Good Morning! I’m writing this post day five during breakfast this morning, and am not sure how much time I actually have, so I want to blog about yesterday as quickly as possible…We went back to Sinethemba (the high school we went to the day before), to join in on a morning welcoming assembly. Unfortunately due to rain there couldn’t be an assembly so we just sort of toured the school. I was happy to see one of the learners that I had talked to the day before, I talked to two boys the day before (one being the “Rapper” and the other the “Soccer player”). The Rapper met us early and wanted to partake in the tour. It was immediately present that we had become considerably better friends then we were the day before. It was like seeing an old friend, we were able to joke and he wanted to lead me to see his classrooms and tell me the real “ins and outs” of the school. The Soccer player was able to meet us half way through, its so fun to see the contrast between the Soccer player and the Rapper. The Rapper is much more vocal and just extroverted, while the Soccer player was a little more reserved but so completely genuine. The tour of the school was really fun but we had to leave for lunch, but we said our good byes knowing we’d return later.
Ok lunch was an adventure! We went to Mophindi’s Butchery, at a place like this you go to the counter and order what sorts of meat you want in quantity of pounds... It’s all uncooked first and they cook it all for you before you eat it. While we were waiting we got an awesome tour from the Manager, he was a pretty interesting guy. He told us of a story of an American from Boston who had actually came to visit the townships in Khayelitsha. He really wanted to see inside one of the shacks and so the manager took him into the township to show him a friend’s place. While the Bostonian was talking to the manager’s friend, the friend started talking about his mother in the states. He pulled out a packet of letters from his mother to show the Bostonian the address… Only to find that the address was the address of the Bostonian’s neighbor, and that he actually knew the man’s mother! The Bostonian pulled out his cell phone and was actually able to call the man’s mother, and it was the first time they had talked in 20 sem-od years. It’s a small world, no?
Lunch consisted of a pile of meats, consisting of chicken, pork, beef, lamb, and sausage. No plates for all of us except for napkins, and no utensils… Image 20 Savage hungry Americans chowing down on a pile of meat in the middle of a township in South Africa. It was quite the experience and the meat was actually really good.
We went on a little tour before returning to the school, at the school we talked to two journalist before getting into our large group discussions. The journalist opinions were sort of interesting and yet it felt as though they had a jaded view of us and didn’t think that we had been as deep into Africa as we could have been. He may be right but we have done some pretty amazing things since we’ve come here, and I can’t help but feel like I’ve been able to get a better view of who these people are.
Afterwards we were supposed to do our large group discussion, I was supposed to facilitated 5-8 people in a discussion but when we made it to our room only two people had shown up. My friends the Rapper and the Soccer player. I was half disappointed, but really happy to be able to really talk one on one with them again. I can’t divulge the exact nature of our discussion but needless to say it was eye opening, and these two learners have such an insightful look into their own culture. I can’t help but feel I made some really neat friends of these two guys. When we left, we left with the intention of returning in the morning, which I’ve just learned that we now have to go back to UCT for some other interviews. Part of me knows this is a good choice for more information, but emotionally I really want to return to Sinethemba so say goodbye to my friends. I have their e-mail though and perhaps I’ll be able to talk to them again… hopefully anyways.
Yesterday night we returned to the V & A for dinner and some more shopping. I did some quick running around trying to find jewelry for Alicia… which I felt completely clueless about! Haha but yea afterwards we went to a restaurant and I had Ostrich again and Spring buck. Ok that’s what happened yesterday and I should really eat breakfast… Until later!
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