Village life, language and overcoming segregation

I came home today from a trip to the village Nyandeni in the rural areas of Transkei, pretty close to the town Mthatha. I was there during the Easter weekend together with my friend Mzoli to visit his family. It was a fantastic experience although also a challenge to adopt to some things that happened. I am really grateful for the invite and happy that I accepted it! Village life is surely something very different then life in town and in particular in a such wealthy suburb as I am living in here. There was electricity but no tap water. It was lovely to see how people are social to each other for example by visiting each other as neighbors.

It was sometimes problems to communicate because many people there didnt know English and my skills in their language in their language Xhosa are very limited. I felt bad for not having made a bigger effort to learn more of that language and got motivated to learn as much as possible during the rest of my stay here.

I was very welcomed and became served a lot which made me feel uncomfortable sometimes It is apparently very rare that a white person comes to a village like that. When we went out to a club in town several people greeted me and seemed to be surprised but happy to see me as a white visiting the club. It is incredible and sad how segregated it still is, but somehow hopeful that there can be change if people try to meet each other to try to create understanding and empathy. I think about what I and others could do something similar in Sweden to overcome cultural, socio-economic and/or ethnic borders? Suggestions anyone?

Tonight I and Sabina will start our 16 h long travel with bus to Cape Town. From one trip to another - I try to do the most of the holiday we have now. It feels good that we will stay there as long as five nights. We have not planned much, it feels good to be a little bit spontaneus!

Ps. I would like to publish more pictures but our internet is slow and limited. If I get opportunity I will upload mores and if not I can upload when I come to Sweden. Ds