One of the unfortunate realities about life in Joburg is that if you need something, you’ll probably have to go a shopping mall to buy it. And the malls here are sprawling, crowded, and uniformly depressing.
Rrabobi!
Some of you may remember Millie, a large rain spider that Joe discovered in our house when he first moved in (a couple of weeks before I came to South Africa). If not, you can read a short post about her here.
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The Mean Streets of Hillbrow
On my recent post about downtown Joburg, I received some questions about Hillbrow – a huge residential community overlooking the city center. I now have some answers.
Hillbrow was a bustling middle-class neighborhood until the end of apartheid rule, when it began to transform. Similar to many 20th-century American inner cities, Hillbrow’s white middle class fled to the suburbs, making way for poor black South Africans (who were previously barred from living in places like Hillbrow) and immigrants from across the continent. The population soared and crime grew rampant; Hillbrow became a “no-go” area for visitors.
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Jozi From Above
Africa’s tallest building lives in Joburg. At 50 stories and 223 meters (730 feet) tall, the Carlton Center is modest by Western and Far-Eastern skyscraper standards. Even when you get within a couple of blocks, the Carlton Center looks strangely unimpressive. It doesn’t appear much taller than the buildings around it.