Private Jets

Quite the weekend. Yebo (yes).

I spent the weekend away from my Cato Manor family. We all stayed in hostels near the beach and had a little bit of freedom after a few weeks of lockdown. Although I must say that I missed umndeni wami (my family) and they missed me too. I received an SMS (text message) from my mama last night that said “hi Katie it has been quiet since u left this house. we miss u. we hope u don’t come sick. goodnight and sweetdreams. from mama ningi.” I don’t quite understand what “don’t come sick” means, but nevertheless it makes me feel good that my family wants me to come back home. I also spoke with my real family (shout out to America) for the first time since being in South Africa. It was so great to hear everyone’s voices. My mom also managed to set up skype and I was able to see their beautiful faces.

Even though I had tons of school work to do, I managed to spend most of my time playing and “experiential learning.” Friday night we all went to “Joe Cools” which is a club on the beach. It was a culture shock to be in a club full of wealthy white people since most of my time has been spent in a black community. The next day was spent at the ulwandle (beach) where I swam in the Indian Ocean for the first time! It was incredibly salty but very warm compared to our frigid Pacific Ocean. The whole experience was great except for the fact that I became very bitter about being unable to surf. We have a list of no-no’s due to insurance reasons, and surfing happens to be on the list along with skydiving, shark-cage diving, and driving motorcycles. I also convinced myself on Sunday that I did not need to study so that I could return back to the beach where I did more swimming and I played lacrosse on the beach with Ben.

Saturday night I was introduced to two different types of parties in South Africa. First we went to a party in a very rich white neighborhood. The second party was a birthday party in an all black neighborhood. It was intriguing to observe the cultural differences in the two types of parties. I personally enjoyed the latter more because I was able to dance the night away. At this party I was also offered to be picked up in a personal Mercedes to take a ride in a man’s private jet but obviously I kindly declined.

Overall this weekend was filled with fun and not enough studying, but sometimes that is just the way it needs to be.

Ngiyakuthanda (I love you)!