We spent our last weekend in South Africa's largest city, Johannesburg. On Friday, we said our "goodbyes" to the people and children at our volunteer sites. Shortly after, we headed to the airport for the 2 hour flight to Johannesburg. After the flight, we ate supper at the airport and then headed to our hostel, Gandhi's Backpackers. As the name eludes, Gandhi himself stayed at this place. We were a little apprehensive about the idea of a hostel but it turned out to be pretty neat and very safe. Most of us stayed in one big room with 8 bunk beds, taking us back to the days of summer camp! We all were in bed by 9:30 pm!
Saturday morning we toured Constitution Hill. Constitution Hill is the new home of the Constitutional Court, the protector of the people's basic rights and freedoms. Constitution Hill is also the home of a couple notorious prisons. We toured the women's jail which held black and white women in separate sections. Prominent activists such as Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and Albert Sisulu, and the infamous murderess, Daisy De Melker, are some of the well known people that were held here. Due to overcrowding, they built tin rooms outside to hold more people. We were able to see how small the rooms were and heard stories about how sometimes 4-6 women would live in one. We also toured the Old Fort Prison Complex, commonly known as Number Four, where thousands of ordinary people were brutally punished. Many of South Africa's leading political activists, inlcuding Nelson Mandela, were kept there. We learned about how the men were treated and saw the outdoor showers. There was lots of interesting information, stories, and testimonies about life in the prison that shed light on the terrible conditions the prisoners endured. One quote from Nelson Mandela said, "A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but its lowest ones- and South Africa treated 
its imprisoned African citizens like animals." After seeing the prisons, we were able to go into the Constitutional Court. The design of the room was so unique because the details represented their history and the values of the court. They wanted it to be open, accessible, and transparent for all people. 
After lunch, we headed to the Apartheid Museum. Our admission tickets grouped us as either a "White" or a "Non-White" which determined which entrance into the museum we took. The tour started with segregation because that was what started apartheid. The museum consists of pictures, videos, quotes, displays, and information about the atrocities of apartheid. We spent a couple of hours walking down the walls of information and taking in the tragedy and heroism the museum displayed. To thoroughly read all of the information it would have taken days for us to get through it all! It was nice to tie the end of the trip back to all of the history we had learned about.
On Sunday, we went to the Soweto Township. There are approximately 4.5 million people living there. We took a bike tour of Soweto and were able to see many interesting sites along the way. We saw where Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu lived. We also saw the memorial for the Soweto Massacre which was when students were rallying against apartheid and the authorities open fired on them, killing 23 students. We also ate at a local restaurant in the township. From the bike tour, we headed back to the airport to get back to Cape Town for our last night in South Africa.
