Township sleepover

Saturday night was one of the most interesting nights I’ve
had since being on the African continent.

My team rolled into the Walmer Township
last Saturday evening to meet the families that would be hosting us in their
homes for the night. Because this is Africa,
we couldn’t leave the church without a little service of sorts. We sang and
danced for probably 30 minutes before heading off to our separate homes.

Dee Dee and I stayed with a nice family who had a car, which
is somewhat rare for the township. There was a husband, Patrick, and his wife, Millie,
the wife’s sister, Thandi, and two daughters. We sat in the lounge (living
room) and watched t.v. for a little while and just chatted about life and drank
tea. It’s so funny to me the questions that South Africans ask us. You’d think
I’d be used to it by now. They asked us about Obama, and they literally thought
that America
was on the same time schedule as they are. I couldn’t believe it had never
occurred to them that the States are behind them. We were fed a nice dinner of
beans and potatoes and coke. After a while, they asked if we wanted to visit
the other Americans staying with other families. So, Dee Dee and I got in their
little putt-putt car and we visited three other pairs of our friends. We found
out the next morning that everyone else was also visiting people and apparently
all the families were calling each other to see how it was going.

The husband and wife gave up their queen-sized bed for Dee
Dee and I when there was only one other twin bed in the entire house for the
other 5 people that lived there. We aren’t really sure how or where they slept.
It definitely wasn’t the best night of sleep I’ve ever had, but it wasn’t
horrible. I’m glad that we weren’t near a tavern like some people on my team
were, as they listened to loud thumping music all night long. When it was time
to go to sleep, the main house light stayed on and we weren’t sure why.
Apparently the switch was in our room and we didn’t realize it, so it was on
all night long.

In the morning, Millie made a huge breakfast of Weet-Bix
(cereal) and eggs, toast, and sausage. It was so much more than I could eat.
After breakfast, they drew a bath for us. Ok, here’s where it gets pretty
funny. We had no idea what to do. They literally brought us a small basin to
bathe in. We didn’t have towels, soap, or anything. So I stepped in the basin
and wet my feet to make it look like we used it. If we didn’t, they’d be
offended and grossed out that we didn’t bathe.

We then went to church for a three hour long church service
with lots of dancing, singing and most everything was in Xhosa. A few of us
gave “testimonies” of our sleepover. The church people laughed at everything
that we said and loved all of it.

My other teammates had some pretty funny stories about no
electricity, no toilet, eating weirder stuff, and one guy even shared a twin
mattress with the man that lived there.

All in all, sleeping in the township wasn’t bad at all. It
blessed them that they were able to have white people in their home and give up
all that they were able to give. It also helped bridge the gap a little at a
time that white people aren’t scared of the township. I’ve mentioned this
before, but just as a reminder, hardly any South Africans have even been in the
township and certainly haven’t ridden taxis out of sheer fear.

Love builds bridges.