This weekend I spent in Cape Town, quite possibly one of the coolest cities I’ve ever been to. Sitting at the foot of towering mountains right on the coastline, its absolutely beautiful.
While I was in Cape Town, I was given the opportunity to spend the day in two townships (Langa and Guguletu) which are the “slums” or shack communities outside the city. Largely a product of apartheid, these communities are home to the masses of the poorest people within the cities. Some living in shacks they put together with corrugated aluminum and wood scraps, and other in small, government built housing. The majority of these people have no electricity or running water, and a large number are unemployed.
While this paints a pretty grim picture of the townships, they are also places alive with life. The people hold tightly to culture, tradition and the idea of “ubuntu,” the belief that a community is a family. The streets are filled with music and chattering. Kids are playing soccer, meat is being grilled on fires on the road’s edge. If only I could walk around and not stick out like a sore (white) thumb.
I would write six pages on everything I got to see and do while I was there, but for the sake of those reading this, who are probably far less interested than I am in these things, I’ll give a synopsis.
I first visited an igqira, or a “natural healer.” In the Xhosa culture, these igqira’s are called to their profession through dreams and visions. Those thought to be igqiras out of self interest are not trusted among the community. Anyway, I’m giving information you don’t care about again, so let me get on with it. So this healer had a shack the size of a mediocre walk-in closet, and it was filled to the brim with (for lack of a better term), shit. Hanging from the ceiling were animal skulls, black mamba and python skins and other unidentifiable animal parts. Lining the walls were jars and jars of animal parts, powders, herbs and plants, and more unidentifiable liquids. I got the chance to talk to him about his role in HIV/AIDS treatment which was really interesting, as well as the possibility of purchasing some “boyfriend potion.” He could somehow already tell I needed some…Embarassing, but valid. Haha.
After hearing singing coming from a large cinder-block building next door, we asked if we could go inside, and sat for a while during a church service that was going on. There were only a few women in attendance, and from what I could discover, they had been there since very early in the morning. Almost the entire time I was there, they were singing prayers in their native language, isiXhosa. This part of my day is hard to describe.
But best summed up by this: It was so eerily beautiful that it gave me goosebumps.
After church, I did what every God fearing woman would do- I went to a shebeen for some good old homemade African beer. This was quite possibly the funniest part of my day. I walked into the dark, dirt-floor shack not knowing what to expect. I was immediately greeted by a crowd of fellow beer lovers who welcomed me as if I was the second coming of Jesus. We sat in a circle passing around the beer, which is served in big metal bucket that you literally drink straight out of. There is a good chance that I contracted six different diseases during this time, but hey, I take my chances every chance I get. Before leaving I saw how the beer was made (which would definitely have kept me from drinking it if I had gotten that little tour before hand.) Basically, the concoction sat out on the street in plastic buckets with swarms of flies attacking it and mangy-ass dogs lapping out of it for three days before being served. NICE.
Right before leaving I was proposed to by the toothless man that had been sitting across from me. I told him I had a boyfriend and he said he didn’t believe me. Shocking that I’m somehow that obvious….I must have a scarlet “S” on my back that can only be seen by the trained, African, middle-aged, toothless eye. Note to self: If I’m still single in ten years, or I’m too far past my prime to rely upon e-harmony…I can always find love in an African beer shack.
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