"Generations" and the Phandi Museum

A major part of Zulu culture is to watch tv. I know that sounds weird, but it's so true! The TV at my homestay is on constantly until everyone goes to bed. Literally. When I got home from school yesterday, my sisi was watching a dvd that has about 5 movies on it starring Martin Lawrence, so I sat down and watched it with her while I did my Zulu homework. But I would have to say that most people's favorite thing to watch here is soap operas, mainly a South African one called "Generations." This show comes on pretty much every night, and so many people watch it! A lot of the people in my program are really starting to get into it. I was only half-paying attention when we watched it last night, but I'll definitely have to really watch it tonight so I know what's going on.

Today we started the day off with yet another zulu lesson, which wasn't nearly as difficult as the day before. We just went over one noun class more specifically and learned how to say how you are sick. One of the thing we learned how to say is "I have diabetes" and the word for "diabetes" literally means "the sugar disease." Then we talked about development in different aspects of South African life. Then, as a break to get out of the offices, we went to the Phandi museum (prounounced pawn-di) that displays a lot of really intricate beadwork and traditional african dress and tools. A lot of the clay pots also had very intricate designs. They also had a lot of "ear stoppers" which are those giant wooden disks that many tribal people put in their earlobes. Some of them were enormous! Our guide also showed us "pillows" that many zulu women used to sleep on. They were not pillows, however, they looked like really small wooden stools. I do not see how sleeping on that would be comfortable. (It's times like these I really wish I could access my blog on my own computer, because then I could put pictures up...oh well)

We finished up our day here with a discussion about the economy and government intervention. I'm so excited about tomorrow because we're going to a part of the township that consists mainly of shacks, so it should be really interesting to see. While we're there, we also get to listen to different groups of singers who sing songs a capella and make them up on the spot. It sounds really cool, and I hope they don't let me down. Apparently the particular group we're going to see has won national competitions. Well, I'm gonna go start my reading because we have an insane amount of work to do for tomorrow. Bye!