Bongwe/Chabo 2 (oct. 4)

left cape town for east london friday morning. east london is in the easter cape, a more rural, almost exclusively Xhosa province with a few whites and was where the transkei and ciskei (two of the biggest bantustans under apartheid) were located. still, it is predominantly rural, enormous joblessness and generally still the same fourteen years after the beginning of democracy in this country. the group of us was split into pairs and assigned a host family in either bongwe or chabo 2. the villages are not far from one another and pretty similar in every way. Emma and I are staying with the Nazo grandparents in bongwe and the varying numbers of children and grandchildren around. tata nazo is 74 and mama is 68. immediately after arriving we were met by throngs of young children who live nearby, some are related in one way or another and their grandson, invuyoo, who is 18 and in grade 10. He lives in a bigger town with his parent but is currently on holiday and visiting his grandparents. an extremely friendly and open guy, he introduced us to the kids around and welcomed us very graciously. A granddaugter also came to visit, specifically because we were coming, she came form Fort Hare, less than two hours away. she is in university and majoring in micro-biology and chemistry.  We spent the afternoon playing cards, watching music videos and generally just hanging out with almost ten young kids and our host-grandson/brother. Prayers, dinner, more cards, more praying, gospel singing and gift giving were the evening activities. Tata was very happy with his new york city water taxi hat and in 1950s style strutted around the living room with perfect acting. 

today we woke up, had soupy maize meal porridge (surprisingly very good with lots of sugar and milk), bathed in a wash basin with my brand new host brother and then trekked back up to the high school in chabo 2. Mr. Yako answered some questions ( for instance: "why is it called chabo 2?" "Because it was created after Chabo 1 and before chabo 3." or "What is the young male initiation practice this area is famous for and how is it incorporated into life today?" answer: "young men (around 18 or 20) go into the bush and are circumcised and lots of other rituals and customs follow") before we descended upon, all 20 of us, a ceremony of sorts back in bongwe. surrounding the ancestral tribute and slaughtering,  the extended family and gerenall the whole neighborhood comes over and celebrates, performs rituals, sings, drinks heavily and eats lots and lots of meat. the slaughtered animal (ox i think in our case) is crucial and central to the proceedings. it was unbelievable to witness as visitors this rather common ceremony/party and be welcomed into this new town. People whether they be drunk men and old grandmas shook our hands many times, welcomed us, spoke paragraphs worth of Xhosa--none of which i understood-- and made me feel not quite so awkward watching this special event. the meat aspect of the event was hard to get over and i feel not too squeamish around meat especially after last summer's nz experience, but just tons of meat all over the place, no clean surfaces or even care and open fires and dirt and cow dung everywhere. side note... much of the ceremony took place inside the kraal where the cows are kept. only men went into the kraal for the most part and the women all sat aside. the ceremony was extremely gendered in every detail, women on the right of the round building where the actually communication wiht ancestors took place and men on the left. everyone was drinking Xhosa beer, which i drank quite a bit of since it was constantly being offered, but cannot describe --it does not taste like beer as we think if it at all. 

after our visit we chatted excitedly about we had seen and went our separate ways back to our host families. Quite an exciting/mind blowing first day in rural village life. the night was pretty low key and after a traditional dinner of boiled chicken, samp and spinach/potato combo, and some more prayers we went to bed.