Life at the Homestead

So I realize while I may be giving you plenty of info on my cool activities, I haven’t really told you about life at home. I guess I have kinda been overlooking my conversations with my family members because they are not as deep and eye-opening as some people learning about their families experience during apartheid or family members lost or traditions, but my time at home has too been rewarding. While I cant really even call her momma, considering my house mom is probably in her late 20’s, collect shoes, has a bright blue sports car, reads Fifty Shades of Grey and is all around just a hip as someone I would meet in Brooklyn, we had a lovely dinner together tonight. Really for one of the first times here tonight we ate traditional African food- I have not complained about it cause some of my classmates have been stuffing sheep heart, lungs and liver in their pockets as to not disrespect their families who serve it every night. I have been well fed with burgers, pasta and fresh bread and salad from Nozuko’s American kitchen every night. Although Nozuko does not love African food at restaurants or church or other people’s houses, when she cooks it her way, she likes it- as did I! We had samp, which is basically like pea-sized balls of some grain/rice/starch, maybe potato and its mixed with beans and cooked for hours until its all sticky and thick, kinda like oatmeal meets gnocchi. It was served with roasted chicken legs with salty yummy gravy. Very tasty- like a warm bowl of stew, African style. Over dinner Nozuko and I discussed names for her baby. She already has decided to name her Latisa, which means brings warmth and she expects her to warm everyone who comes near her and every room she walks into. As for her middle name she wants something European that has no English translation to bring her inspiration to unique and European. She then asked me about my night last night, which I told her a few details of and that I had a lovely evening. She asked if I was Jewish just because of my mom and I said both my parents were Jewish. She could not wrap her head around the fact that my dad’s parents were both Italian and Jewish. Literally she was cackling at the idea. She said, “So your Italian and American and Jewish? All at once?” I explained to her it was just my lineage and that many Jews from Russia went all over Europe and that they exist everywhere. What was most interesting to me as she laughed away and I just giggled along, was how crazy she found it to be more than one culture. She explained to me this women she knew whose dad was a Muslim and had met his wife, the women’s mother, in Ireland- therefore making the girl half Irish and muslim. Again, Nozuko laughed and laughed. While ill admit it’s a weird combination that happens all the time. It was so crazy to me how far off she thought it was to be of mixed backgrounds. I guess it is just much more uncommon to be a mixture of ethnicities here and probably all of her ancestors are from South or southern Africa. Even though we were not intentionally having a conversation about culture and cultural differences, through just general discussion I picked up on what she found weird and normal. It wasn’t an intense conversation about tragic deaths in her life, or growing up during Mandela’s years in office, I got to learn a bit about Nozuko’s views and background through our discussion. 

Also towards the later hours (8-9pm) of last night, Gaby and I began a little photo shoot with our sisi's so look forward to that. I want to take more pics and post them for y'all but I can't risk this cam being stolen. Already lost one.