Bingo and Brai

Friday night is a night for fun, usually dancing to pop/hip hop or practicing the traditional dances. Last night we had a Bingo again. I made 60 homemade cards with the help of 2 of the teens – each 5X5 squares with different letters excluding Z and not one the same! I had picked out 12 prizes earlier in the day, the best two being sunglasses. Bingo is a treat and taken very seriously and even the kitchen ladies/den mothers play. I pulled the letters out of a teapot, slowly, to prolong things…it was great fun and the smallest player won first. Keneuoe picked the small leopard print glasses to the chagrin of the teens. By the time we got to the 7th place or so 20 people yelled Bingo, so I am off today to buy 20 pens. There is urgency to it all- especially to the procurement of anything. There is frenzy around eating, getting prizes, taking photos that would not be understood by anyone back home. A feeling of chronic deprivation and the fear you will get left out are always present with the kids.

I had the pleasure of being invited to a family home this weekend. The lady Me Mapoloko (Mother of Poloko) worked with me at the HL office and leadership camp. When I told her I wanted to learn to cook African food, she invited me for overnight and church. We had a traditional meal of Papa (corn meal) and Moroho (chopped cabbage) with cold bean salad and beetroot salad. Their home is lovely, with a beautiful garden, big entertainment system (we watched Nigerian movies Saturday night) – but no running water. You cannot imagine how this affects everything you do or don’t do- but how well they manage. Church was a great experience, despite the fact it was in Sesotho and I missed the sermon. The music was great, though more like Anglican and less like Gospel than I had imagined. The women were so beautiful in traditional dress with a sense of identity and dignity that radiated. Others were in western dress, quite done up and men impressive all in suits. It was a more western experience than I had expected and moving to see such open faith. The church was filled with music throughout, full harmony and no organ!

The final experience of the big weekend was the “Brai” South African for Bar-b-que.
Phil leaves this week and the kids are upset. He has been here for 6 months and especially the boys have opened up to him. He and I went to town at 8 a.m. Saturday and ended up walking back almost a mile from the public taxi with charcoal, 6 freezer packs of chicken and the ice cream, which was pretty well soup by then. On Sunday, we set up a half oil drum and it took 2 hrs to bar-b –que it all. Kids were amazing and did all the work. They had Papa and meat (nama) followed by ice cream on the cone and it was a hit. The music and singing after dinner for Phil was the best yet and there were speeches that had me choked up- even a poem titled “My hero” I told him afterwards that he may never have such an incredible tribute again.

Today I start a new week, doing the mural, starting to be responsible for the computer labs two hours daily after school. It will be a lot more now that I am on my own. I have set a goal of having all of the 60 names memorized this week, add a few daily. Then there are the eggs at 7 a.m. and 11 a.m. after preschool ( and the wrath of Me Puleng if I fail to materialize). Lots to do and not much time to worry about home and my business, it’s so totally engrossing here.