Today was a day of first impressions. Getting to know each other and South Africa.

The Dutch SSDC team met the South African members of the team: Mthoks, Kagisho, Tshiamo, David and Carol.

We started off with a history lesson about South Africa, from past to present, presented by David. He taught us all about the society, based on Ubuntu. In basic Ubuntu means "You are what you are because of others." (Humanness). It made us aware of the strong contrast between the Western individualism versus the collective awareness in South Africa.

Carol told us about the do's and don'ts regarding safety in Jo'burg. Be alert, be humble.

In the afternoon we got in touch practically with the theory that was discussed in the morning by means of a "city assignment". The goal of this assignment was to get to know as much as possible about the city in a non touristic way.

We split up the team in two. One team had a walk with Kagisho in dowtown Jozi which is considered as the most dangerous place. The other group went to wealthy Sandton and to the Township called Alex(andra). They experience was very positive, no negative experiences occured. We had the chance to have a good interaction with the local people.

In the night we had a nice African dinner at Moyo with all stakeholders of the project.

So far, so good... Sho-sho. Robalang sentle.

Michel Krombeen and Bram Smulders