Bfana Bfana vs. The Stallions

I hate the cold. When there is snow on the ground it’s tolerable, but when it’s just cold, it sucks. Seriously, everyone out there who claims to love the cold, try living in a place where the temperature drops down to 40 each night in a house that has no heat and no insulation and then tell me how much you love the cold. In fact, come visit me next June when it is winter here and you can give it a try (and on that note visitors are welcome anytime). Yeah, so in case you can’t tell, it gets cold here.

Mornings are especially rough. As most of you already know, I am not a morning person and it is inadvisable to talk to me right after I wake up. Now, just imagine how pleasant I am when I have to wake up at 7:30 a.m. and leave the warmth of my 15-degree down sleeping bag (yes that is what I have been sleeping in) in order to change in a freezing room that doesn’t warm up until 1:00 p.m. if you are lucky. But winter is ending here so hopefully the blistering cold won’t last too much longer and I’m sure that before long I’ll be complaining about how hot it is. 

Today we went to the GRS office to meet the Site Coordinator, Mandla, and start our Kimberley Orientation. My favorite part of the day was when Mandla let Trevor and I write our own job descriptions (sort of). Some of the things that I am going to be helping out with this year include the finances, office management, and Skillz Street, which is the all girls program. There will also be a lot of driving, paperwork and some not so fun moments… but right now I’m pretty stoked!

Mandla and Thuso took us out to lunch. We went to this little place that is located right behind the taxi stand in town. On the way there Mandla said that we were going to be eating intestines. Trevor immediately said, “Bring it on!” I didn’t say anything because I was pretty sure they were joking, but then Mbumbii (the intern from Namibia) told us that the intestines of a cow are the best part – they are so good in fact that when his father slaughters a cow back home he doesn’t share the intestines with anybody. Now I was really confused… so I remained quiet and was promptly mocked for not saying anything. I’m making friends? Anywho, we didn’t end up eating intestines. Lunch was bried (barbequed) cow, bap (maize meal (aka corn meal)) and some other stuff. It was good.

When we went home at the end of the day we stopped by our landlord’s house in order to pick up an extra set of keys and we were invited in for drinks. Our landlords are Johann and Hilda (very South African names no?) and they have three children and four dogs – win! The best part of the night was when Johann and I talked about DeBeers and the mining history of the town. Johann said that I can dig anywhere in the town and find kimberlite! Kimberlite is a type of rock that forms when lava cools and it is the rock that diamonds are found in! Johann also gave me permission to dig anywhere in the yard. This is fantastic begins it means that I will be able to geology-geek out to my hearts content. It also means I’ll be able to bring lots of rocks home, and all of you know how much I like to do that.

We ended the night by watching South Africa’s national soccer team, Bafana Bafana, play Namibia’s national soccer team, the Stallions. Mbumbii spent half the time hating on the South African team (because he is from Namibia, remember?) and the other half of the time pointing out players that play for the Orlando Pirates. The Orlando Pirates are one of the South African teams and their big rivals are the Kaiser Chiefs. Every time we meet a new coach they ask us whether we support the Pirates or the Chiefs. And opposing supporters can go on for hours about why you should favor one team or another. It really is true – here, soccer is religion.