South African Journeys: All you need is love...

Blog 6

March 11, 2011

All you need is love…

What a week it has been since I last posted. Where to even begin? It is still so surreal to think of all of the events and places I have been and the things I have experienced in the past almost year. I am so grateful for this year. I will remember all of this for the rest of my life. You all may be sick of me saying things of this nature but I cannot even get over the overwhelming feeling of gratitude.

So the last full day in Simonstown we ventured to Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope. This area is known for being the southernmost point in Africa. What a crazy idea that I have now been to the most southern tip of Africa. It was incredibly beautiful and so crazy to stand in place where on one side you see the Indian Ocean and on the other side see the Atlantic Ocean. It was almost hard to fully comprehend but neat to see the different oceans and clearly be able to see that the desperate characteristics of each ocean. While hiking around I could not help but be reminded of God’s vastness and the greatness of His love for us. May we all always remember that. The views were absolutely breathtaking and we saw ostriches just running around. So cool and kind of bizarre. All in all a wonderful experience and another event on the list of things I will never forget.

Alrighty then, now to the bulk of what consumed my week; the rural village homestay. As you may now I said I was a little nervous, in reality I was more nervous that I expressed. On the drive from the airport to the village I was trying to imagine what was ahead of me. As we drove further and further from urban areas the road ceased to be pavement and became dirt. As we drove into Tshabo all of the mamas were there singing and clapping to welcome us, it is moments like this were nerves ceased to be and excitement took over. My host family was wonderful from the beginning. As Julia (the other student I was paired with) struggled to carry our suitcases across the rugged terrain we saw our humble blue rondival . A rondival is a home that kind of looks like a modern mud hut. It is obviously round and is a one room home. I have wondered before what it would be like to live in a one room house, and now I know. The house had electricity but not plumbing. It was kind of strange to walk in the door and look around to see the beds, the kitchen the living room, the closet, the TV all right in front of you. You may be wondering well where was the bathroom? And how did you bath? The bathroom was a shack made of scrape metal and scrape wood with a big hole in the middle and a makeshift toilet seat made out of wood. If I can be blunt and honest, the bathroom made port-o-potties look nice. As far as bathing, I just did not bath for a week. Not really a problem at all. But the family uses a basin of water and kind takes a version of a sponge bath every day, in the house. Another major aspect of the rural homestay was the language. My family was actually fairly fluent in English, which was wonderful. There was still a lot of lauging to cover awkward misunderstandings and gesturing, but overall much better than anticipated.

The scenery of Tshabo was so beautiful. Not what I personally would have thought of for a rural African Village. It was so green with great views of endless green rolling hills. There were also animals running around all over the place. Not wild animals but chickens (that often wondered into the house), cows everywhere, dogs running about and lots of bugs. It was so funny to be in the front yard and have cows passing through and chickens running around your feet. Also a note, if I liked roosters before ( I am not sure I did), I do not like them now and vow that I will never own one.

Okay, now on to my actual experience. As I mentioned my family was wonderful from the first minute we met. They were so welcoming and open to having two students stay with them. The house was always filled with laughter and love. There were a few times that my host mama mentioned that her life was a struggle and that she was suffering, but to me the family was the picture of love. They loved each other and Julia and I so well. Just observing the actions of the family you would never know that they were suffering. The house was always bustling with people. We lived with our mama, her two daughters who were 16 and 8, our mama’s sister, her two kids Phaphama 8 and Imange 14 months, and our older brother who was about 19. Yes, there were 8 people sharing a one room home. It was a lot of fun, we played so many card games and just spent time together.

I have so many stories from the week but I would like to share one particular one. My eight year old host brother, Phaphama (pa-pa-ma), loves soccer and plays every day. One day a large group of us went to a field and played an 8v8 soccer game. It is worth noting that only the American students were wearing shoes. It felt so good to play the game I love so much again with people who share the same love. Only for the purpose of the story I will share that I scored three goals, and yes, Coach Keidel two of them were low and wide. Phaphama was so happy and he said to me “Soccer. It is your favorite.” And I replied “Ewe” meaning “Yes”. He then told my host mama, his mama and my other host brother all about how we were on the same team and how I had scored the three goals. It was so cool to see that despite the language barrier we bonded through a game we both loved. From then on we were much better friends and played many more soccer games together. Yet again, something I will never forget.

All in all the village homestay was very enjoyable and I learned so much about rural South African life. I intend to stay in touch with my host family from Tshabo through letter writing and look forward to continuing these new friendships.

We are currently staying at a backpackers lodge on the Indian Ocean on the eastern side of the South African cape. It is a really neat lodge and it has delicious food. This morning I had normal drip coffee for the first time since I have been in South Africa; compared to the instant coffee I have been drinking. It was just a joyous morning. Today we also went on a game drive.

A game drive is pretty self explanatory I feel. We went to a game reserve and got to see a ton of cool wildlife. We began the day by going to see the elephants. By seeing the elephants I mean that they brought the elephants to us and we got to feed them than touch them. It was fun to just kind of play and pet and elephant like it was a pet dog. They are such cool animals! They are surprisingly hairy and their trunks are insane but my favorite was to feel the tusks. After a delicious lunch we went to see the cheetahs. I was able to play and pet three different cheetahs. It was bizarre that they just sat and purred while we hung out with them. They we so beautiful and so calm. Incredible. Then after all of that we went on a couple hour drive around the park to see all sorts of wildlife. Ostrich, wildabeast, warthogs, giraffes, emu, a lot of crazy animals that I don’t even know the name of and of course lions. The lions are in a separate area for obvious reasons and as we eneterd the guide said “Don’t stand up or fall out because they will eat you and we will not be able to save you”. Always comforting. The lions were beautiful. It was crazy to be with wild lions and know they could charge at any moment. It was an awe-some experience. I say that in the literal sense that I was literally in awe the whole time. I am not usually an animal person but I LOVED it today! So remarkable.

Tomorrow marks the beginning of our third homestay in Stellenbosch. In this homestay we will be staying with an Afrikaner family. They will be a white family and we will experience a completely different side of South Africa. Our program is themed multiculturalism, and this is where we will truly begin to experience the many different cultures. I am eager to get a taste of another side of South Africa.

So many crazy things happening in South Africa and I am so happy to be able to share them with you all. I hope that you are well and that as spring is approaching you feel rejuvenated for a new season. I also apologize for the extensive length of this post.

Miss you all!

Sala Kakuhle,

Keely

me next to a really cool tree