A day of shopping?

 Earlier this week, a teacher at our school, Mrs. Tandos, asked if she could take us shopping on Saturday. Of course, we agreed and we were very excited to have a day out with her. She is an absolute joy and she is full of surprises. Well, yesterday (26 November) was our "shopping" day. She arrived at 9:30 in the morning with her friend in another car to take us shopping. We piled in the two cars not knowing where we were going. She ended up taking us to a huge mall in Walmer. We had a great time walking around the stores window shopping. We all decided to save our money for the South African street fairs in Cape Town. We thought that we were going to go home after the mall, but little did we know that she had an entire day full of adventures planned for us. 

The next step was lunch at her house! We stopped by the grocery store and loaded up on food for our big lunch. We were so thankful! Her home was absolutely beautiful! She let us make ourselves at home and turned on her favorite music really loud. Mrs. Tandos is a dancer at heart. She never stops moving and singing. She is so funny! Lindsey and I decided to practice our dancing while we waited for lunch. We all ate together and it was wonderful. 

The next part of our day was spending hours driving around going to see the house where she grew up, her friend's home, her friend's friend's home, her mother's friends home, and so on. It was crazy! She told us that she wanted us to experience true South Africa. We got to meet her friends and her family and learn a ton about her life. Also, we drove through locations, which I learned are poorer areas where only blacks live. She told us that if we had driven through there during apartheid we would have been killed. She said that our car would have been mobbed and we would have been stoned. That is how much unrest used to be in the places that we were driving through. My heart broke as she told us what it was like during apartheid. 

I could never imagine the things that happened there... We still got very interesting looks as we drove through the streets that  held so much history. Our last stop was definitely a grand finale for our day... somehow we found ourselves standing at the reception of a traditional South African wedding. It was insane. In America that is one of the most improper, disrespectful, unheard of things that you could do. However, Mrs. Tandos explained to us that it is not like that here. Her and her friend had been invited and they were free to bring any of their friends! She said, "It isn't about who is invited or not, the only thing that would make you upset was if you didn't know about it. Anyone can come!" We were shocked. Everyone at the wedding was dressed in traditional South African dresses and outfits. They were breath-taking! We showed up in shorts, cotton dresses, and t-shirts, while they were dressed in their best beads and dresses.
The wedding was exquisite. We got to learn about so many different parts of a South African wedding and the roles of a husband and a wife in their culture. The people invited us to stay and eat, but the American in us could not sit and eat at a wedding that we were not invited to. I am so thankful that we got to see this beautiful event! This shows you how welcoming and giving these people are! We had an amazing day full of learning and adventures! It went from a shopping day for a couple hours, to a day of adventure from sunrise to sunset.