FCT and Jo'Burg

Back at FRA we experienced the Lufthansa First Class Terminal, an entire terminal dedicated to passengers flying on Lufthansa international first class. This experience now comes with the Lisa and Matt five-star seal of approval. If traveling was always like this then we’d have to insist on flying every day. More birthday toasts were made over rose champagne, a white tablecloth dinner and after dinner top-shelf whisky (think blue label) and scotch (think 18-year) followed by Matt’s favorite thing ever: a chauffeured Mercedes across the tarmac directly to the airplane. Lisa didn’t notice, but Matt insists he saw other passengers on the plane looking down at us through the airplane windows with faces full of abject envy on as we were whisked out of the limo and up an elevator directly onto the jet bridge.
The flight to Johannesburg is another overnight flight and this time we were bound and determined to actually sleep. And after more caviar and some delicious goose with potato we actually did manage to squeeze in six or so hours of sleep on that 9.5 hour flight. Unfortunately that also meant it was dark over Africa and we missed seeing the Sahara, the jungle and the Kalahari from our airplane window.
We were met by a driver at the airport and taken to the Hyatt Regency Johannesburg. After checking in we wandered over to the Rose Bank mall to find our bearings as well as an ATM to load up on Rand and a snack to load up our bellies.
We had arranged for a tour of Soweto and although the guide arrived late we did manage to spend the balance of the day exploring both the geography of Johannesburg but also the history of South Africa, including of course seeing the preparations so far for World Cup 2010.

Exhausted as we were, we were still dumbstruck by the absolute stupidity that men impose on their fellow man when reason and decency fails them. It’s the sort of experience that is so complex and thought provoking: one struggles to grasp the mindset that leads to formal policies of separation and subjugation and yet throughout the history of mankind it has always been thus.

And, upon closer examination, despite the reality of a black man occupying the Oval Office, the United States still has a long way to go before we are beyond the less formal and yet no less institutionalized policy of separation and subjugation. In engaging our guide on this question Matt asserted that perhaps class and income were more important than race in defining who lived where in America. The guide had a two word reply that shut Matt right the heck up: Ward 8. He asserted that for all of America's grand talk and gestures, Hurricane Katrina demonstrated to many Africans the reality of race in America, ie, we’ve got a long way to go.

That issue discussed we moved on to the FAR more important issue of where Rob and Amber won a Fast Forward during their season on The Amazing Race! :)

Thoroughly spent from the long flights and deep thinking, we nevertheless promised ourselves we’d stay up until AT LEAST…oh, 7pm in order to beat the jet lag. So we enjoyed dinner al fresco at a joint called Europa and had giggle fits as we fought sleep. But eventually sleep won and we went to sleep WAY too early. And paid for it in the sleepless middle of the night. On the other hand, we were easily up in time for our flight to Sabi Sands. So we had that going for us.