Durban Fun, Food, and School

Hey everyone! It’s the beginning of the week again and we’re back at school. This was a super fun and refreshing weekend, which I think we were all needing. On Friday night we had ‘girls night out’ (not by choice w/ our all girls program haha) and stayed at a hostel called Surf n’ Dreams in the city. We got to see a bit of the Durban night life on Friday. It was a bit of an epic adventure! We kept getting suggestions for different places to go- the first place was empty, the next wouldn’t let you in with flip flops, we took a cab to another place and the turned us down b/c you had to be 23, and finally we went to a dance club by the beach, where they wouldn’t let us in b/c we didn’t think we needed our IDs to show we were 18! After about half an hour of arguing, the bouncer finally agreed to let like the 16 of us in and we were able to let loose and dance to some good old pop music. And now we know to bring nice shoes and an ID, although we probably aren’t going to have the opportunity to do this again for awhile. The next day after being proposed to be a random man on the street we went to the beach and it was absolutely gorgeous. The sun was shining, the waves were huge, and it was super hot. I was legitimately scared when I tried to swim- every wave would knock me underwater and I’d be spinning around for a few minutes until I found me way back up- and we weren’t even more than a couple yards from the shore! It was refreshing though, and no sharks! Several people got really burned, but thanks to my 50 spf I don't even have tan lines! I think I'm going to have to find some 30 so I can have some proof that I saw the sun this semester.

We spent the rest of the weekend with our homestay families. I went to church with my mama on Sunday morning. It lasted about three hours and was in a metal building- during a couple points I felt like I was going to pass out and sneakily ate a granola bar out of my bag. I didn’t understand much of what was being said- it was all in Zulu- but I was able to pick out a few words from my limited knowledge. The singing was cool to listen to though. It was really spontaneous- someone would start a song and everyone would join in in harmony. People played bells and small drum things and would dance around. I went to the mall with my little sister and some SIT people Sunday afternoon, and I made pizza for my family that evening. I bought pre-made crust and pretty much just sprinkled on some cheese and veggis, so not very impressive, but for my lack of cooking ability I’m pretty happy with myself. Finally, I went to a braii at my friend’s house that night, which is basically a meat-cooking party. Her host brother, Themba, used to be a model and was in the Men’s Health magazine fitness contest thing so he showed us the video from that- if any of you are avid Men’s Health readers you should see if you can find it! Needless to say, it was a good weekend over all, but now I’m going to have to buckle down and try to get some hw done, and work on memorizing this Zulu vocab.

I’ve gotten requests to talk about the food, the schools, and put up pictures. The first two I can do; the last one I’m working on, but we have limited, slow bandwidth and picture uploading limits, so you may have to hold out for the slide show when I get back, or until I can find an internet café.

So food. People in Cato eat a lot of carbohydrates and a lot of meat. Most of my meals are rice or paap (like really thick, coarse corn meal) with a curry-like dish on top and fried chicken. KFC is everywhere here! Lunches on the weekends have been scrambled eggs, fish sticks, and chips (French fries), and porridge (like cream of wheat) is a common breakfast. My favorite breakfast though is Wheat-bix, which are these wheat cereal bars that you add sugar and milk to and crunch up. Everyone drinks full cream milk. I tried this for a few days and my weak stomach couldn’t handle it, so now I have 2% milk at home. We drink tea in the morning (maybe this will cure my coffee addiction!) The curry in Durban is really really good, and my favorite curry dish is called bunny chow which is curry in a hollowed out half-loaf of bread that you eat with your hands. I’m always sooo full after it though. Also, side note, according to Zed, our academic director, the quickest way to spot an American is to look for a Nalgene or a Sigg, b/c we’re all addicted to water compared to people here. I just thought that was funny!

There are actually a lot of problems with obesity and chronic diseases like heart disease and high blood pressure in South Africa, much of which is due to diet. We don’t eat a lot of vegetables or fruit at home, so I stock up on it during the school day. (My new favorite is mangos!) But things like rice, paap, and chicken are certainly cheaper more efficient ways to get energy than buying lots of vegetables. What's more, it's pretty inconvenient to go grocery shopping and we have to carry our bags back on the mini-bus taxis so it's difficult to get a lot of things at once. We have two major projects while we're here, one of which is a four week independent study, and I'm thinking about doing something related to nutrition for one of these.

And school. Although some schools here are better than others, there clearly are a lot of issues. We visited schools last week, including schools with disabilities, and there are a lot of issues with overcrowding and school culture. Schools have fees, and even public ones can have different fees, so usually the schools with higher fees are better. There are some really good private schools, but these are generally too expensive for people in Cato. Interestingly, the speakers we’ve had who have talked to us about the schools say that a lot of money is spent on public education, but it doesn’t seem to be making a difference overall. Instead the culture of the schools and the teachers is what seems to be a deciding factor, and this is obviously a difficult area to have interventions. The teacher’s union is really strong so it’s difficult to get them to change things about their teaching. Also, integration after apartheid is still an issue being sorted out. I visited a school for children with mental disabilities; there was a lot of variation between classes and teachers. But one thing that struck me is that there a lot of classes there with children who just haven’t been able to succeed in ‘regular’ schools due to being slower learners. Their teachers said that if there were smaller classes and more personal attention they would probably be able to succeed in the regular system.

Personally, I am very frustrated with school bureaucracy. My cousin Thulane who is living with us just moved here after going to a school near Johannesburg last year. He hasn’t been able to get a hold of his transcript so the schools didn’t let him register initially (school started about 3 weeks ago). Now all the schools say they are full, and nobody has been able to help them get around this, which seems absolutely ridiculous. I’ve been trying to help out by calling from the SIT phone, but it is just so hard to get a hold of anyone. The schools still say they are full. I got in touch with someone from the education department that says he can get Thulane into a school if we can get is transcript and a transfer card, so now I’ve been trying to call his old school and get them to fax it. Hopefully this fax will come in soon so he can start school. You can only stay in school until you’re 20 here, so it’s so important that he go this year so he can finish in time. It’s just been such a frustrating process for me, so much more so for my family, and it would be really sad if this kid falls through the cracks. I really hope that this will work out.

Well now you’ve heard my rant! Other than this I’m still having a good time and learning a lot. This weekend we are going to Gxwetlintaba which is a rural village in the Eastern Cape. We’re camping a couple of nights, going on a six hour hike which is supposed to be both beautiful and exhausting, and staying with families there for a couple of nights as well. Hope everyone is well, and I’ll let you know how it goes!