Cato Manor!

Wow!

There are no words to perfectly describe how I feel about my homestay.  I’m filled with overwhelming happiness, surprises, and a few disappointments. 

Originally I was told I was going to be living with a mama her 3 sons and a 15-year-old granddaughter. That is not the case at all!

We arrived at the schoolyard in Cato Manor where we were all communally meeting our homestay mamas and few other members of the family. I was in the second group because the van couldn’t fit all of us so as we were pulling up a wave of nervousness rushed through me as I watched other people meeting their families! We pull up and right as we open the door kids from every direction just run up and hug all of us!! Little boys left and right were tugging at me and jumping on me and kissing me and girls were all over me playing with my hair and touching my face and telling me I was so pretty.  It was probably the greatest welcome I have ever received.

Within minutes, Thula, the guy who drives us EVERYWHERE, poor man, grabs my arm to lead me to my mama! A short, plump, adorable woman in a purple top and black skirt envelopes me in her warm body and immediately makes me feel right at home. She grabs my face and shows me to her friends and laughs at my terrible Zulu. It was magical.  I get her a drink and she says I need to get used to it because she is lazy and wants me to make tea for her at the house. She is probably the funniest woman in the whole world. She thinks I’m incredibly athletic…..which I’ve never heard from anybody except my biological mother who also must not understand the meaning of the word “athletic”.

So as we drive home, I’m imagining the small hut this woman must live in with her 3 sons and granddaughter, but we drive up to an adorable little place that houses her, 2 sons, and her 2 year old grandson! The daughter had apparently left which I was a little disappointed about.  We go inside and mama tells me I can do anything I want, I don’t ever need to ask her for anything. If I want a banana, I eat a banana. If I want to sleep, I go to sleep. If I want to bathe, I go bathe.  Obviously I just kept asking her if I could do all of these things because it seemed polite and every time she would just laugh at me and tell me to do whatever I wanted.

That first night mama told me all about herself.  Her husband died in 1996 and she will never be with another man because he is the only man she’ll ever love.  She has Jesus to keep her company and REALLY wants me to have Jesus too…we’ll see.  She goes to community meetings to better her community and is part of a women empowerment group that meets every Monday.

She is so happy to finally have a daughter.  She has 5 sons and told me all of her other homestay students were rude and afraid of germs so she loves me so much and I’m her favorite.  Not only am I her favorite; I am also clever, smart, pretty, funny, and kind. Mama showers with me complements every time I walk into a room. “Sawubona beautiful! Did you make your bed? I didn’t even show you how you did it right. You see?! You’re so clever!”

Mama makes us dinner every single night and there is definitely enough to go around.  I have learned never to let mama make my plate for me because she is far too generous with her portions.  In this culture, it is not ok to not finish the food on your plate because it is wasteful and can really offend someone.  So, on the first night when mama dished me a gigantic mountain of rice topped with chicken and pumpkin, I had to suck it up and eat it. On the bright side it was delicious, but it was awful when I wasn’t hungry at all even by morning for the eggs that mama made me…..obviously had to eat those too.  I now make my own plates and my own breakfast because mama has shown me the ropes and now I serve her and make her tea.

She is mama and I am mami.  I’m purposefully not spelling it “mommy” because I don’t think that’s what it means to her when she calls me that.  We wake up in the morning and make breakfast together and feed Andile, the adorable 2 year old boy who mama is convinced is depressed and needs to see a healer.  He is not depressed.  I got him to smile and dance within one hour of being here.  He just needs some energetic attention.  He has a tired grandma and a father who does not speak. 

Oh yes, the sons.  One of them literally does not speak.  Mama makes fun of him and gets so frustrated because she loves to talk and he barely responds.  That’s why she loves me so much, because I’m a chatter box and, as my biological mother would say, a blurter. So we have a fabulous time together.  Talking and laughing. The other son is barely around so I don’t see him much.  He’s supposed to build me a dresser but I’ve given up hope that it will actually happen.

The house is small and cute and has all the essentials one would need.  Not the essentials that an average Tulane or PV girl would think of.  But really just essentials.  A small kitchen with a stove a sink and fridge.  A living room with basic cable.  3 small bedrooms. A room with a toilet and another room with a bath.

If you noticed before when I said bath instead of shower, it’s because we don’t have a shower.  We have a bathtub that you can fill with a little bit of water and buckets to fill to rinse so you conserve water.  First you must scrub the bathtub because it is probably dirty, and then boil water in a kettle to mix with some lukewarm water to make a bucket full of hot water to rinse off with.  Let me tell you.  I feel clean as a whistle.  And I definitely take longer showers than it takes me to complete this process.  I definitely did not ace this test on my first try though.  I ended up putting far too much shampoo in my hair and mama had to boil me more water than she intended…mama was not happy.  Also, for those of you who know me, I shed like a Labrador.  So even after trying as hard as humanly possible to gather all my hair from the tub, mama told me to go back and make sure it was all gone. 

I’ll get better.  It was actually kind of fun.  And I felt so good using such little water to bathe. Even if I did use an extra bucket and a half of water.

Last night, a few of us decided to go for a little walk around the neighborhood.  Mama was at her women empowerment meeting so I decided it was a good idea.  Alie, Casey, Angela, and I walked with Alie's host sister Thando and she showed us around.  It was incredible! Kids as young as 9 years old were out and about on their own at 7 at night.  We talked to young children, met with some others our age, and hung out at the sport court where we ended up running into David, Janelle, Ellie, and Nina who were playing soccer with their host siblings! It was so awesome.  Thando was such an incredible girl and she showed us the ropes of the neighborhood.  I made it home safe and sound to a lovely greeting from mama. 

Although I was slightly disappointed in my lack of siblings, or ones who speak,  I love Andile the baby, and I could not be more happy with my mama.  Also there are 5 kids next door! So if I ever need some children lovin, I can always go over there and then lock myself in my house when I’ve had enough limbs yanked and twisted.

 So by Day 2 I feel very comfortable.  I go in the fridge whenever I want an apple and I make tea if I want tea.  I feel so blessed to spend this time with such a wonderful woman and learn about the simple yet challenging life she lives. One short month is not enough time here, but I will definitely cherish it, and do everything I can to make mama’s life a little easier.

All this mama talk really makes me miss my real mama :( but at least she knows I’m in good hands for the time being.

Ok it’s 9 pm, way past my African bedtime.

Sala Kahle!

Some pictures of my mama and Andile! 

Boobs!

We had the most amazing cultural experience yesterday.  The 16 of us all had the opportunity to attend The Zulu Reed Dance in KwaZulu Natal! In this ceremony, thousands of young (virgin) girls parade in groups before the King of KwaZulu Natal so he can choose his new wife.  These girls undergo a virginity testing process beforehand to confirm that they are, in fact, virgins.

As barbaric as this sounds, the women love it.  All of the girls absolutely love the attention and feel gorgeous in their intricate beaded outfits and noisemakers attached at their ankles.  Most of them are topless as they dance and chant and sing marching up the hill carrying the large reeds that they place in one big pile before they pass the king. 

I did manage to catch a few photos of the king, who for some reason really bothered me.  I’m not sure why.

But anyway, back to the culture.  It was so much fun! The girls were so fun and lively and absolutely LOVED us and had come to share this day with them.  As we were walking up the hill alongside the girls participating in the ceremony, many other girls were walking down and got so excited by us and couldn’t help but run up and hug us and beg us to take pictures with them! It was so cute I loved it.  During the ceremony I took SO many pictures and took amazing pictures I wish I could share with y’all but the internet does not allow any uploading or downloading so I will have to share those later. 

After the ceremony though, we got to walk ahead to where all the girls ended up after the walk.  And they were even more excited than anyone else!  They huddled in groups and posed for us to take pictures and grabbed us to be in the pictures too.  They played with my hair and touched my clothes and when I showed them the pictures we took they would say, “Oh I look beautiful!” It was awesome.  The girls all ranged from about 13 years old to early twenties but most of them seemed like babies to me. They were so cute and bubbly and just wanted to talk to us and share their lives.  They told us that they had woken up at about 4 am that morning to bathe in the river and prepare for their day. 

It was such an eye opening experience to see how these girls lived and to be around so many bare breasted girls so comfortable in their skin.  None of the girls seemed to be concerned with body image at all and they all strutted around with such confidence.  Not only did they love themselves, but everyone seemed to have such warm compassion for those around them and all the girls were so welcoming to us.

I tried uploading one picture but it didn't work so hopefully there will be so many to come! We’re officially leaving our apartments in Durban to stay with our homestay families in Cato Manor.  But not before taking off our clothes and illegally running into the ocean in the middle of the night.   

Sala Kahle for now! :) 

Always Trust a Mama!

Ok so we're finally in Durban...yay! It's so much warmer here than it was in Jo Burg! Its wonderful.  We're currently living the the Windemere Apartments right on the beach! It's gorgeous.  4 of us to a room.

Here's the view from our apartment!

I got to fly here while the rest of the crew drove. So 2 others and I spent the day at the Shoestring Lodge chatting with a girl named Chloe from Wales who was just in the North at the Research Center studying monkeys for the past month. She was really cool, and her name was Chloe.

We made it here for dinner and had sushi! Did not think I would be having that for 4 months.  After dinner we went for some drinks on the strand. So lovely.
Not much happened the first day and half except we started our Zulu classes...Sowubona! That means hello! I can say more but nothing too exciting.

Today, HOWEVER, was a very exciting day.  They decided to create a survival of the fittest kind of day and split us up into groups of two and give us destinations to get to on our own from our hotel this morning only using Durban's public transportation and then make it to the SIT office by 1 pm.  I was matched up with a girl named Jenny and our destination was Chatsworth.  In Chatsworth lies an Indian community that holds the Krishna Temple.  So our whole group walked to the Workshop from our hotel which is in the city center where we would split up and find our correct buses or other means of transportation.

We were given a helpful suggestion of asking someone who liked like a "mama" which we have come to learn is not necessarily maternal in any way.  It's closer to "ma'am" and signifies a woman older than you who has some type of authority and it is a thing of respect.  We also learned today that "Sawubona, mama!" coming from a person with an obvious American accent just seems wrong; we got laughed at a lot. So we didn't do that.

So back at the bus station we saw several fellow students waiting at their respective bus stations while Jenny and I couldn't seem to find anyone that knew how the hell to get to Chatsworth.  We then found out that there is actually no public bus that goes to Chatsworth and we were sent across the street where we found no type of transportation that the bus driver was talking about. So we found a "mama" and asked her how to get to Chatsworth. Her response was "Why in heavens are you going to Chatsworth?" which was not encouraging in the slightest but then told us to turn the corner and wait in the front of the bank for a minibus.

So as we made our way to said bank, we saw what seemed like MILLIONS of minibuses racing down the busy road almost crashing into each other on the street stopping in front of the bank, hoarding people into their vans, and speeding off.  It was a horrifying sight. I then turned to Jenny and exclaimed that there was no way in hell I was going to get on one of those, but she wouldn't let me back out.  The worst part about this horrific drivers is that the pedestrian laws here are completely different than in the US. Here, no matter what, everything is the pedestrian's fault.  Cars don't stop for pedestrians, they will literally just run you over.  So all of these vans come dangerously close to killing pedestrians and nobody thinks anything of it! It's awful!

So we found another "mama" waiting where all the minibuses were stopping and asked how to get to Chatsworth.  She laughed cause we were so obviously American and explained that we needed to wait until a minibus stopped and called out "Chatsworth!" It seemed simple enough but it was weird to us that no other minibuses were calling out any names. So we waited next to her hoping she would just tell us which bus to get on.

The way these buses work is a 2 man job.  One driver and one man in the back of the van opening the door and collecting money.  The man in the back is constantly opening the door while the van is in motion and hanging off the side yelling at people trying to get customers. They load in as many people as they can fit, ignoring the number of seats the car actually offers.

I was still not fond of the idea of getting into one of these death traps but Jenny really wouldn't let me bail.  I was especially discouraged when our trusted mama got in a minivan and LEFT US! She walked away saying "DO NOT get into any of the minibuses unless they shout out Chatsworth. Don't ask them or approach them, just wait" and then she got in the car and left! I wasn't offended, she obviously had places to be, but we didn't have our mama to tell us what to do! We immediately got slightly nervous and approached the next bus asking if they go to Chatsworth. The man told us that there are no buses that go to Chatsworth but he will take us to a road that is on the way where we can find another bus there.  I was skeptical.  Mama told us someone would yell Chatsworth, ALWAYS trust a mama. We backed up and he kept insisting that we get on and was basically yelling at us and acting like we were dumb for not listening, but I couldn't go against mama's rules.  Within 2 minutes a minibus swerves around the corner to a stop and the man shouts Chatsworth!! I have never been so happy to hear a word in my life.  We ran to the bus and hopped in.  This van switched off between incredibly ghetto rap to some soulful women to Blurred Lines. It was odd.

On our way to Chatsworth we passed some incredible sights and picked up some incredible people along the way.  The ride was about an hour and 30 minutes and the total cost was 13 rand....that is $1.30. Amazing! These minibuses are a strange idea.  We ended up packing 21 people in the van that seats 12. It was absurd! If a "mama" ever got on the bus and there were no seats available, someone is expected to move, which I thought was lovely.  The minibus guys were so determined for more customers they would literally drive backwards down hills if they thought they passed someone and the man in the back would get out and run to people to get them in the van.  It was so crazy. It took us forever to get there.

We finally arrived in Chatsworth but not before dropping off several school kids at an elementary school surrounded by barbed wire and listening to Blurred Lines three times in a row.  The Krishna Temple is awesome! I'm so mad I don't get to show anyone pictures because I didn't take any pictures! We were told that since we don't know the transportation very well and most of us are obvious tourists, we shouldn't bring anything that we would invite a mugger.  Even though we probably would anyway, losing my shitty African cell phone and R100 would be nothing compared to my iPhone. So I chose against it.
We get there and timidly walk inside. Not exactly sure what would be considered disrespectful.  We were pleased to realize that it was a pretty accepting crowd. We took off our shoes and were invited by smiling faces to come inside and look around.

People were bent over on the floor, praying, and kissing the ground.  Others were dancing around and chanting with the men dressed in all white.  Some were placing offerings on a beautiful display with dolls and flowers and various things mostly consisting of the colors blue, green, and white.  It was so interesting.  We stayed until what seemed to be the end of one chant and made our way outside.  It looked to be as if they were cleaning up some sort of festival or something so we asked around and found out that there had been a 3 day festival there celebrating Krishna's birthday.  We just missed it! But the woman told us to stay around because today was the celebration of Krishna's mother! The ceremony didn't start until 10 so we waited around in the garden and practiced our zulu clicks! It is so hard to incorporate them into our sentences. Doing the sound is one thing, doing it in the middle of a word is another.

Anywho, 10 o'clock rolls around so we go back into the temple where the ceremony was beginning. A man dressed in all white approached us with a huge grin and asked us all about what we were doing in South Africa and was so enthusiastic that it was our first time in the temple and was so happy that he was sharing this experience with us.  It was so nice to be so accepted by all of these people.  I know in many religions and cultures, outsiders are often judged and looked as disrespectful for not doing the right things, but it was the opposite.  Everyone was so welcoming and heartwarming it was such a wonderful experience.  Also it was slightly comforting to see the modern influences that were so unexpected.  The leaders of the ceremony had pulled out their cellphones at some points, pictures were being taken, and the main chanter in the ceremony delayed the start of his musical number due to dissatisfaction with one of the microphones.  After listening to "Hale Krishna. Hale Krishna. Krishna Krishna. Hale Hale. Hale Rama. Hale Rama. Rama Rama. Hale Hale" about 7 different times, we decided it was time to go if we wanted to make it back on time.

So another terrifying ride in a minibus took us back to center city where we stopped at Workshop which is a kind of mall with a lot of stands and other little outdoor kiosk things in the front.  We ended up running into our friends Casey and Janelle and we spent a lot of time looking for bags and African waist beads which I'm definitely going to rock when I find the perfect ones.

We made it back in time for our Zulu lesson! And I will definitely be teaching you some nice Zulu words along the way!

But for now, Sala kahle!

Day 4

Not a lot to say.  We did go to Constitution Hill though which is the prison that held several inmates, where the African inmates were treated incredibly unfairly. This is where several important icons such as Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi were imprisoned. It was an amazing experience and I learned a lot from our tour.  I wish I could post pictures but the internet is too terrible I will have to show you all when I return to the states!

Tomorrow we go to Durban! I cannot wait.  I found out the family structure of my homestay family.  I have a wonderful homestay mother, her sons (3 men in their thirties.....), and a granddaughter who is 15 years old. I'm trying to think of a nice gift to get the granddaughter so if anyone has suggestions let me know!

That is all for today.  Just waiting for the delicious South African barbecue we're going to have for dinner!

<3

Days 1-3

Okay so I haven’t started my blog because I haven’t had a computer for a few days so I’m going to attempt to fill you in.

After my lovely stay in New Jersey with Jamie Paro, I was dropped off at the Newark airport to make my first flight to London.  I came to a horrifying discovery in the airport that my computer no longer wanted to cooperate. Not only was it a terrifying thought to cross the country without the comfort of my favorite piece of technology, but my procrastinating self left my first assignment untouched with the plan to start and complete it on my flights. So I was clearly off to a bad start. After a frantic phone call to my father, it was time to get on the plane. It wasn’t that my computer was completely broken, it was just that every time I did anything that spinning beach ball of death would appear and my computer would freeze for at least 45 seconds.  But 45 seconds was lucky.  So with every letter I typed and every time I scrolled down the article I needed to read, my computer would freak out.  As I attempted to write up my summary on the airplane, I realized that after about 45 minutes I was only able to complete 4 sentences, and I didn’t like any of them.  So, I closed my computer, cried for 30 minutes, and then watched The Incredible Burt Wonderstone.  Which is a pretty terrible movie.

So the rest of my flight to London was wonderful, slept the entire way. Then when I got to London my best friend Nikky Sweet landed in London about an hour after for her study abroad program Semester at Sea. Lucky for me her program began in London so I spent my 10 hour layover in her hotel room meeting all her new friends with her and getting some drinks at the bar :)

After a few hours, I made my way back to the airport, hugged my neechy goodbye, and left for Africa.  Obviously I sat next to a very fussy baby who didn’t even appreciate my crayons that I had.  So my 11 hour flight consisted of very little sleeping.  I did watch about 4 movies, dozing off throughout The Hobbit, and drank about 7 cups of tea total.  Love South Africans. 

I landed in Johannesburg at 7:10 in the morning, realized I had no wifi, and could not communicate with any of the girls that I planned to meet so we could take the shuttle to the Shoe String Backpacker’s Lodge together.  So I stood outside customs for 2 hours and asked every girl my age if she was on my program.  I eventually found Alie Frankel, a fellow Tulane student, and we made our way around baggage and eventually found the rest of the girls on the program who arrived in the morning. 

We arrive at the Shoe String Lodge, which in my mind was a fancy little hostel with a pool. Nope.  We were shown to our room, single room, which the 8 of us are currently sharing.  I was lucky enough to receive a top bunk…..and then we were shown around the tiny little house that houses various travelers making their way through Johannesburg. The bathrooms are a little worrisome but they do the job, although you do have to trek through the backyard to get to one of them. And I wasn’t lying about the pool, there’s just no water in it and several items rotting at the bottom. We still could tan around the pool, but to our surprise Johannesburg has a real winter and it is damn cold. 

So after our tour I realized it was time to locate an Apple Store and fix my computer.  A few of us were hungry so 3 girls offered to accompany me on the high speed train to the Sandton area to the Nelson Mandela Square.  Which is a wonderful mall that holds the main apple store of South Africa.  To my surprise, we did not feel like we were in Africa.  The mall contained high fashion brands and expensive trinkets and gadgets everywhere, I felt like I was in America. The man at the apple store, who was wonderful, eventually had to be the bearer of bad news and told me that my hard drive was shot and he had to wipe it out. Meaning I would be left in Africa with nothing I previously had on my computer.  I took it shockingly well.  So I left my computer with him to come back to the Lodge, take an incredibly necessary shower, and pass out for about 4 hours. 

I was awoken by the arrival of the rest of my group.  The final 8 had finally made it just in time to join us for dinner, which the owners of the lodge prepared for us. We had curry vegetables, curry beef, some peculiar potatoes, lots of bread, rice, and other scary things I did not dare to touch. We sat around the fire and talked, trying to force ourselves to stay up to at least 10 o clock to try to adjust to the time zone.  I think we made it to about 9:45. So close. But we could not go on. 

Day 2

We woke up for 8 am breakfast, followed by a little information session about the program in general and some South African history.  Lunch was spent in Soweto, a large city outside of Johannesburg, at a cute little restaurant called Wandie’s Place. It was at this time I decided that I needed to be a little more daring with food now so that I don’t offend my homestay mama later.  So as surprising as this sounds, I ate both liver and tripe (intestine) at this meal and obviously hated both.  BUT I TRIED THEM! The tea we keep having here, Rooibos, is absolutely delicious. I had about 3 cups at lunch.  Also during this lunch was an amazing duo (man and women) who sang South African music to us while playing the guitar in a native language that not even our head professor could guess. So we just enjoyed while they made some of us dance with them.

After lunch we went to the Hector Pieterson Memorial.  This was a museum that told the story about the Soweto Uprising. The black youth in South Africa were being forced to speak Afrikaans in their education system, signifying the oppression they faced by white people.  This led to a “peaceful” protest organized by the students that turned into a violent uprising provoked by the police and ended with several deaths, including Hector Pieterson who became the symbol of the youth.  It was a very powerful experience.

The rest of the day was spent lounging. We went to a casino that night and ate dinner there.  It was a girl on the program, Danielle’s, birthday so we had a little celebration.  We’re like not in Africa yet.  But soon we will be!

Day 3

Won’t be as long as the others.  We went to some historical places today.  Honestly I have little to say about them, I spent most of the time looking around and observing the amazing wedding happening at one of them.  I have pictures and videos of a group of what looked like priests in amazing white robes and absurd hats dancing and playing a huge drum and singing. We spent a lot of time at the mall where I finally retrieved my computer and gave Dean, the lovely gentleman that fixed it, a huge cookie.  He wanted chocolate but I hope the cookie sufficed.  I finally have a computer but sadly it doesn’t even feel like mine because everything that was on it is gone! But its ok, he downloaded the brand new software for absolutely free!

None of us are fully adjusted to the time zone so we’re pretty slothy during the day and get rowdy at night.  It’s not good for us or the people that we live with but hopefully we’ll be fully adjusted soon. 

I wish I could post more pictures but unfortunately South Africa’s infrastructure is just not designed for wifi so I can’t upload any here but hopefully I’ll be able to upload a few once I get to Durban.  Definitely not a whole album’s worth but maybe a couple.

The people on my program are great. We’re having such a good time. We haven’t really started the work portion yet but I am pretty nervous about that. 

Flying to Durban on Tuesday, while everyone else drives :). There wasn’t enough space in the cars so he is flying out three of us.  And of course I was one of the lucky princesses.

When we get there we’ll be living in apartments for about 6 days before we move into our homestays! Nervous but excited.

Ok I feel like that’s everything. Sorry its boring. I promise not to have a day by day snooze sesh anymore I just felt like updating y’all for the first few days because I’m in Africa and I can do what I want.