Life in SA have been going pretty well, as usual, despite having to deal with huge inconvenience of no phone/money/credit cards/ID etc... as well as dealing with tons of bugbites all over my body (yeah, it's those damn bedbugs again).
Last weekend we participated in a short program with the Direct Action Center for Peace and Memory. The center was created by a bunch of former-MK guys (militant branch of the African National Congress which was responsible for the so-called acts of terrorism that helped bring down the apartheid govt) and they showed us around all the different townships around Cape Town. The experience of actually standing in places where the police opened fire with live ammunition on groups of children, of hearing stories of how they watched their friends die and of how they fled the country to receive military training was quite intense. Most of them were in their mid- to late-thirties, meaning that they started participating in the armed struggle when they were kids, like 14 or 15 yrs old. To say the least, it was amazing and very emotional to interact with these guys...
The rest of the weekend was the complete polar opposite. My friend Liza's parents were in Cape Town on their way to a safari trip, and they got us a hotel room where they were staying. The Cape Grace is the nicest hotel in Cape Town and five of us (Liza, Sara, Jamie, Elliot, and myself--aka the Select 5) were treated to 24-hrs of luxury--definitely a nice change from Langa, but slightly surreal and disconcerting after the earlier experiences of the weekend. Liza's parents took us out to a fab sushi dinner and then bankrolled a night of drinking and debauchery at several of the Cape Town hotspots (is it just me or do I sound like some corny tour guide? who actually uses the word "hotspots"?).
On Sunday we had an amazing brunch at the hotel, chillaxed at the Waterfront, went to the movies (Harold and Kumar go to Whitecastle--that's how hungover we were), and then took a chauffered new 7-series beamer back to good ol' Langa.
The week otherwise has been somewhat uneventful, but it was our last one in Langa homestay. I'm definitely going to miss my over-protective mama constantly asking me if I'm hungry and baking fresh bread for me; little sisi Tina who I taught to "high-five" and who, upon seeing my copy of Long Walk to Freedom, cried out, "Mandela!"; the kids in Langa who yell out "mlungo!" (whitey) when they see me walking around; laying on the bed with the whole family and watching American soaps and random movies like Under Siege 2... I will not however miss the cockroaches, or the bedbugs, or the bathtub that has no shower head (super practical for washing my long hair), or getting up at the ass-crack of dawn every morning. We have a farewell party tonight with all of the host families coming together and then tomorrow we head out to the Eastern Cape.
Our workload has def intensified, but it's still pretty easy. Xhosa is going well-- I can tell you to go to hell and describe in detail the process of washing dishes, but I'm not really sure how to ask where the bathroom is.
Anyway, off to the Eastern Cape tomorrow morning, bright and early! The eastern cape province is a rural and poor province, and we'll be staying there with Xhosa-speaking families for a week (apparently their English is VERY limited). Picture mud huts, grazing cattle, chickens and goats running free, women balancing huge water jugs on their heads... your basic imperialistic perspective of traditional African societies. After a week there, we are being treated to a weekend on the coast where we can chill on the beach etc. before heading to Durban for a week of classes. Then back to CT on Oct 24! Woohoo. All that to say that I won't be in touch for about 10 days. I know it'll be hard for some of you, BUT one of the program directors has lent me a cell phone until I can get a new one.
I miss you all and hope that life is good, whichever continent you find yourself on,
Yitschani esihogweni,
Eve
p.s sorry about ending with that last sentence with a preposition
p.p.s "Yitschani esihogweni" means go to hell
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