Weekend Update

This weekend was great because I was able to spend it with some new friends!
Saturday

I walked over to where the Youth for Christ volunteers live and jumped in their vehicle to accompany them on another Heritage Day celebration. This one was much smaller in size and different from the other one I went to on Thursday [the actual Heritage Day], but the community was still excited and of course there was the usual singing and dancing that is at every Zulu celebration. In the beginning there was a gogo [granny/old woman] talking about how things are different with the youth today-- she spoke of the importance for girls to keep their virginity for their husbands and the importance of people having only one sexual partner [a common theme in the fight against AIDS]. She talked about how girls in her time did traditional Zulu dance and now everyone is doing "this strange dance, always shaking your butts on each other"... she demonstrated what she thought that looked like, and it was pretty hilarious. Lastly, she also talked about how in her day girls would make Love Necklaces in order to show a boy she is interested in him.

So this is a very integral part of Zulu tradition: beadwork. In this case, she is talking about the beaded necklaces that girls made for boys, natively referred to as Ibheqe or ubala abuyisse, meaning “one writes in order that the other should reply”. To the Zulu, beadwork is an integral form of communication and Love Necklaces are exclusively important to the courtship process. Girls and young women make these for men of interest and in order to decipher the message, one must be well versed in the regionally specific colors, placement, and geometric patterns. For men, interpreting a message is a difficult task; therefore, experienced mothers and sisters are called upon to help deduce a necklace’s meaning. I would have to try to explain the shapes and the colors in order to try to give you a full picture of what the beadwork can represent, but I do not have much space to do it here and I do not want to bore you! But I am going to try to look into it myself because I think it is a really cool tradition... if I had any bead-making talent, perhaps I would write some messages in beads myself. Unfortunately in Zulu society today, Love Necklaces are principally created as a tool to fund the demand of the tourist market industry. With the rising popularity of Christianity in South Africa, converts have been encouraged not to wear these items because of their original association with "heathen worship." Zulu beadwork continues to be an excellent form of communication and continues to represent personal information about their wearers. Women are able to express themselves and inform others of their situation through socio-political statements regarding HIV/AIDS. Although the beaded love necklaces no longer pertain to love, the template of the necklaces has remained the same and continues to carry messages and you can see many of these necklaces being worn in the pictures that I have taken.

Anyway, after all of that fun I went to the house of my director where a bunch of his friends had a braai [barbeque] with boerewors [sausage] and all watched "Slumdog Millionaire" outside on a projector. Even the second time around, still a great movie.


Sunday

On Sunday morning I repeated the same 45-minute walk to church that I had done the week before. As I was walking back from church I jumped in the back of the Youth for Christ bakkie [weird truck-like thing] and went with them to Horwick Falls. The waterfall was beautiful and there were great arts and crafts shops all around... I loved everything there and basically decided at that moment that I was going to decorate my house with all the beautiful paintings they have there. But... I didn't buy anything. Why? Because I am cheap/poor and they were selling their things at tourist prices. I would hear a price and say, "Hibo! Ukubiza!" [expensive!]. Unfortunately Horwick Falls is a touristy area and so their things are quite expensive. Alternatively I could just take pictures of pretty things and then decorate that way, I suppose. 

On the way home we took a short drive down a red dirt road and saw a few zebras, springbucks, and animals I would call yaks, but I don't remember what they were calling them. At one point we got pretty close to some of the zebras, which was cool. Unfortunately having come straight from church I did not have my nice camera with me to take pictures... but I always try to carry my little one with me so I did get a few shots! :)
After being in the back of that truck I was covered in red dirt, so after taking a shower I put some fresh clothes on and went to church again [a different one]. It was the one many of the YFC volunteers go to, and it was considered the "contemporary service" so there were lots of young people there and I was the only one "dressed up" to go to church. I really enjoyed it, though and had great conversations about religion with some of the volunteers after the service. 

It was a good weekend!