Empandleni

Tomorrow we leave for the Rural areas (empandleni - thats Zulu) so I may not be able to email or even talk on the phone.  I will tell you all about it when we get back.  Also we are going to a game reserve so hopefully we'll see creatures

much love and a happy Rosh Hashanah

Adina

Heritage Day

Yesterday was a National Holiday called Heritage Day.  It has a pretty interesting history because it used to be a day dedicated to Afrikaner traditions but Nelson Mandela, in his presidency, changed it to be about all types of heritage especially African Tribal traditions.  I went with two other girls from the program (Kim and Shannon) to Ushaka. Named after the Zulu king who unified all of Zulu and I think defeated the British in a war, it is a marine park with a shopping complex.  We went to look at the shops and found all sorts of cute stores.  There was also a lot of traditional dancing going on - that was Awesome!!! There was traditional Indian dancing, with women in Saris and all sorts of lip synching going on.  people of all ages were dancing and watching. 

Later in the mall structure was a recreation (I think) of a traditional Zulu homestead as well as men and women in traditional grab (lots of beaded clothing and converse shoes?) dancing.  We have seen some of this before but it was still really cool to see it outside of the more traditional tourist context.  Also we saw some men doing the same type of a cappella done by the men in the shack settlement.  these other guys were not nearly as good.

Later we went to find some food and went to another part of the beach.  we walked along and met a nice police officer (strange!) who took us to a store we were looking for.  Once outside the policeman's watchful eye some people came and begged us for money.  While this is always a difficult experience I reflected that it was really the first time since I had been in SA that begging had happened.  

anyway, when I got home, we had food - obviously - and watched TV.  last night we watched a soccer game and it kept the whole house up until 10:30 pm which is super late for us.  my mom would run around and scream 'heibo' something like 'oh gosh' in english whenever her team got close to scoring or vice versa.  

all and all a great day off. 

soon we are going to the rural homestay (sat morning) so I will likely not have email access but maybe an opportunity will arise - who knows!

Much love, 

Adina   

This Weekend at Home In Bonella

So we had a free weekend this past few days with our host families.  We went out to the mall - called the pavillion.  It is green at night and thus Anna (one of the SIT students) calls it 'the emerald city'.  We watched Space Chimps an animated movie about chimps who work for NASA. It was so cute and very ridiculous! 

On saturday we were supposed to have a walk around through Durban, but it was pouring rain and so we decided not to do it.  instead some of us students went to the mall and it was good retail therapy for many of us.  I bought a second sweater since it has been quite chilly here and I only brought one long sleeve shirt.  

Then on Sunday I went to church.  It was so cool, it was a small-ish room in a church school complex but it was packed by the time the service started.  After an all Zulu service in which I understood mostly 'suffering' and 'love' - which I guess is Christianity in a nut shell.  Anyway then I met some of my extended family, and a cute little nephew - Awww! Afterwards we watched movies and I did homework

very exciting!

Salani Kahle (stay well)

I saw space chimps, it was GREAT!

More to come later today.

xox

Classes Still

This week we are still in classes.  We have been discussing many different modern issues that are affecting the dynamics of society.  We discussed the redistribution of land, as well as housing, developing in a sustainable manner and anthropological methods for doing our ISP (independent Study Project).  

It has been a long week of classes and a lot of Zulu - we had an oral examination where we had to a dialogue between some people and talk about our previous weekend in the south coast. I dressed up as a traditional healer and we used our few phrases to create a simple dialogue.  

This morning we went to a youth organization that was led by some people we met on our first day in the city of Durban.  They feed a whole bunch of students early in the morning at an elementary and high school where there is a high need for many of the students.  It was really fun and I would like to go back again if possible.  

sorry this was a little bit of a disjointed post but hopefully next time will be better

sala khale 

Adina 

The South Coast

Hello again - 

This week the homework is going to start piling on so the previous weekend we went to the south coast.  We stayed at this adorable lodge called the merry crab it was right off the beach and I could see the water from my window, also my roommates saw monkeys out our windows.  

We went on a long walk (around 4-5 miles) that began on the beach and continued up through some of the sets used to film Blood Diamond and then into a rural-ish village where we met a traditional healer.  

The walk on the beach was beautiful but very windy and there were petrified trees and other fossils to see but I was not sure how reliable our guide was.  Then we walked through beautiful scenery (ask to see the pictures when I get back) and places where blood diamond was filmed (we also filmed a few short re-enactments) it was really cool, even though we I had never seen the movie

then we saw the sanguwoma. In this case it was a woman, actually two, who danced and burned some plants to make the room very smokey and call forth the spirits.  it was really interesting and like nothing I had ever seen before - but it was a little frightening because when the spirit moves into these women they begin to wobble and fall over, potentially right onto me.  

A very interesting weekend!

until next time

Adina 

The Zulu language and other things done this week....

So I have received a lot of questions about the make-up of the Zulu language and want to try and explain what its like.  Zulu uses the same alphabet as english except there is no R sound.  Also the vowels sound a little different and 'ph' does not equal the 'f' sound.  there are also 3 clicks.  there is a click sound for 'c' that is made by putting your tongue to the back of your front teeth and and pulling away quickly - similar to the tisk-tisk sound used by frustrated mothers.  the next click is for the letter 'x' and sounds like the noise used to make a horse go faster.  finally, the most difficult click in my opinion is the 'q' click which sounds like a cork un-popping (but you make this sound with your mouth!).  Everyday we have a Zulu lecture to learn the grammatical structure and then small groups to practice pronunciation and our speaking ability because we will have a written and oral exam in a few weeks.  

Yesterday we had an incredible lecture on Cosmopolitanism and the idea that we need to try to know the other and et be respectful in that we can never fully know the experience of the other.  This lecture dealt with a lot of the ideas I struggle with because of all the interfaith work I have done in the past and it was so wonderful - after days of development and economics lectures - to finally feel like I know what was going on.

Next we heard about the housing crisis happening here.  One of the most important parts of this debate is that housing is guaranteed by the constitution (AMAZING and slightly unrealistic) so when shack settlements begin happening in cities it becomes a very contentious issue.  We visited one of these shack settlements and met the organizer of an group of settlers who have begun fighting for their rights.  They also have an amazing a cappella group that sings about political issues and dances go along with the singing too, it was an incredibly moving experience and since the lyrics were sometimes in simple Zulu I could understand some of it

up next, a trip to the southern coast  

Ah classes...

Sanibonani -

 We are settling in to our weekly schedule of classes and homestay families.  I leave for school at around 7:05 everyday to walk to the bus and return home around 5:15 or so.  During the day we have different classes mostly our seminar on Reconciliation and Development, Zulu language and sometimes a seminar on Field studies in the Social Sciences.  We have reading and Zulu homework every night.  

 Today we are going to a museum and having lunch there as well - very exciting! Tomorrow we are going to a shack settlement and Friday we leave for a weekend on the South Coast, so the next few posts should be exciting. 

  Sala Khale  

Adina  

Homestays!

We just had our first weekend with our homestay family.  My family consists of two parents who are somewhat older and their granddaughter.  My sister is 13 and so cute! We live on a hill in Cato Manor and there is an incredible view (I am not sure there is enough bandwidth to upload pictures, apparently bandwidth is regulated in SA).  You can see mosques and the big mall, the Pavillion.  My sister is friends with the sisters of a few other students so we spent most of the weekend together.  

When I first got there Saturday morning we went around to many houses of my sisters friends so they could all see me.  Then we eventually went to the mall to buy some school supplies.  Some of their taxis are minibus taxis - much like a sheruot in Israel.  Finally my sister helped me do my Zulu homework.  Also my father and I talked about censorship in America vs. South Africa.  

Sunday we decided not to go to Church because my mama was tired.  many other mamas came over to visit including Etan's mama (my friend Etan went on SIT last semester - she sends her love to him!).  then we went visiting other students and their families, finally my camera was taken and used to take hundreds of pictures.  my sister and her friend took video interviews of themselves about what it was like to live with Americans, it was so cute.  

Each night we watch movies together and usually in the middle my sister goes to bed and I stay up with my parents.  I think there is still a lot of uncertainty about where I fit into the family but I think it will dissolve over time.  

until next time, 

 Adina

More Preparation and Acclimation

Hello again - 

 this is likely to be a shorter post. We spent yesterday with Durban with your young men who run a non-profit whose mission is to help educate the young people of the neighborhood. We had a really good time with our guide and saw museums and a main park with a memorial to a woman who disclosed her HIV status as positive and was stoned to death.

now we are handling a lot of our personal business, learning about our host families who we will meet tomorrow and dealing with the bank. Later today we will be having lectures on Zulu culture and tradition so that we can be mentally prepared for our homestays. 

much love, 

sala khale

Adina 

I'm here!

Sawuniboni -

We arrived in South Africa four days ago and began our stay in a seminary in Johannesburg. In Jo-berg we began our orientation about the broader program and study about the social and cultural context of apartheid in South Africa. The first day we went to the constitutional court. The highest court in SA it was built on the site of a prison (and previously a fort) where Nelson Mandela along with other apartheid resisters were held. The prison was known for its gruesome conditions, and thus seemed a powerful place to put a court. Not only is the constitutional court the highest court in the land, it is also dedicated solely to the protection of rights. We also saw Soweto, the South Western Township, a place where blacks were relocated to after apartheid forbid the mixing of the races in housing situations. In Soweto many young black leaders lived including Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu. Many actions occurred here in the fight for ending apartheid as well. Two days later, we went to the apartheid museum. Modeled off museums that discuss the holocaust, it chronicled the rise and fall of apartheid. There were actual government tanks that patrolled the black townships as well as posters for the ANC (African national congress) and all other sorts of items from the period.

As well as doing many more seminars on the program and its beginning, we went to a mall and got a chance to see the local mall culture. We also experienced many other cultural experiences including a Braai (spelling somewhat questionable) or a traditional South African barbeque. It includes long stripes of sausage and chicken. We added corn and mushrooms for the vegetarians. Our instructors are all wonderful. We have a professor who was on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission as apartheid ended and he will be the main teacher for our Reconciliation and Development Seminar. Also Vanessa is our program director. She is wonderful and really fun.

We finally arrived in Durban today and so far everything is going great. We have two more days to acclimate ourselves to this new city before we begin living with our home-stay families and tomorrow we see our classroom setting and SIT office where we are based for the next seven weeks.

Of you were thinking of corresponding with me, I would greatly appreciate that, I will begin having moderately available email access now for some time. Also if you want to send actual letters (also highly valued by me) email me for my snail mail address.

Sala kahle!

Adina