A day in the townships

...from which are born all of the amazing students we serve. And so, Zingaphi gave us a tour of this settlement, her hometown. A bit different from Troy, Ohio, and an extremely (!) good time. We were welcomed and invited to dance (or asked for a job) everywhere we turned, for 'twas the weekend and the brew and braai were flowing... The braai here is, essentially, various pieces of animal, grilled to perfection and served in a generous heap in a shallow, cardboard box. We definitely purchased our share of it and bought some Savannah Dry and white bread nearby with which to enjoy our selection of animal parts, and we sat in a circle in white plastic chairs, set the box of meet and drink on the dirt floor in the middle, and ate our little hearts out to the beat of African R&B.

It must be said that I am not a very apt meat eater, so most of the time I would pass any suspicious pieces to Patrick, who would eagerly gulp them down, including the marrow in the bones... gross. But anyway, it was Zingaphi and Mbulelo (both Gap Year interns from the townships), Heloise (French volunteer), Patrick (volunteer and <3), Vincent and Bruno (both French), and we had a rousing, no frills good time.

It also made me think about how many things you *don't* need to eat a dinner: for one, silverware, for two, plates, for three, cups and for four an elegant arrangement of complimentary side dishes, garnishes, and condiments. apparently, all you need is a cardboard box, meat, white bread and some bottles of brew.

p.s. I also noticed that it is really poor here, but I'm not focusing on that in this entry because what struck me about the place is the life and culture and kindness... Furthermore, the ridiculous, almost crippling inequity illustrated here is what I write about every day in these grant applications (I'm the fundraising girl at SAEP) so. I'm not interested in doing that here but. If you want to know the extent of the problem and how we're trying to fix it, let me know. I've got many documents to show you in that case.