.). Van Der Stel is seen as the founder of Cape Town in name of the VOC and had a major influence on the area. One of those influences was importing oak trees.

South African trees did not grow tall and straight, so they were not ideal to make timber wood off. That is why Simon Van Der Stel started growing European oak trees. Today the city still has the nickname “Eikestad” (oak city). As you can imagine, you can still find a lot of oak trees in the streets.

Diving

I now have my official diving certificate issued by PADI. PADI ( Professional Association of Diving Instructors) is a worldwide diving association, and one of the biggest in the business. The organization checks affiliated diving schools on how they perform and how they operate. This way they guarantee safe and adequate diving assistance to scuba divers. So if I rock up to an other country and walk into a PADI dive shop I know I’ll be in good hands. Scuba itself is an acronym for Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus. But because that is a mouthful and sounds cocky, scuba became a word on itself. What scuba really means is diving with compressed air (not oxygen) in tanks, but that you should’ve guessed by now. With the open water certificate I attained now, I am allowed to dive down to 18 meters. So now the fun can really start. There are many different types of dives: adventure dives (looking for hidden objects with a map), wreck dives (following marked routes in wrecks), night dives, orientation dives (with map and compass), explorer dives (looking for specific sea life)… All of which I am very keen to do of course. There are many more types of certificates I can attain, let’s see which others I might get.

Vuvuzela

The ancestor of the vuvuzela is said to be the kudu horn - ixilongoin isiXhosa, mhalamhala in Tshivenda - blown to summon African villagers to meetings. Later versions were made of tin.
The trumpet became so popular at football matches in the late 1990s that a company, Masincedane Sport (curses be upon them), was formed in 2001 to mass-produce it. Made of plastic, they come in a variety of colours - black or white for fans of Orlando Pirates, yellow for Kaizer Chiefs, and so on - with little drawings on the side warning against blowing in the ear!
There's uncertainty on the origin of the word "vuvuzela". Some say it comes from the isiZulu for - wait for it - "making noise". Others say it's from township slang related to the word "shower", because it "showers people with music" - or, more prosaically, looks a little like a shower head.
The announcement, on 15 May 2004, that South Africa would host the 2010 Fifa World Cup gave the vuvuzela a huge boost, to say the least - some 20 000 were sold on the day by enterprising street vendors.
It's a noisy thing, so there's no surprise some don't like it. Journalist Jon Qwelane once quipped that he had taken to watching football matches at home - with the volume turned low - because of what he described as "an instrument of hell". (source: http://www.southafrica.info/2010/vuvuzela.htm)