2002-12-15: We finally arrived back to the western world for a couple of days in Pretoria. We went out to some club, and we visited the National Museum. The museum had some very interesting dioramas depicting our ancestors dealings with leopards. Barbara left to go visit her family for the holidays, and I got a interesting "stop and frisk" shakedown by some South African police. As soon as they found out that I was American, they let me go.
The next day, I planned to travel to Johannesburg. I made an arrangement with a youth hostel to pick me up, I was supposed to take the bus. When I could not find the bus station, I asked a black woman for directions, and she took me to the minibuses.
People in the minibus were shocked to see me there, and they were very cold to me until I mentioned that I was American. After that, everyone was super friendly. It seems that white South Africans never ride in the minibus.
