Maria on "Living Rich"

I recently went on a homestay in Ocean View, where I stayed with a wonderful family from Thursday evening to Sunday afternoon.  The history of this formally "coloured-classified" township is a story all too familiar to the people who were oppressed under apartheid.  The government forced people who were classified by the government as anything other than white out of their homes, demolished their houses, built up new structures, and sold the new homes to only whites at inflated prices (see my blog about the District Six Museum).  When they got there, they had nothing and had to start over completely in a whole new place that was very far away from their jobs, if they were lucky enough to still have them.  After a 20-minute walk, a 45-minute train ride, and another 15 minutes on a minibus taxi, we finally arrived in Ocean View and realized just how far residents were displaced.  The distance alone was an intentional and methodical factor in the process of keeping people down, let alone the brutal forced removal from the homes they had occupied all their lives.  I heard stories from my host family about their elderly parents who desperately tried to stay in their home and save it, but they were threatened and had to leave or their homes would be torn down around them.  Even today, the difference between typically white and coloured and black areas are obvious, and blatant evidence of  the legacy of an unjust and oppressive government and society.

This weekend, I learned about hard work, I learned about sacrifice and making the most out of everything, I learned what gatsby sandwiches are and how delicious they are, I learned about the value (and necessity) of a good sense of humor, I learned about the importance of laughing (and the importance of crying), and I learned about generosity and openness beyond imagination.  I learned about community, togetherness, family, and love.  It was the most "at home" I've felt since I got here in Cape Town, and I've never enjoyed hugging so many strangers, who didn't feel like strangers at all.  I can't wait to go back and visit my family - my home away from home away from home.

As my beautiful host mom taught me, "You don't need to have money to live rich."