Hey loved ones! We are fresh back from our home stay and boy have we got some stories for you.
NMMU arranged our home stay in a township just outside of Cape Town and it was an amazing experience for all of us. We arrived yesterday afternoon right after the District 6 Museum to Mama Knox's house, the woman spearheading the township aspect of our home stay.
Here's a quick breakdown of how the logistics. We were all to be split up into groups of three and each group had a "Mama" one of the women in the township who would take us into their home for the night. We would stay the night, eat some dinner, learn some Xhosa, and leave the next morning after a few interviews.
Little did we know that we were in for some amazing hospitality.
My roommates and I were housed with Mama Liza, who lived a few streets back in the township from Mama Knox. She was vibrant and kind, we could feel that immediately as talked about our program and laughed at our bad Xhosa. The entire night she was lovely, talking to us about our experience, helping us make tea, watching soap operas with us (which by the way if you've never heard of the South African soap Rhythm City, check it out, it's quality programming). She also made us an AMAZING traditional Xhosa meal made up of beans, corn, and potatoes with a big chicken leg on top. It was beyond delicious.
But what was even more amazing than the food was the children in the township. As we turned down Mama Liza's street, dozens of kids camping rushing out to us, shouting and singing, excited beyond belief to have new friends to play with. Hen we weren't hanging out with Mama Liza, we spent hours outside running and singing and playing games with a mass of children. We think the woman next door and her daughter owned a day care. They spoke a little English and taught us the games the kids were playing. It was so much fun.
And something that I found incredibly interesting was the similarities between both of our cultures. They sang the exact same songs we hear on the radio and for the most part they played a lot of games that my roommates and I played as kids, just with a few minor differences. They had a version of Little Sally Walker where the dance moves were inspired by clothes instead of what moves you wanted to do. They also had a Red Light Green Light-sequel game called Fire On The Mountain where you ran around and froze and if you moved you were out. My roommates and I were smiling the entire night.
I was reminded again of our lecture on social work on one of our very first days here. The township we were staying in has problems. We can't deny that. There were homes that had rocks holding down sheets of iron as a makeshift roof and we had to clear the street in the middle of one of our games because gangsters were walking by. The townships aren't the safest places in the world or the most developed. But everyone there was just like us. I think that in America we have a tendency to think that parts of the world are huge, depressed, impoverished nations filled with people who live so differently from us that they may as well be aliens. I didn't feel like that for a minute during this home stay. None of the kids were dirty or wearing rags. They weren't cheering for us as their white saviors. They were cheering because they were so excited to have someone new to play with. Mama Liza scolded the kids when they were too loud and drank tea with me while we watched soap operas. My grandma does that. It's so easy to write off people in these neighborhoods as poor and depressed, but honestly, they aren't. We should help them if they need or ask for it, but from what I saw in the township, people are doing just fine with their neighbors and friends and families with them. I think that's something that all of us need to see and know.
I can only speak from my own experience, but it seemed to me that several of my classmates felt similar to me. All around the home stay was a wild success. Now to rest up for Table Mountain tomorrow. :)
