Here's a brief summary of what life was like during those two months.
Home Stay:
About a week into living in South Africa, we are taken to our training village to live with a host family for the next two months. These families are supposed to help us learn how to bucket bathe, hand wash our laundry, learn sepedi, as well as learn about the culture of South Africa. I absolutely loved my host family. I spent hours playing tag with my host nephews, I helped my host brother apply to universities, I stayed up way too late with my host sisters gossiping on the back porch, and got praised by my host mother whenever I spoke the few words of Sepedi I knew. During my stay with them, they gave me my South African name of Lerato Maako. Lerato meaning love, and Maako being my host family's surname.
Pictured: My host nephew passed out after a long day of running around with the neighborhood kids.
Pictured: My host nephews, and my neighbor playing with the water guns I gave as a birthday present.
Pictured: My host sister, Germina, me, and my host brother, Frans, hanging out in our front yard.
Pictured: My two host nephews hanging out at the house.
Language:
South Africa has eleven official languages; Afrikaans, English, Ndebele, Northern Sotho, Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Venda, Xhosa and Zulu. This is clearly seen through South Africa's national anthem, which is a hybrid of five of these different official languages. You can also see this happening in the ever popular South African Soapie, Generations, where the actors speak to each other fluidly changing from Afrikaans to Sotho to English to Tsonga without a blink of the eye. Most of my language learning came from watching this show with my host family every week night. My favorite word that I learned from the show is totsi, meaning gangster.
The language I was taught during PST, due to my placement was Southern Sotho, also known as Sepedi.
Pictured: My Sepedi notebook during language class.
Food:
When I first moved to South Africa, I briefly remember telling someone that I did not like South African food. But as PST moved on, I started to crave pap (a stable of every South African meal) covered in gravy, with tender chicken. While living with my host family I ate viennas (hot dogs), lots of chicken (fried, stewed, boiled), beet root, pumpkin (what we know as squash), chakalaka (a spicy mix of carrots, onions, beans, tomatoes, and green peppers), beef stew, and of course pap. Much of this food I covered in peri peri sauce (a spicy pepper), which made everything so much more delicious.
Street food is also very popular. After class, myself and the other PCTs would walk to a tuck shop (corner store), and buy french fries, or a kota. Kotas are my favorite South African food. Kotas are hollowed out bread, filled with french fries, polony, cheese, sausage, and achar sauce. Mopani worms are also very popular here. I ate one once, but for me, once was enough. There are some other PCVs who love them and eat them on a regular basis. One of the best parts of South Africa, is how cheap the fruit is here. I can buy a huge bag of avos (avocados) for the equivalence of $1. On top of that, my host family had a pomegranate and guava tree in our yard, so I could pick fresh fruit every morning before class.
Not only did my host family teach me about South African food, but I also introduced them to as much American food as I could prepare for them. Their favorite was macaroni and cheese, which I ended up making for them every Sunday night.
Pictured: Pap, stew, and pasta.
Pictured: French fries, and chili sauce from the tuck shop.
Pictured: The delicious kota.
Pictured: A mopani worm.
Pictured: A pomegranate the size of Sam's head.
Pictured: Tumi's not too sure what he thinks of mac & cheese.
Field Trips:
To help better understand life in South Africa, we went on multiple field trips. We went to the
Voortrekker Monument, which is just south of Pretoria, to understand The Great Trek. We went to the Apartheid Museum, in Johannesburg, to better grasp what life was like during apartheid. We went to a tavern, to view the drinking culture in the villages. We also went to a mall in Pretoria to see the contrast between city life and village life.
Pictured: Walking up to the Voortrekker Monument.
To help better understand life in South Africa, we went on multiple field trips. We went to the
Voortrekker Monument, which is just south of Pretoria, to understand The Great Trek. We went to the Apartheid Museum, in Johannesburg, to better grasp what life was like during apartheid. We went to a tavern, to view the drinking culture in the villages. We also went to a mall in Pretoria to see the contrast between city life and village life.
Pictured: Walking up to the Voortrekker Monument.
Pictured: The entrance of the Apartheid Museum.
Pictured: Hanging out at a local tavern.
Life in general:
Pictured: Eating dinner in Pretoria with other PCT.
Some of the best moments in Maklerekeng were the moments in between. Walking to class in the morning and waving and saying thobela (hello) to neighbors. Throwing birthday parties with other PCTs and sharing those experiences with host siblings. Being invited to the pool thirty minutes outside of town, and attempting, but failed to teach my host brother how to swim. Sitting in the taxi with the music blasting. Not being able to get into my house without having to play tag with the neighborhood kids first. Those were some of the best moments.
Pictured: Trees in the village in bloom.
Pictured: Handwashing clothes.
Pictured: Holding my neighbor's son.
Pictured: These two puppies walked me to and from class everyday.
Pictured: Celebrating a Peace Corps Trainee's birthday with my host siblings.
Pictured: The female half of my cohort!
Pictured: At a pool about twenty minutes outside of Maklerekeng, with another PCT and his host brother.
Pictured: Hanging out at the pool with another PCT and my host sister Germina.
Pictured: Be careful who you take pictures with because it might end up on a poster to promote an event!
Host Mom's Birthday Party/My Goodbye Party:
Celebrations are a big part of the South African culture, whether it's a birthday, funeral, or wedding, the whole community comes out to celebrate. Food is prepared for days, beer is bought, and music is pumped through the speakers nonstop throughout the weekend. While in Maklerekeng I went to multiple weddings and birthday parties, and each time was handed plates overflowing with food.
When it came to my host mother's birthday celebration, I knew that it was going to be big. On the Thursday before the event, my many host siblings, cousins, nephews and nieces started pouring into the house.
On the Saturday, the whole house and yard looked magnificent. My host family and I dressed up and got ready for a day of eating, drinking, dancing, and singing.
One important part of any event are speeches. Speeches could go on as long as two or three hours! Knowing how important this was, my host brother and I wrote a short speech to my host mother to express my love and gratitude of adopting me as her tenth child.
Pictured: Two of my host sisters making enough biscuits for over 300 guests for my host mother's 60th birthday party.
Pictured: My host mother with one of my host sisters dancing on her 60th birthday.
Pictured: Nancy translating my speech into Sepedi.
Pictured: Myself with Marry, my host sister's best friend.
Pictured: Holding my cake with my host sisters, Germina and Lea.
Swear In:
When our two months of training completed, it was time to swear in and shed our Peace Corps Trainee status and become real Peace Corps Volunteers. For me this was a bittersweet day. Swear in meant saying goodbye to my host family, as well as the other PCTs that I had spent the last two months training with. On the flip side though, it meant that I would start working in my community, begin my life for the next two years.
Pictured: Saying goodbye to my host family, before I moved to my permanent site.
Pictured: My cohort, after we got sworn in as Peace Corps Volunteers.
Pictured: On our way to our sites!
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