Travelling on My Own

Undoubtedly, this has been my second best week of my semester in South Africa so far.

My week of travelling began at 6AM on Saturday when I took a taxi to the Cape Town airport. I had gotten to the airport a tad too early, but I did get through the security check very quickly. On the plane heading to Jo’burg, I leafed through the in-flight magazine and read an article on the lexicon of South African English. Currently, I’ve more or less taken this as a sign that, if I ever come back to South Africa for research purposes, I would indeed come back to study just that. Thesis-wise, I posit that South African English will one day become a national identifier in saying what makes a South African a South African, as exemplified by such words as ‘né,’ ‘bra/bru,’ and ‘braai.’ Moreover, I believe that words from both Afrikaans and the Nguni languages are infused through the lexicon (dictionary) of South African English, thus preserving the cultural nuances of these ethnic languages. Should these languages ever die out (which I would never hope for), they would to some extent still exist within the resistant-dominant English used in South Africa.

Within two hours, I arrived at the airport at Jo’burg and was picked up by Willy (pronounced ‘Villy’) from Diamond Diggers and returned to Diamond Diggers, the orientation site for our SIT programme. It was great to be back there, and I definitely felt accustomed to South Africa enough that I had very little fear in walking around the streets by Diamond Diggers by myself. That first night, I met two girls from London (who seemed to have brought potentially their entire DVD collection with them), a guy from London who has great plans for helping out kids either in Zimbabwe or South Africa (maybe both), and a guy from Paris. Due to the long day of travelling around (plus the incredible heat of Jo’burg), I just spent the day relaxing at Diamond Diggers, after taking a grocery trip at the nearby mall.

On Sunday, I went by myself to SOWETO to revisit Regina Mundi, a historically famous Catholic church. My only complaint of the day was the unset prices from Kensington (suburb of Jo’burg where Diamond Diggers is located) to SOWETO; as a result, it ended up being the second most expensive travel expense (the plane ticket cost about 200 rand more). Despite that, it was quite a moving experience, even more so than the first time I went there with our SIT group. I had expected the Mass to be in English, and was thus surprised to find myself at a completely Xhosa service. Thankfully I had been to Xhosa services before and was ready for the long service; thankfully the order of Mass is more or less standardised so I was able to follow along. After the service, I looked for the priest with the hope I could interview him; unfortunately he had a Zulu Mass to get ready for, so our interview will have to be via telephone. I was quite intrigued at that point what Regina Mundi as a parish is all about, as neither Xhosa or Zulu are mentioned on the Mass schedule on-line. In any case, I took a quick look around the church as Xhosa-speakers were leaving and Zulu-speakers were entering. Finally, I got to see the three things I had hoped to see the first time we went to the church: the Black Madonna up-close, the bullet holes in the ceiling and the handless Christ statue (the last two of which I had read about over the summer). [Towards the latter half of the apartheid years, gatherings of 10+ blacks were considered as conspiracies against the government and therefore banned. The only groups that were exempt from this were churches. Thus, people met in churches to talk politics, but under the guise and safety of spiritual gatherings. One day, out of contempt for God, etc., police forces stormed Regina Mundi, releasing tear gas canisters, shooting bullet holes in the ceilings and cutting off Christ's hands as if to say 'your God has no hands... who can save you now?' After the reconstruction of the church, people still continue to visit this historic site. You can still see bullet holes in the ceilings, left behind to remind people of what happened there. (ref. Yaw Perbi)] As I went closer to the statue of Christ, arms outstretched, I felt myself getting smaller and shrinking in the statue’s presence. It was indeed a chilling experience, but one that I had anticipated since I knew I would be coming to South Africa.

The next day, I planned to go to Pretoria and for 400 rand, was able to do so. By far, this was my most important research day, as I only had a span of about six hours to get to everything I wanted to do. Mandla, a Diamond Diggers driver got me safely to Pretoria and pointed out a few sites, especially given that he ‘s also a tour guide. My day in Pretoria started off with an interview with Archbishop George Daniel (he confirmed that he’s the same archbishop mentioned in the book I’m reading on the Sharpeville Six, They’re Burning the Churches; this book is perhaps the single text that steered me toward my current research topic). After the interview, I checked my voice recorder and one of the second worst things that could happen happened: my recorder stopped recording. Luckily, a good majority of the interview was on there. Leaving the Chancery, I headed for the Khanya House, the site of the South African Catholic Bishops Conference. There, I met a very friendly and helpful woman, Anne, who invited me to come back and look through the archives should I need anymore information. I purchased the current collection of The Bishops Speak, which should have a lot of the ‘official’ opinions of the Catholic church on such issues as apartheid and language policy. Finally, I concluded my day in Pretoria with a visit to the National Cultural History Museum. The adult entrance fee is R20; the student entrance fee is R12, the difference of which I used to buy a very good ham and cheese grilled sandwich in the café. The museum was very easy to navigate and their was quite a bit to see for being a relatively small museum. The first exhibit I saw reminded me very much of my art history research last semester. Back at Diamond Diggers, I met the first wave of Americans outside the SIT programme, and ended the night watching a 90s version of Romeo and Juliette.

Tuesday morning, Emmanuel (the French guy) and I went to Sandton, the site of Nelson Mandela Square. We spent a good part of the day walking around Sandton and the nearby city of Sandowne?, checking out the architecture. All over the cities, snake-light sculptures could be found; it must be a great sight to see at night. Within our four-ish hours there, we went through three malls and an open-air market; the only thing I bought was food and airtime. J As I was cooking my dinner, I met the second wave of Americans. Later that evening, S.J. came to visit me at Diamond Diggers, as he lived nearby, ‘across the valley.’ After catching up over the past few days and talking about some of the most random things, I met his mom and they both went back home. As I was leaving Diamond Diggers the next day, I decided to sleep a bit early.

On Wednesday, I decided rather late to visit the cathedral in Jozie and got to the Catholic Cathedral of Christ the King just in time. Afterwards, I went to the chancery and spoke to a few people about the language question and what this meant for the Church, particularly in Johannesburg. I was able to purchase an explanation of the Roman Missal and the response to it by the South African Catholic Bishops Conference. I find it quite important that there is indeed a great deal of work put into enculturation and inclusion of the ethnic communities within the standardized English service. I also saw, for the first time in-person, an Africanised crucifix, in the chancery. I then went to Park Station, where I soon got on the bus heading for Bloemfontein. The bus left for (and reached) Bloemfontein on-time (a six hour ride); at the station, I was greeted by taxi drivers ready to go; Gertjie drove me to the cathedral presbytery. I was greeted at the door by Fr. Leo, who showed me to my room (which was marked as reserved for Mark Arceno). Apart from my room in Stellenbosch, I think this may have been one of the biggest rooms I’ve had to myself. After a long day of activities and travelling, I slept quite well that night.

There was, however, a period of time when I couldn’t sleep and by the time I got back to sleep and woke up again, I realised I had missed breakfast. I eventually decided to get up and walk downstairs. In the dinner room, I met Carmel, a retired teacher from Ireland who came to South Africa with her family to volunteer to teach English at a Catholic school in Bloemfontein. I then met the cook and the parish secretary, followed by Carmel’s husband, Joe, who invited me to join them to see some lions. As I had nothing else to do that morning, I gratefully joined them. I met their youngest daughter, Aoife (a French and music major), and we went with one of the school drivers to pick up two Belgian priests, a young priest from Germany and the principal of the grade school, all of whom would be joining us on the mini-safari trip. It truly was a multilingual group! At the reserve park, we received the unfortunate news that the lions weren’t being fed that day. Nevertheless, we were able to see the three lionnesses relatively close-up (but still within our combi), followed by three cheetahs in a separate portion of the park, which were having a field day chowing down on some animal’s insides. After the ride, I got dropped off at the Waterfront, yet another mall I’ve come across during my journey. It was quite overwhelming and aside from food, I think I only spent R60. I then aimed to find the movie theatre but by the time I walked around the Rose Garden and picnic areas, I realised the theatre was only a few steps away from where I ate lunch and I was late for all of the movie showing. From there, then, I made my way back to the presbytery and took a bit of a nap when I got back. Later, I joined the Irish family, Fr. Leo and Fr. Nolan for dinner. Following the dinner, I was finally able to meet with Ananja, the youngest daughter of two of the host parents back in Stellenbosch. Maureen and I were supposed to have stayed with them, but eventually got resifted to different families. When I told them I would be Bloemfontein, they suggested I try and get in contact with Ananja and luckily everything worked out. Guided by Tommie, they found the presbytery and from there, Ananja and I went to the Euro Caffé at Mimosa Mall. It was quite an interesting experience going to a mall at night when all of the other shops were closed. Mimosa is closer in proximity to the University of the Free State, and thus the majority of the people in the mall were university students. Apparently, the mall itself is open from 9am to ‘late.’

On my last big day of travelling alone, I interviewed Fr. Leo and talked about religion, language, academia, and the like, for quite a bit of time. Of all the days, I would peg this one as the most informative days of research thus far. At half-12, Ananja and Tommie picked me up at the presbytery and took me to Oliewenhuis, perhaps the only art museum in the Free State of its kind. After looking through the galleries, we went to Vida E Caffe, where I had a great chilled chocolate drink and some dark chocolate. I then made it back in time for my interview with Mr. Brislin, S.J.’s uncle. I had another wonderful interview with him and now find myself having quite a bit to transcribe. Luckily, both of the day’s interviews were saved in their entirety. After doing a little packing following the interview, I went to the dining room to find that there wasn’t any actual dinner at the presbytery that evening. I came across the Irish family again, and they invited me to join them. As soon as we got out of the taxi, I found out that it was Joe’s birthday. They definitely were too kind to let me join in on his celebratory day. We ended up eating at Spur, and talked about religion, identity, ethnicity, nationalism, language, and the rest of that lot, inevitably coming to the decision that it’s all so very complicated. Indeed, it is, and that’s why I love research in those areas! At the end of the dinner, two further signs of Irish generosity came through my meal being paid for as an Irish treat (despite the fact that it was Joe’s birthday to begin with), followed by the luck of the Irish in finding a ring that I had dropped during dinner. Back at the presbytery, we exchanged e-mails and then I was off to the bus station to head back to Cape Town. While I waited for the bus to arrive, Gertjie, the guy who drove me to the presbytery two nights ago, found me sitting in the indoor café, remembered me, and after a few (positive) verbal exchanges, was off to wait for another taxi run. I’m now back at Cape Town at Kolbe House, nearly fifteen hours later, finishing up this blog entry.

This has been one of my best weeks so far this semester.