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Published: March 27th 2006
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Sausage Party
These people mean business. What a week! Cape Town and its dynamic surroundings continue to surprise us each day we remain here. The longer we stay the more we seem to be able to explore the cultural nooks and crannies in the socially complex South Africa - this of course is mainly due to the fact that we're being introduced to more of Allison's world here.
The week started off with the two of us accompanying Allison and many of the Educo Africa staff to their "Base Camp" near Porterville (approximately 3 hours north of Cape Town). We keep mentioning Educo but haven't yet explained what it actually is. Here goes: Educo is an outdoor education organization - to quote their newsletter, "Educo provides leadership development through outdoor-based experiential learning". Through the use of the wilderness, challenge activities and group experiences, Educo's courses aim to promote personal development. The courses specialize in running programs that deal with things like HIV/AIDS, life and dealing with death, child/youth care facilitator training, wilderness and leadership for adults and youth....such a wide range of topics so different from one another that if you asked three different staff members to define what the organization does, you might get three
Staff Training
Classroom with a view. different answers. If you would like to know more, their website is www.educo.org.za.
So this past week we and 13 of the staff headed to Base Camp for professional development training (proficiency in leading rock climbing and rapelling/abseiling activities)....we went along to mind the kitchen (Nick called it "the beehive" because there were always at least 10 people hovering about) and to earn our keep. It is amazing how quickly you get to know people when you spend most of your time with them for four days- we had begun as strangers, struggling to put some names to faces, but by the end we felt fairly confident we'd made some new friends. Such a nice feeling to once again have a crowd of friends to joke around with!! And WHAT CHARACTERS these people are! They all come from very different backgrounds - some "black", some "coloured", some "white" (their distinctions, not ours), and so we had some pretty interesting conversations about culture (aka "the C word"). It was during such a dinnertime conversation that we Canadians earned the dubious distinction of being "the confused North Americans", because throughout world history, while everyone was looking for a better way to
Some of our new friends
Allison stands with (from left) Nox, Cole, Linda, Lali and Lerato (kneeling) India and the spices in the east, WE were the only ones who decided to sail west. We decided that they had a point and there was no rebuttal.
Anyways, in case it's not evident we had a fantastic time with everyone and are planning on going back to Base Camp on Friday to volunteer on an actual youth development course (March 31st - April 6th) - yet another opportunity to meet South Africans and hear their stories.
This weekend we had two of our most important cultural experiences here in South Africa: on Saturday we were invited by Allison's neighbours (and our friends) Rob and Jen to a barbecue, or "braai"; on Sunday we were invited to ANOTHER "braai" in the nearby township of Guguletu. You could in fact say that this past weekend was just one big Sausage Party.
South Africans from all walks of life take the braai very seriously - this instantly raised the esteem of the country in Nick's opinion - and each group has its own distinct manner of going about grilling meat. Saturday's braai was a "white braai" - enough meat to feed the five of us, plus some potato
Rob and Braai
Let the games begin. salad, rolls and veggies on the side....much like a Canadian barbecue. However, there is no such thing as braaing with propane here - start the campfire to heat the charcoal and do it RIGHT. Unfortunately this method takes a while and we ended up braaing with head lamps after the sun went down. Nevertheless the meat was delicious and we all had an awesome time getting full.
And on the next day we went to the township of Guguletu, invited by one of the Educo staff members (Mark) to his house for a very different braai. We were warned ahead of time that: a) White braais and Black braais are very different, and b) at the township braai we may experience something called "Smiley". These two statements couldn't have been more true.
One of the biggest differences between the two braais was the meal itself - apparently at a township braai "salads are for sissies"... though the meat was accompanied by a delicious side-dish of "mealy pap" (a traditional, mashed-potato-esque corn substance covered in chili sauce), it was fairly obvious that the colour green was not welcome. Another difference between the two braais was the sheer amount of
meat that was grilled. We've been to butcher shops and meat factories and still have never seen as much meat in one place as on that Sunday night. When first we looked at the grill every inch of it was covered with beef...twenty minutes later we looked again and it was covered with chicken...still later when we glanced over they were coiling what must have been the longest sausage ever onto the grill. It got so bad that at one point it looked as though they were actually grilling meat ON TOP OF meat, and Nick started to worry about wildlife conservation on the African continent. We actually pictured ourselves wearing t-shirts with the slogan "Save the Animals, Stop the Braai" on them.
....and then, when we tried that first juicy morsel of beef fresh off the grill, our t-shirt slogan idea changed to "Screw the Animals, Keep Braaing". In actuality, all the meat was eventually devoured because friends and neighbours continued to arrive until there were about 30 of us.
It was also at this point that Nick opened his big mouth and asked the host Mark "so where's Smiley?". Mark's face lit up and before Nick knew
Mark and friends
Mark is in the centre sporting the white jersey. it, Mark and Nick were off in Mark's car driving down a township street looking for a meat vendor to buy Smiley. "What is Smiley?" Nick asked innocently; Mark replied "Don't worry Nick, you'll love it!".
We pulled up at a street corner, parked the car in front of a woman pushing a shopping cart full of fresh beef cuts, and were pointed in the direction of one stall (of many) along the meat-selling road. And there we found Smiley.
Smiley is a sheep's head that has been chopped in half and cooked (perhaps boiled?). It is called "Smiley because when cooked, the lips pull back, and after chopped in half and displayed facing the customer, all the teeth are visible in a "smile".
Nick has often walked into a coffee shop back home and asked for a muffin to be warmed up, but this was most definitely the first time he had ever asked someone to heat up a sheep's head. We took it back to the house, gave the best piece (the tongue) to the eldest man present as is the custom, and each of us sliced off a piece of the head and ate
"It's a dance-off"
"White Chocolate" meets the "New Beyonce" it. Nick took the first piece offered him (one of the ears) and soon realized he had made a rookie mistake - the ear is totally cartilaginous (surprise surprise) - while Sarah was happily munching on a meaty piece of cheek.
As the night wore on more and more people began to dance and at one point Nick found himself locked in a feverish dance-off with a 5-year-old girl (Mark's daughter Likho) who absolutely destroyed him on the dance floor. Nick claims he lost because he had a bum leg, but Sarah and Allison are skeptical.
All in all it was a wonderful experience in the township, eating and talking with people we otherwise would never have met....and seeing life from a very different perspective.
And so, after having experienced the "white" and "black" braais, we still have yet to experience Trevor's "coloured" braai in order to conclude our comparison.
Tonight we ate fish for dinner.
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Stepsis
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What?!?! No comments yet?! Could it be that people are just speachless at the sight of that sausage? Or maybe the thought of Nick being in a dance-off has frightened them silly. Ah well, keep your eyes on the stats they tell the real story, well almost.