Langa Township or 7455

Molo.  

Today I woke up at about 7:45am then I has breakfast. Then I got in a car with the Evanston Sollingers/my family to the township of Langa.  We first went to a center where they were making pottery and art.  In the township, there are three classes: the poor, the middle class and the rich.  First, we visited the poor neighborhood.  In the poor class, people were living in hostels, shipping crates and shacks.  In the hostels, there were three families in each room which was the size of my bathroom.  And so sixteen people lived in a single tiny in a hostel "apartment."  There was one bathroom and one sink for 60 people.    In the shipping container, the size used on a train, there were two families.  And the bathroom and water are all outside and communal.  

But the shacks were the fanciest of the poor because in the shacks they had privacy.  There would be one family and could be two rooms and a kitchen.  All about the size of my bedroom.  They had electricity.  But you had to walk really far to the toilet and water pump.   The shacks, on the outside, look like a fort a kid would make.  It was made out of scraps of wood, metal, and cardboard.  On the inside, it is not dirty but there are holes in the roof.   So if it is raining, with the holes in their roof, they put buckets.  But if you see someone on the roof trying to fix a leak,that means that the leak is over their bed.  

So our guide, named Siviwe, lives in Langa in the rich part of town but he rents a bedroom in the back of the house.  He started an non-for-profit organization to show the kids that they can do something great in the world.  It is called Happy Feet (not the movie and no penguins).  This guy teaches his kids gum boot dancing (this is the type of dancing that tribal people would do while they were working in the mines). (It involves rubber boots).  He also feeds the kids.    They also do shows outside the township.  Most of the adults in Langa can't read.  So Siviwe wants to add two new parts to the school:  teaching reading and computers.   The kids in Happy Feet did a performance for us and it was pretty amazing and an awesome experience.  The little kids who also watched the show held our hands and sat down next to us to watch the show.   

After the show, we went to a place for lunch in the township called Mzoli's Meats.  You walked into this place and it looks like a butchers shop.  There is uncooked meet in trays in glass.  You pick out what meat you want.  They put your group's meat on one platter with some sauce.  Then you go back to the kitchen and you see lots of braais.  And you give them your meat and sauce.  I was expecting it to be gross.  But we got our food, and lets just say, in 10 minutes there was no food.  It was delicious.  

Then we came back to Georgia and Sophia's house.  Then we want to a cafe to meet Lindy and Bev and all my 2nd cousins.  

Now I'm blogging for you.  

On the tour, Siviwe taught us some Khosa, it is the language where you click.  

Enkhosee, thank you in Khosa.  

Lots of love, 

Sarah