Hello everyone!
I'm finally settling into a routine, and I'm so glad I have! Every day, we wake up pretty early (6:30-6:45) to catch the van by 7:30 to head off to the SIT house. There, we have a few minutes of internet time before 2 hours of Zulu. After, we have a short break before either having our Community Health Seminar class or our Field Study Seminar class. Luckily, we have a nice long lunch break (1-1.5 hours) to catch up on emails and such... which is how I'm writing now! After lunch, we have another 2 hours of class, then have a little time before we get driven back to our families. Definitely more class time than I'm used to at Syracuse!
At home, I usually spend a little time outside (for the runners in my family- I attempted a run yesterday... not too bad! We'll see if it keeps going...) before the sun goes down around 6. It is still late winter here in SA, so the days are much shorter right now than they are in the US. When I go inside, I usually try to get my reading done for the next day, work on a little Zulu, and hang out in living room with my homestay family. I sometimes attempt a "bath", which involves boiling a few kettles of water, mixing it with the cold water from the tap in a bucket, and washing with just a wash cloth. No hot water or full american baths here! It's not bad at all though, and I've almost mastered washing my hair already.
Every night at 8 we watch Generations, which I'm slowly picking up the story too. My family has a TV package that has random American channels, like the Style Network and the Home network, so I've watched lots and lots of makeover and home improvement shows. We have dinner (rice with some kind of meat) and around 9 or so I usually head into my room to read a little and get to sleep pretty early. I think I've gotten more sleep in the past few nights than I got all summer at camp, even with waking up at 6:30 everyday.
I don't have too much time now, but next post I'll let you know what I'm planning to do for my independent study project!
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Homestays
Sawubona!
Wednesday evening we moved into our homestays! We were all really really nervous beforehand… the van ride there we were all freaking out. We drove up the huge hill to Sandgate Rd of Cato Manor. Cato Manor is a large township of Zulu, black South Africans just northwest of the Durban city center. It has a long history that we learned about today in class… but I’ll save that for another time
When we got off the van, our new families all came to meet us. My new mama was still at work so my brother, Sandiya, and his friend Kwenza (nicknamed Buwa) came to pick me up and help carry my stuff to the house. Sandiya is 19 and just finished high school a few months ago. We walked just a little bit down the road and he showed me to my new house! It’s very nice, and I even have my own room with a double bed and wardrobe. Sandiya and some of the neighborhood kids took myself and my SIT friends Leah and Meredith for a tour of the small section of Cato Manor we live in. There were tonnnnns of people that we met and we stopped by quite a few houses. When we came back, my other brother, Andile, age 15 was there. Sandiya, Buwa, Andile and I hung out, watched TV (which is ALWAYS on in the house) and talked about the differences between South Africa and America. I learned so much in just the first few hours of my homestay!
We had a delicious dinner of chicken and rice around 7:30, then sat down to watch Generations, an EXTREMELY popular soap opera here in SA. When I say extremely popular, I mean that almost every single Zulu family watches it every night at 8. It was very entertaining (and luckily had English subtitles for the parts that were in Zulu) and I’m excited to watch it every night! Soon after, my mama, Nokuthula, and her sister, Penny, came home from work at the Pavilion (the large mall that you can see from my house). We chatted a little while I unpacked and got ready for bed.
I fell asleep fast, which was good because we have to wake up at 6:30 everyday to catch the van to the SIT house at 7:30. I’m quickly discovering that everyday from here on out is going to be veryyyyy long. We have class essentially straight through from 8 until 4 every day, with just an hour or so break for lunch in the middle. Today we had 2 hours of Zulu, finished up the last bits of orientation, had lunch, then had a lecture about the history of Durban and Cato Manor.
I finally got my cell phone in working order! We “topped up” our minutes during our lunch break (first adventure with a pay-as-you-go phone). A few days ago, my friend Alexa told me about a service Skype offers where you can call abroad using a mobile phone at local rates. For just $7 a month, I get unlimited minutes to the US! The only problem is that I still have to pay local rates, which could get quite expensive, so I just have to keep an eye out for that. I’m still very excited to be able to call back the states for very very cheap (I was looking into the service going the other way too… for a person in the US to call South Africa, it would be $25 a month for only 120 minutes).
Right now, I’m hanging out in my bedroom about to go to sleep. No, I don’t have wireless in Cato Manor, but I’ll be posting this as soon as I get to the house tomorrow. I’m really excited to be in a routine now, and to have an actual house and family to go home to every night. If I knew how to say goodnight in Zulu I would, but I still have a relatively limited vocab… so instead I’ll just say sala kahle, stay well!
Wednesday evening we moved into our homestays! We were all really really nervous beforehand… the van ride there we were all freaking out. We drove up the huge hill to Sandgate Rd of Cato Manor. Cato Manor is a large township of Zulu, black South Africans just northwest of the Durban city center. It has a long history that we learned about today in class… but I’ll save that for another time
When we got off the van, our new families all came to meet us. My new mama was still at work so my brother, Sandiya, and his friend Kwenza (nicknamed Buwa) came to pick me up and help carry my stuff to the house. Sandiya is 19 and just finished high school a few months ago. We walked just a little bit down the road and he showed me to my new house! It’s very nice, and I even have my own room with a double bed and wardrobe. Sandiya and some of the neighborhood kids took myself and my SIT friends Leah and Meredith for a tour of the small section of Cato Manor we live in. There were tonnnnns of people that we met and we stopped by quite a few houses. When we came back, my other brother, Andile, age 15 was there. Sandiya, Buwa, Andile and I hung out, watched TV (which is ALWAYS on in the house) and talked about the differences between South Africa and America. I learned so much in just the first few hours of my homestay!
We had a delicious dinner of chicken and rice around 7:30, then sat down to watch Generations, an EXTREMELY popular soap opera here in SA. When I say extremely popular, I mean that almost every single Zulu family watches it every night at 8. It was very entertaining (and luckily had English subtitles for the parts that were in Zulu) and I’m excited to watch it every night! Soon after, my mama, Nokuthula, and her sister, Penny, came home from work at the Pavilion (the large mall that you can see from my house). We chatted a little while I unpacked and got ready for bed.
I fell asleep fast, which was good because we have to wake up at 6:30 everyday to catch the van to the SIT house at 7:30. I’m quickly discovering that everyday from here on out is going to be veryyyyy long. We have class essentially straight through from 8 until 4 every day, with just an hour or so break for lunch in the middle. Today we had 2 hours of Zulu, finished up the last bits of orientation, had lunch, then had a lecture about the history of Durban and Cato Manor.
I finally got my cell phone in working order! We “topped up” our minutes during our lunch break (first adventure with a pay-as-you-go phone). A few days ago, my friend Alexa told me about a service Skype offers where you can call abroad using a mobile phone at local rates. For just $7 a month, I get unlimited minutes to the US! The only problem is that I still have to pay local rates, which could get quite expensive, so I just have to keep an eye out for that. I’m still very excited to be able to call back the states for very very cheap (I was looking into the service going the other way too… for a person in the US to call South Africa, it would be $25 a month for only 120 minutes).
Right now, I’m hanging out in my bedroom about to go to sleep. No, I don’t have wireless in Cato Manor, but I’ll be posting this as soon as I get to the house tomorrow. I’m really excited to be in a routine now, and to have an actual house and family to go home to every night. If I knew how to say goodnight in Zulu I would, but I still have a relatively limited vocab… so instead I’ll just say sala kahle, stay well!
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
First few days in Durban
Sawubona! (yes, thats hello in Zulu)
So after moving into the Happy Hippo Backpackers the other day, we had a few intense days of orientation and moving around Durban. On Monday, we had "dropoff" day, where pairs of us had to scatter throughout the city and talk to South Africans. After about an hour and a half long chat about how to not get mugged, we headed out on the bus to our assigned locations. The experience was a little unnerving, but I definitely feel more comfortable walking around Durban city central! Afterward, we got dinner at the aquarium park next door, walked around by the beach on the Indian Ocean, and relaxed at the rooftop bar at our hostel.
On Tuesday, we went to the SIT house for the first time! The house is very nice, and has a kitchen, laundry, showers and even a pool. Then we had our first official Zulu lesson... it's challenging but we're all doing pretty well so far! We had a few more orientation sessions, then headed out to the megamall to pick up adapters (SA has plugs that no other countries use so we all had to get new ones), locks for our lockers at the house, and some lunch. Then we headed back again to the hostel to relax and do some homework.
Today, we woke up early (6 am... these early mornings all semester are going to be rough) to move out of Happy Hippo and went straight to the house. We just had another 3 hour Zulu lesson with Jaqui, our teacher, and Nhalo, Mne and Fanele our tutors. We're just about to have a homestay orientation, a health talk, and then this afternoon we move in with our homestay families!! I'm pretty nervous, but all of us will be in the same position. I'm living with a mother, her 25 year old sister, 16 year old brother, and 21 year old son. It should definitely be a new and exciting experience!
Still haven't had time to figure out how to put up pictures, but I will soon!
Sala kahle!
So after moving into the Happy Hippo Backpackers the other day, we had a few intense days of orientation and moving around Durban. On Monday, we had "dropoff" day, where pairs of us had to scatter throughout the city and talk to South Africans. After about an hour and a half long chat about how to not get mugged, we headed out on the bus to our assigned locations. The experience was a little unnerving, but I definitely feel more comfortable walking around Durban city central! Afterward, we got dinner at the aquarium park next door, walked around by the beach on the Indian Ocean, and relaxed at the rooftop bar at our hostel.
On Tuesday, we went to the SIT house for the first time! The house is very nice, and has a kitchen, laundry, showers and even a pool. Then we had our first official Zulu lesson... it's challenging but we're all doing pretty well so far! We had a few more orientation sessions, then headed out to the megamall to pick up adapters (SA has plugs that no other countries use so we all had to get new ones), locks for our lockers at the house, and some lunch. Then we headed back again to the hostel to relax and do some homework.
Today, we woke up early (6 am... these early mornings all semester are going to be rough) to move out of Happy Hippo and went straight to the house. We just had another 3 hour Zulu lesson with Jaqui, our teacher, and Nhalo, Mne and Fanele our tutors. We're just about to have a homestay orientation, a health talk, and then this afternoon we move in with our homestay families!! I'm pretty nervous, but all of us will be in the same position. I'm living with a mother, her 25 year old sister, 16 year old brother, and 21 year old son. It should definitely be a new and exciting experience!
Still haven't had time to figure out how to put up pictures, but I will soon!
Sala kahle!
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Drive to Durban
Today we drove on our epic journey to Durban! The drive was about 7 hours, but I was so tired that I was able to sleep at least half of it, if not more. It was absolutely beautiful, and we kept saying how it looked like it was right out of the Lion King. No lions, but we did see an ostrich! I'll post pictures in a few days once I get them uploaded on my computer.
We arrived in Durban around 4pm, and were able to walk down to the beach by a giant seaworld-type theme park called uShaka. The beach is gorgeous, we'll definitely be spending a lot of time there this semester. After, we got some dinner and headed back to our backpacking hostel, called the Happy Hippo. It's very cute and has showers that aren't scalding hot!
We took our first mini Zulu lesson this morning... so far it's not too bad! But we haven't gotten into the clicks yet.... Some of the words we learned: Sawubona (hello), ungani (how are you), yebo (yes or good), ngilaphila (goodbye). Theres a few more that I don't remember... but we have our first official lesson tomorrow!
We're at the Happy Hippo until Wednesday, and the wireless is pretty cheap, so I'll update a few more days until we start our homestays :)
We arrived in Durban around 4pm, and were able to walk down to the beach by a giant seaworld-type theme park called uShaka. The beach is gorgeous, we'll definitely be spending a lot of time there this semester. After, we got some dinner and headed back to our backpacking hostel, called the Happy Hippo. It's very cute and has showers that aren't scalding hot!
We took our first mini Zulu lesson this morning... so far it's not too bad! But we haven't gotten into the clicks yet.... Some of the words we learned: Sawubona (hello), ungani (how are you), yebo (yes or good), ngilaphila (goodbye). Theres a few more that I don't remember... but we have our first official lesson tomorrow!
We're at the Happy Hippo until Wednesday, and the wireless is pretty cheap, so I'll update a few more days until we start our homestays :)
Saturday, August 21, 2010
I made it!
aSo after a very very very very long 15 hour plane ride, I landed in Joburg around 8:30 am (2:30 am in the US) yesterday. Most of the group didn't get in til the evening, so the 5 of us who came in on the early flights got a ride to our backpackers house and got to hang out for the day. We spent lots of time sitting in the sunshine, even though it's winter here in South Africa. Because Joburg is pretty far inland, the temperature have been in the 40s and 50s, pretty chilly coming from 80s and 90s. Once we leave for Durban, we'll be in more of a subtropical climate so it'll be more like 70s and 80s which I'm already looking forward to.
Once the rest of the group arrived, we had dinner and had a brief orientation with Zed, our academic advisor and general director of our program. The two other SIT staff with us are Thula and S'du (pronounced Stu) who drive our vans. We've already been asking them how to pronounce things in Zulu and figuring out how to distinguish between the 3 different clicks in the language.
This morning we had an early breakfast and traveled to Soweto, where the movement against apartheid originated. We toured the house where Nelson Mandela and his family lived for 40 years, then went to the Hector Pieterson museum, named after a 13 year old boy who was killed in protest riots. Afterward, we headed to a mall to have some lunch and pick up some basic supplies and food.
Tomorrow we're driving 6 hours to Durban, our home for the next 3 months. I'm actually looking forward to having a longggggggggg nap... I still haven't gotten over my jetlag.
Hope everything is well in the United States! I don't know the next time I'll have internet, but I'll try to make another post in the next few days :)
Once the rest of the group arrived, we had dinner and had a brief orientation with Zed, our academic advisor and general director of our program. The two other SIT staff with us are Thula and S'du (pronounced Stu) who drive our vans. We've already been asking them how to pronounce things in Zulu and figuring out how to distinguish between the 3 different clicks in the language.
This morning we had an early breakfast and traveled to Soweto, where the movement against apartheid originated. We toured the house where Nelson Mandela and his family lived for 40 years, then went to the Hector Pieterson museum, named after a 13 year old boy who was killed in protest riots. Afterward, we headed to a mall to have some lunch and pick up some basic supplies and food.
Tomorrow we're driving 6 hours to Durban, our home for the next 3 months. I'm actually looking forward to having a longggggggggg nap... I still haven't gotten over my jetlag.
Hope everything is well in the United States! I don't know the next time I'll have internet, but I'll try to make another post in the next few days :)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)