Dlala amaZulu!

So Wednesday night we went to the amaZulu vs. Sundowns soccer match at the Moses Mabhida Stadium (the world cup stadium), and it proved to be quite the event. After school we all got dropped off back in Cato Manor to get changed, get rid of our backpacks, and prepare for the game. My mama was in Chesterville and I didn’t have a key to the house, so I ended up going over to Becky’s and leaving my stuff there. Before the game we hung out at the House of Curries (essentially Becky’s house – her mama sells curry out of a shipping container in front of their house), and we took a bagillion picture of this adorable child named Mlu. We hung out, had a few beers, and waited for Thula, Sdu, and a few taxi’s to come and pick us up and drop us off at the game. 

I ended up in a Mozzie Taxi with Becky, Seth and Jess. We had a grand old time in the cab ride to the stadium until Becky and I realized that we had forgotten our tickets. Typical of me, I know, but Becky was going to provide the purse and I was going to supply the camera. We had consolidated our belongings and managed to fit both of our wallets into her small purse, when we realized it would be easier to just use one wallet with both of our money. Mine was smaller, so we transferred our cash to mine and Becky put hers back in her room. Now I’m sure you know where this is going… Before we had decided to just use one wallet, we had put the tickets in Becky’s since, like I said, her wallet was bigger. When we transferred her money to mine, it never occurred to us to also move the tickets. That would have been too easy. So anyways, we were essentially at the stadium when we came to this realization. Our immediate dismay was momentarily alleviated by the thought that since the tickets were only 10 rand ($1.30), we would just buy new ones when we got there. However when we got dropped off by the cab, we were informed that the boxoffice was closed….

Becky, Jess and Seth in front of the stadium!

It was time to come up with a plan B. We frantically called Thula and Sdu and thankfully Sdu was still around the stadium so he came back and picked us up and took us back to Cato to get our tickets. Meanwhile, Becky had to pee and never made it to a bathroom, so she was about to pee her pants in the back seat, and Sdu giving her a hard time about forgetting the tickets wasn’t helping the situation. It was all very comical, and we ended getting out tickets and getting back to the stadium without any more incidents and getting to listen to some bumpin’ tunes with Sdu. 

Unfortunately this debacle lead to us missing kick off, but just being at the stadium was an absolutely incredible experience. We were told to root for the amaZulus, who are the team from Durban. They were playing the Sundowns, which are apparently a very rich team from Pretoria. We (the amaZulus) inevitably lost 1-0, but it was an exciting game! Or maybe it just seemed more exciting because it was the world cup stadium… or maybe its because I don’t generally watch soccer…Either way, we had a lot of fun. On our way out we got caught up in the Sundowns fans victory celebration/procession out of the stadium, so naturally, despite the fact that we were all wearing amaZulu jerseys, we all jumped on the opportunity to sing and dance and jump around with some soccer fans! Rhumor has it that theres a South Africa vs. Senegal game coming up at the end of the month, so hopefully we can go to that! Unfortunately tickets are about 10x as expensive for the good seats (R100 or about $13). Rough life.

The soccer game was another one of those times being here that all we could say to each other was “could life get any better right now?” South Africa has had its ups and downs, and the honey moon phase is definitely wearing off, but Wednesday night was spectacular. To be in the world cup stadium watching soccer and singing in Zulu was definitely one of the highlights of the trip so far. The only downside was we had to stay up wayyyy past our bed times (we probably got back around 10:30 or so). Man is life different here.

The Sundowns celebration coming out of the stadium!

Thursday I had to wake up early to go to the clinic. My pick up time was 6:45, which was a little rough given my staying up late for the soccer match the night before. The clinic day was pretty similar to my first experience, so I’ll keep it short. I was in primary health care again, so I took a lot of blood pressures. Liz and I got to practice our Zulu though, and we made some old ladies extremely happy! We were also told that we were being very fast and helping the queue move along quickly, which made me feel like I was at least doing some good there! My new favorite sentence to tell my patients is “Ngizama ukukhuluma isiZulu!” which means “I’m trying to speak in Zulu!” The old ladies get suck a kick out of it. It still surprises me that the lines are so long and that for a lot of people this is either their only option for health care or the easiest way for them to access it. We keep hearing the phrase “health for all” and “universal health care” and keep being told that the right to health is actually part of the constitution of South Africa, and I keep wondering to what extent these rights are being realized? And if health for all is actually achievable for this country given its current policies and, more importantly, its current practices. I will leave my philosophical rambling at that for now. I’m sure there will be much more of it in the future…

This weekend I was supposed to go to the cow slaughtering and traditional ceremony at my Mama’s other house in Chesterville; however this morning she popped into my room as she was leaving for the hospital (she goes 2x a month to get her medication), and said that my friends and I couldn’t come… so much confusion… so long story short there was a change of plans and a lot of stress, but it turns out I’m not going L which is one of the saddest, frustrating, and stressful occurrences since I have been here. But Katherine, Stef, and I (we were supposed to go to the slaughtering, stay the night, and go to the party on Saturday) will now be joining the crew at Blue Sky Mining down the coast about 50 kilometers. Its by warner beach if you want to google map it or something. The forcast is also very rainy, and the reason this hostel was picked was for its prime beach location. Fortunately for me, I just bought the whole hunger game series!!! So I will be all set for the whole weekend… or maybe at least a day depending on how fast I blow through them.

I’ll be sure to update you on all of our crazy shenanigans. I hope you are enjoying the pictures I’m managing to post, and I will do my best to keep posting more in the future! (Also thanks Gran & Gramps for the Christmas present – everyone is jealous of the phenomenal pictures that it takes!)