Life is meant to be simple. That is the theme of what I learned from this weekend.
CIEE does this amazing weekend where they pair students with local families in townships outside of Cape Town. I had the opportunity to chose between three townships where I would be placed with a family for the weekend: Langa, BoKapp and Grabouw. I have been lucky that I have spent time in both Langa and BoKapp, so I was interested in getting to know a bit about Grabouw because I figured an opportunity to go back would be rare.
Grabouw is a farm town, the agricultural hub of South Africa, about an hour from the heart of Cape Town. It is filled with miles and miles of beautiful open green spaces, mountain rages, and a plethora of apple farms which is home to the popular Appletiser drink. This is basically sparkling apple cider J but all of the beautiful apples that are transported all over Southern Africa originate from these farms.
We arrived Friday night and were welcomed by an African dancing and singing performance at the primary school. They then brought all the host families and the students together for a community dinner. I ate delicious vegetarian food and got to know a few of the families sitting around me. I really used it as an opportunity to learn about another culture and way of life.
After dinner I met my “host mom and day.” They were a coloured couple aged 68 and 70, Joey and Anita. I was randomly placed with one of my best friends, Meg, and another new friend named Shayna. They welcomed us into their home with extremely open arms.
The weekend was filled with everything that I really needed. It was filled with home cooked meals, long talks along the table from the Apartheid movement to American pop music culture, movies, relaxing and beautiful sights.
When we arrived Friday we spent the night getting to know one another. I spoke of my family and reasons for wanting to come to Cape Town, and they shared confidently their old family photos—smiling with each page of the photo book we turned.
Saturday we woke up early to a delicious home cooked breakfast and then made our way to the primary school where we painted murals to make the walls beautiful for the children. It was so nice to give back in that way and I honestly really missed being artistic like that. Joey picked us up in the afternoon and we drove all over the apple farms and into the mountains, which were so beautiful. I will not fully be able to explain it. Anita cooked a huge dinner that night and invited over 4 of her best friends to meet us in addition to her daughter Nadia and her grand daughter Amber. It was really nice to be at a dinner table with home cooked meal surrounded by love and family. Sunday was a day of relaxation as well. We slept in and did a nice walk around the surrounding areas. The income inequality in this town parallels with the rest of South Africa. There is a huge gap between the rich and poor where some houses were mansions and others were shacks. Interesting. We finished the stay with another amazing meal from Anita. It was sad saying goodbye, but so nice to have an experience. The whole point was just to live and do what they would do in their day-to-day life and it was so nice. I also feel so lucky to be be able to have shared that experience with meg.
What I took in terms of health and aging is the value that a simple life style can have in terms of total well-being. They lived the majority of their life on a remote apple farm, only moving to the home they are in now three years ago. They lived far from modern civilization and their life is so so simple, rid of the complications of modern westernized society. Both of them are in great health and we spoke openly about this. In their early 70s they have no health complications and seem to be really relaxed from living the life that they have. It made me realize the importance of living close to nature also and how that can affect mindfulness and positivity as you age. They just need their family and environment to be happy. It was really humbling and makes me want to simplify more.