Meeting Mama Ruby!

The past two days have been unbelievable! After school on Wednesday we went to one of the schools in Cato Manor to have a meet and greet with all of our homestay Mamas. Our academic director, Zed, described it as a “day at the orphanage.” One by one the Mamas would call out the name of their new child and there would be lots of hugging!

I was the first one to meet my sister outside of the school! It was one of the most exciting things I have ever experienced. Thula, one of the people who helps run the program, introduced us and, with the biggest smile on her face, she immediately came running over to me and gave me the biggest hug. Her name is Simunye, but everyone calls her simu (pronounced smoo). She is going to be 13 this year, her favorite colors are yellow, blue, and pink, and she wants to be a social worker or an architect when she grows up. She also loves Beyoncé, high school musical (particularly part 2), and Hairspray. She is the most adorable girl I have ever met. She loves to play tricks on me and tell me jokes and pretend that we are lost when we walk around.  To say that she’s got attitude would be an understatement. She knows everyone in town, knows how to get everywhere, and all of the kids adore and respect her.

After meeting my sister, I met my Mama Ruby. She is one of the sweetest women I have ever met. She is 66 years old and is actually Simu’s Gogo, or granny. Simu’s mom works in Jo’burg as a sister or nurse in a hospital. She made me an AMAZING dinner. I even ate a beet. The meat they make here is all so tender and juicy and full of flavor, and the sweet potatoes are to die for. After dinner she basically told me that I could do anything I wanted! “you want to drink, you can drink. You want to go out, you can go out. You want to smoke, you can smoke. Just make sure I know.” Her motto is that if she respects me, I will respect her, and that she wants me to feel like this is my house, and that in my own house I can be free. What a woman.

I also have a brother, Buwa. He is twenty, same as me, and goes to the University of KZN (KwaZulu-Natal, the province that Durban is located in). He is in his final year of studying to be an architecture and says he will then go for his masters if his grades are good enough and if he can scrape up the money to go. I haven’t spent as much time with him, and he isn’t around as much, but he is also very nice.

Everyone lives so close in Cato Manor that it is so easy to hang out and spend time with each others families and siblings. Elise lives a few houses down on my street and Breanna lives in the house right behind me. All I have to do is take a small path up a hill to get to her house! And Elise’s host sister Nandi is friends with my sister Simu, so we have spent a lot of time together.  (Details to come shortly).  

Every morning I wake up at 6:25 and my Mama already has my bath ready for me (no, they do not have showers). After I get done with my bath, I go out to the kitchen where she already has my breakfast ready. I have a bowl of cereal, a cup of either coffee or tea, sometimes another sandwich, and a piece of fruit – some sort of cross between an apple and a peach! Then I say goodbye to my sister who goes off to school at 7. I sit and watch the news and talk to my host mama before I get picked up to go to school around 7:30.

After a full day of classes (from 8 to 4… ugh) we get brought back to Cato Manor where we are greeted by swarms of kids. And I mean SWARMS. Its like a stampede of kids of all ages who will run to you and hug you and want to sit in your lap and be picked up and swung around. At one point I think I was carrying three kids on my back and in my arms while there were another three all trying to hold my hand. A bunch of us took the kids to the soccer field where we played duck duck goose, hand games, soccer, and generally just ran around and played with all of them. They were all so cute, and spoke varying degrees of English.

We then went down the street to where Elise is staying with Nandi and we danced to Beyonce and sung along to Adele while they took crazy pictures on our computer and made funny videos speaking Zulu and singing songs.  By the time dinner comes around at 7:00 I am STARVING.  I ate all of the food on my plate (except most of the beets).  8:00 is when Generations comes on, one of the most popular soap operas, also known as soapies, in South Africa. We watch generations, I help my host sister with her English homework, and then by 9:00 I’m ready for bed!

Cator Manor is a very hilly township. I am right on the crest of a hill and the view is amazing. The air is so clean and the houses are such a variety of colors. Most are set up very similar to mine with a small kitchen and small living room. A bathroom with a tub and sink, a room with the toilet, and two or three bedrooms. My bedroom has a very large queen bed, a bedside table, and an armoire, which leaves about a foot of walking space around the perimeter of the room. They take a lot of pride in their furnature and it is all very beautiful.

Everything is so different, but in a way also reminds me a little bit about Hawaii. It is so much fun and so exhausting. Everyone here is so welcoming and nice and all of the attention that we get from the kids makes us feel so popular and loved! My time here has also made me much more appreciative of everything and much more open to new experiences. The living conditions here are so different from what I am used to as typical middle class living, yet my Mama is still proud and appreciative and even mentioned this morning that she feels bad for the other poorer people out there -- those whose houses are destroyed by floods and earth quakes and the children who don't have enough to eat.

I think that should cover everything for now. I wont have internet this weekend while I’m in Cator Manor, so this will be my last post until Monday, but I will be sure to inform you all about the crazy adventures that my sister Simu takes me on!