our 1st weekend with the family!

Hello again friends and fam!
So we just had our first weekend at our new homes with our Cato Manor families! My (Stephanie) family consists of a Mama and two sisis Mandisa (16) and Andi (18). Becky’s family consists of a Mama, a bhuti (9) who lives in town with his town, a sisi (14) who goes to boarding school and a malume (uncle, 26) who lives at home. Friday afternoon we all got dropped off and met and shared our gifts from home and started adjusting…
Some of the interesting challenges I (steph) have faced so far include bathing and washing my hair with a bucket of water, and not being allowed to help clean up (yet, they said they will let me eventually). My sisi and mama also asked if I could cook (haha) and demanded to know why not when I said “no”. My mama also told me regardless of my skill or lack thereof I HAVE to cook them dinner. Becky said she’ll help me. Thank goodness. My sisis took me on a walk around the neighborhood on Friday night and I’ve also gone on later walks with both of them which I really enjoy. I think the neighborhood- super hilly with houses everywhere- is gorgeous and I love playing with all of the neighborhood kids. It’s especially beautiful at night when the lights from the houses make it seem as if there are stars in the surrounding hillsides.
On Saturday, Becky and her bhuti and me and Mandisa and 11 other american students/south africa siblings met up at the beach. The waves were SOOOO POWERFUL. I have never fought so hard to a) survive and b) keep my swimsuit on. I also found sand in my ears (and elsewhere) much later in the day and we’re not sure if its completely out of our hair yet. On Sunday, I (Steph) went to church at the Jesus Dome, that’s right the Jesus Dome, with my family. I loved the singing, dancing and shouting out of praises that began the service but the sermon left much to be desired. Afterwards we went to the Workshop which is a complex with tons of outside booths and some inside stores as well. I met up with Becky there and we went grocery shopping. Then back home to do homework and eat dinner and get ready for our first full day of class on Monday. Which I am currently breaking from right now! We’ve begun by learning about S. African history and Zulu. Uyaphi? = Where are you going? That’s your lesson for this update! Hope everything is going great and if you haven’t yet please message me (still Steph) your address so that we can send you a letter or postcard!!!
Its Becky now- Im not sure what else to add except that I’m having a great time. I did washing with my Mama on Saturday and my malume, who was in the backyard trimming the banana branches, teased me saying I wasn’t very good at scrubbing- my mama had to redo what I did. But I could hang the clothes on the line pretty well ;)
Anyways, the suities are overdue for an update! We aren’t the only ones with stories…