s weekend we needed to be busy to be feeling happier. Bongi invited us to her house the other side of the school but we met at the shops and whilst waiting for her we made a friend who is a manager of the clothes shop 'Dunns'. It is very hard to know who to trust here so at the moment- “we don't have south African phone numbers yet” is our way out! We have been warned that we will get marriage proposals! The town of Ingwavuma is dusty and full of sheep and goats just wondering around the market stalls which are made of wood and look like they need a bit of tlc! The area is very Zulu and we have only seen one white person since we have been here which makes you very aware of being white because people just stare at you and some students at the school just shout “white person!” in Zulu out of the classroom windows at us. This was to be expected though, but I'm sure it will calm down soon as people get to know us and that we are staying here. However, most people are friendly and you have to greet pretty much everyone that you pass in the street. The only Zulu I know so far is “Sabona!” which is 'hello' and “unjani?” which means 'how are you?” because we have said them so many times! Some people do talk to us in English though and strangers will come up and shake your hand to introduce themselves which is actually really nice. Today we were greeted by a girl who said “Hello Miss Guess and Miss Donald” which is what we are called at school so she was obviously a Nansindlela student. It was really lovely to be recognised like that as it felt like we were part of the community.
So we spent Saturday morning at Bongi's house with her two year old boy Unati who is very cute and we talked about our problems and felt SO much better afterwards after learning a bit about the history of the school and the way it works. She found out for us that the high school timetable has been sorted and I am going to be teaching grade eight and nine English which I'm very pleased about but have not been able to prepare for because I don't have any of the books yet. When we returned home we did all of our washing which seemed to take up the whole day and then watched a film in Rose's room and chatted to Mienky about our homes. This morning we went to Bongi's church which was just such an experience! You could hear it from half way down the road it was so loud! It was mostly spoken in English with Zulu translation which is why we chose to go there so we could understand and because we knew Bongi. They made us stand up when they introduced us which was very embarrassing and they pronounced my name like “Icy” which I thought was quite funny. The choir sang for about an hour and it was just incredible listening to some of the young girls singing with the microphones- really emotional at times. People were singing along and dancing and clapping and waving their hands about- it was not like church in England at all! I really enjoyed the singing but the actual preaching was a bit scary at times! They have several pastors for that church but the 'Apostle' led most of it. His wife started by saying that if people were attending this church but had not bought the apostle's book then they were a disgrace! It was surreal- being in a place of worship and being shouted at for not buying a book! The service starts at 9 and finished at 12.30pm- luckily we went at 10 so it wasn't so long but the Apostle spent the service talking about the spirit being separate from the flesh and that we worship god with the spirit so the flesh is irrelevant. He shouted the whole time and then his Zulu translator did exactly the same afterwards- did I mention how loud it was! People cheer and shout “Hallelujah” and “Praise God” and get really excited when he is shouting the service. It was just mental but a great experience! For some of the service I got passed a sleeping baby which is what people seem to do- pass the baby around so the mother doesn't have to hold him the whole time. The children sit at the side and I noticed that some were even sleeping through the shouting. Towards the end some people of the other side started dancing and they quickly removed the chairs because they just dance around with their eyes closed not looking where they are going. It sort of turned into a mosh pit which was so weird and that's when Bongi asked us if we wanted to leave because it gets a bit much as people start throwing themselves on the floor and we said “yes please!”. I'm glad we experienced it though and luckily I’ve got some of the singing and preaching on video so I can remember what it was like and show other people.
Since then we have come home and had lunch and slept and it has taken me AGES to write this blog post, the day has gone so quickly. I have been bitten all over the bottom of my legs as I stupidly went outside whilst on the phone the other day when it was just getting dark. We are taking our anti malarials- some people say that malaria is here, some people say it is not but it's best to stay safe. Hopefully we will have a more successful week at the school and I'm quite nervous about taking my first lesson when I have nothing prepared. I think I'm going to talk about myself and where I am from and ask the students what they have been doing so far. I'm really hoping they will be cooperative- the grade eights we saw the other day were very pleasant and well behaved and as older ones they don't tend to focus so much on the fact that we are foreigners. Fingers crossed!
So yeah, my first week has been eventful and I have learnt so much. I have laughed, cried, been scared, tired, excited, amazed and surprised! We are hoping to go and visit Patrick at Kosi Bay on the coast next weekend which will be something to look forward to as it is meant to be beautiful there and it will be nice to be somewhere different. Missing everyone loads and if anyone is still reading this ridiculously long essay then you deserve a medal! TIA- “This is Africa” xxx
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