Kombi Strike

Yikes! I was looking at my blog and man, do I write long entries. I hope you don't mind reading them since they're so long.

Last time I left off we were heading to a cricket game. That was a great night! We got there and really picked up how the game is played fast. I'd explain it to you, but you probably wouldn't get it unless you saw it. Thing about the game is that you can't tell who is going to win or who's close to winning until you're 3/4 of the way through the game. It was the most amazing game ever too! People who had seen the game before said it was the most exciting game they ever saw. Our director even gave a fist pump after our team sealed the win and we got it on video tape. Our group tends to be intimidated by our director, yet they love to imitate him and even though he's always serious, he says the funniest things. Like when we couldn't activate our computer lab cards he commented "there seems to be a stupidity glitch." Haha. Yes, that was a great game. He did bring along his British friends to explain the game to us. They were kinda an older couple. One of the guys on the trip was talking to the woman. She looked like a little old woman, maybe a grandma to someone, but Dave was telling us that she kept making all these racist comments. Just a little taste of the racism still in the country which we will probably experience a little bit of this semester. By the way- have I mentioned that I'm the minority here? Usually when our group travels anywhere we stick out because it's a whole group of white kids walking around together. It's different, but I like it.

Saturday was a pretty low key day. I just did all my reading for my classes that start this week. That night we went to church at a Catholic Church up the block. That is the only place you will find all white people. They all have their British accents too and they all know that we're from the US. Mass is the same, but they just changed a lot of the responses, so we have to follow along on this sheet. I'm not sure if the US has done that yet, but I heard it was in the making.

Sunday is what I'm most excited to tell you about. Some of the girls here found a swimming race that we can do. It's the Red River Mile. It's only cost 7 bucks and we get a free t-shirt, so we're totally doing it, but I also found out that the same people put on swimming races every other Sunday in the ocean on a beach right up from our flat. I decided that I'd try it, even though I haven't swam a real workout in about a year and a half. I headed down to the ocean at 7:30 and registered. It cost 50 Rand for registration and 20 Rand for a swim cap. It's about 10 Rand to an American dollar, so I got all this for about 7 bucks. It was really windy and I was talking to the head registration people. They said they usually get 400 people, but they were expecting 200 today. I told them I was from America too and I was studying abroad, so they asked they could interview me and I figured why not. I still had about a hour before the race started so I kinda wondered around. I found a woman to borrow a latex cap from, since they only gave me a cloth one for identification in the race. Then I saw all these people with wetsuits on and a man was standing by a bin of them. I knew having one would help a lot since it was so windy and kinda cold, so I went up and asked the guy what they were for. He said if I was registered for the race I could borrow one. He found one my size and I put it on. Now I've never really worn a wetsuit that really fits me before. I've always just borrowed my dad's, but this one was nice and tight and man did it take forever to get on! The race started about 9:15ish, there was a 1 km, which I signed up for and a 2km. Our course was straight out then a left turn around a bouy, two more left turns to make a square and then around the pier and up to the shore. I swallowed a lot of yicky, saltly, sea water! In all it wasn't too bad. I guess I finished more towards the back, but not last, which isn't too bad for crappy conditions, my first ocean water race, and not being in swimming shape. I didn't get an official time though since it was a really low key race. After I got out, they called me to be interviewed. They asked me questions like "How was your oppostion?" and "How did the race go for you?" I really didn't have much to elaborate on. After that I was walking past the head registration guy who was throwing out these sport tanks things and he threw one to me. Good souvenior! They had random prize drawings too. I was really surprized all the things you could get at this race for 7 bucks. Amazing!

Later that day, we went to a soccer game. That wasn't too exciting and the team really wasn't that great. Then, after dinner, a group of us headed over a couple of blocks to the Jazz Club. That was kinda fun, but we didn't stay too late.

This morning we woke up, got ready, and went to get picked up to go to Pendla Elementary School, where some of our group members are going to volunteer. I was really excited because the kids perform this whole opening ceremony for us. Turns out though that all the taxis and kombis are on strike today, as the city is trying to use more buses and they are losing business. Our company we were using was private, but they weren't operating today to honor the strike and for saftey reasons. We waited for a while and then about 10:00 all 30 of us students were shuttled over to campus with our two directors and another private taxi company we found. I'm happy to finally have internet for free! We definitely experienced some of the culture here when we were getting lunch. It took us 30-45 mintues to get food and that was at their "fast food" option. They just have a slow moving culture, which is taking some patience from us fast paced Americans. This afternoon I have my first class- South African Jazz/Music. I'm pretty excited. What an exciting first day of school. Take care at home!