I had my last week at Menzi two weeks ago and I miss those students so much. On our last day we performed in front of the whole campus. We sang We Are the World by Michael Jackson and danced to Beautiful People by Chris Brown and Sting Ray by Big Nuz (super popular song here, check it out on youtube!). We had some technical difficulties with the music, but the school cheered for us nonetheless.
After that we spent a weekend packing for aMacabeni, a rural village 100km outside of Durban on the coast. It is truly breathtakingly beautiful, the ocean to the East, green foliage painting the landscape and ripe sugar cane sweetening the air. My home stay family consisted of one Mama and two Sisis, all three were incredibly hospitable and made the best breakfast (most of the time -- one time Mama gave me cake and cookies for breakfast which wasn't too appeasing). The house was brand new, I shared a double bed with Taylor, and we shared the room with one of our sisis Thobile. We had a living room, complete with TV and radio, which were both on at all times, a kitchen, and two bedrooms. The bathroom was an outhouse about 100 meters from the house. Though we didn't have running water there was a water spicket in front of our neighbors yard which we could use.
Within walking distance was our camp we facilitated. It was a life skills camp with 40 of the towns best grade 8-10 learners. We challenged the learners to think about oppression; gender, sexuality, labels, discrimination, and other social justice issues. This worked fabulously for me because this year I participated in my school's Next Step Retreat and facilitated Challenge Day at my high school. I felt that I was prepared to deal with the topics of the camp. However, the learners second language was English, so the language barrier was sometimes difficult -- we had UKZN students with us who were fluent in both languages to help us facilitate and they were amazing at their jobs, we could't have done it without them -- and the learners often didn't want to speak. I found that the learners, and some of the UKZN students were so deeply embedded in the societal norms that the impact was much lower than I expected. The learners and students were discussing these topics for the first time, and it was exhausting on both ends.
Following the week at our homestay and camp we left for Hluluwe for a safari. We woke up at 5:00am and drove in an open truck on the freeway for 20 minutes, real cold, and went on a two hour safari. I saw a total of 4 animals, so it was a little of a bummer, but still a great experience. We then returned to Cato Manor with our first homestay families. I missed my family so much, it was great to come back to a familiar and comfortable place.
Tomorrow we leave for Grahamstown, where a National Arts Festival is being held. I'm so excited to see plays and concerts and to shop at the crafts market. However, Grahamstown is a 10 hour drive away and really cold. I bought mittens and a fleece sweater to hold me over when I get there. I hope its enough! I won't have internet again until the 11th, maybe a little earlier, but I can't wait to fill you in on my adventures in Grahamstown.
Until then, sala khale.
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