Inside Student Blogs

Before I start this post I’d just like to apologize for being negligent in blogging the last couple of weeks. There has just been so much to distract me in Cape Town!

That being said, a couple of weeks ago, my fellow IESers and I packed up our backpacks, hopped in the van, and headed off to our weekend home-stay in Tambo Village. I will be honest, I was a bit nervous. I did not know what to expect at all.

Upon arriving in Tambo we first stopped at Mama Nox’s house. All of the mothers and older women in the town are referred to as “mamas.” Mama Nox is a resident of Tambo Village and the woman who coordinates all of the home-stays and trains the other mamas on how to host visitors.

While we waited for all of the host mothers to arrive we played with the neighborhood children that were congregating on Mama Nox’s front lawn. They were very excited to have visitors and new people to play with. I was surprised at just how many kids there were! Not all of them spoke English, but they seemed to understand tag-you’re-it and piggyback rides pretty well. We had a lot of fun spending time with them.

When everyone had finally arrived, we were given a brief introduction on what the weekend would entail, introduced to our mamas, and then sent on our way. Hannah’s (my fellow IES student) and my host was Mama Mpumie. She and her great-niece, Owethu, walked us through the village to where we would be staying for the night.

Mama Mpumie’s house in Tambo Village.

Mama Mpumie was an older woman and lived alone in her little green house. She was Owethu’s great-aunt. Over the course of the night, Hannah and I got to learn a lot about Mama Mpumie; she was very receptive to answering our questions about life in the township. We learned that her husband and three children had all passed away some years ago, but she never feels alone with her family living right around the corner in the village. She frequently takes care of Owethu, who frequently visits her aunt to keep her company.

Mama Mpumie was an older woman and lived alone in her little green house. She was Owethu’s great-aunt. Over the course of the night, Hannah and I got to learn a lot about Mama Mpumie; she was very receptive to answering our questions about life in the township. We learned that her husband and three children had all passed away some years ago, but she never feels alone with her family living right around the corner in the village. She frequently takes care of Owethu, who frequently visits her aunt to keep her company.

The night mostly consisted of getting to know Mama Mpumie, chatting about politics and government, and playing games with Owethu. One of my favorite parts of the night was spending time with Owethu. She was such a sweet, smart little girl. She was 9-years-old and an African dance expert. She told us that she had been learning African dance from her mother since she was very young. Since I am taking African dance at UCT, I had to ask her to teach me some of her moves. We had to laugh at my inability to look like anything but a robot. I then taught her some of the dance moves that I grew up with; she was eager to learn all of the ballet foot positions and how to do a pirouette turns. We ended our performing arts session by singing her favorite song, which was from High School Musical.

We then got to help Mama Mpumie cook dinner. She had actually already made most of it by the time we got there, as it was a daylong process, but we did get to help put the finishing touches on our meal.

Hannah and I peeling potatoes before dinner.

Our meal that night consisted of vegetables, mele with curried sauce, and chicken. Everything was absolutely delicious. Mama Mpumie did not allow us to cut the chicken off the bone with utensils, but insisted we eat with our hands so that we could “really taste the meat.” I guess she was right, because the only way to describe that meal was, “yummy.”

This is Mama Mpumie. She was showing us how she normally cooks her traditional meals.

She even let me help stir. I felt like a real chef with that apron.

After dinner we chatted for quite some time. She asked us questions about our lives back in the United States and why we decided to come to South Africa. We learned a lot about her and her family in return. After discussing everything from President Zuma to religion to the state of apartheid that she had lived under for most of her life, it was time for bed. We had to be up early to attend church the next morning… To be continued in Part 2!

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