Some weekends, I spend making lesson plans,
catching up on sleep, and reading. Other weekends, though, are jam packed with
events, and visits from friends. This weekend was one of those busy weekends.
Once work ended, I meet up with another Peace Corps volunteer and we ventured
back to my house. A little after we got home, I started up the braai, and
successfully started a fire! We cooked some wors (sausage) and made some (instant)
mashed potatoes. I have no problem bragging about my first successful braai.
The next day, we woke up early (6am on a non
school day!) and went for a hike through the game reserve. As we wandered
through the game reserve, we saw nyala, impala, tons of birds, and zebra. No
matter how often I go into the game reserve, every time I see an animal it is
incredible.
After cooking some breakfast from the left
over braai meat, we got ready for the Orlando Pirates -
Polokwane City match in the Peter Mokaba Stadium. The Peter Mokaba
Stadium is a stadium from the 2010 World Cup games. Although the game was in
Polokwane, the stadium was packed with Pirates fans. I only saw a handful of
people wearing Polokwane City jerseys. There were actually more people wearing
Kaizer Chiefs' jerseys, and they weren't even playing! In reality there are only two big teams in
South Africa, and those are the Kaizier Chiefs and the Orlando Pirates, and
everyone in South Africa chooses a side. Since the first game I went to was the
Chiefs – AmaZulu game, my team became the chiefs.
As the game was winding down (Pirates were
winning 2-0), we quickly walked to the taxi rank, so that we would make it to
the camping grounds before it got dark.
Taxi ranks are also full of surprises. From friendly faces, to people
trying to sell you skunk (week) to waiting an hour for the taxi to arrive. This
time, the taxi took about thirty minutes to show up, then we had to get gas,
and finally the taxi driver decided to have a ten minute conversation before
heading to Tzaneen.
About thirty minutes into the taxi ride, was
our destination on the right. To say you’re getting off (before the next taxi
rank), you would say the name of the street, after robot (light), at spur (a
grocery store), etc. After asking for our street, we clobbered off the taxi,
and met up with our friends who were a mix of host country nationals and Peace
Corps volunteers. The host country nationals drove us all to our camp ground
where we found the rest of our friends still attempting to set up our ten
person tent. As the tent got set up, we drank some beers, ate some food, and
caught up in everything that has happened since the last time we saw each
other.
Once it was time for bed, we all snuggled
together. Although the days are hot, the nights are still extremely cold. I
think I only got two hours of sleep that night due to how cold it was. Every
time I rolled over I found a new cold patch, and the hat I was wearing kept
coming off. Somehow in the middle of the night, Laura and I traded hats.
The next morning we woke up and got ready to
go to Minas, which is a Food and Art Festival that was a five minute walk from
our camp grounds. We ate burritos, pizza, gourmet hamburgers, cheeses, sushi,
tapas, and all those other good things that we haven't eaten since being in The
States. We also got to sip on beer that wasn't black label or castle light (the
equivalent of drinking Natty Light in University). As the day wore on, we began
to run into local friends. Luckily one of them is also a teacher, and offered
to drive me home that night, so that I wouldn’t have to take a taxi back home
that night. As the night calmed down, Holly and I drove home. We chatted about friends,
teaching, about bars closing, and new clubs, boys, and all the delicious food
we ate. Neither of us was excited about having to go back to teaching the next
day.
Pictured: Hanging out with other PCVs!
Pictured: Hanging out with some of my local friends.
Have fun!
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