Karkloof, Markets, Museums, Spandex, Sibambisene, and a Dance party

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Hello all, I'm taking a break from the sweltering heat of this African summer to do an update of last few exciting things that have happened. I'm going to wait to post this until I have pictures- which means gathering pictures from different people because my camera has still yet to arrive.

Rewinding back to two weekends ago (23/03), I decided to stay in town to relax and stop spending so much money. On Saturday I went on a day trip with Caitlin (from Cali), Kelly, Susan, and James (from South Africa) to Umgeni Worldview and then this area called Karkloof Falls- its a huge river that goes over a couple smaller falls and then one gigantic fall.

Umgeni Worldview is an overlook point, from which you can see all of Pietermaritzburg (PMB is the city that I am in, but it is really the name for this whole area, my address is Scottsville, PMB). This was pretty impressive and we walked around for a bit, waitin for James to get off work.

We met back at Susans house in Hilton, grabbed lunch from a supermarket, and then headed to Karkloof. We spent the day swimming in the river and lounging. The climax of the day was when I was coerced to jump off one of the waterfalls (not the huge one, that one isn't for jumping. or, it might be for jumping, but not if you plan on swimming away afterward). This jump was plenty big (about 25-30 feet) and I refused at first. Then James did it, and I still refused. Then Kelly did it and they were waiting for me at the botton, and Caitlin and Susan was waiting for me at the top and I just held my nose and pushed myself over the edge. It was slightly terrifying but mostly fun (once it was all over). The rest of the day was more of the same, lunch, and back to the campus in the evening, after Caitlin and I refused many attempts to bring us out to a club, we were exhaused after the day.

The next day Caitlin and I had plans to check out a local market and art museum. We met at Breah Ahead (bakery) and ran into my ceramics professor, Juliet. I asked her if she knew where the market was and she offered to drive us there (not creepy, shes really nice). And we said yes and told her we planned on doing the art gallery next and she said she would show us where that was first, then come back and drop us off. And then Juliet decided to give us a driving tour of the city, showing us the important and interesting buildings, architecture, hotspots, etc- then dropped us off at the market (which was along the banks of the Duzi river, where it crosses Durban/Alan Paton Rd).

The market was low key and fun. The vendors had some african crafts, really cheap and good chinese food, some other food stuff, and random booths with crappy looking dollar-store products. After that we went to the Tatham Art Gallery- which is the free gallery in town, a short walk from the market. The gallery has alot of african art- some traditional and alot of contemporary. Juliet has a piece in the ceramics section which was good, but I hoped there would be a larger sculpture/ceramics section. Especially since its free, the gallery was definitely worth the trip, I plan on going back when I have a camera again.

I had found out the week before about a big annual party that would be on wednesday of the upcoming week. The Rowing and Canoe team holds alot of parties down at the Krusty Crab boat house, where they hold practices. This party was a Spandex Party with KY Jelly wrestlying and so, obviously, we could not miss it. There were about 8 of us americans who wanted to deck out in spandex (most of us anyway) and go; since it wasn't within walking distance, we called two cabs and headed out by 9:30pm (the party was supposed to start at 8, but what kind of party actually starts at 8?). Well, apparently, in South Africa, unlike in America, parties actually do start on time and when we arrived the party was in full swing.

There was, as promised, an inflatable swimming pulled with a layer of KYJelly at the bottom, and many very drunk guys wrestling in it. Or, trying to wrestle, and falling over (it is unclear whether the falling was instigated more by the KY or the booze). We grabbed drinks and mingled at the party- Kelly Susan and James were there, as well as a few other kids that I recognized from my Ceramics class. I have included a picture of four of us who were decked out in Spandex and have chosen to omit pictures from the rest of the evening- but, beware, they exist. The rest of the party was fun, I met a few people, was dragged prematurely into the KY pool (I was planning on going in but was lifted up and dropped in before I had the chance to go willingly) and some mayhem ensued. When we were ready to go, we called cabs, took them home, and then walked away quickly when the cab driver looked in the back seat and started asking why we were 'wet'.

Next up was this past weekend (01/03), which started on Saturday with a trip to a local township with a university volunteer group Sibambisene (working together). We were going to a local saturday school for the first time to see if we wanted to continue going there on a biweekly basis. The school is called "(look this up)" and is a Saturday School for local children to come to with homework or just to get help with english. Many of the kids learned a little english but are mostly taught in Zulu, which will make transition to high school and/or university very difficult, as there are no all zulu universities. Some are taught in english by teachers who do not fully understand english and so are further confused. The woman who runs it is trying to rebuild the school into a set curriculum, though she runs it by herself, and right not will help the older kids with work and plays english games or watches english movies (Bob the Builder and Barney) with the younger kids. Most of them were 5-10, only a handful were highschool age.

We had a great time watching movies and playing with the kids- they got a kick out of our digital cameras (well, not mine. someone else is getting a kick out of mine) and we got a kick out of getting them to show us their dance moves. Though it started off a bit awkward, the shyness went away and we were wrestling in no time. I think we will most likely choose to go back and, if we do, we will probably establish a bit more of a structure to help the kids.

That night there was a big event on campus, a huge dance party at the Student Union, DJed by one of the most popular DJs in South Africa: DJ Bongz. The party was huge, really crowded and hot, the security had to close the doors and a line formed outside, but Caitlin, Lauren (from NJ), and I did finally manage to get in and it was pretty fun. I quickly assumed the role as 'sleezy guy repellent' and one by one (practically) every guy in the club would come up one of them and dance too close for comfort and I would be used as the mock-boyfriend-character until the guy would go away and then it would be done until the next guy came (and I swear a line was forming for a while). Despite this, it was really fun and definitely cool to be on an african dance floor (sorry, but it might just be true about white men and dancing, myself included- because people here can really dance).

Sunday (yesterday) I went with the guys ('the guys' refers to some or all of anthony, tarrent, ben, and scott- the california guys who hang out all the time and are known as 'the guys' or 'the boys') and Caitlin to another local market- this one was a lot bigger but with a whole lot more of the same. I got a sweet thumb ring and a small paiting of african drummers. We walked around a bunch, the heat was pretty intense, and so we got ice cream (they have dip n dots but call it minimelts) and sat in the shade for a bit.

This concludes my update, I hope you enjoyed. Soon I'm going to write something up on daily life here- about classes, dorm life, racial stuff, and other things that are always present but I don't include in the stories (i.e. the spandex party was 100% white south africas and the dance party was 100% black south africans, except for us). There is also alot to say about what is going on here politically and how it has been to hear about the news from two perspectives (the white and black) because I have friends that are in both groups.

Zulu words of the day:
Easy word:
Isilima = Fool, idiot
Medium word:
mfowethu = brother
Hard word:
iqanda* = egg
*The 'q' is one of the letters that reprents a click-soung (they dont have a the q (kyu) sound that we have). The q is made by bring the tongue to the top of the mouth and smacking it down- its like a pop and a smack at the same time. I can't really describe it any better than that.

mark

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Photos

Proud Spandexed-Med
(R to L) Ben, Anthony, Me, and Tarrent.
This is all the spandex that will be shown on this website, I don't want to get kicked for uploading inapproriate pictures.

Sibambisene
This is me with nfunda (or many mfunda, I'm not sure), a boy who goes to the school. And a great dancer.