And so, with the weather much improved, we embarked upon a full family trip to The Cradle of Humankind and the related Marepang Center, about an hour or so outside of Johannesburg. The ride through the countryside was beautiful. It is hard to describe what it is like here, but it strikes me as somewhat of a cross between northern New Mexico, northern California, and southeastern Pennsylvania, but nonetheless unique and truly not like any of those places.
The Cradle of Humankind is actually a fairly large geographical area, in which are some of the caves where some of the oldest remains of human predecessors have been found. The Marepang Center is a wonderful, interactive, educational center about the origins of humankind. The front of the Center is designed to look like a large grass covered mound resembling an ancient burial site; the rear of the center is, by contrast, very modern in design. See the website at http://www.maropeng.co.za/
After a lunch consisting of burgers & chips (fries) with tomato sauce (ketchup) and toasted sandwiches (grilled cheese) at the Marepang Center café....
we entered the Center itself.......
I confess that I freaked out on the mini-water-ride-tour about the elements – earth, air, wind, fire. After almost tipping us over, which made us all laugh in (naïve) glee, the little round inner-tube-ish boat immediately headed for the opening of a cave the size of a mouse hole. Those who know me know that I am slightly claustrophobic; okay, a lot claustrophobic -- recall post #1 and the climbing out of my airplane coffin-seat? That was a walk in the park compared to this. I literally almost jumped out of the otherwise perfectly safe watercraft to bolt back to the sadistic man who had smilingly gestured me towards my seat on the deceptively innocent looking torture device. But I did not. Instead, I bravely stayed in the boat, with my head squarely clamped between my knees, hands ever-so valiantly shrouding my eyes which stayed courageously focused intently on the hemline of little Quince’s pink dress as though it might unravel if I dared look away. I hear the water tour was fascinating. I couldn't say. But I was told, for instance, that the walls within the cave that was devoted to ice were, in fact, actual ice.
The interactive museum was very enlightening and engaging for all of us – kids and adults alike (although Alexander insists that, as good as it is, it is nonetheless not as “interactive” as the Exploratorium in California). The things we learned and were particularly struck by include:
1) All human beings derive from one common ancestral DNA strand
2) Speaking of that strand: Africa is indeed the birthplace and nurturing “cradle” of that strand
3) Speaking of the early hominids: some of them were very SMALL; Lucy, for instance, was under four feet tall.
4) Speaking of Lucy: she was named for the Beatles song “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” to which her discoverers were listening when they found her remains.
5) Speaking of remains: often the remains that are found are just tiny fragments of a skeleton, and it is from those fragments that scientists have been able to deduce all that we currently know about the Origin of our Species (with help from The Beagle and Charles Darwin, of course).
6) Speaking of our species: there have been five previous mass extinctions of living creatures since Earth was first formed. Each of these was caused by something other than human activity: asteroids, massive lava eruptions, etc. We humans are likely to be the cause of the sixth mass extinction. Global warming, here we come...
7) There is a zebra-like extinct animal called something like a Quagga that some scientists are currently trying to re-create using DNA from a stuffed Quagga combined with some living DNA from a similar non-extinct species. Check out Wikipedia's info on the Quagga: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quagga
In the evening, Bill graciously let us (Caroline and me) go out for a night on the town with Caroline’s friend, Zed Tshabalala, for dinner-theatre in the newly revitalized arts area of downtown Johannesburg. The dinner was a small buffet consisting of salad and some surprisingly deLISH-ioso lasagna with rosemary in it, of all things – very traditional South African fare. Dinner was followed by a production of Songs of Migration starring two of South Africa’s performing artist “gems”: Hugh Masekela and Sibongile Khumalo. A number of the songs were in various African languages and were about African miners who relocated away from their families for work, and the families they left behind, there were several African-American spirituals and even one song in Yiddish. Caroline and I gamely laughed along when 2/3 of the audience would laugh at the jokes that were in Zulu or Xhosa. Here's the Artslink info on Songs of Migration: http://www.artlink.co.za/news_article.htm?contentID=23699
Another great day in uMzantsi! That's the name for South Africa in Xhosa -- a big shout out to Tanya Naomi Cruz Teller for teaching us that! Don’t I just sound like a native Johannesburgian?! We have all - with the exception of Bill who wasn't with us at the time -- now learned exactly how to do the "click" required to actually pronounce "Xhosa" correctly. But more about that in another blog....
No comments:
Post a Comment