Gugulteu

Yesterday marked the start of the real reason why we're in South Africa. It was our first trip to Guguletu where we headed to the JL Zwane community center for church and to meet our host families.

First off, the community center is amazing. Put in the center of a town that's ridden of complete poverty, it's a beautiful building that serves the area with multiple programs, and includes a church. We med with Edwin, who is our main contact the the JL Zwane for the week. He then introduced us to our host parents. They are all phenomenal! Me and Maryam will be staying with Thobeka (pronounced like Toe-becca), a 55 year old single woman, and her granddaughter who is 11. As soon as Edwin called our names, Thobeka jumped out of her chair and gave us huge hugs. She's so excited to have us, and now I am so excited to stay with her.

It was a huge relief- I had been more nervous than I'd like to admit about the homestay. Living in someone's home for three nights is a little scary, but now I'm completely at ease. All three nights all of us will get together for dinner, hosted by a different family. My family is first- which means that me and Maryam will be helping to make dinner for all 17 of us plus the other families. If you know me at all, then you know that I screw up microwaveable food... so this will be interesting. Maybe I'll come back with some new cooking skills :)

After meeting Thobeka, we all headed in to church. We sat with our hosts, and it was interesting to be doing exactly what she does every week. The service was a mix of Xhosa and English, but all of the singing was in Xhosa. I tried desperately to keep up, but it was impossible. Xhosa is such an interesting language (for those who don't know, an "x" in Xhosa is a clicking sound. I've been trying all week to do it, and still haven't gotten it), and I love listening to it. The service itself was so interesting. There's lots of soulful singing, people clapping and dancing along. I also learned that I have absolutely no rhythm. One of the other host moms promise to teach us all how to dance on Thursday night. I don't consider myself an especially religious person, but when the first song started and I saw everyone joining together, singing beautifully in a language I didn't understand, I honestly started to tear up.

Today we went back to Gugs (as the locals call it, and I probably will from now on) to JL Zwane and had our lectures. I'm not going to go into detail because I had a lot of other experiences today, but Edwin, Spiwo (the minister of the church) and a man named Kenneth from the Truth and Justice Committee were our speakers. Again, they were so insightful, eloquent, and thought-provoking. I feel like we were very privileged to have them talk to us. Afterwards we got to go downstairs and see a Siyaya (sp?) performance. Siyaya is a group of about 9 performers, ranging from 18-30, who put on performances that revolve around AIDS education. They did a mini-performance for us of about 5 songs (they were all in Xhosa so I couldn't understand them), but they were phenomenal. They leave in a day or two to go on tour for the summer- they'll be in Minneapolis in July, and I'm for sure going to see them. Then it was time for lunch. The way that meals work at the center is interesting. Different members of the community volunteer, and its real home cooking served family style. It was AMAZING. We all agreed that there is nothing better than home-cooked African food. Just thought you should all know :)

The rest of the day I’m still trying to process. We took a tour of the township, and I thought that I knew what to expect. Surrounding JL Zwane are actual houses. They aren’t nice by American standards(which is an interesting conversation for another time), but they’re formal houses. Just a few blocks away, however, is a completely different story. I’ve heard about the shacks, I’ve seen pictures. This was not something I was prepared for. Gugs has a population of over 300,000. Take a moment, think for a second about how large of a city that is. I would say that at least half of those people, although I’m speculating, live in these shacks. Comprised of metal scraps, pieces of plastic, basically just random discarded objects, these “houses” are smaller than my bathroom at home. One girl, Noyo, invited us into her house to see what her living situation is like. Below is a picture of some of the group standing outside of her house afterwards.

Noyo is 18 years old, and lives with her 9 year old brother. Their parents died years ago- I don’t think she mentioned how, but there is a decent chance that AIDS played a role. Noyos house has two rooms, and couldn’t fit all 17 of us in at once. They have a very small “kitchen” with a refrigerator and a table. There is no real floor. There are pieces of scrap linoleum lining the ground, which is dirt underneath. The roof is being held up on wood rafters with empty shampoo bottles to level them out. There is one bed. This is how Noyo, who is still almost a child herself, has been raising her and her brother for years. Her situation is not unique.

I'm struggling with how to feel about this. About Noyo, about the whole town, about the situation. I don't know what emotions are appropriate, and I don't know what right I have to feel any certain way. People are people. The people in Gugs were doing the daily things that we all do- going to the market, getting their hair done, walking with friends. It was just in an area of poverty. In a setting that I've never seen. Kids ran down the street playing, big smiles on their faces. Who am I to feel sad for them? I don't think that anyone should have to live in a shack like Noyo. Any human deserves better than that. But who am I to feel sorry for her? I can't relate to her. I can't understand her. But I can respect her, and try to learn as much as I can from her situation. I think its going to take me a few days to process this.

Tomorrow we start our homestays. We won't be back to our houses until after the day is done on Friday, so I won't be writing until afterwards. I'm sure there will be a TON to say after this experience. I'm a little nervous- especially since I'm still not feeling 100% heath-wise, but I'm mainly excited and interested. My plan is to go into it with an open mind and an open heart.