Julia's homestay made her aware of many things

When I pictured our homestay in Ocean View, I knew we wouldn’t be going into a home one would find in the Cape Flats, but I didn’t expect the homes we stayed in to be so nice and materially equipped. I pictured their homes to adequately display poverty- only necessary furniture, bare walls, lack of modern technology. From the very first house we visited, to the very last, though, this was not the case. Homes were garnished with pictures, paintings, home décor, flat screens, and even some fancy showers I heard. These houses may not look like much on the outside, but on the inside, these families have done well for themselves- at least on the basis of acquiring all these modern, material goods. Of course the homes we stayed in were the more well off families of Ocean View, but I think I am correct in saying that although these people struggle, their homes are more similar than different to our homes in the U.S.

Caitlin, Auntie Nettie, and Julia

I was lucky to get Auntie Netta as my mother for the weekend. Auntie Netta lives in a flat, one that is a little scary to look at from the outside, but on the inside it is a home. It was definitely not as extravagant as the ones other people were placed in, but it was all one needed to live. The bathroom only had a tub with a non-adjustable spout. As one can imagine, showering was a game of limbo and Twister combined, but despite the inconvenience, it still did the job. There was also no sink in the bathroom! This may sound like the oddest thing, especially to Americans that always expect a sink in a bathroom, but doesn’t a tub do the same thing? It’s just as easy to turn on the faucet of a tub to wash one’s hands as to turn on the faucet of a sink. So really, who is the more efficient one- the U.S. or South Africa with a tub and sink all in one? Auntie also had an “old fashioned” TV, meaning it wasn’t a flat screen, with 3 to 4 channels. I wasn’t there to watch TV, but these channels were enough to entertain us eating breakfast each morning. I think I was lucky to get Auntie Netta, rather than a more modern family and house, because Netta’s home represents a more realistic experience of Ocean View. The families we had were most likely all financially secure, or as much as they could be, but I don’t think the rest of Ocean View actually has waterfall showers and a finished kitchen. I liked experiencing the rougher side of living for a change, but is it really rough living when Netta cooks so well?

  

What took me by surprise during our homestay was the constant hugging and greeting from kids around the flat buildings that didn’t even know us. It was like me and Caitlin were celebrities to these kids, yet they didn’t even know our names or anything about us. We would be walking back to our flat with Auntie and all of a sudden kids would come up to us and hug us as if we knew them forever. We would respond with a “How are you?” as if talking to an old friend. It was the weirdest thing for me, because in the U.S. you barely even see kids playing in the streets, and if you do, they have their stranger danger alert on and are not going to come within 20 feet of you, let alone wave as you pass by. The level of friendliness here is much greater, even walking around Auntie Netta was greeted and greeted everyone. If I greeted someone in passing by in the U.S. that I didn’t know, I would get a few stares. These kids though were so friendly. During our first game of Duck, Duck, Goose, a little boy just plopped a squat right on me- I didn’t even know what his face looked like. Then girls just came up behind me and started doing my hair- or rather making huge knots in my hair, but I let them have a go at it. After about an hour and a half or so of hairstyling, racing, gymnastics, and piggy back rides, we decided to go in for lunch. On the way I, unfortunately, noticed a 50 cent Rand coin on the ground and asked who it belonged to. This actually started a physical fight between an 11-year-old girl and a 9-year-old boy over whose coin it was. There were chokeholds, punches, kicks, and everything in between with no one stepping in to stop them, lucky me. I tried to hold the girl back, and once Caitlin got over her shock, she helped in grabbing the boy, but thank goodness a man came and pulled the boy away because we weren’t doing much to help. Now, everyone seems to think when I tell them that this is a fight between kids, like brother and sister fighting, but I swear this was serious and violent and afterwards I was shaking in shock and disbelief over what just happened. I’m not used to seeing violence or being a part of violence- especially not over 50 cents. I couldn’t even stay to ask if the girl was all right. My body and mind were just in emergency mode and I needed to get away from it. Was the fight really over the desperation for money or was it the feeling of either one of them to assert power as either being the older one or the masculine one? This along, with another little girl, made me realize that we are not experiencing the real South Africa.

This little girl told Caitlin that she wants to move away from South Africa when she is older because she hates the violence and guns. This is an 8 year old girl, at most, worrying about violence. I have never had to worry about that in my almost 20 years of life.  I don’t even lock my doors at home in the U.S. I don’t live in constant fear that someone is going to hurt me or rob me, but many, if not the majority, of South Africans do. I am grateful to live in Rondebosch, a safe area, but I can’t help but feel guilty. I love being in South Africa, because, for me, South Africa is paradise. But the reality is that most residents fear their own home. I finally recognize just how undeniable it is that my experience of South Africa is going to be much different than the majority of citizens’ due to race and socioeconomic status.

If you couldn’t tell, that fight rattled me up and really got me thinking, but I still managed to enjoy my stay with Auntie Netta. We learned about Netta’s family history. She grew up is Fish Hoek with 11 siblings, but was forced to move to Ocean View when she was 11 or 12 years old. Her family was moved into a 1 bedroom house with a kitchen, lounge, and an outside bathroom. They managed to also take the house next door which was just a kitchen and bedroom and expanded their house to make it more accommodating for 11 people. I was surprised that the authorities even let them do that. Netta also told us that although coloureds could go to restaurants, they couldn’t sit. Instead they’d have to order through a window and get take-away. Now with this I don’t know what I would find more insulting: not being allowed to get food at restaurants at all or being able to get food and having the restaurant still take your money, but not being able to fully enjoy the experience of dining out. I almost think it’s more insulting to just allow take-away because it shows that all people wanted was the money and were willing to take it away from people with less money without offering all the services they were paying for. Netta also explained that even if a white person and a coloured person were both cashiers, the coloured person would get a lower wage. This then contributes to how coloured and black people are so behind financially today because of decades of getting cut short in wages. I never thought of how different wages during the apartheid system affects people today and contributes to economic disparities between different races.

I can honestly say this weekend made me aware of so many different things going on in South Africa from living conditions, to greetings, to violence, to how history affects today. I also learned a few recipes and was promised a curry lunch sometime in the future. Obviously, that was the most important outcome.