A visit to Gugulethu – a township

Saturday afternoon two american girls Felicia, Amanda and I went to mama Nokuzola's house in Gugulethu. We had dinner there and stayed over night. It is an organized tour called ”homestay”. By paying a certain amount of money to the family you get to experience a little bit of what it’s like to stay in a township where people used to, and some still do, live in shacks, but in recent years many families have gotten brick houses with finacial help from the government. Mama Nukuzola got hers in 1997. Back then it was only one room and a bathroom. Now it has two bedrooms, bathroom and a open space with kitchen. In the picture you see the son in the house; Supermanga (sounds like superman when you pronounce it) age 7, looking across the street from the house. They speak a language called Xhosa. What’s special about Xhosa is the clicking sound they make when they pronounce certain words. To me it sounds similar to the sounds you make when you try to get the attention of a horse or maybe a bird (do you know what I mean?). Anyway, the only phrases I’ve learned so far is: Igamalam indingu Heidi, ndi suka Norway. I guess I don’t have to explain what it means.

Sunday we had lunch at a local restaurant. You can only eat meat there. With other words no place for a vegetarian. To get a meal, you have to do as follows: go up to the counter (Simone, you would have loved this place) and right in front of you all you can see is piles of raw meat. You tell the butcher lady what you want (f.ex. a little bit of pork, lamb, beef and chicken) and she weighs it and gives it to the lady by the checkout. Then you pay and get the plate with the raw meat in your hands and your reciept. You walk with the plate into the kitchen where ten guys are working putting meat onto the grill. You leave it to them and you go and buy beer and sit outside around your table and wait. Huge loudspeakers all around are pumping out african rythms mixed up with american RnB. The place is crowded and people are dancing on the streets. Eating plenty of grilled meat out there in that atmosphere with your bare hands while being all sweaty and dizzy from sunshine makes you feel that this, this is a very good way to spend a sunday.

Have a nice week everyone.