Sawubona! That was one of the first things our program director said to us, and it is true for so many reasons. So much has happened since I arrived in South Africa, I am splitting this into a few posts, pre and post homestay. I met up with the other students in my program in Johannesburg the Friday before last. We stayed at a hostel for a few days to become acquainted with one another, South Africa, and to go through the program logistics. We had the opportunity to visit the Nelson Mandela house, where he and Winnie Mandela lived for many years in the township of Soweto. It is quite incredible that two Nobel peace prize winners, Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela, lived on the same street of an impoverished township. We also visited the Hector Peiterson memorial. Hector was a boy who was shot in one the initial protests against the mandated teaching of Africaans in township schools under the apartheid. His death became a symbol of the protests against the apartheid, which began in Soweto, and spurred resistance around the country. It was one of the first times that information about the atrocities that were occurring under the apartheid regime became public for the world.
The drive to Durban was beautiful. There were green rolling hills, huge fields of corn and other crops, and some cattle (plus we saw a zebra!). The clouds look different than in the Northwest too, they are very poofy, apparently due to the inter-tropical convergence zone. There are cities scattered along the drive, most of which reflect the community structure of the apartheid. There is a city center, which you can identify by the chapel tower and larger spread-out houses, some form of separation like a river or wall with some form of regulated passage, and then the township of small “matchbox” houses.
We arrived in Durban, Kwazulu-Natal, the province where we will spend the majority of the program. Durban is a city of about 3.5 million that sits on the Indian ocean. My first thought driving through the city was how green it is. There are trees and vines and big-leafed plants lining the highways and all kinds of neighborhoods. The most metropolitan parts of the city aren’t that green, but there are still palm trees scattered around. For the first three days in Durban we stayed at a hostel near the water, and I had my first swim in the Indian ocean. The beach is absolutely gorgeous, with palm trees and lots of green. Even in the stormy weather the beach is incredibly pretty, and the rain isn’t cold. Also in regard to the rain, it downpours every few days with the kind of rain where you walk outside and look like you took a shower in your clothes after about 3 minutes. When it isn’t raining it is either very hot and sunny or steamy/overcast and humid. But it is a fun change and I am enjoying the weather and all of the variety!
One of the first things that stood out to me is the amount of litter. The streets are lined with old water bottles and wrappers. Also, crossing the street is a new skill for us. The traffic comes from the other direction and cars don’t stop when the light is red.
Anyway, Classes so far have been very interesting. Zulu is fun to learn, though there are certain sounds I don’t know how make yet, but all of us in the program are in the same boat. In the hostel we met other visitors who were able to help us with our Zulu homework in exchange for teaching some Spanish. Everyone here is very warm, especially in our Cato neighborhood. The lecturers have been fascinating, we have had two lectures by another SIT program director, who is an expert on Cato Manor, the community we will be focusing on for the first half of the program and where we live with our homestays. I will put up another entry with information about Cato.