Jonathan Field - Maker of Random Stuff

Sophie and I take a slower start and stop by a little coffee shop near the Pick & Pay for breakfast. It’s run by an Afrikaner lady and features a broad menu for such a small place. I get a “Tiger” breakfast, which is similar to the “Full English Breakfast” that is common here. Sophie gets an omelet. We also order cappuccinos. Everything is excellent.

We head over to the Siyabonga school to meet up with the rest of the team. Though I haven’t been there since very early on, I manage to find it without a problem thanks to some good directions. The dirt road leading in is, as we were warned, very bumpy. There are ruts that could swallow a child.

Though I’ve been warned not to pick up hitchhikers, we come across a young boy walking along towards the school, which is a good ways in. He is carrying a Kentucky Fried Chicken bag. We offer him a ride back to the school, which he gladly accepts.

I ask him who the food is for, and he tells us it is for the teachers. I can’t imagine where or how he got a bag of KFC out here. There can’t be one for tens of kilometers. Did he take a taxi? Has he been walking since morning?

Once at the school the boy runs off to deliver the chicken, and we meet up with Zenzo, Alan, and Donna and run through a few classes. Sophie took a lot of pictures, which I hope she puts online sometime. She also helps out coaching kids with the class. When the classes are done, Alan and Donna sing a song for the kids, who join in.

After playing around with the kids for a bit, we’re invited over to another room for lunch. Turns out they’ve set a small table for the five of us, and laid out the KFC. I guess we were the “teachers” that the kid was bringing the food for. We thank them for their generosity, and have a relaxed lunch.

Outside we notice the girls playing a game of basketball without dribbling; you just can’t take any steps with the ball. Noting the bumpy, dusty ground I figure that dribbling doesn’t work well. Their game seems a decent improvisation.

We stop by Ncome and Enyanyeni on the way back, just to make plans for later and to tie up a few things. Then we all head to downtown Dundee to walk around a bit. Alan buys us a round of ice cream, which we enjoy as we walk along the bustling street. There’s an electronics store we stop in, where we note an Indian family rooting for the South African cricket team. They’re still doing well and have a shot at the world cup.

Then we head to the taxi rank and look over the farmer’s market. I buy some tomatoes and oranges for later. An off duty police officer strikes up a conversation with Alan and Donna, while Zenzo points out his girlfriend getting into a taxi. She’s with her mother, so he says he won’t go over. Her mother is a big lady. She could probably squash all three of us flat.

We make a plan to prepare dinner at Zenzo’s place tomorrow night, so we go to a nearby market to buy the supplies we’ll need. Then we head back to the trailer.

Thabani comes by, and has a new rap that he has written. I haven’t seen him in a while; he’s busy with school. I tell him I’d like to hear it. He warns me that the rap is a bit racist, and he seems a little nervous as he delivers the lyrics acapella for the whole group.

It is basically about how he is proud to be black, and how he is upset by the things that whites have done to his people and culture. He talks about how white religion has labeled the spirits of his ancestors as “demons”. He talks about how politicians are corrupt but they’re all black. He talks about his identity and his freedom. A particular line I like: “I’m the kind of black that you can mix with white and still get black”.

Above all, it isn’t the least bit racist.

After he’s done, I tell him that I liked it, and that I don’t think it was racist, because what he said was true. Alan elaborates a bit, “you aren’t being racist but that doesn’t mean everything you say has to be nice.” Thabani seems a bit relieved by that.

Donna gives Thabani some food; he seems hungry. I remember how once he told me sincerely that he had an eating problem: he eats to much. The kid is tall and as thin as a rail. My sense from a few more questions was that he doesn’t get that much to eat at home, and they probably tell him he eats too much.

We learn that Zenzo, Thabani, and one of his friends joined Alan and Donna on a trip to a smaller nearby game park while Sophie and I were away. It is the first time any of the boys had been to a game park. They tell us about it, and it seems they liked it. They saw a pretty good selection of animals.

Alan and I drop the guys off a bit later, and then we pick up Sophie and Donna to have dinner at Arusha. This is a great bed and breakfast in town that makes the best home cooked meals I’ve had here. It is the one place I really wanted to take Sophie to eat while we were in Dundee. We order our food and head upstairs while they prepare it.

We enjoy some wine at the bar and chat with one of the owners. He is in construction and tells us some sad stories about the government housing: he thinks it is far to expensive and a bit of a scam. He says that one of the guys who worked for him lived in a mud hut, and one day the government folks showed up with a bulldozer and told him he was an illegal squatter, and that he had four hours to get everything out because they were knocking his place down. They told him that if he wanted, they would build him a new official house right on the same spot, but he’d have to sign a loan contract. Problem is, the fellow was not particularly educated, and he didn’t really know what he was getting into. So they built him the place, and now he’s paying it off at some exorbitant price and interest rate.

Dinner is ready and we head back down to enjoy. I got the lamb again. We’re the only ones here tonight, so no sitting and dining with random people. We’re stuck by our boring old selves. But somehow we manage. Dessert is vanilla ice cream and peaches.

Then we head back, drop of Alan and Donna, hit the backpackers, and crash.

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2 Responses to

  1. Actually (and assuming I’m recalling correctly), basketball originally did not have any dribbling. A player with the ball could only pass to a teammate (who could move around the court) or shoot. Wikipedia (hooray for wikipedia!) says that the modern game of ‘Netball‘ was derived from an early (specifically women’s) form of basketball and maintains that same restriction.

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