Mama said "don't give granny beer"

In lieu of a detailed explanation of my comings and goings I opted for full disclosure of some of my most embarrassing moments since coming to South Africa in my last entry. This was for two reasons: 1. Those of you who know me well probably pictured the awkward situations I got myself into and 2. If any of you ever go to South Africa, you will perhaps remember to consult the Fromer’s-esque advice column I have compiled for your service. In this entry I will revert to describing recent activities of my South African life…
On Monday I had my first real cup of coffee since leaving London. This is significant and noteworthy because it marked a great victory in my quest to fully absorb my South African experience (you will, I am sure, appreciate that the world is hard to see/ appreicate with your eyes closed). Instant coffee, to my dismay, is much more popular here, probably because it is way cheaper (although an average sized bag of coffee grounds costs only about $4: everything has become pretty relational – a jar of peanut butter is about $1.30). In other food news (a favorite blog topic, I am quickly discovering), I cooked Spanish-ish omelets for my mama and sister for dinner the other night and they LOVED them, victory for the vegetarian!
This past weekend we took a short holiday to Port Edward on the South Coast for some R&R as well as some QT (quality time) with fellow trip participants. Before you google it, let me just inform you that yes, I did walk the same ground Leo Decaprio tread upon during the filming of the movie Blood Diamond (and no, of course I have not seen it). The south coast is much more fertile than Durban and for that reason, I can comfortably assert that our weekend was spent in a rainforest. In addition to being much more lush, PE was cooler and also far less populated than Durbs. Our main weekend activity was a 5-hour trek along the beach and also through the Blood Diamond forest (it should be noted that this is where all the pictures in last entry are from). Rain proved a much needed respite to the heat and humidity, as part of our walk featured a Seattle-type mist (shout out sar!). Other South Coast notables include: the real showers at the hostel where we stayed, the delicious gourmet food the hostel owner cooked for us, the pet chicken owned by the hostel, and the gorgeous blue-flag (supreme standard) beach we went to the second day.
Upon my return from vacation, I was greeted by my happy family and once again, extreme heat. How I had missed sleeping fan-less in the sweltering heat! My Mama was very excited about my return, however, and invited 3 of the girls from my program who live close over for dinner on Wednesday night. This was particularly thrilling to me, because it meant that my friends got to meet my nutzo mama (I mean that with no disrespect). They came over and I made pasta, butternut squash and fried chips (French fries), which was pretty much my only option given the limited food in my house and my high levels of domestic divaness, but nonetheless it was good (it was the first pasta any of us had since coming here!). Then there was a thunderstorm.
As it turns out, thunderstorms are near-death experiences and extremely hazardous for anything shiny. As soon as the thunder started, everything in the house was turned off, every window and door closed (as if it wasn’t hot enough) and everything shiny taken away and or covered. One of my friends tried to suggest that “when there are thunderstorms at home, my mom opens the windows to let the cool air in…” but no such luck. Shiny objects included mirrors, glasses, cellphones and anything else under the sun. We then sat in relative darkness in the living room with all the blinds drawn and made casual conversation until the storm was over (read: mama made us sing a song we learned in Zulu and then the American national anthem). When the storm was over, life went quickly back to normal.
Zulu is still not going well, it’s been 7 days and we are already learning how to construct such advanced sentences as “mama said don’t give granny any beer,” in normal dialogue. Future tense, noun tenses, interrogative tense… what gives?! At least Zulu will be useful to me in the coming days, years, months, etc.. I can just hold on to that.
Love from Durban,
Judy