my week in pictures

Happy Sunday Lovelies!

I’m really sorry I haven’t been able to blog for a while. I’ve just been really tied up with school work & life in general, but as of Friday, I am officially on holiday! In this two week break, I will definitely be blogging more regularly! Today is going to be a rather long update on my week (which has been surprisingly fun) and I’ll be sharing tons of photos I took over the past few days.

Instead of school this week, we – the grade nines – got to go on a history festival which included three days of touring our province. I had an absolute blast hanging out with my mates, learning about amazing historical figures and of course, getting out of the classroom.

Hopefully you’ve got a cup of tea with you, because this is going to be a long post! Enjoy! 👌 xo

history tour day one: johannesburg

today we toured a mansion called ‘northwards’ which was owned by a really wealthy land lord who lived in the house in the 1900s. we got told there are about 40 rooms in the home & when we looked around inside, we noticed how each room was decorated so beautifully, with chandeliers and massive windows overlooking a stunning garden, where we later enjoyed a picnic. after that, we walked down a famous street lined with the hugest houses and ended at the bottom of the road at a little church (as seen in picture). this old church – and many of the houses on the street – were designed beautifully by the architect sir herbert baker. after a little tour, we drove to a synagogue, where we sat and listened to a rabbi. he spoke on Jewish traditions, religious beliefs & festivals. we ended the day off with getting to taste traditional Jewish food which was too delicious. today was an absolute blast & all i can say is that i can’t wait for tomorrow!

/// NORTHWARDS – RAND LORD HOME

/// ADVENTURIN’

/// CHURCH

/// JEWISH MEAL

we got to eat a meal at the synagogue that we visited, it consisted of a soup, matzos balls, fruit (like granadilla, watermelon, grapes & melons) matzos crackers with either chocolate spread or cheese – obviously i chose the chocolate spread.

* please admire my presentation skills and yes, i did spill my soup.

history tour day two: soweto

we began today with a drive around both the rich + poor areas of soweto. we rode past the chris hani baragwanath hospital, which is the largest hospital in the world. from a distance, we saw the orlando bungee jump towers. we stretched our legs at the walter sisulu freedom square & saw inside the freedom charter building. our next stop was the regina mundi catholic church. inside this building we saw the bullet holes in both the ceiling and windows left from the firing of the soweto uprising in 1976. we also got to see the memorial of one of the boys that were shot in the soweto uprising – hector pieterson, but sadly couldn’t go into his museum (thanks loadshedding). we went into the mandela house & after that to the kliptown youth project, where we spent the afternoon giving the children our clothes, finding out about their amazing community + playing sport with them. today was a truly humbling experience.

/// DRIVING AROUND SOWETO

/// REGINA MUNDI CHURCH

/// NELSON MANDELA’S HOME

but how beautiful is my friend? 👆

/// HECTOR PIETERSON MEMORIAL

/// KLIPTOWN YOUTH PROGRAM

“from poverty to opportunity” 

find out about how this organisation is making a difference in their community, one child at a time: http://www.kliptownyouthprogram.org.za/

history tour day three: pretoria

sadly this was our final day of the history festival, but we had a brilliant time + learned so so much. today we went to the home of sammy marks, who was the first millionaire of south africa. we were given a tour of his extravagant yet beautiful 44-room house. we were told about how sammy became so rich and then walked around his property + rose garden. the last place we went to was the farm of two-time prime minister, jan christiaan smuts. his little home was a lot simpler than sammy marks’, but lovely nonetheless. to end the trip off, we walked up jun smuts’ trail where we got a beautiful view of pretoria. it was here where he cleared his mind and got inspiration for one of his books. 👣 every day of this tour has been so interesting & i have loved getting away with my friends, who made lame bus rides a lot more enjoyable.

/// SAMMY MARKS HOME

/// JAN SMUTS FARM

Hopefully you enjoyed travelling along with me on this (super long, hopefully not-too-boring) post. You guys mean the world to me. 🌼

I hope you beautiful people – have a lovely, restful weekend.

Till we chat again, be good to yourself!

xo Hannah

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