Visit to Soweto and a Beer in Randon Make-Shift Pub all Before Noon - Interesting Birthday

The second day in Jo'burg I decided to venture out into the South Western Townships (Soweto). Based on handy advice from both websites and fellow travelers I was informed I could go to Soweto, however, coming out is a challenge due to a lack of street names. As it was only my second day in Joburg I didn't want to tempt the situation and opted to join a group of backpackers who had hired a local guide to tour them through Soweto. Coincidentally all but one of the people on the impromptu tour was Canadian.

Soweto has a long and interesting history, unfortunately marred by many tragic events. The township were when Africans were evicted from Joborg. The townships have grown from a few people to over 3.5 million. Interestingly, Soweto is the only community in the world to have two Nobel Peace Prize winners live in the community: Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. The tour of the community was intriguing. An interesting mixture of poverty, upscale development, and traditional lifestyles. I was able to visit a couple of museums, walk the back streets with random children inviting us to play soccer, and speak with a group of local 'elders' (the wife of one man laughed when they referred to themselves as elders).

On the way out of Soweto the tour guide learned it was my birthday. To celebrate we pulled into the first make-shift pub. The "pub" was in the garage of a random person's home with a couple of older gentlemen drinking beer. We later learned they were hiding from their wives to enable them to skip church. As it was Sunday morning at 11 AM we quickly rushed into the "pub" and informed to close the gate to ensure the police didn't know they were already serving alcohol. One of the clearly intoxicated gentlemen, Obry, provided me words of wisdom for my birthday - "be elephant". As I was not as intoxicated as Obry I missed the meaning of his profound statement which was later translated by a lesser drunk old man in the "pub" to mean I hope you live a long life. Apparently elephants, according to Obry and the second drunk gentlemen, can live to be 200 years old. I figured a compliment is a compliment regarding if you understood it.