Haven’t updated my blog in a while but I haven’t really done anything interesting in a while either and I don’t want to bore you all with my day to day life that bores even me and I’m the one living it! Well really it was just this week that was boring because classes took up all my time during the day and reading, studying and researching for classes took up all my time at night. But that it past me now and I have just returned from a crazy night in JoBurg, for those of you who are still not familiar with the lingo here JoBurg is Johannesburg! Well let’s back up a bit to Friday night. Every Friday we, the exchange students of Tuks Dorp have a Braai, after all it is Braaiday Friday! So at the Braai I was sitting with Luc, Niels, and Julian discussing the rest of the weekend. You see Lay Kuen, Caitlin, Nathan and I were all planning on going to the South Africa vs. Egypt soccer match in JoBurg the next night and I had mentioned it to Luc to see if he was interested in joining. Well he was neither here nor there about it so I of course continued to pester him about it [these are the ways of Sedelle]. He then decided that I could no longer play Plants vs. Zombies on his iPad if I mentioned the game or night in JoBurg to him, Niels, or Julian for the rest of the night. This was a big deal! I couldn’t ruin my chances of playing PvZ, the game is too awesome! So I made the deal with him. Well bad timing on my part, because Julian and Niels then decided to attack me in claiming that I am stealing Nathan away from them. You see Nathan and I have pancakes [American Style] every Sunday. I deal is he makes the pancakes and I provide the ingredients and clean their kitchen while he is making them [the cleaning part was added later because I don’t like just sitting around in the kitchen while he is making the pancakes, I need to do something as well]. Well Luc and Jeff have never made a peep about me being there on Sundays because they wake up early enough to get whatever leftover pancakes we make but cannot finish ourselves, and they get a clean kitchen. So I refrained from talking about the plans of the next night and don’t worry Alex Liebrecht I can still play PvZ!
*Random question about PvZ for anyone reading that may know, can your plants in your Zen garden die if you have been away from it too long and have not watered them?*
Then after the Braai we all went out because it was Cath’s last night in town before she left to go home. We went to Aandklas and Luc and I dominated the Foosball table going undefeated and having a great laugh about it! Then we moved to another bar, well everyone but four of us. Luc and I got stopped by some guy that Luc almost kicked in the face while trying to trip me but the guy didn’t want to fight in fact he wanted to buy us a drink, but we were heading the other way. When we got to the bar that all the others we waiting for us in, we couldn’t get in because the guard outside said it was closed. Julian came out of the bar and tried to talk to the guard saying that we weren’t going to order any drinks but that the rest of our group was in there and we just wanted to stay together. Well the guard was looking for a fight even though Julian wasn’t so we all left. Then we ended up in DropZone. Luc and I made a deal that we would leave at 3:00 because I had to get up very early the next morning. 3:00 came around and Luc had just ordered another drink, so it was now, after this drink we’ll leave. Well I really had to get up early and didn’t want to go to DropZone in the first place so I left with Caitlin and Lay Kuen [that is why you should never trust a Dutch Pinkie Swear!]
The next morning I woke up to Caitlin yelling in my window from the grass below my room. My alarm did not go off and I was going to be late for the bus to Mamelodi where we were putting on a camp for the children there. I threw on the first pair of shorts I saw and the first shirt and threw my hair up into a messy bun on top of my head. I grabbed my bag threw my cell phone and keys inside and ran to the bus. I got there in plenty of time; we actually sat around waiting for a while.
Once we got to Mamelodi I found my classroom that I was going to be spending the day in. All of the other volunteers were assigned to groups of kids and went from station to station with the same group all day. But I was assigned to a station, the music station. I was to spend the entire day teaching all of the kids a song that was written for them by kids in England to raise money for Mamelodi. I was also to make up and teach them dance moves to go along with the song because we were going to record them singing it for a video that the organization was making back in England. The day went by quickly and the kids were wonderful. The song was a lot of fun to sing and dance to with them. I was pretty much horse by the end of the day but it was totally worth it to see the smiles on those kids’ faces.
When we got home from Mamelodi we were rushed to get ready for the soccer match and get to JoBurg. Caitlin and I had Iris paint the South African Flag on our faces, as we had seen a picture of a guy with his face painted this way the first day we arrived here and decided that day that we were going to do it too!
! The four of us that were going to the game rushed to get a minibus to Bosman Station. We got one and they dropped us off about four city blocks from the station. We walked through a tiny, smelly, nasty alley to get to the station and when we came around a bend in the alley we were faced with about twenty black men drinking and smoking goodness knows what. As soon as I came into view, for I was leading the group, they all turned toward me. They saw my painted face, as well as Caitlin’s as she came around the corner as well, and started talking to us. We both stopped dead in our tracks and turned toward Lay Kuen and Nathan. We both said “We’re scared” because we thought that we would have to walk past those guys to get to the station. Then I saw it, the exit. It was before the spot where the guys were standing. I went for it and the others followed. We found a guy directing traffic in the station and asked where we could get a minibus to JoBurg. He pointed to a man walking away and said to follow him.
The Minibus played Celine Dion as we drove to JoBurg [David Summers and Dana Disteldorf I thought of the two of you immediately]. We were dropped off in JoBurg two blocks away from Park Station where we were to meet up with Moosa, our friend who lives in JoBurg. We finally met up with him and started walking to the game because the trains were no longer running due to the hour of night. We walked through Hillbrow to get to the stadium, which we were later informed is the second most dangerous place in the world. There was never really a point in the night where I was scared I was going to get mugged or anything like that [I think the fact that Caitlin and I had our faces painted obviously for the game, and Caitlin had a South Africa soccer jersey on helped us even though it gave us more attention] except at one point I turned into Mother Hen because two guys who “helped” us get to the stadium were asking for money saying that they had worked and needed to be paid. Well Moosa had already paid them both and they were coming to the rest of us. They were getting really physical about it too. One tried to grab my water bottle and tried to get into my purse. Also since there were two of them they would sandwich you pushing you into the one on the other side. When they started grabbing Caitlin’s hands and pulling her back away from the group I turned into Mother Hen and yelled at them to leave her alone. I gave my best “I mean it” look and grabbed Caitlin away and started walking quickly away from them. We got to the stadium without much more hassle from them or anyone else.
The game itself was a bit boring because the teams were pretty evenly matched. There were no big goals or anything. It was “just a couple of goose eggs” [if you can comment on this blog with which movie this quote is from I will bring you something back from South Africa, but not a lion sorry they don’t sell those]. No one scored the entire game until 17 seconds after the three minutes of stoppage time had run out. South Africa scored a perfect shot. It was beautiful, looked like a masterpiece. Everyone erupted into cheers and dancing. The crowd went literally wild!
After the game we had to walk through Hillbrow again to get to our cars but there were more than twice as many of us now. Moosa’s friends had joined for the walk back. We went back to Moosa’s place and painted Nathan and Moosa’s faces with the flag as well.
Then we went out to a bar, but no one was really in the mood to party or drink because Lay Kuen, Caitlin and I had all been up since early and were running on only a few hours of sleep. After one drink we went to a pizza place and chilled talking to random people for a while as we ate our pizza. Then back to Moosa’s and to bed. Caitlin, Lay Kuen and I all snuggled up together in one bedroom, while Moosa was in his and Nathan was on the futon/couch thing.
The next morning we all woke up around 10:00 [well Nathan woke up at 8:00 then dozed for a bit between then and 10:00, goofy kid]. Moosa was bringing us back to Pretoria but first we were all pretty hungry. So we decided to eat at Wimpy but couldn’t get a parking spot. So we went to the Wimpy in Hatfield and parted ways after lunch. All in all it was a great night and I can say that I survived the second most dangerous place in the world and am fine with never going back!
Coming soon: Another weekend in JoBurg!
Peace, Love, and Jesus
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