Cato Manor

Sanibona!


I just wanted to share a little about life in Cato Manor :-)


The neighborhood is similar to a music festival, (minus drunks and music concerts). Everyone leaves their doors open and it's always so hot. The neighbors house is maybe 6 feet away from our house. We can hear everything that goes on in their house. This morning, we were listening to the same radio station, and everyone just laughed and talked across the lawn to each other. My mama will send the neighbor kids to buy bread for us down the street, and neighbors just walk in and sit down to visit.


One of the little boys who lives next door to us is 3, and can't quite seem to understand that I don't speak Zulu. (I think he gets confused because I do speak some Zulu.) He is always standing in the yard saying "Ya Sisi! Ya Sisi!" (Hi Sister!), and my family will have to get my attention that he is speaking to me. (I often tune out the neighbors voices due their proximity or when they are speaking Zulu). This morning he was in our kitchen dancing, it was quite adorable. I managed to get a video, which we had to watch multiple times and walk over to show his family (3 older sisters and a brother).All of a sudden, he started STOMPING his feet so hard on the tile floor and yelling something in Zulu. I was like, OMG Mama, what is he doing?!, thinking, why is this crazy kid pounding his little feet on the hard floor?! Haha, but it turns out, he was just doing a traditional Zulu dance. It was hilarious and adorable at the same time. I, unfortunately, missed getting a video of it. But I'm sure he'd be happy to show me another day.


On a different, rather sad and scary, note, a member of the community passed away this week. He was a thief, and stole frequently from all of our families and other communities. He was beaten because he was a thief, and died in the hospital. Many of the families are glad that he has passed away. In a country with so much crime and little help from the police, this is often the reality. Zed (our academic director) has stated that if we ourselves get mugged, SIT will simply attempt to reimburse us and no report will be filed. It is unlikely that the police will do much about it. Rape and other violent crimes also frequently go unreported. The event in the community is shocking for us as we did not realize this was occurring.