Joey's Home-stay Experience

So Katie has talked a lot about her home-stay experience, and a bit about mine, so I thought it would be a good idea to tell a bit about my home-stay experience. As you would already know from Katie's posts, we stayed in a township called Ocean View. I don't remember if Katie explained what a township was or not but i will give a brief explanation. Townships were more or less created when the colonials came in and forced black, colored, and indian people off their land and pushed them to the outskirts of metropoles. When the apartheid began in the 20's, the legislation is what they had already been doing for years. One of the laws was the Group Area Act, which reserved the more developed and prime land for the whites and forced non-whites to the less develop and less prime land. It also made it illegal for non-whites to be in white distinct zones. There is a lot more to it, but it was a very terrible time in South African history, a time that they are still feeling the after shocks of. Though the Group Area Act is abolished, it still is more or less in place because the non-whites don't have the means to get out of the circumstance that the whites created for them many years ago. Anyways, Ocean View is a colored township that we stayed in for 8 days. With the purpose of changing our mindset of marginalized communities. The white people in South Africa would consider where we stayed "ghetto" much like many white americans would consider downtown LA "ghetto". We stayed in a community much like downtown LA to give you an idea. My roommate for the 8 days was my friend Luke. Luke and I stayed with a family of three. Thelma (our host mom), Lantor (our host dad), and Xavier (our host brother). I absolutely loved my time there, it was spent with many laughs and great food! Luke and I picked up on a lot of Afrikaans which is the language that colored people speak. They said we picked it up faster than anyone they have had stayed there. I wish we could have stayed there longer during our time in South Africa because they literally became family. I felt like part of the family, in the short 8 days i became close with not only the Hazell's (my family's surname) but with their parents, grandparents, friends, and cousins. I know that i will always have family in South Africa, and that they will always have family in the United States. They offered to have us stay the second week that we were supposed to stay at the Bible Institute but it would have been more of a hassle  even though i would have really enjoyed it. The Hazell family and friends have truly built a place in my heart, and i look forward to hopefully coming back to visit the family i have made here.