These are some of the things I have
found
Out about South Africa so far…
History
·
For a long time
people here had to live separately to others until the 1990’s when
Nelson Mandela was elected president and he changed everything so that people
could live together, this was called apartheid.
Houses
|
A house in a township |
·
Most people still
seem to live in separate groups. Some houses are too small and look like
shacks.
·
Most toilets near
small houses don’t have running water and some toilets they would call long drop
toilets because there are no sewage pipes. (You get the picture?)
Currency
· The currency of South
Africa is called Rand
and there are 12 Rand to the pound.
· The notes have all the big five on them (Lion, Rhino,
Leopard, Buffalo
and Elephant and the big seven (extra two) are Cheetah and Giraffe plus we’ve
seen all of them in one day last year!) there’s
a new note coming out with a picture of Nelson Mandela on it.
Population
·
Approximately 55
million people live in South Africa
which is less than in Britain
because there are 60 million there.
Roads
·
There don’t seem
to be as many roads as back in England
but there are quite a few more fast straight roads.
·
The roads are
measured in kilometres instead of miles.
·
You can drive at
120 kph on the fastest roads. This is about 75mph.
·
The roads can go
through mountains or past farms.
·
Lots of roads
don’t have tar on them which makes them very bumpy.
Farming
|
Dirk digs up some potatoes with Andrew and Sam |
·
On one farm where
we stayed in the North West
Province the farmer grew
maize and potatoes. He had just planted some pecan nut trees to sell abroad. We
saw sunflowers too.
·
In White River the farmers plant maize, bananas and
avocados. We have also seen other fruit being grown such as oranges, lemons and
mangoes.
·
You can’t grow
bananas in North West
Province because the
winters are too cold.
Shopping
|
A roadside stall |
·
There are big shops
in towns but people also put up stalls to make money for their family. We have
seen brushes made out of twigs, macademia nuts, birds carved out of wood and drinks
made out of marula fruit.
Schools
·
School starts
early at about 7.30 and finishes around 2pm. Lunch is at about 11am.
·
The school year
starts in January and ends in December.
|
Dimakatso and Betty |
·
Children are
taught in English, Africaans, sitswana, siSwati, Tsonga, Zulu, Xhosa or any
other of the 11 or 12 official languages.
·
It can be a long
way to school. Dimakatso is 6 and he walks 12km to school every day.
·
You only move
from one grade to the next if you pass the test at the end of the year. So you
could be years older than some of the other children in your class.
Nature
·
The weather,
animals, birds, insects and trees are different but I might do that another day
because I am tired.
Bye for now,
Sam