Weekend!

Saturday:
So I’m stuffed to the brim. My family keeps on feeding me and gets worried when I can’t finish my meal. We have been warned that the families brag about who has the chubbiest student in the end, so I think my Mama is trying to fatten me up. I just ate some pretty yummy stew with some mystery meat (I have given up trying to guess what meat I’m eating). So far the food has been really good. And despite one meal that upset my stomach, I have had relatively few food problems. The main staples are rice, corn, and chicken. A LOT of chicken. Just about every restaurant and fast food chain is chicken related. KFC’s are as common as McDonalds in the states. In fact, KFC was one of my 5 meals today.
Today, my mama, younger bhuti, and I made a trip to the store to get food. All told, the round trip was about 5 hours. We first had to take a “minibus taxi” in order to get onto an “Indian bus”. Minibus taxies serve the same purpose as our taxies in the states, except that they hold about 12 passengers. Now, this “Indian bus” was quite the trip. The bus is equivalent to a charter bus + stuffed animals hanging from the windows + crazy attendants yelling + erratic driving + hip hop music BLASTING throughout the bus to the point where you cannot hear the person next to you. It was quite the cultural experience to say the least.
It’s been fun seeing the excitement around the FIFA World Cup in 2010. I had the chance to see the new soccer stadium in Durban today and it is absolutely beautiful. Apparently there is a cable car that takes you over the stadium so you can see down into it. I wish I was going to be here for the games!
Tomorrow I am going to church in the morning. My younger bhuti is very excited for me to go because he is an altar boy. He is going to have me sit in the front row. After church my older bhuti’s girlfriend is going to “change my hairstyle” which apparently means give me cornrows/microbraids. This could turn out very good or very, very bad.

Sunday:
Today I combined two things that I have trouble understanding: Catholic Church and Zulu. It was very interesting to see the traditions at my family’s church, although I don’t know how much I actually understood since it was all in Zulu. However, I do know that when they called my name to stand up in front of the whole congregation, the words USA, Obama, and “Cat-lyn” were all mentioned in the same sentence. My younger bhuti was very professional as an altar boy and he told me that one day he wants to be Pope John Paul. He warned me beforehand that everyone would stare at me because I’m new but more importantly because I’m white. Many people did stare, especially the kids. Somehow I ended up sitting in the front section with all of the Sunday school children. They all wanted to sit next to me and hold my hand during prayer. It was quite adorable. Everyone is very friendly, but apparently just not used to seeing a white person in their neighborhood.
I did not have enough time to get my hair braided today but I’m pretty sure I won’t be able to avoid it next weekend. I also found out that the mystery meat I ate yesterday was sheep. Apparently we have been eating lots of sheep. Good to know.
Sala kahle … Stay well :)

Sawubona!

Sawubona! That means “hello” in Zulu. Zulu learning is a little rough, but it’s getting better now that I have a new family to practice with! My mother’s name is Mama Ningi and she is very sweet. She is a domestic worker and cooks great meals for the family. I have two bhuti’s (brothers). The older brother is named Mino and he works manufacturing trucks. He likes to talk about politics and music, especially R&B and rap. The younger brother is named Aslam and he is in high school. I have been helping him with math homework at night and he helps me with Zulu J
On the first night we watched Usher Live in Concert which obviously was a highlight for me. They all really love music and it’s been fun learning and listening to their favorite songs. I have learned that everyone in Durban, and I really do mean everyone, watches a soap opera called ‘Generations’. It starts at 8 pm so we all huddle around the TV and watch the drama. It’s in half Zulu and half English so it’s a good challenge. Apparently many of them also watch “The Bold and the Beautiful”. It’s seems kind of funny to me, but South Africans really like their soaps. My family also invited me to go to a traditional wedding later next month. I am so excited to go! My classmates are already bribing me with cows to be my date.
I’m spending the weekend with my family. Our plan is to clean the house, go to the mall, go to church, and study Zulu. I’m sure we will also eat a lot of chicken and watch a lot of soaps.
Note: unfortunately the internet is limited and we are not able to upload photos. The South African bandwidth is limited and it’s difficult to upload pictures. If I come across an internet café or something that has a higher bandwidth, I’ll try to upload some sweet South African pictures.

Classes begin!

Made it to Durban! It really is a beautiful city…we are staying in a hostel near the beach and are surrounded by palm trees. And it’s quite a bit warmer than Johannesburg which makes me happy. Today we leave the hostel to move into our homestays in the Cato Manor township. I’m really excited to meet my family. It is just a woman and her 25-year old son, but I think that will be good to not have any crying babies keeping me awake at night. It’s going to be very interesting to see what it is like to live in the township. Apparently many of the mothers lock the doors around 6 pm and do not let their daughters leave the house for safety reasons. I have a feeling I’ll get some quality “me” time while on lockdown.
Today we had a nice little session of Zulu speaking. The clicks aren’t too difficult to say, but it might take me a while to become a little more fluid. Afterwards we experienced what is called a “dropoff”. Basically a partner and I were dropped off in the middle of downtown Durban and had to find our way to a specific site. We were sent to the Durban Botanic Garden which was absolutely gorgeous. We had tea and scones in a tea garden ran by old women for about $2.00. On another random note, some monkeys walked into the kitchen at our classroom house and spread jelly handprints everywhere. Gotta love some African wildlife.

On to Durban...

Yesterday we went to the play “Umoja,” which is about the music and dance of South Africa. It started with the traditional tribal dances and morphed through the dance styles of the 1800 and 1900’s. The play was a great little background to the deep history of South Africa. We all felt a little enlivened and inspired after the upbeat play.
I’m currently on a bus headed from Johannesburg to Durban AKA my home away from home for 4 months. We have passed zebras and ostriches, and the trees look like they are straight out of Lion King. It’s been a tad bit cold, but I have learned to deal with wearing the one sweatshirt I brought over and over again J. It’s also extremely dry here, so bloody noses and chapped lips have been frequent sightings.
This morning we had an intro course to Zulu, the language we will be learning. So far I can pretty much just say “Hi,” but hopefully after I master the random clicks I’ll be able to have at least a basic conversation. In other random news, I’m becoming quite good at dividing large numbers by seven since that’s the exchange rate from Rand to U.S. dollars. Yesterday I bought a smoothie bigger and better than Jamba Juice for about $2.00. I have also managed to avoid being jetlagged. It took some convincing that I didn’t really need sleep, but I managed to succeed. Lastly, some of the program leaders that drive our buses listen to my favorite hip hop music, like Lil Wayne, Ludacris, and Beyonce. Life is good.

First Full Day

Today we made an excursion to Soweto, a township outside of Johannesburg. We visited a museum dedicated to the student demonstrations that triggered the end of the apartheid. The museum was very moving and informational with personal accounts of the demonstrations and riots. Afterwards we had a traditional African buffet where we tried tripe AKA intestine. Ignoring the texture, I would say it was surprisingly tasty. Later we toured the house that Nelson Mandela lived in; it was completed with a room for a bucket toilet and looked like every other tiny house in the neighborhood.

So far we have had just a little taste of South African culture, but it just makes me excited for more!

NYC and AFRICA!

I am officially in love. New York City was amazing. Mink, Ben, and I traveled to “The City” (what they call NYC on the E.C.) to stay with Mink’s Aunt Laurie. She lives in a cute little apartment in Manhattan close to just about everything. Mink’s aunt spoiled us to the bone, with everything from delicious meals to personal car service to booking our airport shuttle. She made it such an enjoyable experience! The first evening in The City we visited Central Park…we just missed the thunderstorm that knocked down hundreds of trees in the park! We also walked up Broadway and into Times Square at night to see all of the bright lights. It was just like you see in the movies with crazy cabs drivers everywhere and bustling New Yorkers trying to get somewhere. The next day the three of us plus our UPS buddy Lindsey, who is interning in NYC, took a ferry out to see the Statue of Liberty. Although it was the hottest day of the summer, we managed to survive to see her. We came back to the mainland and walked back up Broadway, stopping along the way multiple times to do touristy things, such as eat New York style pizza and take pictures of pretty churches.
Early the next day we caught a shuttle to JFK to head to Africa! I think the short shuttle ride was a great way to end our little stint in The City…when we got in the whole van was fighting about the air conditioner. While this was all happening I could have sworn that we were going to hit something (cars, pedestrians, dogs, curbs, etc.). Despite the stressful/funny shuttle ride we made it safely to the airport and boarded our plane to Johannesburg.
And now I’m in South Africa! The plane ride was a bit long, but I managed to get quite a bit of sleep. I’m currently trying to stay awake until 9 pm tonight so that I’ll get at least somewhat acclimated to the 9 hour time difference. We are staying in a hostel in Johannesburg for a few days for an orientation. The weather is a bit chilly (about 60 degrees F), so I played some soccer with a little local girl. Ben and I also showed her how to play lacrosse :)

East Coast Adventure

I left on August 15th for my great South Africa adventure! First my traveling buddy, Ben, and I are making a pit stop on the east coast to venture around. After flying in at 5 am we spent the yesterday walking around Boston. We managed to cover the majority of downtown, including a festival in Chinatown, eating cannolis in Little Italy, watching sail boats in the harbor, and viewing several historical sites. Now we are in Farmington, Connecticut, visiting our dear friend Ana (aka Mink :) ). We toured Ana's favorite place, Miss Porter's School, and since it's been so hot and humid we went swimming in the Farmington River. Tomorrow we are off to NYC!