This past weekend we stayed with a host families in Langa. Langa is a township about fifteen minutes away from where we are living. My host mother's name was Priscilla. She lived with her son who was in his twenties and her grandson, Hlomia, who was six years old. The people in Langa are Xosa people. Their language is pretty cool because some letters (such as "x") have clicking sounds. This also makes it a difficult language to learn because you have to integrate the "clicks" into the words. My host mother was so sweet and a great cook! Over the course of the weekend I had her home made soup, a type of porridge called "meali meal", chicken, potatoes, vegetables, beans, and rice. The townships here eat A LOT of meat. As we were walking through the streets, we saw chickens being butchered (which was really disturbing) and meat being cooked right along the street and immediately put up for sale. I also tried sheep liver which I will never do again. Everything was extremely cheap too and almost everyone falls below the poverty line. A result of this poverty is the immense amount of drinking that goes on especially on the weekends. People literally wake up and go straight to the bar and hang out there all day and night. Priscilla had a small house and then several shacks in her yard that she rented out to people. On Sunday we went to church which was a great experience. She belongs to a Baptist church and there was singing and dancing for the majority of the service. The service also lasted two and a half hours!! It was really interesting to see how the township people live. They have it really rough and it's amazing to see most people keep such a positive attitude about life despite their hardships.
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