Monday, February 22, 2010

Downtown Pietermaritzburg

After visiting the lions, we drove through downtown Pietermaritzburg. There are a lot of pretty brick buildings, but overall, the city looked a little run-down. I was pretty surprised.

We drove past several statues of important people, but the most interesting one was a statue of Gandhi.

We found out why there's a statue of him in the city when we stopped at the train station.

On June 17, 1893, Gandhi got on a train at this very station. He had purchased a first-class ticket, but he wasn't allowed to take his seat since he wasn't white. He refused to go to a lower class, so they kicked him off the train. This experience is what started his passion for active non-violence.

I don't know very much about Gandhi, but I do know that he was very influential and is highly respected. It was a crazy feeling to be on the same train platform that he had once been on. I never imagined that I would even be in the same place that he had once been, let alone in the very place that changed the course of his life!

We found out a few days later that Gandhi's family had been scattering his ashes in Durban that very same day that we were at the train station because it was the anniversary of his death. I felt even more amazed at this coincidence! Now I want to find out a lot more about Gandhi's life and what he did after he left South Africa.

Word of the Day: "Nxese" means "sorry" X is another click. This one is the same as the noise you would make if you were calling a horse. Nxese is pronounced nt-es-ay.

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