On Friday I moved into my home stay family, which will be our base for the next few weeks. I have a host mother, Dudu, a host father, Sipho, and a host sister, Nosipho. All have been very welcoming and accommodating. Dudu is a great cook, very sweet, and open; Nosipho is also very sweet and welcoming, she's been very helpful in guiding me through the house. I have my own room and a closet to put my clothes away in. Friday night I went to bed very early, I had to be awake at 8:00 am to meet up and go to the central market in Durban.
The central market in Durban is huge! There are ten different sections in the market, including crafts, food, medicine, textile, and several other sections. We took a tour through the market, stopping to give a brief history about each individual section. We learned that a portion of the market is going to be shut down and that the people are protesting the closing of one section. In another part, the meat market, we watched women with cow heads (skin, eyes, and all) hacking -- with an axe -- at the head to get the meat off the skull. Some of us, including myself, were brave enough to eat the cooked cow head meat. Historically, only men were allowed to eat the cow head meat because they represented the head of the family, but today with democracy all are welcome to try the meat. It was good meat, what you would find in a burger, but it had this sticky gooey glob on it that creeped me out a little.
On Sunday, I went to church with Grace's host mother and sister in downtown Durban. Little did we know we were going to be at church for six hours. We left the house at 9:00am and took a taxi bus to Durban, we got there at 9:45. When we arrived the English service was wrapping up, so we watched that. Then the isiZulu service began, and Grace and I were completely lost. Some women tried to help us find the correct sections in the Bible, but even the names were different in isiZulu so it was near impossible! We got back home around 3:00 where I watched the news (Aljazeerah has a channel and I was so happy to watch it), ate dinner, and went to bed at 8:30 pm.
This morning (Monday) I was picked up at 7:00am and driven to a township called Umlazi to visit Menzi high school where I will be teaching Geography for the next two weeks. We were so welcomed by the school and the principal. The principal told us the school has a 100% pass rate and around 60% of the students go on to university. We visited two classes, one was a 10th grade class who welcomed us through singing and dancing, the second was 11th grade (a little rowdier) who also welcomed us with singing, dancing, and slam poetry. I have never been so impressed by the amount of talent in one classroom, those students inspire me.
That's my news for my South African adventure thus far, I can't wait to fill you in on my first day of teaching!
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