An amazing week with a fellow Penn Stater: Homestay at the Township

So this week has been absolutely insane. My friend, Andrew, from Penn State flew in to visit for the week. It was quite the experience for him since the moment he arrived our entire program took off for a homestay in a township for the weekend. Now for all of you that are not aware of what a township is, it was known as government enforced housing during the apartheid era when blacks and coloreds were removed from their homes and forced to live in these areas. Now that the apartheid is over people have chosen to stay and live since that is where all their family and history is from. The townships are usually in extremely poor conditions, with most of the houses being built out of just metal sheets. The family ended up being paired with a Muslim family who took us in as one of their own. They cooked us the most amazing meals and we sat around and talked about our lives and how they varied in so many different ways. It was probably the best hospitality I've ever experienced in my life. So during the weekend our host family took us around the township. We went to this market area and did wine tasting, went to a petting zoo, and were even able to ride camels :) They are so much bigger than I ever thought they would be. Later that day we all went to the local high school and faced their team in a basketball game. Even though we were in it almost the entire game they ended up taking over at the end and were deemed victorious. Afterwards we all went home for an enormous dinner that lasted hours. It was so difficult to even leave because they made us feel so welcomed. I just wish you all could meet the amazing people of this country.