Sad news, ZA cricket fans

Just a short one, Proteas fans in exile.
Basically, Australia did to us what we did to England in the last match. Total annihilation.

So, stay tuned for the news of the final this Saturday, the Aussies (undefeated in 28 World Cup Matches) and Sri Lanka.

More Jozi adventures with new friends

The theme of the weekend has been more adventures in the Jo’burg Area with new friends. On Saturday Jossie had to attend a student review on campus, so the girls and I had a morning of playing in Springbok Park, over near the UP campus. This park is beautifully landscaped, with lots of big trees and go-away birds (grey louries), and a lovely artificial creek. There’s one play structure there, of which we availed ourselves.
Afterwards, it was time to go to the laundry for the weeks washing, and back home to dry it. At naptime we received a call from a friend of our dear Aunt Sally and Uncle Bill, who’s in Jo’burg to work on a sorely needed power plant. He invited us down for dinner near his hotel in Sandton, which is a newly developed area just north of Jo’burg. At the end of Apartheid, Sandton became the sink for the white flight out of Jo’burg proper, so it’s a fabulously well-to-do (thanks KV) area, and seat of the Jo’burg Stock Exchange (JSE). We met with Mr. Jack Miller and strolled down to Nelson Mandela Square, next to Sandton City, a fantastic megamall (even by our ‘Merican standards), which is six stories tall, one of which is dedicated solely to ATMs, we are told. There’s a giant statue of Madiba himself there (about 7 m or 20 feet), and the feeling that people of every race are welcome there (provided they have gobs and gobs and gobs of cash).

We had dinner at a nice seafood restaurant on the square, outside, which featured a seafood platter with tasty crustaceans of many lands. Mr. Miller shared lots of great stories and perspectives on his trips to SA, and on life back in the ‘States. Here are some of the photos he took for us to share with y’all.

On Sunday, we had some more Jozi adventures with Bertrum, one of the profs in architectureland. We picked him up in the ‘benz and set a course for Rosebank. In Rosebank, we descended upon another mall stroke craft market (ZA’ns don’t say slash) with an amazing array of arts and crafts, antiques and jonque. Very cool to see the more traditional African masks and sculptures intermixed with recycled wire/bead art as well as a variety of other modern arts. (sorry no pix) There was a small combo of Zulu balafon players playing in front of a purple dragon bounce castle. After a hearty bouncing session we retreated to the food area for some samoosas and lamb curry. Yum!!!

We ambled about a bit more, investigating another part with a strictly African craft market, and did a little haggling for some beadwork. Then, we braved the MALL! This aspect of South African life is quite like the US, with these large consumatoriums loaded with all manner of goods. Really, we just passed through on our way back to the car with Violet ready to pass out from all the excitement (and ice cream).

Then on to Zoo Lake Park,which may have been near the zoo, but not in the zoo. The park was stuffed with Sunday braai’ing families, kids playing on the playgrounds, pickup soccer and cricket, and all the hawkers selling stuff. Interesting combinations of things, like hats and tin wall hangings, or soccer balls and inflatable giraffes. We were encouraged by many of them to support the small businessman (themselves), so it became a day of TWO ICE CREAMS (actually one icecream, and one sucker, as they call Popsicles here). We also got a ball to work on the girls’ gross motor skills.

We ended the day with a walk around the lake, where folks oared about in colorful rented rowboats. Then a drive through more new parts of Jo’burg, and back home on the N1 to get Bertrum home for his hot date.

Food in ZA

There are lots of foodstuffs we’ve gotten to try here, and for the most part, we’ve enjoyed them all. Here are some but of course there are many others which we may post on as we “eat the zoo”, as we Z’s in ZA say.

Biltong/Droewors: Dried salted meat, can be just about any animal, ostrich, kudu, springbok, beef, Biltong is more like jerky, and droewors more like perhaps a slim-jim, or a dried sausage.

Bobotie: A dish of Malay origin, a mince curry with an egg custard topping, served with tasty delights.

Braai: a way of life in SA. A braai is like a barbecue, but most South Africans would probably contest this. How pervasive is braai’ing? While a barbecue may be considered an amenity at most places you stay, a braai area is an essential. Every dustbin you see has the warning “geen warm as/ no hot ashes”, to deter you from dumping braai coals in.

Koeksesters: a traditional Afrikaaner treat from the tuisnywerheid (pastry shop). These little twists of fried dough are placed in syrup right out of the fryer, which allows them to soak up the sticky stuff.

Melktart: a condensed milk based pie. Yum

Pap: Maize or corn is a staple here, and pap, braaipap, or mieliepap, is a common way to prepare it. It’s a lot like grits, but not so gritty.

Pies: Pies are like self contained pot pies, filled with lovely little bits and bobs such as steak and kidney, chicken tikka masala, mushroom and cheese, pepper steak, mmmmm. Excuse me, I’m drooling, going to eat a pie now….

Potgie you’d probably never guess, but this is pronounced poik-ee. It means a small pot in Afrikaans and it has three legs. It’s made with meat and veggies, something like a stew, just throw it all in potgie over the fire and cook it all day.

Rooibos: Made into a hot or cold drink (some would protest if you call it “tea”), rooibos (red bush) if touted as having health benefits, mainly anti-oxidants, some minerals, and no caffeine (two out of three ain’t bad)

Rusks: small biscuitoids, elongate for dipping in coffee or tea, rusks are a common accompaniment to the morning hot drink. “Baked to stale perfection”, as Jossie has said, a warning to any who may try to eat an undunked rusk. You may chip a tooth and need to have it replaced with precious metals.

Samoosas: Samoosas, or samosas, are similar to those served in Indian cuisine, only filled with pie fillings (see above). The most common flavors are chicken and veg, ham and cheese, and spicy meat. I was confronted by an aggressive samoosa seller on the street as I came out of the shops one evening. He was trying to get rid of his days supply of samoosas probably about 15 of them, and would not take no for an answer. I argued with him that I didn’t want that many and it seemed to be too much money, but he eventually got my beer money, and we got some delicious samoosas that were more authentically Indian in character.
Samoosas arrived in ZA with Malay slaves who were brought here as semi-skilled labor. They were often employed as cooks, and it would seem, combined the traditional samosa with untraditional fillings.

Titi and Dodo

We have some little friends, who drop in occasionally. They are local pigeons, whom Veronica has discovered are named Titi and Dodo. They like to hang out by our door every now and again, and drop in for a bite. They especially like coming over after Violet has had any grain-rich or crumbly foods. While Jossie doesn’t particularly approve, chasing them out, the girls and I don’t mind them as long as they don’t peck anybody’s eyes out or poop in the house. Occasionally we see them out on our walks, and we greet them, but they don’t really wave back or anything. So even if they are a little stuck up, we like them anyway.

More Cricket News

ZA are in the semifinals. After a disappointing loss to the Kiwis, which pretty much was decided at the coin toss, they’ve crushed England. Wicked bad.

Okay first, the NZ match. We lost the toss and were put into bat. The pitch was really quite wet, which slowed down the bowling and led to them losing some quick wickets, which led them to posting a low run total. They bowled and fielded pretty well, although they dropped a couple of key balls that could have been crucial wickets. In the end they did well, taking NZ to the 48^th over, but they lost. If we had won that one, we’d have qualified for the semis sooner, but we could afford to lose that one. The match against England had us worried. But we didn’t need to…

England chose to bat first, and only posted 153 runs, going all out after 48 overs. They got bowled every which way and just didn’t get going. Captain Graeme Smith and AB de Villiers got off with a great partnership, just whacking the ball every which way. I missed AB de Villiers wicket, but Jacques Kallis came in and barely needed to strike at all. Smith got a half-century and kept going, getting 89 runs as he iced it with a boundary. In the end, we won by 9 wickets, but that doesn’t begin to describe the drubbing that we gave the Brits. I mean, we didn’t even need half of the 50 overs to get the runs to win.

Bowler Andrew Hall took Man of the Match, after getting 5 wickets (maiden 5 wicket performance in ODI) and only allowing 16 runs. Folks here are pretty jazzed, although the next match against ‘Stralya will be tough. The Ozzies have yet to lose in the tournament. They just played Sri Lanka, who are the third team in the semis, and who South Africa beat. The Sri Lankans started strong, and looked like they had spin-bowler Shaun Tait’s number. But damn, those Ozzies are good. They got some quick wickets and shut SL down. Oh, and they did grind Ireland into a green puddle, with enough daylight left to go to the beach afterwards. Okay, okay. If you're reading this, chances are you have almost no idea what any of this means except the good part. ZA is in the Semis! Wish us luck against Australia on Monday!

Easter weekend continued.

After the excitement in Sabie, we spent a more relaxing Saturday in PTY, including our traditional Saturday trip to the Laundromat. We went to Magnolia Dell again, to try and make it to the monthly craft market. Apparently the market started at 900 and did not continue on to 1700, which is when we arrived on the scene. However, Magnolia Dell is still one of the best playgrounds around, so we played for a bit. Here’s a pic of the horsie thing mentioned previously. Where can we find one in the ‘States?

Also nice about Magnolia Dell, as previously mentioned, is the cafe adjacent to the playground. Great idea, eh?

Sunday was Easter Egg, as Veronica learned in school, so the highlight of the morning was Easter Egg Hunting! Chocolate and the hard boiled variety, the eggs lay in wait for the girls, who hunted around the flat with much screaming and delight.

Easter Monday was Familiedag (Family Day), so we spent the day together on a hike at Wonderboom Nature Reserve, just a little north of the city. The Wonderboom (Wondertree) itself is a remarkably large specimen of fig tree (not the edible kind, Ficus salicifolia for you nerds out there). It has dropped branches over the years that have sprouted into new daughter trees all around a central mother tree which has been dated at over 1000 years old. And it’s really flippin’ big! In this pic we’re hiking down from the fort at the top of the hill, and you can see from the cars in the background that this is one very large plant.

The tree is a sacred site of the Ndebele people (who make the colorful patterns like at the Botanical Gardens). We hiked up the trail to the top to see the remains of the fort,

which affords a nice view of downtown PTY, although it was a bit hazy this particular Family Day.

Here’s a pic of the girls sitting in one of the gunports.

Cricket World Cup Update

The bad news is, we (ZA) lost to Bangladesh. They scored more runs than they should have, and ZA just couldn't get the batsmen going, and the young Bangladeshi teams wasn't giving up any boundaries. So what everyone assumed was going to be a slam dunk final four (Oz, the Kiwis, Sri Lanka, and ZA), was somewhat cast into doubt. But with us losing that match, the bottom four of the Super Eights (England, Bangladesh, West Indies, and Ireland) got a ray of hope.
England put on a good show against Australia, but the Ozzies are still unbeaten as they play Ireland tonight, and should crush them into a green puddle. New Zealand lost to Sri Lanka last night, their first loss in the tournament, so things may get shaken up a bit. Australia's definitely the team to beat.
We also played the Windies and won, which was sad for the host team, as they will not likely advance to the final four, now. We'll play the Kiwis on Saturday.
In other Cricket news, we've discovered that Castle Milk Stout (the ZA equivalent of Guinness), mixed with Carling Black Label, while not quite separating like a proper black and tan (Apartheid is over, after all), does make a very fine Cricket-watching quaff. Mmmm..
Stay tuned for more Cricket and beer news.

Easter Weekend, part I

Oh, this is nice. A four day weekend. Yes, we got Good Friday off, and then Easter Monday is Family Day, another day off. So lots of people go out of town on holiday. We did not plan ahead of time, so we did not book a place to stay. Besides that, some of us have been feeling a little under the weather. So on Good Friday, with no plan, I, Oom Djibo, declared “GET IN THE CAR, WE’RE GOING TO SWAZILAND!”. It’s probably a 3 or 4 hour drive, so we packed the passports, some snacks, a camera, a map, the Lonely Planet Guide and not much else to head off towards Swaziland. We got to drive east through the province of Mpumalanga to Nelspruit, on the road to Maputo, Mozambique, Kruger National Park, and possibly Swaziland. Mama Jossie tried to change the direction of travel; instead of heading to Swaziland, with roads of unknown composition (tarred? untarred? passable by ancient Mercedes?) and of course, no plan, she suggested we head north of Nelspruit to Sabie, which is an important forestry town. Saddened by the prospect of not getting an interesting passport stamp, I agreed that Sabie seemed like a more reasonable objective, and only an hour from Nelspruit. We stopped for some picnicking provisions at an all-Halaal supermarket (getting some all-beef Halaal baloney, which SA’ers spell, “polony”), and also at a roadside fruit market, where there were plenty of bananas, oranges, mangoes, and cashews. And after some creative, plan-free kind of finding our way (i.e. making wrong turns and getting lost), we were climbing out of the Crocodile River Valley where Nelspruit sits towards Sabie. The road was surrounded by hectares and hectares of pine and eucalyptus forests, which are the mainstays of forestry here. After the long climb, we turned onto a road which led down down down into the town of Sabie itself.

Among the amenities of Sabie are its many waterfalls, so we decided to go visit a few.

The first was Horseshoe Falls, which had about a 7 m drop (okay, sorry Ameri-Friends, 22 feet). The hike in was fairly short, about five minutes, and through some lush vegetation.

Having tasted waterfall, we thirsted for more. So we set off down the same road out of Sabie for Lone Creek Falls, which was more like a good 30 m drop (yes, that’s right, about 100 feet!). Lone Creek Falls was a bit more built up, and with the surrounding pine plantations was reminiscent of New Mexico. Also around the falls were some interesting rock formations, undulating with flowing curves and also very beautiful.

With only a small sliver of daylight remaining, we thought we’d try to see the last waterfall on the road we’d chosen: Bridal Veil Falls. Past a sawmill and a large gathering of people and over the untarred road to the trailhead. Some recently returned waterfall admirers guessed that we could make it up the trail in time to see it, about 10 or 15 minutes. So off we went up the trail, up and up, Jossie and I each carrying a wee’un as best we could, piggy-back, on shoulders, like a sack of potatoes, just to truck on up the hill to see the last falls of the day. We made it, huffing and puffing a bit, and they were indeed very beautiful. Another 30 m drop or so, but very misty, evanescent. One fellow tourists, having arrived shortly after us remarked, “Okay, let’s take the pictures and go”. Interestingly most of the vehicles we saw on the roads and parked at the falls has GP license plates for Gauteng Province (or Gangsta’s Paradise, depending on your point of view). Gauteng encompassed Jo’burg and PTY, so lots of city slickers on holiday.

After making it back to the ancient Mercedes with just enough daylight to spare, we headed into the town of Sabie for some dinner. Thanks to the Lonely Planet Guide, we found the Wild Fig Tree restaurant, which featured some of the local speciality, farmed trout, as well as many types of bush meat and regional dishes. Jossie had grilled trout, I had bobotie, which is a dish inspired by the Cape-Malay.

Then, back into the car for the long drive back to PTY. Unfortunate for us to drive back at night, as the road was apparently quite scenic. We only caught the faintest glimpses thanks to the lightning to the west of us occasionally lighting up the landscape. We took a different route back, taking us through Lydenburg to get back to the main toll route, the N4. It was a bit exciting past Lydenburg, as we caught up with the lightning storm which gave the car a well-deserved bath after driving on all those untarred roads. But the drive back was otherwise, uneventful. And still a three-day weekend left! Stay tuned…

First trip to Jozi

Mostly guest written by Mma Jossie

Only forty minutes away by car (traffic permitting), the hustle and bustle of Jo'burg has seemed a bit daunting until now. With more than three million residents, it has been rated the most sinful of all South African cities. Amira, a Sudanese architecture professor with an interest in high density social housing, picked us up early and guided us to our first stop: the Apartheid Museum. The museum is adjacent to Gold Reef City, a bizarre combo casino and adventure theme park, but the contrast fades as you enter the museum’s courtyard and are immediately drawn in-- seeing your own reflection in the mirrored images of a diverse collection of people staggered along the gravel walk to the entry fountain. Seven concrete pillars announce the foundations of South Africa’s new constitution: democracy, reconciliation, equality, responsibility, diversity, respect and freedom.

At admission visitors are randomly given “white” or “non-white” passes, and must enter accordingly through a hall of pass cards, enlarged to poster size. These were the identity cards that classified people according to race. Beginning with the premise of segregation, you ascend the hall to a roof top overlook, then back inside as the museum twists through the various phases of the Apartheid era, placing the story in historical context. The rough and simple material palette: concrete, stacked stone, wire mesh, presents the powerful story within a context of human scale details, and refined through often uncomfortable transitions. A film in one of the museum’s theaters traces intercultural relations from South Africa’s earliest people the San, the Khoi San and the Zulus through Dutch settlement, English investment and expansion and industrialization. The Zulu and Anglo Boer Wars set the stage for the violent era of Apartheid.

Multimedia displays including photography, video, memory/collection boxes, newspaper clippings, and sculptural installations, depict the oppression and struggles of the Apartheid through historical phases characterized by cycles of ever more repressive legislation in the face of organized protests, youth uprisings, and the steadfast work of the ANC leaders in the struggle for freedom. A room of 131 nooses represents the fate of those that died in detention. With great emotion, you arrive at a TV displaying de Klerk’s historic pronouncement of the end of the ban on the ANC and other political parties, and the release of Nelson Mandela and other political prisoners.

The next display, of the period following the release of Madiba, and preceding the first fully democratic election, showed how precarious a time this was for ZA, and with the election the rebirth of ZA and acceptance into the world community.

After this emotional encounter with South African history, and a walk through the museum garden, we headed into Fordsburg, Jo’burg’s vibrant Indian district, for what else: lunch. After some tasty Indian delicacies, we got to stroll through the market and explore things that middle easterners like to buy, Bollywood films, fragrant spices, colorful and sparkly materials, skewered meats, Muslim children’s storybooks. Quite a lot for a small market, really.

We finished up our first tour of Jozi with a walk around Newtown, a revitalized industrial neighborhood in the inner city, around the historic Market Theater, Museum of Africa, with view of the downtown beyond. Being Sunday, the district was unusually quiet. But there are lots of cool murals, and street art (see pix) to keep things lively. We finished up our trip with some juice at a hip little café, and back through the traffic to PTA.

Ach! Kurt Vonnegut is dead!

Okay, so this has nothing to do with ZA, but Kurt Vonnegut Jr, one of my favorite authors, has died. Thankfully, I suppose, he was old. So it goes. More of our adventures soon to follow...

Cricket World Cup

The Cricket World Cup is going on right now in the West Indies, and unlike baseball’s World Series, which at its best may represent two countries, the CWC actually has teams from around the globe, mainly the former British Empire (and a few others, like the Netherlands). Thanks to a supplement in the local newspaper, the rudiments of the game are no longer a dark mystery to me, and I’ve started watching some of the matches. ZA has been putting on a strong showing, winning tests against the Netherlands and Scotland, who are kind of sucky teams anyway. But the Proteas (the ZA squad) are doing pretty well in spite of a heartbreaking loss to Oz, who’ve won more CWCs than anybody, and could take it all.

In the match against the Netherlands, ZA’s Herschelle Gibbs hit a world record six sixes in an over, which is something like hitting a grand slam on every at-bat in a baseball game (okay, not exactly, but it’s quite a mean feat). Also, India scored a world record number of runs (403) against Bermuda, alleviating their shocking loss to Bangladesh.

A ZA cricket legend, Bob Woolmer, who had been coaching the Pakistani side, died suddenly and unexpectedly after Pakistan lost their test against Ireland on St. Pat’s. It would appear that he was murdered, and the speculation is that he was about to spill the beans on some match fixing.

Now the first round of matches is over, and ZA is in the Super Eights. They’ve beaten Sri Lanka, and they've beaten Ireland. Next up is Bangladesh on 7 April. Stay tuned for the wrap up...