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Thursday was Heritage Day here in South Africa so we had a wonderful long weekend. Lill and I were going to go back to Durban but disaster struck and we had to stay. The women who’s house we were renting decided to come back from Ireland. This was no surprise to us. The women, however, seemed honestly astonished that they couldn’t find jobs in Ireland because there’s this thing called a recession and this other thing called the EU. They were also shocked (shocked!) that Dublin is an expensive city. Apparently Google doesn’t exist on their planet. (Ironically, the day before they came back Lill and I saw a news crawl that said that Ireland is experiencing their worst emigration in 20 years…). So, they decided to come back and we had a minor tussle over their responsibilities under the lease. Luckily, their mother (who actually owns the house) knows all about leases and while they were still away her husband (who, as a former magistrate, gave me a huge compliment when he said that the email that I had sent them was “elegantly written” and an even bigger compliment when he went on to say that it was “clearly written by someone who wouldn’t be afraid to take legal measures if necessary”, which was exactly what I was aiming for. I generally find that my new found legal expertise comes in handy more in my personal life than in any professional setting. I enjoy the subtleties of behaving in a legal manner more than the exhausting detail of actually being a lawyer.
Anyways, so Lill and I had to stay and deal with the housing mess on Thursday, and then Friday we went to Port Elizabeth. We went to go shopping but sadly the shopping in PE is just as bad as the shopping in East London. They have a bigger mall but filled with the same sad excuses for stores. We’ll have to go shopping in Durban and Cape Town. We drove Noma, the receptionist from work, to PE with us because it’s where she is from and otherwise she would have had to take a Combi. Noma is hilarious and very kindly pointed out everything that we were passing, even if it was more than a little obvious. When we finally got to PE we had to take her to the township and Lill was thrilled to finally get to go into one of those little houses, she’s been dying to see what they look like on the inside. PE was less than thrilling so we braved the terrifying roads in the dark, came home and moved into our new house (until Thursday, then we have to move next door) on Sunday. We ended the weekend with a celebratory braai for two.
Being friends with Thembi and Mzukisi has proven remarkably instructional. I have learned so much about apartheid and what it was like for them when they got democracy (which is how everyone says it here, “We got democracy 15 years ago.”) including having to desegregate their schools (they’re not much different than Ruby Bridges and the Little Rock Nine) and getting rid of their Christian names (or slave names as they are often referred to here). It’s endlessly fascinating. It is also fascinating learning about their views and expectations of Americans, especially black Americans, and how differently they view us than we view them. Apparently everyone here thinks I’m Coloured and yet no one can quite describe for me what that means.
Relating with us can be really confusing for black South Africans because they automatically assume that since we're black we all must see them as brothers, the way they see us. I had a long talk with a man at the computer store the other day and he told me all about how they all are so proud of us because of all that we've accomplished and that they see black Americans as family and always root for a black American over a white South African in a race, etc. I talk to Mzukisi about this and about the fact that in black America simply don't look at Africans as though they are related to us at all. The 70's are over and most of us are no longer trying to find our African roots, we're Americans, more so than most, and feel no connection to the Continent. In fact, usually when we speak of Africa or call someone African it's meant derogatorily. Mzu made a good point when he said it would have been easier if Lill and I were white because then they wouldn't have expected us to connect with them, but they simply do not understand being black and not being African. We have had to tell quite a few people that we're actually the minority in the U.S., living in a world of white people is something so foreign (and so unappealing) to them that they can't even imagine it. Mzu said he really wants to go to the whitest part of America (I told him he can go visit my mom in Seattle) and just sit in a coffee shop and stare at all of the white people going by and just watch them be white!!
So, we're not only learning a lot about South Africa but also about black South Africans' perceptions of America and Black America. The longer I am here the more I understand why the African girls in college hated us so much. They must have been so confused. Unfortunately we haven't yet had much opportunity to make friends with any white South Africans (we've only interacted with the house people) so that's a goal. I'm toying with the idea of a gym membership... I might meet people there.
So anyways, things are good. I'll post pictures of the new townhouse when we move to the one next door. But there are no more dogs!!!!!!!!! Woohoo!!!
That's all folks,
kat
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Monday, September 28, 2009
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1 COMMENTS:
It's sounds like you'll be a pro at moving if you aren't one already. :)
I was kind of surprised to hear that the house owners were going to Ireland as I had also heard about the country being in a pretty bad recession.
Sometimes when interacting with
Africans, they think that I'm also an immigrant. However it seems when they find out that's not the case their attitude changes. The mother of one classmate actually said she didnt really have much interest in "African-Americans". So it's interesting to see how S.Africans seem to have a different view on the "A-Americans".
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