So, over the past few days I have noticed the difference between the States and South Africa. Maybe it is the fact that I live in a 1st world country and here the 1st and 3rd world run together. On Friday while I was at school teaching my 1st lesson, I heard what sounded like fireworks, about 5 or so loud pops. Being from America, I would assume it to be black cats or something that happened to explode in the science classroom. Little did I know that it was a shootout between 8 armed robbers and the police. I guess the men had robbed a butchery, traveled along the same route that I take to school (just 2 hours after me) and ended up being killed by the police. I am not sure how close it actually was to my school, but close enough for me to hear. Two bystanders also got shot along the way.
The next ‘difference’ was on Friday night. We were driving to the cricket game when we saw two mothers and their sons walking along the side of the street. All of a sudden the women started fighting and beating each other up. The children were right there and started to join in after a few seconds. No one really stopped to help because they would have been beaten up in the process. I was glad that the robot (traffic light) was green and we didn’t have to see how it ended.
The last ‘difference’ is actually at my school. On Saturday night I went to a 40th birthday party for a teacher at school. She rented out the school to have her party. I was taking a walk towards the tennis courts with another teacher and she showed me the ‘house’ where the grounds staff sleeps during the week. I guess that prior to apartheid every ‘worker’ had a small room in which to live. I think that it is just enough space for a bed, toilet and sink, even though no one has ever really been down to look at the rooms. Today, most of the grounds staff sleep there during the week and then they go home on the weekends. Not all of them sleep there, some go home every night. It was very interesting and culturally normal for South Africa.
