South Africa Smith Fellowship: Laughter, Dancing, and Smiles

I apologize for this post coming an entire week after my last. Needless to say there has been a lot going on around here. For the past week, I have been diving even deeper into my service at St. Martins, and exploring my own impressions and points of view of South Africa and the people living here. In this post, I hope that I can do justice to the rich culture that I have been exposed to during my time here. I have already touched on a few aspects of the cultures in South Africa, but I hope to offer a deeper understanding of what I am experiencing, especially being a foreigner.

One day early last week, I had begun to feel more frustrated than usual with the language barrier here. It is a lot harder than I anticipated to communicate with those involved with St. Martins, especially the workers. With the kids, it doesn't really matter that much if we cannot fully understand each other because I know what they are trying to say most of the time anyways. For instance, the children and I do not need to speak the same language to have fun with each other while playing a game. The beauty of games is that, for the most part, you just need to pick up on body language that signifies something to do with the game. Soccer is soccer no matter what language you are speaking or what your background is, even though it may actually be called football. However, it is important for me to talk with the workers to learn about South Africa and St. Martins in addition to just passing the time before the children arrive in the afternoon. The problem is that the people at the project don't like speaking English because it is not their first language. I completely understand that they are not comfortable with it because they are not exposed to it very much, and it is not their mother’s tongue. Although I can relate to them having been in situations myself where someone of a different language needs to communicate with me and my friends, it is obviously problematic for me since I only know a few words in Zulu as of now. Don’t get me wrong, I am definitely surprising even myself in how quickly I am picking up the language, but I only understand generally what people are talking about and not exactly word for word. It’s really difficult for me sometimes because I can easily feel left out and, even worse, feel bad when people expect me to be fluent already. There are times when people ask if I am understanding what is happening in the conversation, and, of course, I respond "not really." The following day the same person may ask me the question again, and, of course, I respond "not really." I'm realizing, though, that this is just one of the invaluable exposures I am so fortunate to be experiencing here in South Africa. It will be incredibly important for me to have dealt with and overcome language and cultural barriers for success in any career, especially one in medicine.

So, the title of this post is in fact ‘laughter, dancing, and smiles’ because I have found that these three things are universal across languages and cultures. If I am having a bad day because I am frustrated that I cannot explain something to somebody in English or cannot understand something else in Zulu, I try to remember that these three things go much further in humans than any words I could say. If I am struggling to pronounce a word in Zulu, such as someone’s name, I simply smile, laugh at myself (a lot), and keep trying to make an effort. If I am sitting with the workers and we run into a language issue while talking to each other, I can pull out my speaker and we can forget whatever we were talking about and just dance. They love to dance. I have enjoyed sharing American music that I like and hearing South African music that they like. I am also slowly learning how to dance like a South African. It is not easy for someone of my complexion haha. In addition tot he workers, the children have been dancing most everyday over the past week in preparation for celebrating a holiday tomorrow (more on this if you keep reading). It has been incredible to experience traditional songs and dances, and, most of all, to witness such passion from the kids wanting to be involved with them. Again, watching the children singing and dancing makes me forget all about the barriers we face between our languages. In a way, times like these make the frustrating moments of trying to communicate words seem insignificant. So, I always look forward to when I can be an audience member to the outstanding things these kids can do.

Practicing Dances for June 16th

Tomorrow is June 16th, which is a national holiday in South Africa. June 16th is Youth Day. The day is to remember the lives of students lost during the peaceful march that is referred to by the Soweto Youth Uprising. Due to the strict and unequal education changes that was brought on by the Bantu Education Act in 1953 established by the Apartheid government, African people were feeling even more disenfranchised and abandoned than before. Among other things, the act mandated that African students learn all subjects in Afrikaans and English languages. Students from the class of 1976 marched peacefully in the streets in opposition to these unfair inequalities for non-whites education in South Africa. What began as a peaceful demonstration developed into a horrific massacre when police began firing at the students. This tragic scene led to other uprisings in Soweto and all over the country that day and for an entire year after. The significance of June 16th lies in the fact that students, young people, were the ones who ignited the motivation to make change happen for the progress of Africans living in South Africa. On Youth Day, we recognize that young people are capable of influencing real change in their societies. St. Martins is supposed to participate in special events and activities for the holiday tomorrow in order to emphasize the empowerment that the children should feel from celebrating Youth Day. But, I am still not sure if that will be happening due to water issues at the plot that will prevent any festivities from occurring there.

In other news, Fr. Mark celebrated his birthday with us on Monday. My friend Lindo and I cooked an African dinner for him and others in the house. Some items on the menu included spinach and chicken liver, chakalaka, fried chicken legs, pasta and meatballs (with a South African twist), and, for dessert, peaches, jello, and custard. I was glad to be part of cooking the meal because I had an opportunity to understand more about how they prepare the food here that I have been eating. We had an enormous meal, and it was wicked good (haven’t heard that word in a while). Yesterday, we went out to a restaurant for Lindo’s birthday. I am happy I could be part of her celebration as well. I also enjoy experiencing different restaurants in the area. I think it’s funny when I read dishes on the menu with ‘American style’ or ‘New York Style’ in the names.

The chefs of the night (well she cooked most of it)

Lindo made all the decorations for the dining room.
It looked really nice.

Well, unfortunately, my time here is running down. I have plans to take a trip to Cape Town this weekend with my friend Jen from PC who is serving in Montebello. I am excited to see a completely different part of the country for a few days. I here it's similar to Europe, but I have never been to Europe, so hopefully Cape Town is a close second best. I also look forward to spending some time with Jen to catch up on our last four weeks we've spent in separate parts of the country.