Join Me in South Africa : March 2016

I am taking a class this semester called, Isixhosa: Language and Culture. Xhosa, or in more polite terms, Isixhosa is one of the official South African languages. Some of you might know it as one of the "click" languages. In their alphabet there are certain letters which mean you use your tongue to add clicks to words while you are speaking. There are different kinds of clicks with your tongue placed in different areas of your mouth. "X" is one letter which indicates a click. Therefore you have a strong click when saying, "Isixhosa."

In order to practice, our Isixhosa our teacher set up a day where we would be taken to a nearby township, Kayamandi, and spend a few hours there trying greet people and ask their names. I learned that Kayamandi means, "Home away from home." This is very important in their culture. The Xhosa culture is based on something called, Ubuntu. Ubuntu means, "human-ness." It is often translated as, "humanity towards others." Basically it means that the culture has a universal value of of sharing and helping each other. Everyone is a brother and sister. You greet people every time even if you do not know them. People care for each other and share as one family.

We walked around and greeted people with, "Molo" and "Molweni!" These are greetings saying, "hello" and "good morning." We would say, "Unjani?" which means, "How are you?" We would say, "What is your name?" which is, "Ungubani ikamalakho?" In response I would say, "My name is Georgia" or "Igamalam ngu Georgia."

Later an umama (an older woman and mother in the community) made lunch for all of us. Here is a list of what we had:

Spinach: Imifino
Steamed bread: Isonka samanzi (very traditional in their culture)
Beans and maize: Umngqusho (this has an intense click 'q', and it was my favourite)
Fried Chicken: Inkuku eqhotsiweyo
Spicy relish: Itshakalaka
Drink: Isiselo

Later we had to say what we tried. I said, "I tried the beans and maize. It was tasty!" This would be, "Bendizamile umngqusho. Ibe nencasa!" Or if you would like to say, "It was nice" you can say, "Ibe mnandi."

After lunch umama told us about the traditional Xhosa marriage process. She says that the man brings the woman to his home. They sit down (usually on the floor) and the potential in-laws discuss. Once they agree both families together will slaughter a sheep. This symbolises that the woman now belongs to the new family. The mother and sister in-laws will spend time on picking a new name for the woman. Not only is her surname changed, but they also pick a new first name which she will carry on. In older culture, and even possibly today, there can be a penalty for calling the woman the wrong name. When you are a bride you wear very specific clothes. Now when the newlywed walks through the community everyone knows she is married, and that she is no longer a "girl." How long the woman wears these clothes depends on her in-laws. There is a sense of her "belonging" to the new family now. Women are also not allowed to wear pants. Of course, this is changing, but most women wear skirts and dresses. However, a woman being able to wear pants or not is also up to her in-laws. If they do not care she can wear them, but if they do not approve she cannot wear pants.

We ended with singing, and finally had to get back to the bus. We left saying, "enkosi" which means "thank you." We had such a lovely time. It was quite amazing.

Extra words to learn:

School: Isikolo
Library: Ilayibreri
Police station: Amapolisa
Clinic: Ikliniki
Shop: Ispaza

Cape Town, also known as the, "Mother City" offered us a pretty great adventure last month. While Laura was here we went out for a beer with our friend, Max (from Zimbabwe). While sitting there I saw a poster for sky diving, and I said we should go. Max and Laura thought I was kidding. I wasn't. I thought Laura is only back here for 2 1/2 weeks and she is about to leave. So, we all decided to go for it and do something special.

None of us had ever jumped before. We were all nervous, even though Max kept insisting that he is "a man" and therefore cannot be scared haha. Sadly the small plane only takes two skydivers at a time, so Max decided to go first with someone we didn't know so Laura and I could go up together afterwards.

We drove in the truck with Max to the plane and told him goodbye. The plane takes about 25-30 minutes to get to 10,000 feet before you jump. Laura and I went back and waited to hear the man on the radio say that they had jumped. As soon as he did we looked up and saw a tiny tiny blob falling from the sky. A few seconds later we saw another one. We watched Max's tiny blob falling and we were yelling and excited. Then his parachute opened and after about 8-10 minutes total he was back on the ground. Now it was time for Laura and I to get strapped up. Laura insisted that she go first, because seeing me go first might freak her out too much.

I got into the plane first, and Laura second. We waved goodbye to Max and off we were. As the plane got higher my heart was beating faster. I was a mixture of calm and nervous. The plane ride was 25 minutes so we had time to talk and relax, but then when I looked out the window I thought..."oh my gosh, why did I suggest this???" Waldo told me to look out the window and not just in the plane. He said this would help me get used to the height instead of being shocked when the door opens.

The captain gave us a countdown, and soon the door flew open. I saw Laura put her left foot out. She reached back and gave me a squeeze, and next thing I know, she was GONE! Waldo immediately pushed us backwards into the same place where Laura was just sitting. I had put on my goggles, I was grabbing my handles, we put the left foot out, I had less than half a second to put together I was purposefully jumping out of a plane, and then we were gone.

Shortly after, Waldo touched my shoulder to tell me to open up my arms. I screamed from fear and happiness. After about 35-40 seconds he pulled the parachute. It was rather shocking. I could not believe what had just happened. I said, "we made it!" He let me control the parachute and steer. Then he asked me if I wanted to have some fun and make the parachute spin a bit. I was all in!

He pulled down hard on the right side and the parachute was almost in front of us, and we were spinning hard. Then we came back up straight and he pulled down hard on the left side and we were spinning again. It was amazing to see how fast we were going and it was fun, until we came back up straight again. At that point I knew something was wrong. I was feeling very nauseous. I was trying to breathe and then let out a few small coughs.

Waldo asked me if I was okay and I told him I felt nauseous. He told me to breathe and look at the horizon, but that was not before I threw up in mid air. Then he said, "okay, if you're going to puke I will turn the parachute to the right so you can puke that way." He did this, but I am not sure it really helped. When you are attached to another person in mid air and there is a lot of wind, there is not much control over where the puke is going. In the end I landed with vomit on my sweatshirt, goggles, and probably on Waldo. I did not want to look to see. I sat there for a moment, apologised, took off my sweatshirt, and finally went to the bathroom. As soon as I was on land again I felt 100% fine.

As I exited the bathroom I saw Waldo taking off his shirt and washing it under an outdoor shower type thing near the bathroom. He still had more people to take skydiving that afternoon. I told him I was sorry again, nut he was really nice about it. They kindly left the puking part out of my skydiving video. Even with that unfortunate even, it was an unbelievably awesome experience! Being together with Laura and Max and sharing this day was too good to be true :)