Bushfire concert

On line at the grocery store...
"Hey mama, how are you?" ::Gentleman in line behind me at the grocery store::
"Fabulous," ::taking out my license and credit card to pay for groceries::
"Oh, you are from the U.S.?" ::Gentleman grabs my license to look at.::
"Yep." ::silence, as I pay for groceries::
"What does this mean?" ::points to the organ donor symbol::
"If I die a horrible death, they get to use my internal organs for other people who need them more. Or they just put less effort into saving me from the horrible death, so that they can use my internal organs."
"... ... oh." ::hands me back my license::

I do wish people would stop addressing by saying "hey mama." It's right up there with "hola mamacita." I know it is meant to be a compliment, sort of, but there is a point where it makes me want to flip people off. (Culture shock much, kate?) But I guess it is one of those things I need to get used to. -- I was not actually trying to be excessively mean to the gentleman, but I was sort of hoping to convey the idea that it was fine if he wanted to talk to me there, but I did not want to be followed once I got out of the store. (Which failed, by the way, but he ended up being harmless.)---

In less culture shocky news, the Bushfire festival was wonderful. It was interrupted on Saturday night by a wicked thunderstorm (more on that in another post, perhaps), and the outdoor portion resumed around 17:00 on Saturday. I think I should go back to this place when it is not set up for the festival, because it looks gorgeous. It was being hosted by "The House on Fire," which has a fantastic looking building, from what I could see of it. It was merged with the stage and vendors, and various other things, so I couldn't quite make out what normally belonged there.

The yard was packed on Saturday, and was decently attended on Sunday, considering the rain. A lot of people came out for it. It turned out that the tickets Sarah had were VIP tickets, so we got to go into a special little fenced-off space with over-priced drinks, decently priced food, and a worse view of the stage than out on the lawn. But it had seats, so that was probably meant to be the benefit. And by Sunday, it was far less muddy than the rest of the area. When we went on Sunday durring the day, I was able to see that the venue was surrounded by sugarcane fields--definitely need to go back later.

So, my new interest?: Zulu-influenced music. I liked quite a few of Johnny Clegg's songs at Bushfire on Saturday, and definitely liked "Acoustic Africa," one of the groups that played on Sunday. There were more performers, but those were the ones that stood out.

I will be meeting with Nkululeko from Fundza at some point today. I had my adventure in public transportation going to meet her at the Department of Education. It was pretty cool, though, as with most public transportation, crowded. Nkululeko and I managed to comically miss each other, so she might be swinging by the house later.

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