Home stay

This weekend we did a home stay in a colored township called Oceanview! I think I can safely say it was the best weekend I have had here so far. In case you're just joining me, the term colored, although soo not pc in the US, is a socially acceptable term (albeit problematic) in South Africa that refers to people of mixed-race descent. During Apartheid, when the government divided up South Africans by race, they separated whites from blacks from colored people. They did so by initiating forced removals of black and colored people from their homes and into designated areas, which became the townships. When Apartheid was ended, Nelson Mandela promised the millions of black and colored people of South Africa that they would be provided with homes by the government, in order to right the wrongs previously committed by the Apartheid government. Unfortunately, millions still await the houses they were promised and continue to live in poverty in the townships.

This weekend, my perception of what the townships were like was completely overhauled, however. Although many townships are characterized by the corrugated metal shacks their residents live in, most of the houses in Oceanview were quite nice. At first I didn't understand why people who could afford nice cars and nice homes still lived within the township when they appeared to have the social mobility that allowed them to move elsewhere in Cape Town. However, after only a day in the community, I realized that the extremely strong sense of community, as well as strong extended family ties made Oceanview their home, even if originally they were forced to live there. In fact, most of the people I met were born during Apartheid, and didn't know a life anywhere else.

My host mom was an extremely generous lady named Lena, who is 62 and lived in Simons Town and was 21 when she was forcibly removed from her home there. Simons Town is now a high end beach town about a 40 minute train ride from the city, and is a primarily white area. Lena works at the navy base in Simons Town now, as a office clerk. I can't imagine what it's like to work in the place she once called home and watch it be changed into a whites only neighborhood. In one of my classes, we learned that 2/3 of Simons Town's population was forcibly removed during that time.

Lena was incredibly warm and generous, and fed me and the other two girls staying with her like there was no tomorrow. She is an excellent cook! We got in to Oceanview on Friday night and ate all together as a large group in a community gymnasium. The next morning, after Lena's homemade breakfast of cereal, fruit, yogurt, eggs, bacon, tomato and mushrooms (cooked tomato and mushrooms are really big here for breakfast), her nephew, Regan, picked us up to go for a drive. He was hosting three other American students, and brought a slew of other family members (it was so unclear who was related and how) along. We had the best day ever! They first took us to a little shop that sells biltong, which is basically beef jerky, and a South African favorite. I tried a piece, but wasn't really feeling it, as a vegetarian. Then we drove around the peninsula some more, and ended up in Simons Town, actually, where we got ice cream and went to the beach. Also, somewhere in the driving we saw a baboon jump out of nowhere on the side of the road. It was terrifying, because apparently they will reach right into the car and grab your stuff!

 An ostrich farm we passed

 Just imagine a baboon jumping out on the left! (I didn't get a picture of it)

 The beach at Simons Town: that's two girls we were with and the son of one of the guys showing us around

That's me with Shivani and Annie, the two girls who stayed at Lena's with me

Then we drove around the peninsula some more (amazing views) and went to a black township, called Site Five. There, we hung out for a while and talked to some people there, which was fun, even though it still feels uncomfortable and poverty tourism-y. I met some interesting people there, needless to say.
We then went back to Oceanview, and the guy driving our car, Donovan, picked up his two kids who joined us at this other guy, Mark's house. There, we ate these sandwiches that are really popular here, called Gatsbies. They're like heros or subs, and you can put basically everything in them. The ones they got us had steak, fried egg, french fries, lettuce, tomato and some delicious sauce on it. (I hope you are noting how much meat I'm eating, because it was about to get real at dinner) We hung out for a while at this house, and then they took us up to this Rastafarian community that lives on the hill above Oceanview. The Rastas were awesome! They were so nice and welcoming and they are vegetarian and all about living off the earth and all this great stuff.

Then we went back to Mark's house for the braai, which is the South African version of a barbecue, except its way better and way more popular (they do it every weekend). Braais are great, because they cook copious amounts of meat, perfectly. So while that's all cooking, they were making sure our beer glasses were never empty, which made for some good bonding time with the whole extended family! When we did eat, it was amazing: beef, chicken, sausage, pasta salad, potato salad, regular salad. I ate chicken and sausage! (if you're not keeping track of the meat I've been eating, so far we've got bacon, biltong, steak, now chicken and sausage)

 Donovan showed us the prettiest view from Oceanview

The braai spread, looking even nicer in front of Mark's motorcycle

So, it turns out that Mark and Regan are both DJs, and Mark has super nice spinning equipment, so the braai was also a dance party, equipped with lasers and everything. By the time we came back from the Rastas, more of the family had arrived, and it became a full on dance party/barbecue. It was so fun!!!

The next morning, Lena cooked us Sunday lunch, which is a big deal meal. It was a pretty epic meal, considering only four of us were eating it. She made carrots with cinnamon and sugar, mashed pumpkin with cinnamon and sugar, rice and veggies, roasted potatoes, squash with melted cheese and corn, beet salad, and get this: lamb, chicken AND ham. I ate all of it. So, to tally up the meat count, we've got: bacon, biltong, steak, chicken, sausage, lamb, chicken again and ham. Please take a moment to let that sink in. It was so delicious! And she made this amazing pineapple cream pudding for dessert!

 lunch!

dessert!

Ok, this blog post just got way out of hand with food details, but this weekend was awesome not just because of all the delicious food, but because of the great conversations and relationships formed with some really cool people. I know I'm missing some pictures of some of the things I described, and all of the people, but it felt more important to just be there and enjoy the moment then to take pictures of everything and everyone (also, it's not right to post pictures of people on the internet without their consent). Anyway, I hope to come back and visit them again this semester!