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Nicole's
Travelogues and Budget Travel Tips..
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SOUTH AFRICA
In the early 80s I went to Berkeley High School and attended all of the anti-Apartheid rallies at CAL. Thankfully, my 6th period teacher let me cut class as long as I turned in an essay about my experiences. The first time I was on the TV news was when I joined an anti-Apartheid march to Bank of America (who still hadn't divested). That was back in the days when my hair was bleached red and spiked. Ha ha such a Berkeley kid! Anyway since the abolishment of Apartheid, I have wanted to visit South Africa. In 2004, South Africa celebrated it's 10th Anniversary of Democracy. My cousin, Lisa, and I visited the Cape Town and Johannesburg areas in July 2004. South Africa borders Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, and Zimbabwe. South Africa completely surrounds Lesotho and almost completely surrounds Swaziland. It's slightly less than twice the size of Texas (try saying that 10 times fast!). Pretoria is the capital, Cape Town is the legislative center, and Bloemfontein the judicial center. The country, with a total population of some 45 million, tops the list of nations hardest hit by HIV/AIDS around the world - 1 in 5 people in South Africa have HIV/AIDS. Last year (2003), more than 1 million children in South Africa had been orphaned by AIDS, making up 48 percent of all orphans in the country. One of the biggest complaints about Nelson Mandela's presidency was that he didn't make fighting HIV/AIDS more of a priority - a fact which he has recently said to have regretted. |
South Africa's currency is the Rand (@ 6R to $1 when I was there). South Africa has 11 official languages: Afrikaans, English, North Sotho, Shangaan, Sindebele, South Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Venda, Xhosa and Zulu. However English is understood widely. Ethnic distribution: black 75.2%, white 13.6%, Colored 8.6%, Indian 2.6% Independence Day is May 31, 1910 (from UK) -- Freedom Day is April 27, 1994 |
