Winter in Johannesburg

Some of you may not know (or know and just didn't realize) that Southern Africa, being in the Southern Hemisphere, is in its winter season. So here I am, wearing my long-sleeved pink thermal shirt and a pair of comfy sweats, sipping English Breakfast tea in my room at a lovely bed and breakfast guest house. The guest house kitty is purring at my feet, as I look outside my window at the groundskeepers speaking their native tongue (not Afrikaans, certainly not English) as they prune the rose bushes. At least, I think that's what they're doing -- I don't know a whole lot about gardening. I always killed everything in my yard, which is why it's a good thing I moved to the desert.

Anyway, it is such a beautiful day in Johannesburg. 65 degrees, and not a cloud in the sky! The first thing I saw when we touched down in O.R. Tambo Int'l was -- green. Beautiful green grass and trees, and as my driver took me through the city on the way to my guest house, I could see the changing leaves. This was in stark contrast to the gloomy grey I left in Virginia; the arid red of the desert in Vegas; the pale beige and deep carbon of the concrete and asphalt of New York City, where my 15-hour journey to South Africa began.

Otherwise, Johannesburg is much like any American city. There are highways, buses, fine restaurants, et cetera. Also like most American cities, Johannesburg is scarred by its past -- apartheid. Before I left, I did some research and learned that the unemployment rate among blacks in Johannesburg is nearly four times that of whites. I thought to myself, "that can't be true." Until we drove through the city. Unemployed blacks line the street corners, almost as if they are waiting for something. Were they waiting for jobs like my driver explained? Perhaps. But I think it may be deeper than that. Perhaps they are waiting for the promise of the post-apartheid era to fully materialize. Perhaps they are waiting to finally emerge from the winter of racial disparity. I don't quite know, nor should I presume to know -- I've only been here for a few hours.

But it is intriguing. Maybe winter in Johannesburg will be colder than I originally expected.