This weekend I had my homestay in Ocean View. I was excited
to room with Alex since I’ve had a single all semester, but unfortunately our
family could no longer host us and we got separated. I still enjoyed staying
with Auntie Anne, Freddie, Derek, and Becca. The first night was really great –
we got to take dance lessons at a local place within the community. There were
several kids there, most who started when the place opened about 3 years ago
and they were amazing. The dance instructor walked us through steps and then we
got to pair up with locals and practice. It was a lot of fun. The next day we
volunteered at a kid’s field day type event. I was excited to help out, but
unfortunately there weren’t enough jobs available for all of us to get really
involved. It was an incredibly windy day, comparable to Storrs, so we had to
cancel many of the events. Further, the kids that Drew, Alex, and I were paired
with were not terribly excited to be there and didn’t want to interact with us
much at all. So for the most part, I just sat around, but it seemed like the
kids had a great time so that’s all that matters.
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| Becca, Aunty Anne, Derek, Abbie & Pastor Freddie |
For the rest of the weekend, we just hung out with our host
family at their house and got to know them better. It was really interesting to
learn about their lives and beliefs and it was also great to feel at home and
have food constantly offered to us! There was one really awkward moment though.
We were eating dinner one night and the TV was on in the background and it was
showing a black American sitcom, My Wife and Kids, which is known to make
inappropriate jokes to begin with. But it was a typical sitcom episode – the
dad didn’t want his daughter going on a date and was giving her a hard time
about it and she was getting upset. So he responded that women in Africa have
it much harder because their men have to prove themselves by killing a lion and
getting circumcised. I have to say, never in my entire life did I imagine I
would be in Africa with my African family, while hearing an American TV show
make a bad joke about Africa. Back at home it seems so normal to make jokes
about different cultures, which is bad enough. But to actually be in that
culture while hearing it…. Wow. I honestly froze and we all just awkwardly
laughed it off.
We also went to church with our family. Our dad is a pastor and
held services in a preschool classroom, which was interesting. There were only
three other adults there as well as three children who spent the time being
slightly mischievous and feeding some of their snacks to stray dogs that
wandered through. But it was interesting to see Pastor in his element.
Sunday night when we got back, Alex and I spent some time at
her co-worker, Simon’s, house. It was very drastic to see the difference
between Ocean View and Simon’s neighborhood which I believe to be predominately
white. It is a beautiful house and his parents were as hospitable as my host
parents. We were watching Pirates of the Caribbean and during one of the battle
scenes, Simon’s dad popped his head in and said “Oh, I thought maybe you were
watching a video Alex had taken in a township,” referring to the gun violence
and gangsterism prevalent in town ship areas. He was kidding, but I was
definitely thrown off guard by the joke. I know that Simon’s parents were
against apartheid while it was happening and advocate for freedom for all, but
it was definitely interesting to see the contrast between my host family and
Simon’s family. We are having dinner with them on Thursday so I’m excited to
learn more about them and their beliefs.
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