Today was the day we began our homestays in SOWETO (The south west township outside jo'burg, formerly where blacks were forced to live). The host mom for the weekens was Ntuntun and her son, age 13, was Mpumilelo. She was very much a free spirited, strong woman, raising her son on her own. They had a sort of small but nice home, and they cooked traditional foods from different backgrounds for us, such as spinach mashed potatoes, steamed pumpkin, and acha (a spicy mango dish). Although they are Zulu not all of their traditional foods were taken from the Zulu traditions. After dinner (where Ntuntun freaked out slightly because she did not have advanced warning that we were vegetarians, and she had no clue what to feed us--until we told her we would just stick to the veggie side dishes!) we sat around and talked for a while. Her friend who is a history teacher came over and grilled us on certain issues, such as Obama, racism in the US-why blacks (as they say here) are called African American, but whites are not called European Americans. The best I came up with was, I don't know I have nothing to do with it. Also, everyone was very curious to hear more about Judaism and Kashrut. After explaining a lot about it I was then grilled on the issues in Israel. Great. haha actually it was crazy and I was super uncomfortable but the other girl I was with and I just plugged along doing the best we could. Then we talked a lot about HIV/AIDS, the stigma surrounding being infected, and the importance of sex education. She proceeded to discuss condom usage with her son, and explain to us how guys are a big part of the HIV issue, because they have multiple partners (polygamy is legal here- The current President Zuma, who was accused of raping a woman also has four wives!- there are also many double standards about women being monogamous, and men being free to sleep around). Anyway talking to her was enlightening, and so was talking to her 25 year old brother (his Zulu name means example so everyone calls him E.G.) Anyway, he is a police officer and has a child with the same woman he has been with for 7 years- but he told us that men are pigs, they cannot be trusted, that our boyfriends back home had probably all cheated on us, because that was just their nature, and we shouldn't get married or ever trust a man. This was surprising to hear, but it was reiterated throughout the weekend by men and women alike. After this conversation we talked a bit about Zulu culture and tradition and learned about parties with goat offerings to the ancestors and traditional African beer.
Then on Saturday we went to one such house party and were able to try the African beer (which is brewed at home, has the texture of a smoothie and a bitter olive ish taste!) However most f the food was meat, so we stuck to the yummy biscuits and tea cookies which our host family just kept feeding to us!! Because we did not eat a "proper" meal one of her friends brought over a pasta and fish dish for us (since she really was at a loss as to what to cook for vegetarians!). The dish was amazing, and later on when we thanked her cooking for us she told is the ingredients, one of which was chicken broth, oooops. However this was pretty common, when we asked if something had meat in it, unless it was physically chunks of meat the answer was always no (for example gravy). So that was interesting. But this was the meal that was prepared especially for us, as our main course for the rest of the weekend, to be put with the veggie sides she made, so we just kept eating it and didn't say anything at all. Oh Well. I tried my best, which was hard because people bri (barbecue) a lot, and it always smells amazing. So, after the party we went to this cultural village place, where this traditional medicine man/artist/historian lived, and healed people, and made art to represent history. At least that's what I think it was. The pictures are really awesome. So, that was cool. Then we went home to rest a bit- we hung out with Mpumi, and I taught him how to make hemp bracelets, and we walked with him to the store, and helped him with the dishes. Then later we went out to a pub in SOWETO. We met up with another host group, so there four of us from the trip, our host mom and her niece plus one of her students who was hanging out with us. We did have fun, but I felt super awkward because people were staring at us, because we were the ONLY white people there!!! Oy. So that was a new experience for us. It was uncomfortable but not a huge deal.
Then Sunday we were supposed to go to church, but we slept in til noon instead. Then Zen (the student/family friend) took us over to this big bri with a lot of the kids in the group and their host families. It was ok, nice to see everyone, but we decided to leave early to go do things around town. So we went to the mall to run errands. Here, at one of the stores I found a baby, just just learned to walk, still waddling, can barely say mama, little baby, ALL ALONE screaming and crying for her mother who was nowhere to be found. Eventually we found her mother who was too busy shopping to care for her kid, and then we left after zen scolded her for being irresponsible. In general there were lots of kids running around, unsupervised. When I asked her about it she said that maybe it is because there are so many teen pregnancies and young parents, that they are too busy worrying about going out and having fun, to really watch their kids- but that is just one opinion- So, after the mall we went to Pinyaza- a club - at around 5 on a sunday.... There were 3 new DJs playing so the place was packed, and they were charging 50 rand to get in, so we did what everyone else did and tailgated in the parking lot. There were hundreds of cars, and people just turned on their own music, drank their own beer, and danced in the field. It was super fun, and I had a great time- though again we were the only white people... So, some people would shout stuff at us like white girl, others would shout at our black friends/hosts why are you with white people, and others would come over to talk/shake hands/hug us, specifically because we were white. It was interesting, though at times uncomfortable, or hosts did a great job at shooing away creepy guys. In the end we found this group of guys dancing and they invited to come dance with them, so we hung out and danced for a while- also have a video to post of that, it was really a blast. We got home for dinner and then said goodbye to zen. After hanging a bit more with mpumi we said our goodbyes because they were leaving early-before us- the next morning. They were very appreciative of our gifts and mpumi thanked us so many times, it was so sweet!!!!
Basically that was three days in SOWETO.
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