Weekend Awkward Turned Weekend Awesome

So, this weekend was our homestay weekend where we paired up with another member of our house and lived in a township called Langa. Yes, I did say township---I stayed 2 nights and 3 days in a township this weekend! Now, many of you may be wondering, was it safe? Was it sad? Was it hard? Was it good? Did it change my perspective on life? And the answer to all of those is yes, but I’m kind of fudging a bit with the first question—nothing in life is ever completely safe. Anyways, I was paired with Liz who was my roommate during orientation and who I am traveling with for spring break.

We arrived at the township for dinner on Friday night and it was completely awkward in ever sense of the word. They were black, we were white. They were living in very poor condition, we were not. They were from South Africa, we were not. So many differences and we didn’t exactly know how to act which made a very weird evening. They had cooked us a nice dinner which began with tripe and some other kind of nasty thing. Tripe is sheep intestine and the other stuff didn’t look much better than that. It was boiled in a sauce that smelled like something I shouldn’t mention. All of us thought that it was the main course so we tried to stomach as much as we could, but it was so gross! We were then to realize that it was only the appetizer! The main course was much nicer and more edible than round one. J

There are so many stories from the weekend that I could tell you right now, but you might get bored with all of them so I’ll just let you in on a few. First of all, we went to church both Saturday and Sunday with the family which was great. Such a different experience than home, but it was so great to see and hear other believers praising the same God. There was a lot of singing and the pastor even had us introduce ourselves to the whole congregation because obviously we weren’t from around there and everyone was so welcoming!

We also went to a house-warming type party on Saturday to tell the ancestors that the family had moved to a new house and to ask them to protect them in their new location. It was quite the ordeal and once again, we had to eat the tripe. Sick! That night we went around to a couple different taverns in Langa for a well-rounded night life experience in the township. Not something I would probably ever do again, but it was definitely an experience! Because we were Americans, we went home pretty early otherwise it wouldn’t be safe, but we had our own little get-together back at the house which was so much fun! The family that I stayed with was a young mom (31) with 3 kids—2 girls, 12 and 10 and a boy who was 5. The little boy was going strong all night and danced his little legs off! Of course, he quicly became my best friend for the weekend even though I still can’t pronounce his name correctly.

Ok random funny story- Liz can’t handle spicy food and the sausages that we ate for lunch today had a little spice in them. Not too much, but liz really can’t handle much. Anyways, she really couldn’t finish hers so when our “mom” for the weekend got up to get something in the kitchen I took one and shoved it in my mouth. She came back and asked me a question about something and I obviously couldn’t answer. My cheeks were bulging like a chipmunk who has too many nuts in his mouth. Then we all just started laughing and tried not to choke on all that sausage.

All in all it was a good weekend. It started off pretty awkward, but by the end we didn’t want to leave. It was hard to see the families living in such a small place with rotting countertops and no seat on the toilet and hardly any running water, but at the same time, their sense of community was something we all should strive for. They were all so willing to do anything and everything for their family members and neighbors. As we left, the kids ran after the bus and everyone was waving and yelling "Sobonana!" which means "See you later!" in Xhosa! The sun was setting behind the house and we were all a little teary-eyed as they slowly got smaller and smaller in the distance. Wow, that was kind of sappy, but it was how we were feeling! Tomorrow I will put up pictures from the weekend, but for now I’m going to get some sleep! Good night all!