rural areas -- best week so far

like I have mentioned in the video, the rural homestay was quite an experience. first, immediate living conditions. I shared a bed with Andrew, the only other guy in the group. we had a basin and probably three inches of water in it every morning and night. it was impossible to bathe the whole body. so my approach to it was to wash my face every time, and then alternate my hair and body. also, feet was always last because our feet would get really dirty from walking around in flip flops. so needless to say, no one in the groups was ever very clean. it was a reality that we all faced and embraced and just enriched our experience more.

secondly, the bathrooms. we were instructed by our little brother to pee by a tree. the number 2 business was to be done in an outhouse with no flush, which we later gave a codename of LongDrop (get it?). so living in the rural homestay was definitely an experience. our mama would cook us food and there would always be so much. probably my favorite meal there was steamed bread (which is very similar to the bread used for siopao back in the phils) and mutton (which is what they call lamb/sheep here). we finished all our dinner that night.

the rural areas was a very wholesome experience. it reminded me a lot about rural areas in the philippines. the third worldliness of it all. locals not speaking much english. our little brother spoke very good english for an 11 year old in the rural areas. definitely better than some 9th graders at the high school. the location was stunning. we had a view of hills and the beach which was a 30-40 minute walk. we visited on our fist full day. and on the other side of the hill where some others stayed at was also a stunning view of farmland and hills. it was all so surreal.

I had a very good feeling when we arrived. it just seemed so peaceful. it was a nice, relaxing time away from the city. we hardly ever knew what time it was. all we knew was that soon after sunset would be dinner time. hanging out with our neighbor homestay families and playing soccer with kids and our host siblings was fun. it was very chill a very good rural experience. at the same time is was fulfilling and overwhelming. the school and prison experience was a lot to take in. everyone's personal experiences varied but I am certain that everyone has a great time and learned a lot. when it was time to leave, many of us weren't ready to leave the rural areas yet. it had been too soon. but it was also a good time to leave with that feeling rather than leaving when we were all ready to leave.

over the weekend we stayed a a backpackers near Hluhluwe game reserve. the game reserve is 100,000 hectares large, the size of the Netherlands. it was nice to do the cheesiest most touristy thing to do in Africa after the kind of week we had. we saw rhinos, zebras, participated in a herd of giraffes migrating (we were literally in the middle of a giraffe herd while they were moving), lots of birds, deer-family animals, etc. unfortunately no big cats and we only saw elephants from very far. it was still a successful tour which started at 5:30 in the morning! in the afternoon we took a boat ride on a river to see hippos and crocs. frankly, they were kinda boring. after seeing a couple of pod of hippos and crocs, you've seen them all since hippos are nocturnal and weren't very active during the day. they were all in the water keeping cool we didn't even see one in full size.

coming back to Durban from 3 1/2 hours away kind of felt like going home again after being away for a while. some of the peopel in the program are very ready to leave our homestay families. this is not the case with me. I am still having a good experience with my homestay family and they greeted me very warmly after we got back from the game reserve. we go to Johannesburg this weekend and come back next Tuesday. and that week we get back from jo'burg will be our last week with our homestay families so there really is not much time left.

I am quite excited for Jo'burg and after that we are moving out and then staying at a backpackers and then staying with an Indian family for a week in a new area. We finish our Zulu class this Thursday with the written and oral exams as well as our Social and Political Transformation Seminar. We are inching closer to our Independent Study Project time and that should be a good time.