impilo yasemakhaya

I'm short on time -- this is a quick trip back to the university from our rural home stay -- but wanted (defiantly, despite the constant complaints about the Zulu lessons) to provide you with some necessary context for the longer posts to come. So here are some words that have proved incredibly useful over the past two weeks, words that will eventually help you to understand my experience:

1. gidlabeza: to be lavish, as with food (i.e. to pile somebody with a giant plate of food that they will almost assuredly be unable to eat)

2. phelezela: to accompany (as in, it's incredibly dark out here, and you white people will almost assuredly get lost, so let me send some of these kids to phelezela you home)

3. hlangabeza: to collect/bring back (as in, it's incredibly dark out here, and you white people will almost assuredly not be able to find your way back home, so we will come and collect you and bring you home)

More to come, hopefully next week while we're in the road in northern KwaZulu. Until then...nisale kahle!

p.s. The title of this post, impilo yasemakhaya, translates literally as "life [impilo] of homes [amakhaya]," but amakhaya is used to mean rural areas -- because, as a result of industrialization/urbanization, many folks now live in cities but still refer to the rural area(s) from which they came as home...