Sanibona!

Sanibona ninjani!
After our crazy first week in South Africa, I finally have a chance to post! We’ve been so busy since Friday morning with orientation, learning to navigate the streets of Durban, and getting used to our new culture.
Alyssa and I arrived on separate flights on Friday morning in Jo’burg, and met up with a few other SIT group members at the airport. We soon got picked up and brought to our backpacking hostel, and spent the day relaxing and recovering from our flight. The rest of the group arrived that evening and we had a great time getting to know each other.
On Saturday, we had the pleasure of touring Soweto, a township just outside of Jo’burg where Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu once lived. We were able to tour Mandela’s old house, and also went to the Hector Pieterson museum, where we learned about the anti-apartheid uprising in Soweto in the 1970s.
On Sunday, we drove the long 7 hours from Jo’burg to Durban, our home for the next 3 and a half months. As soon as we got to our backpackers, we headed straight for the Indian Ocean! Even though it’s winter here, the temperatures were in the mid-60s, perfect for walking on the beach.
Monday was our “dropoff day”, where our academic director, Zed, gave pairs of us specific places to find in the city. We were pretty nervous at first, but were able to navigate the busy streets of Durban pretty easily!
Tuesday we made our first visit to the SIT house, where we’ll be having all of our classes for the next month and a half. Our first two hours were spent having our first official Zulu lesson! Zulu’s pretty difficult, especially with the three clicks in the language, but we’re all really enjoying learning it. After a little more orientation, we headed to the Pavilion, which is the biggest mall in the southern hemisphere! There, we were able to pick up some much needed items, like power adapters and locks for our school lockers.
Wednesday we had more Zulu, more orientation, and more getting used to our new surroundings. But Wednesday evening was especially exciting, because we moved in with our homestay families! We’re living in Cato Manor, a township just a few miles from Durban city center, with Zulu speaking families (don’t worry, they all speak English too!). I already love my family, they’ve been so welcoming and kind to me.
Today we woke up bright and early to head off to the house for another full day of classes. We’re just finishing up the orientation phase of our program, and we’re about to start our Community Health Seminar and our Field Study Seminar classes tomorrow, while continuing Zulu every morning. Now that we’re finally getting used to the time difference and South Africa culture, we can start our challenging semester.
One of us will update every few days with what’s going on here in KwaZulu-Natal, and we’ll try to figure out how to post pictures for next time!
For now, sala kahle (stay well)!