A little taste of home...

Last weekend was our home stay weekend. From Friday until Sunday, we stayed with families in Langa township. Alice and I lived with a Mama and a boy who rents a room from her. It was interesting living in her house. The hardest part was a bit of a language barrier and eating food that we weren't used to (such as stomach and mealie meal and sour milk). However, it was also really fun going to a local bar Friday night and get an in depth tour of Langa on Saturday. The people we met there were amazing and very welcoming. We hope to be friends with them for a while!

The day that we got home, my brother Steve and his friends Ashley and Ryan came to visit for a week. They did a lot of fun stuff, most of which I got to join in on! Monday and Tuesday they met the kids at Manenberg who absolutely loved them. The teacher wasn't at school on Tuesday so we got the class to ourselves. Girls from NDP donated books to give to the kids, so we spent time reading with them. We had a lot of fun singing, dancing, reading and just having a relaxing day with them.
This was definitely one of the best days I've had at Manenberg in a while. I was really revitalized by seeing them recieve the books and also just joking around with them. The kids were so excited to get all of the new books. The books are the best quality books I've seen in the school. They were all eager to even just flip through the pages. One boy who I work with everyday came up to the table to exchange the book he had just looked through. When he saw a book about auto racing, he opened each page and stared at it for a while in amazement. He kept saying "Wow! Oh, wow!" After I told him he could take the racing book to his seat, he kissed the book he had just put down. Thank you so much to Steve, Ashley, Ryan, NDP, and everybody else who helped donate to the school! The kids and I appreciate it so much.

Tuesday we also had the opportunity to participate in a march demanding a library and librarian in every school. It was organized by Equal Education, the organization that one of my housemates, Pat, does service in. It was really powerful seeing 2,000+ schoolchildren so interested in their education. They recognized the injustice around them and demanded better conditions. Very few schools in the townships have libraries. Those that do most likely do not have a librarian and probably still contain old books that pushed apartheid messages. The march made the front of the New York Times world section. Check out the link above for the article.

Thursday and Friday, Steve, Ashley, Ryan, Eva, Grady, and I went on a safari about 2 hours outside of Cape Town. We had a lot of time to relax by the pool and fill up on their delicious buffets. We went on late afternoon and early morning safaris. We were probably only a couple of meters from lions. Check out my facebook for pictures! It was incredible!

Friday my housemates and I threw a braai at our house. We invited all of our friends from Cape Town and our home stay friends and families from Langa. There were so many people there, it was a great time!

I was sad to see my visitors go, but my mom will be here for a few days in just 2 weeks!
We're all getting a little anxious because we can feel the end of the semester coming. It's hard to imagine going back to life at home. The bonds we've made with each other, our service sites, and this city are strong. But there's so much to do until then. Manenberg has spring break this week so I hope to use this time to get together my research and capstone projects.

Hope you all are doing well!