Weekend Update

Good Morning J

(I wrote this post over a few different days, so sorry if it’s a little confusing J)

It’s Saturday, at about 6:45 am and the sun is up, so I might as well be too.  It’s going to be a hot one today… I woke up sweating already, so this can’t be a good sign.  But my body just has to get used to it, that’s all.  So, it’s been a big week, and was officially my last full week of student teaching.  This coming week we have a holiday on Monday, called Heritage Day.  Then the four day school week follows, with Friday being the end of the third quarter.  Then comes a week break for students and teachers, and I leave from the airport on that Wednesday night.  Wow.

Friday:

We had a short day of school, knocked off at 12pm.  Since the holiday is coming on Monday, they let students out early so they can have a long weekend in case they are going to travel.  So I headed back and was home by 12:30.  This was great, but I actually would prefer to be at school for a full day.  Sometimes it seems that time here at home can crawl by.  So when we got here, I asked Ronewa if she wanted to head into town with me.  So despite the intense heat, she walked down with me to the taxi and we went to Louis Trichardt for the night.  When we got there, we had a good few hours left before all the shops closed, so we went looking around.  Now, I do enjoy shopping, but not enough to want to do it for hours on end, so by the end, I was very tired.  Ronewa had fun trying to convince me to buy crazy things, but I again left with nothing.  Most shops are fairly Americanized, and yes, the prices are a little cheaper, but there was nothing really that I thought was a necessity.  As far as gifts go, again, there really was nothing, so I apologize to you all.  But then we headed to find a taxi, since it was starting to get dark.  But what did we pass on the way to the taxi?  That’s right, a pizza place.  So in we went, and I bought us a tiny pizza, a triple decker, with none other than chicken.  So it was actually pretty good, but chicken is starting to turn my stomach funny, so I couldn’t eat too much of it.  But it came with choice of “cold drink,” so I picked Coca-Cola light, pretty close to Diet Coke, and I was a happy woman.  Then I sat in the taxi with Ronewa, eating pizza, drinking pop (not to be confused with the water and cornmeal thing we eat every single day, Pap), and listening to some traditional African music with an accordion in it (along with a guy in the seat behind me playing an old school Mario gameboy).  It was pretty great.  Then I got off alone at my stop and Ronewa kept going to spend the night at her aunt’s house.  So I walked up the mountain in the dark alone.  And I was pretty confident.  The stars were amazing and it was a nice little walk.  The neighborhood is very safe, so I was comfortable.   I found out later from Ronewa that the 3 ladies in the front seat of the taxi were amazed that a white girl was getting off from the taxi alone, and they couldn’t believe I had actually said a word in Tshivenda.  It was funny to me J.

Saturday:

Well, I woke up early and then just relaxed for the morning.  Then at 9 am I bathed and started to get ready for the day.  I actually curled my hair today, since I found out that one of the girls here has a curling iron.  I asked if they had one and explained what it was, and they respond, “OOOH a thong!  Yes, we have one.”  Well, I officially had to do something I never thought I would ever do in my entire life.  I asked to borrow someone’s thong, a hot thong, might I add.  Oh dear.  Then I curled my hair, put on some nice clothes, and even a tiny bit of make-up and was ready for the day.  The girls’ responses were pretty funny, they don’t see me like this ever.  But then the parents came back from town and we headed to Joice’s sister’s 60^th birthday party.  They invited me along, and I decided it would be fun to experience something new.  So we headed out about an hour away to a town called Thohoyandou (try and sound out that one J its toy- ahhnd- o).  The drive was breathtaking.  The mountains, forests, lakes, and the tea farm were just beautiful.  When we arrived, we pulled into the parking lot of a very nice hotel.  It’s called the 2 ten hotel, and has a few banquet rooms in a separate building.  We headed into that room, and it looked very much like the set-up for a wedding reception.  We sat at a round table with a good view of the head-table set up on the stage area.  I was by far the youngest person there outside of the grandkids.  But people were fairly kind in saying hello.  The biggest problem was that many of these people, because they are older, do not know English very well.  So I spent much time looking at people, smiling, trying my best to figure out what they were saying to me J.  At least a smile crosses cultural boundaries, right?  Then the kids and the birthday woman, with 4 of her friends, walked in the back door dancing to some music.  Then she went up to the center seat on stage, accompanied by her best friend.  The other three friends sat a little ways down.  There was a fancy cake up front, along with lights and lots of purple fabric and flowers everywhere.  The program showed about 9 different parts, mostly consisting of people coming up and giving well wishes to the woman.  Interspersed between these speeches were times of singing, dancing, and other people coming to the front to talk.  Each of the people who spoke took about 45 minutes… so after about 5 hours, the program was over!  It was soooo long.  Now it helped that between people they cranked the music and danced and cheered and sang and everything, but not understanding a single word made it hard to keep focused.  But after about 3 hours, they started to let us go out and grab food.  There was a great amount of potluck-style food for us, much of it traditional.  It was very good!  And I ate myself full.  Then we ended with custard and fruitcake with juice.  When it was over, we went and looked around the hotel a little.  It’s still being worked on, but has a beautiful view up top! Then came the ride home, got back to the house around 8, and found out I have a roommate now for the next week.  Ronewa’s older sister is here, so I’m trying to adjust to having another big personality in the room J.  This is an adventure for sure!

Sunday:

We headed to church an hour early this morning.  Mr. Sibadela’s brother was getting engaged at church, so he had to help get everything in order.  Now, I am glad I was able to experience this, because marriage engagements are done a little differently around here.  I wish I could just have showed you all instead of trying to explain, but I will do my best.  After about 2 hours of church, things changed up a little.  With music playing and people cheering and dancing, the families came up to the stage; his family on the left and hers on the right.  After some talking, he stepped forward and so did she.  They still were not next to each other or touching at all.  The pastor then talked a bit about each person; how the church has found this marriage to be a good idea, a little bit about their pasts (pretty open), and then that the families have things in order and agree for the wedding.  Then the man takes the ring, given to him by a boy, and then puts it on the woman’s finger and everyone screams and cheers.  I was told that if a ring can’t be afforded, they just find something else to exchange and wait til the wedding for the ring.  But then after the service, all family members go to the bride-to-be’s house for a potluck style dinner.  Now a tent was set up in the street, no problem that it blocked traffic J.  But then the brides family was in that tent, and the grooms family was behind the house.  The two families ate separate food and did not mix.  The bride came over to say hello for a minute, then went back.  I don’t really understand all this, but its kind of fun to see the cultural differences, as well as the westernized ideas that are leaking into the cultural practice as well.  And while I was there, people kept encouraging me to get more food.  They all want me fat, and they laugh whenever they tell me.  Maybe it’s because they see me getting fatter and are proud of their accomplishment, haha.  But then we got back around 4:30 and relaxed the rest of the day.  I went for a short run with Hakhakhi later on and then helped with dinner, then went to bed. 

It’s now Monday morning, and I’m about to head for another run.  Today is National Heritage day, and I would really like to get out and do something different to take advantage of this day.  But we’ll see how everything goes.  But, I hope you all have a good start to your week, and I’ll be in touch as much as I can this coming week!