Home Away From Home

It’s good to know if I ever start to feel homesick, I can hop in a cab and be there in 10 minutes. While not forgetting about my own, I have a new family in Africa. This past weekend, we had home stays. Fifteen of us went to a black township, and the other fifteen spent the weekend in a colored township. For clarification, townships are parts areas where the apartheid 

government placed blacks, coloreds, Indians, etc. to shove them out of the cities. Some are more developed than others, and there are all different homes within townships. Some people live in shacks and trailers while others live in houses with electricity and running water. 

When we arrived by bus to the (black) township of Langa, children ran toward our bus, screaming and smiling. At the welcome dinner with marimba band playing, our mothers and fathers wore their biggest smiles, wondering which American they would host for the weekend. I spotted a hyper little girl and she immediately came to sit on my lap and play with me. I had a feeling she was my sister (sissy) , and I was right. After dinner, my new momma Phumla, poppa Sabu and little sister Zonka got in the car to drive home. 

Before my poppa could even turn off the car, my 8-year-old brother (butti), Lizo, threw open the door and gave me the biggest/best hug I have ever received. The house was very nice: 3 bed, 1.5 bath, kitchen, back yard, living room with television. My sissy and butti crawled all over me the entire weekend, crawling in my bed before I went to sleep and the second they woke up, which was usually 7:00 AM. 

There was only one problem with the weekend: I think I was the first vegetarian to ever enter the township. Trying to explain what a veg was, my family asked me, “Can you still eat viennas?” and “Can you still eat burgers?” “Pasta with no meat?” They were as puzzled as I felt awful. I ate a little meat on Friday in a pizza pocket type thing – I don’t know what kind it was and I never want to find out; I just swallowed as much as I could. I was their guest and didn’t want to offend them, even though I had severe stomach pains later that night from the first meat I’ve consumed in five years. 

The next morning was exciting: Jacob Zuma, presidential candidate for the ANC (Mandela’s) party, spoke in the township. There were rallies and parades by the ANC and the PAC. Perhaps I’ll write about the politics and upcoming (April) presidential election another time; it is too complicated to write about now. That afternoon, my other sissy who is my age, Fica, took me to Mzoli’s. It is an outdoor place in the next black township, Guguletu, where people come to get drunk and consume absurd amounts of barbecue. It was really fun to hang out with and get to know my sissy and her friends Even post-apartheid, place

s are very segregated. Mostly black people go to Mzoli’s, but feeling out of place never crossed my mind. There’s a DJ and buckets of meat, coolers and lawn chairs: everyone comes to have a great time. We stayed there for several hours and by the end, I was breaking it down with the best of them with my dance moves.After Mzoli’s, we went to a fish braai (bbq) that one of the host brothers was hosting for the Americans and our similarly aged siblings. I made a ton of new friends there and we partied until late into the night. I was concerned about getting home at a decent hour, but when I arrived home, my family was just pulling into the driveway. I met momma’s sister and her children, as they all just arrived from a wild party themselves!

The next morning I woke up to what I thought was another parade. I went outside and saw nothing, but realized all the noise was coming from the church on the corner. The drumming and other instruments, the singing and beautiful harmonies: I wanted so badly to sneak in the back and watch. Momma had planned on taking me to Church, but I think everyone had partied a little too hard the night before. Nevertheless I laid in bed and listen to the sounds for the next 4 hours.

Saying goodbye to my new family was a little sad, as my little siblings were fighting my backpack off of me. I can’t wait to come back and spend more time with them. Momma wants me to go back to Chicago, graduate and then come back to work in SA, since I have a family here. While that sounds tempting, for now I’ll just have to settle for visits.