The Mandelas' new decor

For Tanya's last day in South Africa, we decided to visit Soweto, one of the most historically significant cities in the country.

We visited Vilakazi Street, which was neat to be on since we started the Vilakazi Foundation. Things have changed quite a bit. New sidewalks and paint have improved the location, and more vendors were around.

We toured Nelson Mandela's house. Leigh and I went there in 2007, but we returned so Tanya could see it. It was completely changed. Our tour guide explained that renovation began in 2008 to accommodate all the visitors expected for the World Cup. It was quite a lot busier than when we went three years ago. Most of the furniture had been removed from the tiny home to open up the space for more tourists. Photos were now allowed. The price went up. But the tour was much better. We learned a lot even though we'd been once.

We grabbed a beer at a restaurant down the street. We visited "The Koppie," a lookout hill nearby Mandela's house, and got a lovely view of Soweto.





On the way to the car I made two recordings: one of a boy singing the SA national anthem and another of four younger boys singing one of the traditional protest songs.

We wanted to go to Wandie's for lunch but the address we had was incorrect. We asked a group of police officers how to get there. "That guy right there will take you there," one officer said. He was referring to a police truck. Yes, we had our very own police escort.



I think this might have been the highlight of Leigh's life. The officers drove us across Soweto to the neighborhood where Wandie's was. We all felt like kind of a big deal. We debated whether it was appropriate to tip police officers or if that would be a crime. The officers pointed out Wandie's and made sure we saw it. Then they drove on. No tip necessary. Just being super nice.

We were greeted in front of Wandie's by a couple of street performers who could do such fantastic things as lick their elbows. And eat their feet:



Wandie's is a restaurant with traditional SA food. In a word: delicious. We had two kinds of potatoes, beans and chickpeas, beef, chicken, rice, greens, salad, bread and desert. My god. Yes. We also made friends with a couple of guys from Angola eating next to us. It was fantastic.

We stopped by the house before taking Tanya to the airport. Alfie reminded Tanya of her promise to fire the "pellet gun" that I like to refer to as the sniper rifle. No hadidas - SA birds about the size of geese but with short necks - were around, so Alfie had to settle for target shooting. He set up a dog bowl on the grill. Tanya hit it in one shot.

Then came the peer pressure. I caved and said I would shoot the gun, though I refused to aim at anything with a mother. I struck the dog bowl, and just as I turned around Carin walked in the door. "Caught in the act!" Alfie shouted. Carin looked at me like I had betrayed reason. I tried to explain that we were shooting at targets but it was of no consolation. I'd now switched sides from responsibility (Carin and me) to mayhem (Alfie and Leigh). Of course Alfie, Leigh and Tanya thought this was hilarious.

It was time to take Tanya to the airport, and we made a quick stop at a music store to get CDs we couldn't find at home. We followed the GPS to the airport, but it took us straight through downtown at rush hour. Leigh was a little worried Tanya might miss her flight, but we arrived in plenty of time. And we had the great opportunity to view downtown Joburg at sunset. It was actually quite beautiful.

We said goodbye to Tanya and returned home. We all fell asleep watching soccer. Fantastic.