At the same time

This post was uploaded at may 25th. 

Taxis. After this weekend I don’t like them that much anymore. Thursday may 17^th, the drivers of the taxi busses decided to strike without making any announcement. Please note that they were still driving in the morning and started striking around 12. Now you can imagine that lots of people, young women and children as well, couldn’t think of a way to get home after their obligations. It was hectic in town. Hundreds of people weren’t able to get home. Luckily they went back to work the next morning, but this wasn’t for long. Around 12 they started striking again, this time with lots of violence in town. The shops closed because they got attacked and rubber had been shot by the police. Everyone was in panic and people were running and screaming around. This day took the lives of six people. The reason for the strike? Taxi drivers complained that eThekwini's metro police were targeting them when issuing traffic fines. They want every ticket to be written in Zulu, that every current warrant should be cancelled and that there shouldn’t be any traffic enforcement during the morning and afternoon peak. They also believe that Indian and white people shouldn’t be allowed to write tickets, because the taxi drivers can’t speak any English. The strike on itself shouldn’t have to be a big problem, as long as your view on the situation is clear and realistic and that no innocent people will get harmed. And that is exactly what happened here..

Saturday afternoon I went to visit a soccer game together with Vukani, Caroline, Friut and Lolly. Vukani invited us to come and so we did. When I heard that the game was sold out (Moses Mabhiba stadium, 62.000 people) I was wondering what the game was about and this feeling got stronger when we approached the stadium and everybody was dancing and hooting on their vuvuzelas. If you thought that the vuvuzelas were only for the WC, you’re wrong. The vuvuzelas are still everywhere in the stadium and they make lots of noise. Some vuvuzelanists (they really deserve a title) were blowing their instrument so hard and long that they sometimes needed to sit down to not pass out. We were on the Pirates side and they were playing against the Golden Arrows for some cup. I asked my neighbour where the guest supporters had to sit. It took me thirty minutes to explain what I meant. They don’t have anything like that in South Africa. You support the team you want to support and so you can sit wherever you want to sit. I said as a joke that I was for the winning team, but that’s actually not a weird thing to say here. You’re here to party and to have a good time so you actually do support the winning team! Luckily, my team really won. Vukani was still supporting the Golden Arrows at half time, but after 90 minutes (4-2) he turned into a Pirates supporter. Right before the end of the game, the security was surrounding the field and I asked Vukani how they would ever be able to stop the fans for running on the field. “haha They won’t” and he was right. After the signal the first people started to run to the field which was so funny. Security was trying to catch some of them but because of their creative fakes they didn’t succeed. After five minutes the field was full of fans and a huge party got started. Finally when almost everyone had left the field, there was this one fanatic fan that took off all of his clothes and ran for his minute of fame... What a party, I never experienced anything like this in my life and I loved it!

Last Friday I moved to a place across the street. I’m still at Tekweni every day, but my new accommodation is lovely. I have my own bed- and bathroom and the landlady and her two Jack Russels are very nice. The cleaning ladies do my laundry so you might understand that I adore them. The Jack Russels don’t listen to anything at all, also not to me. They will come when I have some meat in my hands, but according to the landlady that doesn’t count. Yesterday when I came from work she was chasing the two monsters. When she finally caught them she said: “Please have them for dinner! Bbq them or something!”

On Sunday I went for lunch with Tara, Shannon, Friut and Lolly and I took the amazing Crab Curry. The food is so hot and spicy here and every time I try to act cool and tough and not to sweat and cry while I’m eating. After that we made the Tekweni visitors cry because of our amazing karaoke afternoon. A lovely weekend!

When I got to Tekweni on Tuesday Wati asked me if I wanted to taste his soup, of course. It was pretty good, looked like a bouillon, until he told me that it was cow stomach soup. It is very unacceptable here to nag and swear at food so he gave me the ‘food is food’ talk. He was right though. Yesterday when I came in I could smell this strong, not very nice scent. Luckily I didn’t say anything about it, because it came from the kitchen and I had to taste it because it was a real South African dish. It looked a bit like a mixture of broccoli and seaweed, but because Lolly didn’t want to tell me what it was until I tasted it,  I knew it must be a body part of some animal. It was a bit leathery and it tasted a bit boring and salty. And of course an explosion of spiciness. Guess what? The actual cow stomach.

Today I visited another charity with Jacqui. Her mother works here. It is like a care home where people can stay at their last stage of life, both elderly people as children, both cancer- as AIDS patients. They organized a little cloth market for the charity. They promised me brand clothing, but Mr. Price didn’t really meet my Guess and Prada expectations. This was of course logical, I know. It must me so hard and sad to work here, especially with the children. They also have something like the make a wish foundation and they often visit this hospice to fulfill their last wish. In Holland the children will wish for a meet & greet with their idol or a helicopter flight. Not here. One little girl around the age of 7 just broke my heart with her last wish: “I would like to wish for my own pillow”…

It was another hectic and double week with lots of good things and lovely people, but this week showed me again that this country definitely has two sides more than any country in the world.

Thank you so much for your time! Appreciate it!

Love, Esther