SOWETO

Ten couples met at the MTC to tour SOWETO.

Our guide was Kumbulani, director of Seminaries and Institutes of Southeast Africa area

We visited the Walter Sisulu cemetery/memorial.  He was Mandela's mentor.  Note large cemetery in background.

It is a beautiful memorial.  There are several monuments to him--one a botanical garden.

Kumbulani taught us about this great black man, Walter Sisulu

We went to the Regina Mundi Catholic church which was a refuge during the riots of 1976.

The children have a 2 week break from school.  The white boy is really an albino black boy.

The caretaker showed us bullet holes in the ceiling and walls of the church where police opened fire from inside.

This is the largest Catholic church in South Africa--seats 2000 but holds 5000

Danny, the caretaker, told us the story of Soweto--the first community where blacks were resettled during Apartheid.

It is one of the churches in the world that has a black Madonna and child.

The children were rehearsing for Easter services.

This certainly isn't as elaborate a church as many we have seen but it represents a sacrifice of these black people.

This is the monument to Hector Pieterson, a 13 year old boy who was killed by the police during a peaceful march of the youth of Soweto protesting being forced to learn Africaans--the language of their oppressors.