I'm Going out of Town

Uhh...so I`m goin' out of town on June 29th to South Africa . . . first I`m going to London, England for a couple of days, then off to France, but only to fly there. Then I`m off to South Africa. I'll be staying in Johannesburg.

London and Paris

R.I.P.

Michael Jackson is on every newspaper and magazine cover in London, and everybody is reading it!


























OMG! These telephone booths stank!

Hey guys, wass poppin'? Well, I am currently in Melville, Johannesburg, South Africa & it's my first day here. I`m really surprised at how it is out here. I never would have expected Africa to be cold enough where there are pieces of ice on the grass!

These pictures are of the first place we stayed. And the lady with my mom, Eleanor, is the owner of the guest house. She was cool, she took me to the movies and to the mall with all her nieces and nephews.

I`ll have more things to say but I gotta go! Bye!

Johannesburg, South Africa

FIRST DAY IN SOWETO!

On June 4th, also known as Independence Day in America, my mother and I went to Soweto to stay with a woman named Nobesuthu, who started this organization my mom is working with, and she showed us around.

The first place we went to was Nelson Mandela's house/museum. I learned a lot and had a lot of my questions answered about Nelson Mandela and what really happened. It's just amazing that he was arrested and had to go to jail for so long, just because he was fighting for what was right. Then he got out of prison and became the first black South African president! And he is still alive!

After our tour at the Mandela's House we went to the Hector Pieterson Museum. He was the first child killed during the Soweto Youth Uprisings. He was only 13, same age as me, innocently killed by the Afrikaans. Afrikaans are South Africans from Holland who created Apartheid and they tried to force their language, which is Dutch, in the school system. The students did not want to be forced to learn this language because they knew it was wrong and they started a protest. Pictures are coming.

This is Nobesuthu! We are staying with her in Soweto and she is really well known in the community. She has a lot of guests in her home. Right now another American girl is here too named Itle. She is cool. She wants to be a doctor and goes to a really good college called Princeton University, and is she is doing some kind of internship with Nobesuthu.

Mandela House

Me and tha' mommaa lookin

beautiful in front of Nelson

Mandela's house/Museum.

A really touching and great

experience.

NELSON MANDELA

HECTOR PIETERSON MEMORIAL MUSEUM

SOWETO

When we took pictures of these Towers in Soweto, there were people jumping off the top for a stunt or commercial or something. We saw this guy jump.

Alexandra

Alexandra is a place in Joburg where there is a lot of poverty. It is another township like, Soweto, but there is a lot more poverty than Soweto. The organization my mom is working with has centers in both Soweto and Alexandra, it's called FXB. Kids go there for food and something to do after school, instead of being on the streets. When we got there, we sat in the circle with about 1O kids and all said are names and just talked. We talked about our schools, our lives, and it was really nice. After we were done talking and got up, everybody ran over to me, asking me questions and wanting to take pictures with me. That was a great experience which I`ll never forget.

In Alexandra

Lions & Elephants!

Ahh okay, so guess where i`m going today?

I`m going to a lion park and I get to see

elephants and touch them and play with lion

cubs. I am so excited, this has always been

my dream since I came out the womb. There

will be pictures to come.

LiON`s? ELEPHANt`s? TiGER`s?

Well yesterday I went to a game lodge to go on a lil' safari, & that was pretty amazing. The first thing we saw when we got there were the elephants. There were two adults (one girl, one boy, & two babies - both girls). When we drove up to the elephants it was the first time I realized that they were huge! I have to admit I was scared and then the male, who was the biggest, came up to the car and was trying to touch me with his trunk and I was trying to scoot away. Elephants do not feel good at all, l o l. Their skin is all weird with scratchy lil' hairs. But the baby ones were so cute, O M G.

After visiting the elephants we drove near the hippos & it was unbelievable how big they were, actually it was that they were so fat! After learning some facts about the hippos we were able to go to the lion cubs. There were two, named Hazel & Honey, both girls, about 6 and 8 months old. They were huge!! Especially their paws, but they were also very adorable. We got out of the car & everybody got to go in and pet and take pictures with them. My dream had finally came true, I couldn't believe it.

After pictures with the lions we went to go see the tigers. Right when we drove up one of the tigers was still eating and started showing its fangs and hissing at us, luckily there was a fence between us but it was still frightening. Then the tiger jumped - oh jeesus -I jumped back and screamed. That was scary. We got it all on tape and i`ll be putting it up here soon. Unfortunately that was the end but it was one of the best things I have ever seen in my life!

With tha big cats!

Apartheid Museum

I went to the Apartheid Museum two days ago. The Dutch (I like to them them the Hollish because they are from Holland and duh...wouldn't it make more sense if they just added the "ish"); but anyway, they, the Dutch, started Apartheid which separated all the races in South Africa. The museum was interesting & I learned a lot about how bad and violent Apartheid was. When we first arrived my mom and I were each given a separate card, one for whites and one for non-whites (everybody who enters gets one and usually the opposite of who they really are). We each had to enter through different entrances to get a sense of what is what like for each side. Big blown up pictures of people's faces were everywhere. It was weird. I met my mom outside and she had to explain what everything meant.

This is at the Apartheid Museum where we were supposed to take a certain color stick that represents which quote we chose from Nelson Mandela. I chose one about self-esteem.

For three days we stayed with a couple named Olivia and Maart. They were hecka cool! Olivia (the white woman in the picture) makes commercials and we actually saw one with a Beyonce' sound track. I want to come back to South Africa and stay with them; but in their summer which is our winter, and a lot warmer than now.

Last Day, back in London!

Today was our last day of this trip and we are back in London. Two days ago we took an eleven hour flight, over night, from South Africa, to Paris then here. Today, we had fun, we went to the neighborhood of Chelsea and saw all tha' cute stores and tried on some cute dresses. I love it here in London! I like the style and fashion and how all the buildings look.

London

Good - bye !

My time is done here & I`m writing here tha' way I like it!
Insider joke with my besst mommy that took me on this great
trip! Thanks Momma, can`t wait to go on anotha' trip with you.