Home Stay

So last weekend was the night of my home stay in a nearby township. I was staying in a home with one of my best friends, Alyssa, but I was still pretty nervous and wasn’t sure what to expect. I was advised to go in with no expectations and I did my best. When we got to the home I was totally relieved, our host mama was the nicest woman and we spent the afternoon playing with her granddaughter, Gudani,  and other children in the neighborhood and talking to her daughter, Gladyss.  Gudani and her friend, Alicia, were the sweetest little girls. We went to the park with them and played games and then went back and kicked a soccer ball around with some of the older kids. Everyone was really sweet and loved talking to us. They enjoyed having us around many people came up just to introduce themselves and say hi. The homes were small and obviously not well off, but for the most part people seemed happy and everyone was really open with each other, almost like one big family. The house we stayed in a nice TV and cable, but didn’t have hot water, a kitchen table, or even a sink in the bathroom. Which made brushing our teeth interesting, we had to ask how and where to do it and ended up using a mug. For an appetizer that evening we had chicken feet, which were not that bad, and were seasoned nicely. They tasted just like chicken but the fact that they were feet freaked me out a bit. I was the only one to eat it though. For dinner we had a traditional dinner of  a rice/corn type thing, chicken, carrots, and a gravy. It was delicious but nothing out of the ordinary. At night we chatted a bit and went to bed sort of early, we were pretty tired from playing with the kids all day and had to wake up early for church.
The next morning we started our day with porridge, which I thought would be gross so I put about 5 spoonfuls of sugar in it, and then it was bearable. I scarfed it down pretty fast so I wouldn’t think about what I was eating. Definitely wasn’t my favorite. We then walked to meet the other Americans and went to the church in the neighborhood. I’m not sure what I expected for the service, but I sure didn’t get that. There was a band on stage that played songs sung in Xhosa and a few in english and everyone seemed to know all the words and even dances. All the kids stood on the side by the stage dancing to the music. It was actually very good, and almost made us move a bit. The pastor was white, but mostly everyone else wasn’t. It was a really good service and he got really into his examples and stories. It almost didn’t feel like church, except for when we prayed. Instead of getting on our knees we lifted our arms.  After the service there was tea, coffee, and cookies served and everyone chatted in the lobby.
Afterwards we went to Mzoli’s, which is a restaurant type venue that is known for their incredible meat. It’s actually all they do. All drinks, bread, or any other food must be brought in except for meat and pap. Chris and a few kids who didn’t do the home stay met us there. Our meat was preordered and after a few minutes a huge bucket, bigger than a horsefeed bucket, was placed in front of us, overflowing with sausage, lamb, steak & chicken. We were given metal bowls similar to dogbowls to share between two of us and we dug in with our fingers, finishing the bucket. Some people were asking for napkins, but Chris and I were used to chicken fridays, so it just came natural. It was some of the best meat I had ever had and by the end Chris and I had an entire bowl full of bones. It was a really cool atmosphere though, there was a DJ so a bunch of us got up to dance. I really enjoyed it and will definitely go back again.