Ngifunda isiZulu

If you didn’t believe me when I said that I feel at home here, last night I met one of my brother’s friends, and he said to me “Are you sure you’ve never been to South Africa before? You seem so relaxed and comfortable.”  Speaking of home, below is a picture of the back of my house. You can kind of get an idea of the view that we have out the front.

I figure I’ll start off on a lighter note, so first here is a brief overview of my daily schedule:

5:45 – wake up, make my bed

6:00 – Run to the playing field, run a few laps, run a few sprints, do some abs*

6:30 – Bath time! Mama has my bath all ready for me, all I have to do is pour the tub of hot water into the large tub of cold water and we’re good to go.

6:45 – Breakfast time! Mama sets out a bowl of cornflakes, a glass of milk, and a cup with a tea bag, milk, and sugar already in it. All I have to do is pour the glass of milk into the cereal and pour some hot water into my tea.

7:15 or 7:35 – Get picked up by the minibus to go to school

8:00 – ZULU! (the title of this post, Ngifunda isiZulu, means I study Zulu. Its pronounced gee-foon-da ee-see-zoo-loo. Also, in Zulu the second to last sylable is the one thats emphasized). We have an hour lecture from 8-9 and then from 9-10 we have a tutorial where we break into smaller groups and go over and practice what we have learned.

10:00 – Tea break :)

10:30 – Some sort of lecture

12:30 – Lunch break! Mama packs me a sandwich and a piece of fruit every day and I supplement that with some oreos and cheese and crackers. We also go swimming in the pool outside the house to cool off, and sometimes we will be able to go down the street to the big pool where we can swim laps.

2:00 – Afternoon lecture

4:00 – Time to go home!

4:30 – Arrive back in Cato Manor where we are greeted by the neighborhood kids and our siblings. We either go to the field to play with ALL the kids, go to each others houses, or do some homework.

7:00 – Dinner time

8:00 – Generations. One of the hit soap operas that they watch here, along with the bold and the beautiful.  These shows are so dramatic, but I think I enjoy watching my mama’s reaction the best. Whenever something scandalous or outrageous happens my Mama laughs and makes a face and says “ Aye, those guys, they make me laugh!”

9:00 – Bed time. I get ready for bed and go to my room to write in my journal or do a little bit more homework before I fall asleep (usually by 9:30).

*This is if I am feeling ambitions. Otherwise I just wake up at 6:30 and go straight to taking a bath.

The other day my Mama played a trick on my brother, Bhuwa. She told him to make sure he locked the door before he left, yet he still left without locking the door. So, when she got home, she took his laptop, expensive sneakers, and nice jeans to the neighbors house and left it there. When he came home he couldn’t find his stuff, but Mama said she had no idea, she had just got home. He realized he had left the door open and started freaking out. I got home and he was all stressed and looked like he was about to cry. Mama finally told him what she had done and we all laughed at him. She wanted to teach him a lesson, and I’m pretty sure he learned. 

I also think Mama is slowly but surely making the meals more spicy. They have always been extremely flavorful, but recently my mouth has felt more and more on fire during dinner, and I've been very thankful for the large amounts of rice that go with the meal. 

The girls that live near me like trying to teach me Zulu words with clicks in them and then laugh at me as I mispronounce them. The other day I proceeded to spit all over Mandisa, which I felt bad about, but everyone apparently thought it was hilarious, and they erupted into laughter. They finally taught me the word for egg! Its eqada and the qa is the loud click. I’ve gotten pretty good at it and they say that they can actually understand! I find it hardest to say the words with clicks in one fluid motion. My words end up being very chopped up since I can’t make the letter sounds as I make the clicks.

Our Zulu teacher is, first of all, white, which somewhat confuses me, but is also almost identical to Ms. Trunchable from Matilda. Her hair is very scraggly and oily and she is a rather larger woman. Granted she is not as cruel as Ms Trunchable, but her popularity among the class is waning.

On a more serious note, last night my bedtime was shifted back an hour because I was talking to my older brother Lungelo until 10:00. We talked a lot of politics and he told me what he remembered from Apartheid (he was just 6 or 7 when it ended).  This is the brother that is in law school, and you can tell by talking to him that he is very bright. Being here and hearing various lectures and talking to my brothers and other people, I have had an increasing interest in education in South Africa, or should I say the lack there of. Education plays an important role in empowering the youth, lifting citizens out of poverty, and promoting good health. As one of our lecturers said, “A majority of youth is left behind… a scary thing for the youth,” showing how the flaws of the current education system has failed to educate two generations. A major problem that I’ve heard from several people is the lack of parent involvement in their children’s schooling. “They don’t check their kids homework, send them to school everyday, and expect them to pass at the end of the year.” This combined with the lowering of passing standards in schools have left kids unable to attend university, which makes it harder for them to find work. I looked at my sisters report card, which is graded on a scale of 1 through 4, 4 being the best. She had all threes and fours, but I was surprised to see that a 3, which is seen as doing a good job, was qualified as something around 50-70%. A 4 is anything above 70%. I guess this is what people are saying about lowering what constitutes passing in order to increase matriculation rates. All of my siblings seem like they work hard at school and are successful, and they attribute that to being brought up by my Mama.

The other big problem here is race. As much as South Africa likes to promote the idea of a “rainbow nation,” and although there is no legal segregation, it still occurs. White still try to distance themselves from the blacks, and townships will be made up of a single ethnicity. Cato Manor, for example, is pretty much all black, which is why seeing us white people running around draws so much attention. I also learned that Asians here are considered black! Thus, Thula said to me “That makes you my black sister from a Japanese Mama!” But back to the point, people, and even the government, have this negative attitude to people of other races. Blacks are brought up to hate Indians as well as whites, and although the ANC (African National Congress, the current party of the president) praises whites and forming relationships with them, my brother says that before an election they suddenly turn on them to gain popular votes with black. Whites openly look down upon blacks and attempt to separate themselves from them, which only feeds black hatred. Democracy doesn’t instantly fix the race situation, and until there is a changed attitude, or as one of our lecturers said, “until we change our story,” nothing is going to change.

Below is a picture of a protest that went through Cato this weekend, protesting the violence and corruption that is all too prevalent in these communities. I was surprised to see police, fire trucks, and even busses partake in the protest, wanting to decrease violence and to protect the children  and their rights.  And on a lighter note, below that is the view from Gardens street in Cato, which runs perpendicular to my street.