Another week has flown by. I mean, it has literally flown by. It seems the longer we are here, the faster time passes by. Yes, yes, I know: time is a fixed constant. Or is it? Maybe it's a little different down on this part of the world. After all, they drive on the other side of the road, in Afrikaans "8:30" isn't really referred to as "half past eight" but rather as "half hour before nine", and you can't turn right on a red light. Since we are on the bottom of the world, does "counter clockwise" mean the same thing? Or...is it just opposite? Kara and I were discussing this concept of time, and how we are 7 hours ahead of time back home. I asked her if it would be possible to actually go back in time if you were able to fly the opposite way around the world, faster then the time zone change, so that you actually end up 3-4 days earlier than when you started? Oh yeah? Why not? We have found that people here operate on what they refer to as "African time," which basically means anytime give or take a couple of hours. And the beauty of it is that they don't feel stressed over time. Rather than a hindrance, as we so often view time in the U.S., time is a luxury that should be enjoyed. Hmmmmmm. That sounds pretty darn good. They have a saying here that "just now" actually means anytime in the next few hours, and "now now" actually means right now. Needless-to-say, I have not yet heard someone mention "now now."
We found out Tuesday after school that Kara is on the "athletics" (track and field) team and her "district" meet was set for Wednesday morning. What? Why didn't we know about this weeks ago? Well, she's been trying to find out when the team would begin practice and no one seemed to be able to give her an answer. It appears that we landed right in the middle of their track season, and the Wednesday meet was the first qualifying invitational for end of the year events (like district-regional-state system we have in the U.S.). Okay. So, she's going to run. Fortunately she was a star cross-country runner this past fall (9th grader who placed in every event and made it to the state meet), so she knows how to run. However, it has been a couple months since she really ran, seeing that it has been winter back in Michigan. So, she competed in the "Zone 8" meet and ended up placing first in her age group in the 3,000-meter run and 2nd in the 1,500-meter event. Good job Kara! Now she's off to the Port Elizabeth championships, which includes all top 4 finishers from each of the zone events. If she places in the top 4 at the PE event, she moves on to compete in the Eastern Province (which is like their "state" here) finals the next weekend. If she places there, she competes at the national level against the other South African provinces. Wow. That would be cool for her. So, what do we do now to get Kara in top shape within the next week? She's rallied her dad to get up with her at 5:30 and walk over to the UPE track (about 1 kilometer away and the site where the PE and Eastern Province events will take place), and burn out a couple miles around the track. Kara also has after school practice. She asked the coach when practice was done--as we wanted to know so we could figure out when we should pick her up--and the coach gave her a confused look and said "Practice is over when you are done running." Ah, African time at it's best.
On Valentine's Day the de Jagers came over for our traditional meal of heart-shaped meat loaf surrounded by mashed potatoes, and red Jell-O. It felt good to be able to share an American tradition with them, as they have been so kind in sharing so much with us. Everyone had a great time, minus Kara who was at her first school dance and spent the night at a friend's house. Katilee had her friend, Kristy, over on Saturday. It is nice to see the kids starting to make friends here, although they deeply miss their friends back home.
We have been spending a lot of time at the local "flea market" and roadside stands buying South African-type of stuff. Kathy and Bekah have been having a blast buying all sorts of dresses, as the prices are minimal compared to the U.S. The flea market guys are great to banter with for prices. Of course everything starts out at 100-200 or so Rand, regardless of what it is. "Hey, you like bowl? You have it, only 250 Rand. Good bowl." "Yeah, it is very nice. I'll give you 50 Rand for it." "Ohhhhhh, no, no. Bowl too good. No can do." "Okay, thanks anyway." "Hey, wait. Ummmmm, 150 Rand. Good bowl. You like." "No, I'll give you 50 Rand." "Ohhhhhhhh, no, no. Bowl too good. No can do." "Okay, thanks anyway." " Hey, wait. Ummmmm, you pay 70 Rand." "Okay, you've got a deal." "Good bowl. You like." "Yeah, thanks." I have found that when I use an English accent mixed with a few Afrikaans words, rather than an American accent, the "starting" price is significantly less. Andre keeps telling us to wait until we take our trip to the Western Cape. He knows of a place where these same bowls are 20 or so Rand. That's basically $2 or so for a large hand-carved, native wood bowl. We are planning on stocking up on Christmas gifts for the next 2-3 years.
We have had some more visits from our neighborhood monkeys. They are getting a bit more adventurous. The other day I was at the office and called home to chat with Kathy. "Uh, Bob, just a minute, I think I hear the monkeys coming in the door! I've got to go!" click. It appears that the monkeys decided to find their way through the bars on the windows/doors to see what they could find to eat in the house. I think they still remember the loaf of Ouma's bread they swiped a couple weeks ago. Well, much to Kathy's surprise, she was confronted with a couple of these guys who didn't like being caught. Kathy started banging the door and shouting something to the extent "Hamba! Hamba! Hamba!" which means "Go away! Go away! Go away!" in Xhosa, like the monkeys would understand Xhosa any better then English. They finally left without damaging anything. Running score: Bensleys-1, Monkeys-1, Tie-1.
