Excitement in EL

Molo! It was an eventful weekend in East London. Thursday and Friday were rainy and gloomy. Things started to brighten up on Saturday morning, including our schedule. One of Justin’s friends called and asked if we wanted to participate in the surfers challenge. This is a 18 km marathon equaling about 11 miles. The marathon started out years back where paddlers and runners would race to see who could get from point A to point B the fastest. You can enter the race as a paddler, runner, or walker, but if you entered the race as a walker you had to walk, if you got caught running you would be disqualified. The three of us entered the race as walkers unaware of the running rule. This was a fabulous opportunity as we were on the coast majority of the marathon. Well, majority of the marathon Katie and I participated in. That story will come out soon. The challenge we participated in had a lot of walking in the sand and pebbles, (like on the north shore) anyway, this was a nice walk and Katie and I felt as though we were walking at a good pace, “Amber’s American pace. When we entered Gonubie the tide was high and we had to swim across the river. This was not bad as it was very rejuvenating and felt amazing. After our swim we went through Gonubie that was fun as we had onlookers cheer the runners, and walkers on. Well we get through Gonubie we hit the cut off point and were told we would not finish the race in time so to get on the bus and they would give us a ride to the finish. What a disappointment. Katie and I swore up and down that we were walking fast enough to finish this race, maybe not but the experience was wonderful!!!
Saturday night I had some friends call me (well, friends of a friend) to see if I wanted to go out. Luvo and Linge are there names. Luvo asked if we would be interested in attending a braai. I was up for this but Katie and Justin were worn out so I had Linge pick me up to attend this braai! What fun. I got there and there were about 25 people there. Luvo would not come talk to me as he later explained it was because he wanted me to meet people on my own, and that is just what I did. I was the only white person there, which did not bother me one bit. I was very social and introduced myself to others as well as others introducing themselves to me. I met some wonderful people and exchanged some numbers while there. Lux a fellow I met at the braai was so impressed with my handshake. For two reasons, because I did the xhosa handshake, and two because I had a nice grip. It was funny because after we shook hands he was like, where did you learn to shake hands like that? There was another occurrence where a black guy had entered the room I was in, his eyes grew big and he asked, “can I hug you?” I was a bit surprised but of course was not going to pass up a hug, as I don’t get very many here. After our hug he was said, “please don’t be offended but you are the first white woman I have ever hugged!” Later in the evening Luvo told me that everyone was talking about me (in xhosa) and of course I asked what they were saying and he had told me that everyone was so excited how I was interacting with everyone as well as everyone interacting with me…I am hoping this was a compliment. So we are this braai and there is music playing…what does this mean…dancing. Those of you, who know me, know that I am not that comfortable dancing. Well I am especially not going to be comfortable dancing with a crowd of people who have rhythm. So two women ask me to come and dance. I am hesitant and they get me to where everyone is dancing…they told me to show them my moves. I responded politely and said that I was a bit nervous to be dancing with a group of black people and that I really didn’t have any moves to show them. They just laughed, I told them I would take a rain check and Linge stated that it was ok that I was nervous. Thank goodness for that. I also held hands with a few people at the braai. Here in South Africa it is ok to hold hands with anybody. Male to male, female to female, or the opposite sex as friends you can hold hands and it is not portrayed awkward by society. But it does take getting use to when you are not use to this. One of my coworkers held hands with me a few weeks ago when we were out on home visits. Then at the braai I had about three guys just grab my hand, this usually happens when you are walking somewhere or this is what I have noticed/experienced. It always takes me by surprise and then I am like, oh right this is the culture here.
Sunday was another eventful day as we went out with one of Katie’s coworkers and her husband; Sally and Barry, what a wonderful couple. They wanted to show us some beaches that we have not seen yet and then take us out for lunch. We went to a restaurant at Kidd’s beach and I was sitting on the right side of the table as I had a view of the ocean while we were eating! It was fabulous.
Later in the afternoon we went over to another couples house and learned how to make Persian rice. It was delicious! It was fun learning how Nadia makes Persian rice, as well as home maid dressing. We had a wonderful meal with about 12 others and had wonderful conversations. The weekend was full of opportunities and excitement!! Katie, Justin and I are now getting ready for spring break, (12 days to be exact) we plan on renting a car and traveling to Capetown to do some sightseeing, hiking, wine tasting, and checking out the markets! Need to run. Take care.