Eating our way through Joburg

 Quick post about a "lost" time and weekend in Joburg. After we got back from Lesotho/Drakensberg, Sandeep left that week. We went to Dukes Burger for his going-away dinner, where the burgers were..... impressive.

Seriously, how do you even eat this.

Group at Dukes.

That weekend, Kyle, Melissa and I ate our way through Joburg. On Saturday, we (plus Jesse and Graham) went to the Neighbourgoods Market. It's basically a gourmet food market in Braamfontein, and it was delicious.

After we finished stuffing our faces at Neighbourgoods, we went back to our house and drank all afternoon and played a very confusing card game called Jungle... something. The rules were in French, and we mostly made them up, and it was really hard and actually a lot of fun.

Kyle, Melissa and I went for brunch on Saturday morning to Salvation Cafe at 44 Stanley and ate.... all the food. We browsed around the shops, and I bought a sweater and some other things. At one of the shops, they literally gave us free champagne and macrons. Fancy.

Overdue update

Clearly it is time for an update. I don't know why it's so hard for me to remember to write here this time around, but I really will try to be better about it.

Last week, some tensions emerged in the house, and it was pretty unpleasant for a few days. As a result, I was forced out of the house to explore on my own a bit over the weekend, which actually ended up being a good thing. Things in the house are back to somewhat normal-ish, or at least appear to be so for everyone's sake, thankfully.

Saturday last week was Youth Day. It's a public holiday that commemorates the Soweto Uprisings in 1976, which was a major turning point in the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa. The apartheid government had already set out a 'Bantu' curriculum, specifically geared to under-educated black South Africans to prepare them for menial jobs and prevent them from aspiring to anything better, but in 1976, they imposed a new law requiring the use of the Afrikaans language for half the lessons in Bantu schools. Afrikaans was seen as the 'language of the oppressor,' and perhaps worse, black students didn't speak Afrikaans, so they couldn't understand their lessons. It all erupted on 16 June 1976, when thousands of students in Soweto (the big township/collection of townships outside Johannesburg) attended a peaceful protest against the language policy. The police turned out in full force, some of the students started to throw stones, and the police opened fire.

One of the first victims was 13-year-old Hector Pieterson, who wasn't participating in the march. He happened to be walking through and got hit by a stray bullet. The photo of his body being carried away, with his sister in tears trailing next to him, is one of the best-known images in South Africa and became the symbol of the students' resistance in Soweto.

Photograph by Sam Nzima

There is a similar holiday -- Women's Day -- on 9 August to commemorate when women marched en masse against pass laws under apartheid. Usually we get public holidays off. And if Youth Day had been on a Sunday, we would have had Monday off. But since it was on a Saturday... we got nothing. I thought about going into Soweto, but a group of people, including the one with whom there was tension, were doing that, so I sat it out.

What I ended up doing was going to meet the residence manager at Nkosi's Haven, which is an NGO that offers care to HIV-infected mothers, their children and AIDS orphans. It's named after (and was founded by) Nkosi Johnson, one of the most famous HIV-infected South Africans. He was born HIV-positive in the late 1980s and was separated from his mother because she was too sick to care for him, adopted by a social worker who was taking care of her. He was a fierce little AIDS activist until he died in 2001, at the age of 12. The goal of the organization is to keep infected mothers and their children together, and to provide care for the residents for as long as possible. The woman I met with seemed to think I was a medical student, so I somehow got talked into trying out working in the sick bay and helping to prepare the antiretrovirals for the two kids who are currently ill enough to need to take them, but I don't think that's going to work long-term. I'm going out for the first time tomorrow, so we'll see what happens.

On Sunday, I went to a market on the roof of the Rosebank Mall near my office. That sounds weird, and I was skeptical, but it was actually quite fantastic. It's the whole roof of the mall, and it's sort of like three or four separate markets squished into one. It's got an international food court, and part of it is a typical African curio/craft market, but part of it is also an antiques market. There are also really random things -- one guy was like a walking infomercial, trying to sell me a hanger that would give me more space in my closet. There are also used book stalls, and in one corner there are actual artists (as opposed to the 'artists' who sell you the same manufactured 'African art' that's exactly the same at every market you go to) with really beautiful work. It reminded me quite forcibly of Reading Terminal Market, actually.

I walked in on the end with the food (of course) and walked straight towards the sign that said 'chili fudge.' There were free samples -- hallelujah! -- and I had a fairly educational fudge tasting experience. It was like wine tasting, but with fudge. The guy was like, first you'll taste this, but then this flavor will come out, and then you'll practically smell this, and I was like -- uh huh, sure. But he was right! I never knew fudge could be so complicated. I ended up buying a flavor called 'Kentucky julip,' which he didn't have out to taste, but the combination of lemon, mint and whiskey had me intrigued. Turns out you can't taste the whiskey at all, but it's still really, really good.

Anyway, I wondered around and got Asian food and managed not to really buy anything. But it was really fun and relaxing.

On Monday night, a group of us went to trivia night in Orange Grove. We were mostly Americans on the team, and there were a gazillion rounds, and we managed to win 2 of the rounds and did rather dismally over all. I got yelled at a lot for saying the answers too loudly, although I honestly don't think any of the other tables were listening or could hear me. And/or I think the individuals who were taking me to task for being too loud were maybe taking the trivia night a teensy bit too seriously. BUT it was fun anyway.

Last night, I went with Becki (the English housemate who's getting her PhD in public health) and the two American public health students she's supervising this summer to see a documentary at the Bioscope Independent Cinema in downtown Johannesburg. We got fantastically lost on the way there, because I didn't have the GPS and Becki doesn't know her way around in town, but we did make it -- at least partially thanks to my navigational skills, if you can believe it. I almost screwed it up in the end though, so any help I may have offered in the middle, I basically undid. The world as we know it continues.

I've been to the Bioscope a couple times now. It's really a very cool venue.... I'm going to cheat and use Google images, since I have taken no photos of my own. It's this tiny, hip little place that only ever has maybe 8 or 9 people at its films/documentaries, but it shows really fantastic things. Everything I've seen there has been great.

Last night, we went to see a documentary called Fire in the Blood. It was about the struggle to get affordable, accessible antiretroviral drugs into the hands of the AIDS patients who needed them in the developing world. Basically, the big pharmaceutical companies were selling the drugs for $15,000 a year, which obviously is well beyond the reach of people living even on the average income in a place like South Africa (which is wildly wealthier than most of Africa). And since the vast majority of AIDS patients have always been in Africa, people were just dying. ARVs came on the market in 1996, and millions of people died in the developing world after that simply because pharmaceutical companies (and the US government, which is desperately beholden to them) are greedy and heartless. The documentary went through all the challenges people like my old boss in Cape Town, Zackie Achmat, and other really brave pioneers in Uganda and India went through to break through the patents and the pressures and basically break the laws to get drugs into the hands of people who were dying because they were poor.

It was a very well-done documentary, and it reminded me of a conversation I had last year with an American AIDS activist about one possible nexus between the law and public health I can pursue -- because it's not as though this issue has gone away. The Indian companies are making generics for the drugs on the market now, but TRIPS was forced through by pharma companies specifically to stop something like this happening again. So when new TB drugs (which are desperately needed), or new ARVs come along, this whole battle is going to start over again, but with the international law much more firmly on the side of big pharma. So I'm now desperately thinking about how I can learn everything I need to know about patents and international intellectual property law in one year of law school. Yikes.

Anyway. Driving in Joburg CBD (Central Business District) is not fun, but coming back into Rosebank is lovely, because we cross the Nelson Mandela Bridge at night. The bridge is beautiful anyway, but at night it lights up. I can't really find pictures to do it justice, but here are some that might give you an idea --

Sandeep and Melissa have gone to Durban for the weekend, so I'm left to entertain myself again. But I am going to Nkosi's Haven tomorrow, so that should take up at least part of my time. I really hope it goes well, and that no one is mad at me that I can't stay in the sick bay permanently. I just want to play with some kids!

First triumph

Aha! Well, I am in Johannesburg. Have been for four days, actually. It doesn't feel so much like a huge adventure, since it's just South Africa. Well, "just" South Africa. Maybe that takes some explaining in and of itself -- first of all, I lived here for a cumulative 9-10 months from 2007-2008 (in two separate stints), although that was in Cape Town. And second of all, Johannesburg really is not a shock to the system in the same way that a lot of places in the developing world are. There are pretty much all the modern amenities I'm used to at home, at least in the part of the city I'm staying in. You sort of have to go looking for the different parts of South Africa, or else things all seem very civilized and whitewashed.

So, I haven't really been having things happen where my first thought is, "I must run and write in my blog about that!" Part of that, to be fair, is because I literally slept the first 20 hours I was here. I didn't sleep at all on the flight here (14 hours), although I watched a LOT of movies -- so when I arrived, I chatted a bit with the girl who owns the house, and then I crashed quite hard. I slept from around 12pm through to 9:30am the next morning... not quite without waking up, but certainly without getting up and doing anything productive.

When I got up at 9:30 on Saturday, I thought I had cleverly tricked jet lag. I went with Rebecca (the British PhD student who owns the house), the other Rebecca (another British PhD student living in the house) and one of their friends, Kate, to breakfast. Yes, our party was Rebecca, Rebecca, Kate and Katie. The breakfast place was in this very upscale nook, and the food was very good. I got savory french toast with haloumi and pesto cherry tomatoes. Who even knew there was such a thing as savory french toast? It didn't really taste like french toast, but it was delicious. Rebecca also took me to a nearby shopping center to get some essentials like bed sheets. Then we all came back to the house (which is referred to as "Stafford," after the street that it's on), and they all did homework and I.... took a nap. DON'T JUDGE ME.

As it turned out, while I was sleeping on Friday night, one of their friends had moved into the spare room until the next American arrives. Imagine my surprise to wake up to a new person in the house. The guy is the ex-manager at their local bar, and is actually quite cool now that I've gotten a chance to talk to him. I think his name is Johannes, although Rebecca's South African-influenced British accent gives me some trouble when it comes to South African things I'm familiar with hearing in a pure South African accent. Rebecca's lived here for 8 years, so her accent's not really pure British anymore, but it's not South African either, so when she says things that I'm used to hearing in one or the other, I get a little... muddled. But anyway.

We ordered Indian food for dinner (delivery! oh, how I love delivery!) and watched early episodes of House on Rebecca's laptop. Obviously the internet here is too slow to stream or download TV, but she had gotten the DVDs from somewhere.

Sunday I... slept until 3pm. Oops. I guess jet lag wasn't quite done with me. I didn't have any food in the house, so I sort of whiled away the hours until Rebecca showed up, at which point I sort of plaintively asked, "If I want to eat... what should I do?" She was going to Spar (a grocery store) to get lunch for the cleaning lady who comes on Mondays, so I went with her and got a classically South African meal of.. a frozen pizza. Go big or go home, what can I say? I tried to go to bed at a reasonable time, but that wasn't happening, so I ended up sort of tossing and turning all night. I did get up at one point and edit and submit a paper for publication at about 3am, so that was.... something.

I had previously decided that my first day of work was going to be Tuesday, so I could get the car on Monday and practice driving around a bit on a day that was NOT my first day in the country. It turns out that was a really, really good decision. The car was delivered this morning. The other two American interns (both arriving later) and I are renting from a place called "Rent-a-Wreck," although their official name is Apex. They are super-cheap, although everyone seems to hate them. I was reluctant, but they are so cheap. I was dreading the car showing up, sort of expecting a giant hulking mass of metal, but... it's not that bad? It's an old Mazda automatic, and yes, it's a bit of a wreck. The whole car kind of vibrates when you drive, and the steering wheel is dreadfully stiff, and the acceleration is absolute crap, but.... well, it runs. I signed all the forms and things, and then sort of steeled myself for my first drive.

I've driven a lot of miles in South Africa, though never by myself, and never this close to my arrival in the country. Oh, and never really in the city. So I was terrified. I started small, just heading to the shopping center again to get some more essential things (clothes hangers, a hair dryer) and go food shopping. On the way there, I managed to hit something. I have no idea what -- the back of my car ran into something while I was driving, and I nearly flipped out. It wasn't anything like, moving or alive, but it flipped me out. But I got to the shopping center, and got out of the car and did my shopping, and when I got back to the car, I realized that the cigarette charger wasn't working. I had specifically requested that they check to make sure it was working, because I got a GPS before I left the US, and the only way to charge it is in the car, through the cigarette charger. So I called the company up, and they told me to come in.

I was like, oh, shit. I had no idea where in the city they were, and I didn't really want to drive anymore. But needs must -- so I plugged their address into the GPS and headed out. It was really stressful, and the GPS did a lot of reeeecalculating, and I got honked at a lot, and there are a lot of surprise one-way streets in downtown Johannesburg that are quite unpleasant, but I didn't die, and I didn't hit anything else... big. So that's a win, right?

When I got to the shop, they fixed the cigarette charger, I got the insurance situation figured out (finally!), and I was sent on my way. There was a dicey situation where the friendly gentleman from the company tried to give me driving directions that sent me the wrong way on a one-way street, but pedestrians standing by stopped me and got me through without dying. Again, there was a LOT of recalculating on the way home -- the streets are all multiple lanes in each direction, and since the GPS can't tell me audibly what my next move is going to be, I never know which lane I need to be in. So when it tells me, "turn left," I don't know if I need to turn left into the near left lane or the far left lane, and if I get it wrong and then I need to turn again in 300 meters, catastrophe ensues and I end up driving around and around in circles.

Needless to say, I was very relieved when I recognized the streets and realized I was almost home.

I will take and post pictures just as soon as I'm unpacked and my room is neat enough to be worth taking pictures of. Tomorrow is my first day of work, so I will hopefully have fun things to report soon.