So much to say. As I was seeing things and realizing things, I knew I wanted to write about it and now I'm just hoping I don't forget anything.
Ursula came to get me around 2:30 yesterday and we headed to Kayhelitsha (one of the townships). First, we went to Vicky's, I chose my room, dropped off my bags, and then we walked back to Gloria's to meet her because when I went there the first time I didn't get to meet Gloria. Gloria runs the day care/pre-school behind Vicky's B&B. I met Gloria and she was very excited for me to come to help because 2 of the teachers are out on holiday until Monday. I went back to Vicky's and Ursula left.
So, I took a seat in the living room at Vicky's with an elderly man, who I'm guessing is Vicky's dad (her mom passed away earlier this week), a couple of young girls (8-11 years old), 2 older girls (17 & 24), 2 young kids (2-3), and Vicky's husband. Vicky was actually taking a nap when I got there, and I don't think she was feeling well, plus still dealing with her mom passing. So all of the people are just in and out of the room and the house. We are watching a DVD of some Christian Xhosa choir and the kids are loving it! All the kids are singing along and dancing. All I could think when I was watching one of the girls was that she's the most beautiful child I've ever seen. Really. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of her but just trust me. And she was so happy, and imitating everything they did in the video. In one scene a woman is standing on a staircase singing, so she moved to the staircase to sing along. Too funny.
Vicky has clippings hung on her walls of newspaper articles about her B&B, and emails & letters from tourists who have stayed with her before. So I kept busy reading those for awhile and the kids were venturing outside to play, and then I decided to head upstairs for a bit to read my book (all that was left was me and the old man and I didn't get the feeling he was up for talking, or possibly even knew English anyway). By the way, I'm reading Nelson Mandela's memoir, "Long Walk to Freedom," which is an excellent book. It's a long read, 768 pages to be exact, but I've only got about 80 to go. I was surprised that I would get that into it because for the most part it's strictly political, but it's all very interesting. And now that I've been here awhile I actually know of some of the places he's talking about. I'm thinking I'll write a big blog about the book & what I've learned tomorrow, which happens to be his birthday too by the way, big 9-0!
While I was upstairs some people on tour stopped in, a huge group of Germans, and Vicky's oldest daughter asked if I wanted to go for a walk. So away we went. Me, Vicky's oldest, and the 2 little ones. (I don't remember anyone's names, I could make guesses and spellings and pronunciations but I'm sure I'd butcher them horribly!!) The walk was the coolest part of the night. Obviously because I got to see the township and the people just living their lives. The closest comparison I can make is that the townships are like never ending block parties. Everyone is always outside in the streets talking, working, singing, and the kids are playing. Everyone greets everyone and stops to talk, even to me, and everyone is friendly. This was when I realized how different it was from home. When we were back in the house later I was telling Vicky's daughter that it's not like that at home; that often you may not even know who your neighbors are. She said to me, "How do you live in those conditions?" Funny...that's what we all think when we drive through her neighborhood. And today I was telling Gloria the same thing. She said, "So you just greet each other and keep walking?" I told her we rarely even greet each other...she said, "Oh I couldn't live like that!" So what we have in material wealth, we are severely lacking in emotional wealth & relationships. I don't think I've ever really seen what I thought a neighborhood should look like. And I was thinking over & over while I was there, this is what life's supposed to be like. Somewhere along the line we messed it up. The bigger the house and the bigger the yard the better you are...right? Here they have tiny houses and no yards, and probably because of that, they have amazing relationships and interactions with people. I've told Ivan before that I don't want a huge house because I think a family gets lost in it, when everyone has their own rooms and own TV's, I'd rather have smaller space and keep people together...I think that's totally been reaffirmed for me. Maybe they're pushed out of their tiny houses into the streets, but the friendships and support on the streets was just really amazing to see. And this went on until after dark. I could still hear people singing and kids playing, Vicky's 2 year old was just running in and out of the house down the street and back and nobody worried. Everyone was safe. I'm sure I would have been safe as well. Which is something else I wanted to add. I've started to figure this out and have had some discussions with other volunteers about this too, but before we come and after we got here all we've been told is how careful to be; hide your money in different places; you're almost guaranteed to be pick pocketed, all these different things. And after being where I was last night, I never felt unsafe, I was never scared; but what I realized is that everyone who has preached these things are white. And you can see it in the white neighborhoods how much fear there is-- I mean the house I live in, and every other house in our neighborhood, is surrounded by concrete or iron gates, topped with barbed wire, and then 3 lines of electric fence on top of that... this also coincides with what I'm learning as I'm reading Mandela's book, that the whites are totally afraid of the blacks. Keep in mind that apartheid only ended in 1994... that's not a lot of time to deal with racism and totally change a way of thinking. I mean look at the U.S. We've had gobs more time to adjust and still deal with racism regularly. All I'm saying is that I was made to believe I needed to be soooo cautious and on alert all the time, when I don't think that's 100% the case. I think there is a fear, and part of it is with good reason, and part of it is unnecessary.
Carrying on now... then it was time for dinner. Which Vicky's daughters brought me a whole heap of food!! Baked chicken (although can I say the pieces were more intact than we typically make them in the states...), mealie pap (which is ground up corn, looks just like mashed potatoes, and I'm so glad to have had because Mandela talks about it a lot in his book), cabbage, white & brown beans (which is apparently one of the main foods for Xhosa people, as is mealie pap), and some seasoned vegetables. It wasn't bad, but I don't myself ever seeking any of it out again in the future! After I was done eating, another tour group came in who joined me at the table for their dinner; 2 Americans who were doing research on local tourism or something, 2 English women doing some teaching, and a a guy from Belgium on holiday.
After dinner they went upstairs to see the rooms and I had a good conversation with their tour guide about American music--specifically rap. He says rap just makes him think of gangsters, but that he respects rappers anyway because everything they do they believe in 100%. We also talked a bit about George Bush & Iraq. Just imagine how that went and know that he & I totally agreed on everything...
Speaking of, Vicky's oldest daughter was wearing a shirt that said, "Obama 08!" and I actually had a discussion with her 11 year old about Bush & Obama. Trying to explain to her why we're in Iraq (which didn't make any sense to her...and really there's no way in telling that story that makes sense anyway...:) She said to me, "I wish for you that OBama wins!!" haha This election definitely has a global following.
After all the guests left I went upstairs and read for a few hours before falling asleep.
This morning for breakfast I had porridge and tea...if you know me, you know I normally only drink my mom's tea, and I don't like anything in the porridge/oatmeal family...I'm getting better at eating things I don't care for!!
After breakfast I headed to Gloria's...but I'm tired of typing, cold, and can't think!! haha So I will write about Gloria's later.
Enjoy some pics--some are the view from upstairs at Vicky's--so those little shacks are people's houses...and that one is my room.
Ursula came to get me around 2:30 yesterday and we headed to Kayhelitsha (one of the townships). First, we went to Vicky's, I chose my room, dropped off my bags, and then we walked back to Gloria's to meet her because when I went there the first time I didn't get to meet Gloria. Gloria runs the day care/pre-school behind Vicky's B&B. I met Gloria and she was very excited for me to come to help because 2 of the teachers are out on holiday until Monday. I went back to Vicky's and Ursula left.
So, I took a seat in the living room at Vicky's with an elderly man, who I'm guessing is Vicky's dad (her mom passed away earlier this week), a couple of young girls (8-11 years old), 2 older girls (17 & 24), 2 young kids (2-3), and Vicky's husband. Vicky was actually taking a nap when I got there, and I don't think she was feeling well, plus still dealing with her mom passing. So all of the people are just in and out of the room and the house. We are watching a DVD of some Christian Xhosa choir and the kids are loving it! All the kids are singing along and dancing. All I could think when I was watching one of the girls was that she's the most beautiful child I've ever seen. Really. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of her but just trust me. And she was so happy, and imitating everything they did in the video. In one scene a woman is standing on a staircase singing, so she moved to the staircase to sing along. Too funny.
Vicky has clippings hung on her walls of newspaper articles about her B&B, and emails & letters from tourists who have stayed with her before. So I kept busy reading those for awhile and the kids were venturing outside to play, and then I decided to head upstairs for a bit to read my book (all that was left was me and the old man and I didn't get the feeling he was up for talking, or possibly even knew English anyway). By the way, I'm reading Nelson Mandela's memoir, "Long Walk to Freedom," which is an excellent book. It's a long read, 768 pages to be exact, but I've only got about 80 to go. I was surprised that I would get that into it because for the most part it's strictly political, but it's all very interesting. And now that I've been here awhile I actually know of some of the places he's talking about. I'm thinking I'll write a big blog about the book & what I've learned tomorrow, which happens to be his birthday too by the way, big 9-0!
While I was upstairs some people on tour stopped in, a huge group of Germans, and Vicky's oldest daughter asked if I wanted to go for a walk. So away we went. Me, Vicky's oldest, and the 2 little ones. (I don't remember anyone's names, I could make guesses and spellings and pronunciations but I'm sure I'd butcher them horribly!!) The walk was the coolest part of the night. Obviously because I got to see the township and the people just living their lives. The closest comparison I can make is that the townships are like never ending block parties. Everyone is always outside in the streets talking, working, singing, and the kids are playing. Everyone greets everyone and stops to talk, even to me, and everyone is friendly. This was when I realized how different it was from home. When we were back in the house later I was telling Vicky's daughter that it's not like that at home; that often you may not even know who your neighbors are. She said to me, "How do you live in those conditions?" Funny...that's what we all think when we drive through her neighborhood. And today I was telling Gloria the same thing. She said, "So you just greet each other and keep walking?" I told her we rarely even greet each other...she said, "Oh I couldn't live like that!" So what we have in material wealth, we are severely lacking in emotional wealth & relationships. I don't think I've ever really seen what I thought a neighborhood should look like. And I was thinking over & over while I was there, this is what life's supposed to be like. Somewhere along the line we messed it up. The bigger the house and the bigger the yard the better you are...right? Here they have tiny houses and no yards, and probably because of that, they have amazing relationships and interactions with people. I've told Ivan before that I don't want a huge house because I think a family gets lost in it, when everyone has their own rooms and own TV's, I'd rather have smaller space and keep people together...I think that's totally been reaffirmed for me. Maybe they're pushed out of their tiny houses into the streets, but the friendships and support on the streets was just really amazing to see. And this went on until after dark. I could still hear people singing and kids playing, Vicky's 2 year old was just running in and out of the house down the street and back and nobody worried. Everyone was safe. I'm sure I would have been safe as well. Which is something else I wanted to add. I've started to figure this out and have had some discussions with other volunteers about this too, but before we come and after we got here all we've been told is how careful to be; hide your money in different places; you're almost guaranteed to be pick pocketed, all these different things. And after being where I was last night, I never felt unsafe, I was never scared; but what I realized is that everyone who has preached these things are white. And you can see it in the white neighborhoods how much fear there is-- I mean the house I live in, and every other house in our neighborhood, is surrounded by concrete or iron gates, topped with barbed wire, and then 3 lines of electric fence on top of that... this also coincides with what I'm learning as I'm reading Mandela's book, that the whites are totally afraid of the blacks. Keep in mind that apartheid only ended in 1994... that's not a lot of time to deal with racism and totally change a way of thinking. I mean look at the U.S. We've had gobs more time to adjust and still deal with racism regularly. All I'm saying is that I was made to believe I needed to be soooo cautious and on alert all the time, when I don't think that's 100% the case. I think there is a fear, and part of it is with good reason, and part of it is unnecessary.
Carrying on now... then it was time for dinner. Which Vicky's daughters brought me a whole heap of food!! Baked chicken (although can I say the pieces were more intact than we typically make them in the states...), mealie pap (which is ground up corn, looks just like mashed potatoes, and I'm so glad to have had because Mandela talks about it a lot in his book), cabbage, white & brown beans (which is apparently one of the main foods for Xhosa people, as is mealie pap), and some seasoned vegetables. It wasn't bad, but I don't myself ever seeking any of it out again in the future! After I was done eating, another tour group came in who joined me at the table for their dinner; 2 Americans who were doing research on local tourism or something, 2 English women doing some teaching, and a a guy from Belgium on holiday.
After dinner they went upstairs to see the rooms and I had a good conversation with their tour guide about American music--specifically rap. He says rap just makes him think of gangsters, but that he respects rappers anyway because everything they do they believe in 100%. We also talked a bit about George Bush & Iraq. Just imagine how that went and know that he & I totally agreed on everything...
Speaking of, Vicky's oldest daughter was wearing a shirt that said, "Obama 08!" and I actually had a discussion with her 11 year old about Bush & Obama. Trying to explain to her why we're in Iraq (which didn't make any sense to her...and really there's no way in telling that story that makes sense anyway...:) She said to me, "I wish for you that OBama wins!!" haha This election definitely has a global following.
After all the guests left I went upstairs and read for a few hours before falling asleep.
This morning for breakfast I had porridge and tea...if you know me, you know I normally only drink my mom's tea, and I don't like anything in the porridge/oatmeal family...I'm getting better at eating things I don't care for!!
After breakfast I headed to Gloria's...but I'm tired of typing, cold, and can't think!! haha So I will write about Gloria's later.
Enjoy some pics--some are the view from upstairs at Vicky's--so those little shacks are people's houses...and that one is my room.
