A Journey to South Africa

On the winter of 2024, I had the opportunity to go to Westville High School in South Africa for a 2 and a half week exchange. The following blog is an excerpt of my journal written there.

Day 4 January 24th:

Sunny 🌞 to Cloudy 🌥️

Today is the day for the Durban tour. We got up early to take the school bus to the city center. To be honest, it wasn’t what I expected. I came from Shanghai, and my impression of the city centers are shopping malls and skyscrapers. However, the city center in South Africa holds more homeless people, with poor security and awful sanitation. When we got out of the car, a man came to us and shouted, “I am a parla, parla, parla.” Later, I learned that it means homeless. He shouted it to us as a joke, but it did give us a warning about safety. We first went to the Victoria Market that sells local religious items. It was a bit like a cult. They also sell limestone that is used to paint the wall, and there’s a lane that sells clothes. Later, I saw a traditional shield and weapon. It was hard to imagine how their ancestors were able to use these weapons to fight against colonists with guns centuries ago. There’s also a beautiful mural about the local rain god that they worship. Then came the more dangerous part of our journey. I was warned not to take my phone out for the respect of others and for keeping away from danger. This market place sells herbs and dry plants, where the plants are lit during certain religious ceremonies. I was surprised to see the skulls and skeletons of the animals. Flies are everywhere, and I can even see some rotten meat on the skulls. The smell wasn’t the best. But I’m glad to learn that the Zulu place these skulls to rest their ancestors’ souls and places. Finally, we went to the Ushaka beach. It was a gorgeous place, but unfortunately the weather turned cloudy.

Postscript 1

When talking to host families about South Africa's racial history and problems, they used the word "colored" all the time. It had an overbearing connotation. It sounded like it’s tainted. I always thought they could say this word because they were a mulatto family, so I avoided it when I talked to them. They probably felt it too, and told me it was their official word. I was kind of shocked to imagine a white person saying to a mixed-race person, "You are colored." They probably guessed it, saying that they had friends who went to study in the United States and said they were colored. They were criticized by the professor for it and solved it using the South African Demographics website.

Postscript 2

There are so many monkeys in South Africa that I can see them at school and in the trees in the residential areas. The mother in the host family told me that monkeys can come in and steal from you, so lock all the doors and windows before you go out. One day I saw a "snake" in their backyard, which scared me. The "snake" crawled onto a small coffee table in the courtyard. I immediately told them, and they laughed very happily, saying that it a rubber one to frighten monkeys that had been stealing the things they put there, and asked me to send it to teacher Gong, who was afraid of snakes.