Half Way

Last weekend, Milou, Sarah and I went on a wine tour – oh my goodness. So much wine. It was really fun. And I learned so much about wine! Who knew I would ever step beyond Franzia … 

We started with champagne at 10:30AM, and kept going until about four. I think, in total, we tried 25ish different wines. Also the last place we went to had all these different types of wonderful cheeses it was so good. We had planned to go to Long Street that night, but I think we owed it to our livers to just sleep in.

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The school is on holiday break for these two weeks, so I’ve been enjoying sleeping in. I’m also helping a little at The Bookery, a school library across the street from our apartment building, and walking around/exploring town on my own, which has been really nice.

Yesterday we went on a walking tour of Langa. I was really hesitant to go on a township tour in the first place, because I didn’t understand the whole point and the idea made me uncomfortable – especially since I got sad/upset/frustrated when I went to the daycare last week.

It was an amazingly positive eye-opening day, though! I learned so much. We went to an arts centre, had African beer, saw different types of homes, heard different stories for being in Langa. Everyone was so friendly, and happy. I don’t know why I felt so bad when I first went there – I think it’s just a different way of living.  There are an infinite number of ways to define happiness; it’s not the same for everyone. 

It was really interesting paralleling how we drank African beer at the beer house – there was one tin can, that was passed around to everyone -  and thinking about our wine tour the week before. They seem to be on complete opposite ends of the spectrum, but experiencing both has showed me how alike they are; how similar we all are. People are people are people, whether drinking fancy wine out of a fancy glass or drinking beer from a tin can. It’s all the same. The world is smaller than we think. 

AND THEN after the tour we went to Mzoli’s, an amazing, delicious butchery in Gugulethu. Oh my goodness. It was so good. You go and choose your meat and they cook it for you. We just had one big dish of all these different types of meats, and it looked messy, but it was DELICIOUS. And we sat and ate with our hands and had beer and listened to music and I was just so happy.

There’s a word in Xhosa, Ubuntu, which is about the interconnectedness and relationships with others. It’s a philosophy that, I think, resounds in so much of this culture. I see it everywhere! There’s just a spirit of interconnectivity, a sense of value found in each other.  

Maybe that’s why I misunderstood how the people of Langa lived when I first went there; there is no reason, really, to think that they are unhappy. They have family, they have community. 

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And then! Today, Jessica and I went on a bus tour, where we stopped at all these beautiful places! And had amazing food. We got to go to a vineyard and the beach and Camp’s Bay. Words can only do so much: 

I absolutely cannot believe we only have a month left, I get so sad thinking about it. I was gonna talk about how I feel about time going way too fast but I’m not gonna address it here because it gets me sad, and I'm really sleepy, and I'll probably ramble and start crying.