Local Pool

1/7/2012

This morning I woke up and outside my door were the two Zulu street kids who I met yesterday, so I chatted with them for a while.  The two friends were waiting for Swazi to get them some food from the kitchen.  I found out that one of them is 20 and the other 18.  They are from a township nearby but they live on their own in the shack they built here at the YMCA. 

Swazi visited my room to chat about our plans for visiting a township.  She told me all about her life and family.  She brought pictures and told me about her daughter who is one year older than me.  She lives and goes to college in Johannesburg and has a boyfriend in London.  Swazi asked me if I would marry a South African and I immediately told her told her what my mom warned before I left: If I fall in love here, I CANNOT stay here- I HAVE to come back to the United States.  She laughed as she understood the grave concern of my mom. 

Fish stopped by to talk for a while and asked about my studies and told me of places I should visit here in South Africa on the weekends during my time in Port Elizabeth.  He also informed me that he has been mugged everywhere he ever has been in South Africa.  One of these stories is as follows: When he was driving at night, Fish’s car got a flat tire so he was forced to stop.  There were two guys coming at him, one from in front and one from behind, but he only saw the one in front of him.  When Fish asked him where he could get equipment nearby to fix the car, the man held a knife to his throat.  Fish tried to fight back but the guy from behind grabbed his neck, threw him against the gravel, and his pockets were emptied.  He said it happened incredibly fast.  That story was for you, Mom - guess I should be extra careful on my excursions!

Today I was put in a circumstance that I had never been in before – I was the racial minority in a huge group of people.  Fish and I went to the local pool across the street for an afternoon swim.  It is a huge outdoor pool filled with black people and a few dark Indians.  In fact, Fish and I were the only two white people there.  It was quite crowded but the deep end of the pool was almost completely empty.  Fish said that this is because most of them don’t know how to swim.  When we first arrived and set our stuff down on the side, I started taking my tee-shirt off because I had my swimsuit on underneath.  Fish immediately gasped, “No, no I would not recommend that.” I asked why and he replied shaking his head, “All of the men will start hitting on you.  You can do what you want but I definitely don’t recommend it.”  So I swam in my shorts and tee-shirt.

Issues of race and political unrest are still hot topics for conversations.  Politics are an extremely touchy subject here in South Africa.  The people that I have talked to are frustrated with the political system to the point that they have openly given up on their own country.  Fish was talking about the population size in South Africa and he said that when they sent people out to do the census, you just knock on doors of houses and ask how many people are living in that residence.  This included the townships and Fish said that something like 23 census people got murdered for doing so.  I think this may have been an exaggeration, but I can see why it would be a dangerous job.