South Africa Loses!

We drove up to Johannesburg last weekend to watch Team America beat Bafana Bafana, South Africa’s national soccer team. The team name means “boys, boys” in Zulu. You can likely guess the meaning of the women’s team name, Banyana Banyana…



South Africa’s supporters came out in full force, but South Africa was not expected to win. Believe it or not, despite getting bounced out of the World Cup in the first round, the U.S. team is actually pretty good.



The U.S. also had some surprise supporters.



The impressive team spirit couldn’t pull the ball into the net for South Africa, though, and the U.S. won 1-0.



The match was the annual Nelson Mandela Challenge, with all proceeds going to benefit the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund. Because of the spirit of the match, the organizers arranged for several children’s soccer teams to score free tickets. The kids all came in their soccer uniforms (including cleats!) and were very, very excited.



“Who will you root for?” was the common question from people who knew that we were going to the match. That’s Andy in his Bafana Bafana jersey and Kate in her Red Sox shirt (still claiming bragging rights for their World Series win).



These two split as well, she’s in her Bloemfontein Celtics jersey and he’s waving a U.S. flag.

Watermelon Man

Anyone older than my students at Booth-Fickett will hopefully catch the Herbie Hancock reference in the title…



As summer is starting in Tweeling and the watermelons ripen, Andy has become Tweeling’s Watermelon Man.


While Andy already had a lot of fans in Tweeling, the kids now follow him around like he’s the Pied Piper since he turned them on to watermelon.



The kids were asking for apples, which we had been giving them whenever they were hungry. Andy instead sliced up the huge watermelon that we had bought for $5.


Due to a slight language confusion, the kids continued to ask for apples when they were hoping for some watermelon.



We have found some of the world’s biggest watermelons at the Fruit and Vegetable shop in Bethlehem, about an hour south of Tweeling.


Ntombi can hold the watermelon herself if we lift in and hand it to her, but Fana needs some help. One of these days, we are sure, there will be a smashed watermelon on our kitchen floor…


Andy continued to draw fans by teaching some of the kids to bake Toll House Cookies. The kids call them “The Cooks” or “The Little Cakes.”


He also taught them about the fun in eating the cookie dough and smearing it all over your face. He was even successful in convincing the kids that, after you eat the Cooks, you have to clean up the fantastic mess that you made.

Keep Lesotho Wierd

Not that Lesotho (pronounced Le-soo-two) will ever not be weird, but it could very easily adopt Austin's city motto ("Keep Austin Weird") as its national creed.



Lesotho's real motto is "Lesotho: Real Africa." A little jab at its neighbor, South Africa, but meant to imply that it is rough and mountainous, which it is,




that there are far more people walking than there are riding in cars,




that the only recognizable shape is a circle,





that they can think outside the box when making a public phone system,




that it has absolutely gorgeous sunsets,





that whatever you do attracts a crowd,





and that the crowd that you attract will sing and dance for you for free...





Kate and Andy crossed the very-porous border between Lesotho and South Africa to spend a weekend at Malealea Lodge in the tiny village of Malealea. We stayed in our own little rondeval and spent hours sitting outside looking at the scenery.




We were assisted by this boy to saddle up horses for a four hour ride to a nearby waterfall.



Our guide, Thapelo, gave us fabulous African answers to all of our questions. "Has the weather been nice here, Thapelo?" "Yes, it is time now for ploughing..."




Traditional Basotho people wear blankets to honor Moshoeshoe (Mo-shwe-shwe), the first king of Lesotho and the one who escaped King Shaka's massive bullying of anyone not Zulu and who brokered a deal with both the British and the Boers, both of whom wanted control of Lesotho. The story is that Moshoeshoe rounded up the people that were running away from Shaka's violent takeover of Eastern South Africa, marched them up to Lesotho, and founded a kingdom. Lesotho is the coldest place in Africa, getting significant amounts of snow in the winter, so when the British donated wollen blankets to the Basotho people, they decided to wear them all of the time to both thank the British for their donation and to honor the diplomatic skills of their king.

Red Sox Fans are Everywhere!

Who knew that the Red Sox had so many fans in Tweeling?


It started on Friday morning, when, for a reason noone knew, we skipped the Friday morning assembly. Every Friday the whole school gets together and the students sing gorgeous songs. A teacher leads a prayer, the principal makes announcements, and everyone heads off to class.



This past Friday there was no assembly, so the kids in Kate's first period class hadn't gotten their Friday singing out of their systems. Kate tried to get them to focus by promising that we could all sing for the last five minutes of class.


The students took the deal, but only on the condition that Mrs. Mahady teach them an American song to sing.


Kate, at a loss for any American song that would work, except for "We Will Rock You," wrote the lyrics to "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" on the board. She had to explain the rules of baseball (including trying to convince many kids that it is not cricket), and the importance of peanuts and cracker-jacks, but it caught on fairly well.



As a lifelong fan and a Boston native, Kate never really believed that she'd see the Red Sox win a World Series, so we weren't going to miss it if it was happening again. Kate and Andy had to wake up at 4am to watch games 3 & 4 broadcast from Colorado and sit through hilarious South African explanations of "Home Runs" and "Outs" and "K's" on ESPN World.




It made us proud, surprised, and homesick to see the Red Sox POUND Colorado. Congratulations to the Red Sox and to Red Sox fans, we deserve it after so many years of excitement and disappointments.


Now if we can pass some of that magic on to the Free State Stars...

Hier Kom Die Bokke...

South Africa dropped a massive rugby bomb at the World Cup Finals in Paris on Saturday. The Springboks won the Rugby World Cup for the second time (the first time was in 1995, the year after Mandela's election) by delivering a solid beating to England.




The win means alot to South Africa for a few reasons. First, sports were very segregated in apartheid South Africa. Rugby was historically the Afrikaans sport, Soccer was the Black sport, and Cricket the English-speaking White sport. Baseball was ignored by all except for American exchange teachers (who watched game 6 at 2:30 AM). At one point in history, all South African had to register by their race, which determined the rights that they were allowed or denied. Which sport you played was used as a factor if your race (mostly Black, White, Coloured - a mix of races, and Asian) was in question.



Sports have remained fairly segregated after the end of apartheid, along the former racial lines. However, whenever there is a huge win to celebrate, like a Rugby World Cup win in 1995, an African Cup of Nations soccer win in 1996, or this recent Rugby win, people of all races pull together to support the team, and to celebrate the win.

Just like they do when the Red Sox are in the World Series...


In fact, when the injuries of apartheid were still very sore, Mandela scored huge points all over South Africa by being photographed in his Springboks shirt during the 1995 Rugby World Cup.


Second, South Africa needs something to be excited about. The crime statistics in South Africa are atrocious, the level of poverty that many people live in is horrifying, and the country has the highest population of HIV/AIDS patients in the world.




Third, South Africa didn't even qualify for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, though they are hosting the 2010 World Cup. Hopes are very high all over the country for 2010, not only for a good soccer performance, but also for the world to see that South Africa is coming along. This rugby win gave alot of people hope that South Africa will be successful in 2010 on many levels.



This guy is not worried about any of that...



Kate and Andy made a "Sports Day" of the Rugby Final and watched the Free State Stars win in Bethlehem. The Free State Stars came back from being relegated (sent down to the minor leagues) to being currently third in the Premier Soccer League.



Free State Stars fans have come out of the woodwork (not unlike Red Sox fans when they are winning) and have donned all of their gear.


Their field is about as big as any high school field in America, and they don't have any sponsors, but they draw the fans.



Jomo Cosmos have a far better slogan, however.



Still on the sports theme, but back in Tweeling, Andy has started an Ultimate Frisbee team with a group of volunteers from the Rainbow Clinic.


They played their first muddy match 2 weeks ago on Refeng-Thabo's field and tied a team from Frankfort. Andy has requests from schools both in Tweeling and Frankfort to come teach about "that thing that you were throwing last weekend."