11 Jan 2006

Dumelang Everyone! 11 January 2006

Hope everyone had a great holidays and is starting out 2006 with a bang! We wish everyone a Merry Belated Christmas and enjoyable new year! With the holidays means lots of family and friends were in town (I guess I should say in village, since we really don’t live in a town). Our two older host brothers came and stayed for a week or two. One is 30 and works in another city and the other is 26 (he is only a few months older) and was moving to Cape Town as part of his Air Force training. Also in town were random sisters (who aren’t really sisters in our the sense of the word), brothers (who aren’t realty brothers), aunts (who aren’t really…), uncles (who aren’t really…), and cousins (who aren’t really…). And with all of them, were all their friends, which I think most of the time they can call cousins because pretty much everyone is somehow related to everyone else, and if they aren’t, they will marry into it!? It was fun to have some of our age people in the village! The reason there are no longer 20-somethings (or at least not more than you can count on your hands and maybe toes) in the village is because most go off to university and see how exciting life is with things to do and never come back unless it is to visit.

Here are the cliff notes of our holiday break!
Two wedding in two days (one was nice and the other was World’s Worst Wedding (WWW))
Violently ill from some food that we ate at WWW’s BBQ
Laid in bed for several days
Christmas BBQ at host grandmother’s house
Trip to Taung for New Year’s to visit some friends
Week of nothing
School starting back up


So as one can see we kept ourselves busy!?

Here is the longer version…

The first event that we had to deal with was two weddings in two days. I am sure that you can sense my excitement here saying that I got to withstand two weddings of people I have never meet over a 48 hour period most of which is in the language that I still can only say my name!? The first wedding was fine because we only had time to go to the reception. This wedding was a friend of our host brothers which we had never meet and probably for that matter never will. It took place on Friday and was actually the first day of their two day wedding (Friday was a white wedding and Saturday was a traditional wedding which we weren’t able to go to.) The reception was nice but one thing about these white weddings is that about 10 people have to give speeches at the reception. When I say have to I mean HAVE to. And when I say speeches, I mean not a little toast to the happily married couple but a short book about anything and everything about the couple and just about life. So you do the math…if at least 10 people give speeches and they are a minimum of 10 minutes long, how long before Thabo gets to eat? Yeah, quite a while. For all you out there that thought I had no patience, one thing I am learning here is PATIENCE….and a lot of it (whether it is the 2 hours of speeches at weddings or the 3 hour church service). But anyways, this wedding was nice and we were only there or 3 hours and I got a good meal out of it.
The other wedding is a whole different story. This wedding involved a cousin, in the literal sense too! So what that means is the wedding event actually started on Thursday for the Saturday wedding. Thursday was slaughtering day, I however was too late in my arrival due to my soccer playing and only saw the carcasses in the tree. There were a total of 5 sheep hanging out to dry. But it turns out that I wasn’t completely out of luck. Friday morning involved getting up and heading over to the next village over where the wedding was to be held. Weddings here are big events but they usually don’t occur at a hall of any kind. The hall is a giant tent which is set up in the family’s yard. So this was the destination for the morning. And to my joyous surprise, they had decided to slaughter 2 more sheep, fearing that the five they had already slaughtered (and one cow!) wouldn’t be enough. So my host brother and I lent a helping hand. No details here…your imagination can run wild. But as everyone was looking for a knife, all they could find was….yes, a dull knife not longer than 3”. (***A special thanks to my aunt and uncle in PA who, I am guessing here, felt some pity for the animal and sent a thoughtful Christmas gift of a knife sharpener! Thanks, I will use with pride and hopefully the animals will feel less in their last moments!***) Once, finished with the skinning of the sheep, it was in the car and off to the wedding (see above). And yes, we went home to change, I don’t slaughter in my Sunday bests.
After the wedding (see above) it was back to the other wedding prepping. Catering here for weddings is also a little different (if you haven’t noticed a trend, most things are the same in a different sort of way). Catering here means that you gather up all the aunts and friends (mostly women) and you stay up ALL night and you cook and cook and cook and cook for a lot of people in GIANT cast iron kettles (that weigh several hundred pounds) over a fire. So all the food is homemade and hence the reason for all the dead sheep! When I say a lot of people, I mean a lot of people. But another different little thing, you can invite all your friends and family totaling 200 but you have to cook for 400. Because the wedding is held in a backyard in the village and since no one is every really doing anything of dire importance, neighbors just show up and they show up in numbers. So you invite 200 and get 400, crazy. Anyways, we didn’t stay all night helping with preparation, but we did stay until at least midnight (which is VERY late in the village)
On Saturday, the wedding itself went a little something like this. Got up and was told we were leaving for the wedding by 9:00 because it started at 10 and our host brother, who was driving, was in the wedding. No problem. Arriving a little late 9:15, we find the bride in hiding, the groom nowhere to be seen and the tent that was suppose to be finished getting decorated last night to still be half done. So since we had nothing to do before the wedding started, we hastily helped organize. After about the fifth time changing everything around, the boss finally liked what she saw. By this time it was 10:30 or 11. I know what you are thinking, you missed the wedding. But no, everyone was just standing around waiting for the groom. YES, the GROOM was LATE to his OWN WEDDING. It still makes me laugh. But 11:00 passes, 11:15, 11:30 (we are now starting to wager on if and what time he will show up), 11:45 (now I am getting concerned because the rations we packed were going to hold out until later afternoon which I was now forecasting we were going to eat.) and finally noon rolls around. But with the clock hitting 12, a car rolls up and the rumors that the groom was actually in it. YEAH! After parading over to the church (thank goodness it was only across the street (street in the sense of the word that cars drive on it not in the sense of a paved road that you are thinking of)) Church was crammed with people but thank goodness there aren’t many white people from the US at the wedding because we get the VIP treatment and actually get a seat. This is a good thing because we have seen home videos and the church service can run on for HOURS. But, to my surprise, along with a lot of others (meaning everyone) the service was only 15 minutes. That is the best part. The worst part involves the late groom looking bored out of his mind with his hand in his pockets for the whole service. Hands in his pocket as the priest reads a prayer and blesses the rings. The groom then proceeds to give his bride the wrong hand to put the ring on. After much commotion, the ring was switched. The 15-minute church service, although nice, was terrible. No vows, no reading, no kiss, and a bored groom! The bride was lovely and always had a smile on her face (by the middle of the day, people were discussing why they were getting married because it didn’t seem like the groom wanted to get married?!)
After church, it was back to the tent and the reception. But the good news came when they were changing the schedule so the food wouldn’t go bad and we would be eating after a few speeches (aka 5!?). After speeches and food, yeah, it was off to the photo shoot at a park. Problem was we got lost going there, oh well, we eventually made it. Photos…nice, then back to the reception to hear more speeches. But a problem arises again when the groom takes an extra hour longer than everyone else to get back. When he finally arrives, they do the traditional wedding with traditional outfits. Neat to see. After some traditional dance, there were more speeches in the tent. And then they read everyone’s gift card out loud. Yes, they opened the envelopes to everyone’s gift and read the cards out to the people sitting in the tent.
This pretty much concluded the reception but there was a late night BBQ for the young people. And being a young person, I was inclined to go. These events were to start at 9pm. I am guessing by the way I have told the story that you are assuming since everything else didn’t start on time that this wouldn’t either. Well, you are correct sir! After waiting for another THREE hours, the party finally started. And for those of you wondering, yes, the groom was late! The party consisted of another 5 speeches (double yeah) and food. All fine and well. We left after nothing very exciting happened at about 2am. According to the accounts from our host brothers that stayed later, the groom eventually got into a fight with the bride which prompted everyone to leave immediately.
Upon arriving home, my stomach started doing somersaults. Subsequently for the next 20 hours I made numerous (at least 12) trips to the latrine! Oh what fun! I now know why they are called the runs. And let me tell you, it isn’t a short run! Don’t worry, I wasn’t the only one affected, Lerato was right next to me the whole time. We were thing of installing a revolving door on our latrine! It was something at the BBQ that hit us.


Andrea Making a Huge Loaf of Bread

Prep work being done on the meat before the wedding


The huge cast iron kettles that cooked the wedding feast



Our host brother and the bride parading to the church


We were glad we had a full week to recover before Christmas. It was about Thursday, when I started feeling better (read when I got my tenacious appetite back!) It was also Thursday that a sheep was tied out back for, you guessed it, slaughtering. And yup, I was a part of it. Although I wasn’t main guy (next time maybe), I did lend a hand. This furry friend was to turn into fire-seared Christmas dinner. Sheep are bigger than turkeys and have fur. This makes them a bit different to slaughter!? But every animal is always new and exciting. My favorite part is the washing of the intestines which involves pouring water in an orifice and then blowing in that orifice to push the water through to the other end. If you don’t know what the orifice is, go back to anatomy class!
Christmas itself was good. Started out with a (long if you ask me and short if you ask anyone here, 2-2 ½ hour) church service. Nice, and I even knew the tune of one of the hymns. Then there was a quick lunch of cold baked beans and fish in tomato sauce on warm bread. Off to grandmother’s house aka the old lady for a big get together of the extended family. The BBQ was a lot of fun and there had to have been 5 or 6 generation of our host family. About 40 people in all. It involved sitting in the shade (which people do a lot because the sun is SO warm). After that a quiet evening of digesting all the food.



Thabo helping at the BBQ stand


The Old Lady, enjoying her company on Christmas


The day after Christmas is also a holiday here and since we didn’t have time to give out presents to our host family, today was the day. Christmas here is a little different to for the fact that a lot of the people don’t have any spare income that they can spend on presents. To some people in the village, it seemed like it was just another day which was kind of disheartening. But we spent a small amount of money on our immediate family for gift because they have been so very gracious to us. And the excitement in their faces, all of them, was well worth the $4-5 we spent on them!
A couple days after Christmas, we hiked a ride to Taung. A village about 80 km away where 4 of our friends are stationed for their two years. These are the same friends that made the trek to our village to celebrate Thanksgiving. After a couple of days of staying at the house (she is living high on the hog with running water, flushing toilets and a bathtub that even I can fit in!) of one of those friends, we headed to a bed and breakfast in a nearby town (yes, not a village!). New Years was spent partying near the pool (go figure, we have been at site for several months and the sun has not stopped shining once) on an overcast and cool (75) day. Not prime weather for one of two days with a pool! But we made the best of it and had a great party that culminated with shopping cart races!


The following week before school starts involved lying around and being the bum that I am!
School is finally back in which means that we are looking forward to our next break which will involve traveling!!! (We will finally be off our travel restriction!) The first two days was without students. And the first school I visited the teachers accomplished NOTHING. They literally sat there and talked the whole day (with the exception of one who I helped work on the computer!). The next day as a little more productive but not very. But the children are finally here and I hope today goes like many others. The teachers were in class most of the day (yeah) and the kids were excited (they are always willing to learn!)
That is about it….its been a while but those are some of the things that have happened to us. I am sure I left stuff out but you’ll have to wait for next time. We should start writing more now that we can get to a computer more.


Happy 2006!