Friday morning I woke up and saw the sun, so I got my suit and sunscreen on figuring I would wait for a friend’s call on the roof. Right as I was about to go up, my friend, Cindy, called to go shopping. Our plan was to go dress shopping in Central, so I donned some more appropriate shopping clothing and walked next door. Cindy has a car, so we ran a few errands firs and went to Central.
Just some background on Cindy, she is Dutch and studied at NMMU two years ago. She met, Marvin, her Zimbabwean boyfriend on her first trip here, went home to Holland to finish her studies and work, and moved back down here to be with Marvin and continue her social work career. She is the setter on our volleyball team and lives in the building next to ours.
In Central, we picked through some interesting shops and I found a dress shirt with a very African patter, a few gifts, and a dress. Cindy found some dresses as well, and it was so fun to hear her say, “Oh Marvin is going to love this one.” Although I find it important to be happy with one’s own choices and appearance, it was charming to hear her become so excited to show him her new outfits.
After shopping, I went home for a while before Lauren, the team captain, came to get us for the volleyball social at one of the club houses on campus. I was impressed by the clubhouse, because we don’t have them at CSB, but I imagine some universities have them. It had a bar, braai pits, in-ground pool, lots of tables and chairs, and a courtyard. We met the men’s community team, volleyball board, athletic director and some of the spouses and girlfriends of those people. We had fun joking, dancing, talking, and eating wursts. Fabian, one of the board members offered to take us out in Korsten, one of the colored locations, next week. Others want to throw a farewell party for us on one of our last weekends. It was nice to be received so well and it was fun to observe the dynamic of the group in which Americans were a minority. Many times when the mass of Americans from Langerry go to a club, rather than observing South African culture, we become the object of attention. One of the funniest points of the evening was when Sonki, a black team member, made the bold joke that “coloured people just dance funny.” Her comment became a dance challenge against Fabian and it was a fun show to watch.
After the volleyball social, the other American girls went home to get a good night of rest before Case Day, but I decided to join Cindy and Marvin and go out for a while. We went back to their flat for a while, and went out near Langerry at 12:30. We went to Gondwana where Marvin saw many friends from his program at NMMU (Accountancy) and through Zimbabwean connections. We danced the night away meeting lots of people who I felt safe with because of their connections to Cindy and Marvin. We finally went home at Cindy’s request around 3am.
I got up in time to go to the New Afro Teens concert at the cricket stadium in St. George’s park at 10. The New Afro Teens are a 10-member jazz band compiled of teens from the townships (aka. locations). The setting was a family day for a big company and there were children running around with balloons tied around their wrists and face paint. No one was shy to begin dancing to the concert and there was a huge crowd of women moving their shapely bodies to sax, trumpet, guitar and bass improvisations while Cindy and I observed and tapped our feet. One would think that there is an actual gene for dancing in Africa.
We thoroughly enjoyed the concert and made our way to the car right before a great downpour of rain and headed back to our respective flats for some rest before an evening of dancing at a private party hosted at Coco de Mer. I came home to a completely empty flat, which is always noteworthy. I basked in the silence for a while and then called Ali for a much-needed sister talk. Shortly after, my flatmates came home from a shopping trip to Central and we chilled for the afternoon. Laura and I made banana bread, and Taylor and I made stuffed peppers!!!
While we were making dinner a Langerry temporary resident named Eric, stopped by and wanted to know if he could come in. He says hi to different members of our flat each day, and Taylor allowed him entrance. As I listened to the conversation from the kitchen, I gleaned that he was an interesting guy who was obviously a few drinks into his night. He told us about what he was doing in PE and where he’s from. When the peppers went into the oven, I came to talk and he was convinced that I could speak Afrikaans and refused to believe otherwise. He claimed that he thought we were all South Africans and would know Afrikaans. I opted out by calling a Johnnie from next door, Kevin over and told Eric, our guest, that Kevin knew Afrikaans. Eric’s jokes and commanding conversation was entertaining for a while. But we painstakingly got him out of our flat after he was rude to some guests who came over, Vusa and Arnold. Eric immediately became jealous when he wasn’t the only male in the room, and we told him that if he wanted to stay he needed to be respectful to everyone in the flat including our guests. That wasn’t making a lot of sense to him, but we got him out in time to make room for Cindy and Sisonki (aka. Sonki a girl from VB) who came to get us for the party at Coco de Mer.
All of us walked to Coco where friends of Marvin were throwing a party (I’m embarrassed to say I don’t know the occasion). It was a slow start, but after an hour we each had our one pretty drink for the night (it's too hard to dance with a martini), the bouncers moved the pool tables to make more room to dance, and the first DJ started with songs that I knew from back in the day of my R&B music time. (For those of you who have had the privilege of watching Save the Last Dance with me, the first DJ’s mix sounded like a sound track from that movie. I was in dance-heaven.) We met more of Marvin’s friends and Vusa’s friends and broke the dancing up by taking a breather in the cool of the night to talk and get to know some people. It seems to me that sarcastic mumblings I’ve heard about Zimbabweans taking over South Africa could be true. Many of the friends I have met at NMMU or out at clubs are Zimbabwean, and everyone I met, except two people, on Saturday were from Zim.
We left the club around 2:30 and walked some friends home, arriving in time for a 3:45 bed time. I was grateful to have seen some good fun at clubs in the area, and I am starting to recognize people when I go out. There is definitely a sense of belonging when one can go out and recognize friends. I'm falling asleep after all this writing, so talk to you again soon.
Peace.
Wow. Sounds like a fun time and quite an experience.
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