Leaving and Last Minute Trips and Events

Soweto Cultural Park
View from Center of Soweto
Sterkfontein caves where oldest fossil of early man was found
Memorial Site for Student Uprising of 1976 in Soweto
Ndebele Wedding Cooking



Bye to Fulbrighters
Just a few words about my Fellow Fulbrighters – I really don’t know if I could have made it so well throughout the year without all of them – they were awesome!! Michelle was in Sterkspruit, a very rural village, her home was two rooms (you had to go outside to go from one room to the other, and she had to bring in water and heat it for her bath each day) and her learners were 70+ to a room. Language was a big challenge for her, yet she seemed very successful with her learners. Dan was in Parys, he lived in a small, cute town and worked in the township next to the town; he faced challenges with admin support and firm and consistent discipline at his school. Aminah was in New Castle, at a school with a large Indian population and an majority Indian staff; she faced many challenges with admin and learners and issues of respect. Sharyn and her family were in Cape Town. Sharyn’s school was fairly white with some diversity and her school was very high functioning ( a former model C school, it was like a very nice private school—with Smartboards, computers, a pool, etc.). However, living in Cape Town posed a few challenges , dealing with high crime rates, and a different kind of SA experience. And of course, I was spoiled rotten in KwaMhlanga. Living in a very nice township close to Pretoria and so many wonderful places to tour and visit. My challenges were learner apathy and language. Without my Fulbright 5 to talk to about issues and exams, life would have been frustrating indeed. So THANKS!!
I will miss them all.

Sterfontein Caves and Soweto
All year I have been meaning to go to the Sterkfontein Caves and Soweto. Finally, with a week or so to go, I got my act together and visited. The Sterkfontein Caves are where they found “Mrs Ples” (really thought to be male now, “Mr Ples”) which is the oldest recorded human skull ancestor. Many skeletal parts of early humans have been found (and continue to be uncovered) at this renowned archeological site. Quite interesting to see and learn about, especially after my Earthwatch dig in Spain last year.

Then, onto Joburg. I stayed a night in Melville; a pretty cool spot on the outskirts of Joburg CBD. Great restaurants and cafes and bars all along one main street. The next morning, I went on a tour of Soweto. I took a small tour, led by people living in Soweto (versus the large tour bus thing). Soweto is huge; a collection of about 21 townships. From central Soweto, we climbed the tower, and as far as you can see in every direction is Soweto – incredible. Presently, Soweto ranges from very poor townships (tin shacks) to government homes (cement brick houses), to larger private built homes. We toured the usual spots – seeing where the Freedom charter was signed, visiting a cultural village and park, Mandela’s former home site (new under construction to become a museum) and Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s home, and the area where the 1976 student uprising took place and the memorial for it. We also visited a local sculptor, a local community center in Kliptown (a very poor section of Soweto), and saw everything from fancy new shopping malls to many vacant apts (because no one can afford the rents). A very interesting day. Though I have lived and worked in townships, they can vary greatly; a fact confirmed by my visit around Soweto qnd traveling through SA.


Durban and Sodwana Bay--Soaking up the Sun
After returning from Soweto and spending a day packing, I was ready for my holiday beach vacation. I hopped in my car, and many hours later I arrived in Durban, KZN. The next day I headed to uShaka Marine World where I toured a very nice aquarium (5th largest in world), saw a dolphin show, splashed down water slides, and had a nice day at the beach. The water is the Indian Ocean and it is SO WARM!! A great day at the beach was followed by some Christmas shopping at Gateway (one of the largest malls in SA) and a trip to the movies to see Madagascar 2 (which I have wanted to see since my June Madagascar trip). After a great night’s rest at a backpackers, I headed to the beach for a quick swim, picked up my fellow Fulbrighter, Sharyn, from the airport, and we headed to Sodwana Bay (a few hours north of Durban). We stopped on the way at a craft market and bought some Zulu masks and drove onto the Bay. We stayed at Coral Divers (a 5 star PADI diving place). I have my open water scuba cert, but have never dived since my test check-out dives, so I had a very early (6 am) morning “refresher” dive course in the training pool, a quick breakfast, then it was off to the beach for my first dive. I have to say I was nervous, but the refresher course made me feel ready to get in the water and try. The dive was great; we saw so many beautiful fish and the coral reef is amazing. Over the next couple of days, Sharyn and I did 3 more dives, each one better and better. [Water temp was 26, visibility was 25 meters, and max depth only 15 m, perfect for me], We saw schools and schools of fish (I love how they can be so still and also move in sync so well, like one organism). We saw a giant sea turtle (sadly we were ascending at the time), a paper fish (rare sighting), honeycomb moray eels (not so scary as I would have thought, more fascinating), and manta rays (amazing to see them seemingly come out of nowhere in the sand and sail/fly along the bottom). At first, I thought “this diving fine, but snorkeling is easier and just as great”, but by the end of the week I definitely liked diving a lot, and I hope to go again (warm water only please). It really was like living in Finding Nemo for a few hours, but better! And I did see Nemo, actually a few clown fish , and there they were swimming in anemones just like in the movie – in fact, I believe I saw many, many fish from the movie (I plan on trying to look them up before I start to forget them all). And last, but not least, …drum roll please,…….. I swam with a whale shark!!! (the only shark I really wanted to see, and I did , up close, probably 2 to 3 meters away from me. ) It moves so slowly and it is pretty big , at least from my point of view – I was very PSYCHED!! DIVING is AWESOME.

Weddings
I ended my stay with a couple of weddings. I went to a traditional Ndebele ritual where the bride is dressed and pinned from shoulder to ankle in an Ndebele blanket (traditionally women married to Ndebele men will where a blanket around their shoulders year-round for their entire married lives). Sbongile, the bride, was in her room for the day, and we visited for a while (I had met her a children’s birthday party a few weeks earlier, the philosophy is definitely the more the merrier here). Afterwards, I met up with Lally(a teacher at my school and a good friend), she was part of the wedding party and had been at the house for a couple of days with the other women, they had been very busy cleaning and cooking. They cooked huge pots of food of open fires, and everything was delicious – oxtail, woors (sausage), pap, rice, morogo (spinach salad), butternut squash, custard, trifle and more.
While the cooking continued, I went to sit with the other women and watched some traditional dancing. Afterwards the presentation of gifts from the bride to the groom’s family began. This took a couple of hours. A handmade woven mat was placed in the center of the circle of women and each woman of the groom’s family came to sit and was presented with many gifts, each gift one at a time. Gifts included traditional rainbow blankets, traditional beads and rings, housedresses, tea sets, umbrellas (immediately opened and used to shade the women), comforters, handmade brooms, and so much more – very thoughtfully, it all came in a storage box or piece of luggage with wheels to take home. By the end of the presentation of gifts, the entire yard was filled with women and piles of gifts surrounding them.
Oh, while this is going on, the men, for the most part, are sitting separately and singing and dancing and drinking. One of the drinks was a traditional sorghum beer (quite sour to my taste, honestly I didn’t like it, it is nothing like the lager or ale I am used to). Throughout the day, the men stayed pretty separate from the women.
After the presentation of gifts, everyone just ate and chatted. Throughout the afternoon members of the groom’s family visited the bride’s room to give gifts of money. At the end of the day, young women (those who had already gone through initiation) dressed in traditional clothes danced for the families, and then the bride and some of her family were loaded into several combis/ taxis for the trip to the groom’s family home where she will stay. A few of the bride’s family traditionally travels with her to make sure she is properly welcomed at her new home.
All in all a nice day.
Lastly, the day before I flew home, I attended the Western wedding of GS, a teacher and friend from King Makhosonke (you may remember her, she was promoted to another school to be HOD, and I took over her classes). Her wedding was beautiful -- quite a large wedding party and lots of dancing. The wedding party dances in sync to leave the home and go to the church and later dances into the reception -- it was quite a sight. Congratulations GS and July, now, Mr and Mrs Mahlangu!

LEAVING SA
Leaving SA was difficult. On one hand, I wanted to be home for the holidays and see my family, but leaving my new family and friends and new life was not easy. Not to mention leaving sunny days, for NYC's cold, gray, and slushy weather. Also, I will miss my Fulbrighter friends too. But the day had come, I packed my overstuffed bags into a taxi that I hired to take me and my friends to the airport. On the way, we stopped at Kollanade Mall (the mall I went to a lot for internet service when I first got to SA), my friends bought me two really nice and cute outfits to take home and show off my new SA style, we got to hear the Soweto String Quartet play (they sounded great and lifted everyone's spirits), and with a last yummy frozen yogurt in hand -- we headed to the airport. I will miss everyone, but especially my housemate Poughie ( watching Generations together, her teaching me language, an my cooking lessons, and oh, so much more), her son Karabo (yes, I will miss him, even though teens can be a worry to live with at times), and most especially, my two best friends Lally and Sma -- we were the "power of 3" and had so many laughs together - we talked about everything and always made each other smile - such good times. I know we will stay good friends and plan to sms (text message) using our cells, to keep in touch. Goodbye for a little while South Africa...