More updates J Warning…this one is going to be a super long one…sorry J
Thursday (Feb. 17th) I had my first Marine Bio lecture. It was good to finally have a class more related to my major. I felt more at home in the bio department building. The actual course should be ok. It is not quite about the type of biology I am interested in, but I hope that I learn to like it. I love having class in the morning. We will normally be done on Thursdays at noon. That means our weekend has begun!! Taylor and I walked back to our flat and stopped to look at some rocks and shells by the ocean on the way. It is still amazing to me that I can even say that. We walk by the ocean on our way home! I love that.
Thursday night, my flat went out to dinner at the highly recommended restaurant, Finnezz. The meal was delicious. We all really liked the restaurant. It was a little more on the pricey side (but my meal was pretty decent…of course I would choose the cheapest meal I could find! J ).
Some of my new favorite things:
-dried mangoes…I am addicted! Thank you Norma for introducing them to me at one of the first meetings in flat 11!
-Simba’s salted peanuts and raisins mix…amazing!
-anything chicken, cheese, mayo…had a quesadilla and a tramezzini when we went to two different restaurants (Finnezz and Cubañas)
-living by the ocean. I love it. It makes me so happy to wake up and be able to see the beautiful ocean every morning. It is one of the many things I am thankful for this semester.
Friday (Feb. 18th) was one of the best days so far. My roommates and our friends Suvi, Sari, Jan (and their friend from Austria whose name started with an F), all went with Bradley on a more focused tour of the New Brighton townships. He picked us up in a combi type vehicle and brought the 9 of us to a woman’s home in the township. Before we stopped at the woman’s house, Bradley took us to the location where a backpackers hostel will be in the near future. Bradley is helping some women in the township get it started so that they will have some sort of sustainable employment. While talking with two of the women, they showed us how women in the townships make bread rolls without an oven. We later got to taste one of the rolls. It was really good!!!
All along the way, the whole day, he would fill the time telling stories about the people and places we were passing. We made many small stops to point out the places where specific important people lived. Bradley made sure to point out that people in the townships have had very powerful lives that have made a difference on this community. Bradley, himself, has lived a very interesting life. He is colored and grew up in the townships. I don’t know very much about his story but he sure knows a lot about everything. He also seems to know everyone.
The woman’s house we stopped at was Mama Regina Mngadi. She is a member of the iThembe women’s group. She was an activist during the apartheid and even spent time in prison with some of the same men and women who were also imprisoned with Nelson Mandela. Currently she runs a soup kitchen out of her own home. She feeds many of the children in the area. She is a very strong woman. When we walked into her home, I was shocked. From the outside, it did not look so great. We were in a run-down neighborhood where poverty was prevalent. The roof was made of metal scraps and wooden boards held down by old tires and bikes. But the inside was a different story. It was very decorative. There were beautiful, brightly colored curtains, fancy couches and china set in a nice cabinet. Also the kitchen had a microwave and a large refrigerator (pretty sure it was bigger than my one at home or at least similar to the size). I don’t know what I expected to see inside of the shack. I don’t think I was assuming it to have mud floors and metal cots with a fire in the center, but I definitely did not expect it to be that nice. Mama’s home may not be what some of the homes in the township are like, but it still made me realize how much I had been assuming about things I knew nothing about. I wasn’t doing this on purpose, but now my eyes have been opened a little more and I have realized how little I know about what surrounds me.
After we left Mama’s, Bradley took us back to a pottery studio of a woman who lived in the township. He brought us there last week on the city tour but we didn’t have much time to look around. We got to spend a little more time there today and buy a few pieces of art.
Next Bradley took us to a tavern in the middle of the township. It was really cool. When we got out of the car, we got many looks and stares, along with several nods and smiles. Everyone else around us had much darker skin. We all had a drink and sat outside to chat. It was a great people watching place. Once again, Bradley entertained us with more of his great stories. Bradley said that 5 years ago white people would never have gone to that area of town, but now it is more common. We still got a few weird looks, but people were nice. It was a very interesting experience to see what life was like on the inside of a township.
As we were leaving the township we stopped at a fresh market on a corner (still in the township). I bought a bag of apples and others bought a few things as well. The fruit and vegetables looked really good and were super cheap. I bought a nice sized bag of fresh apples for R8 (a little over $1).
Friday night a group of girls and I all went to see a movie at the Boardwalk. It was fun. The movie was from the US. It was kind of a weird movie, but the ending was cute. Over all, it was a wonderful day. It was cool to get to explore and learn more about the stories of those living in the townships. You don’t hear much about their stories in the history books.
No comments:
Post a Comment