Downtown Monday

Tripping is not allowed at this corner.



Dinner at Potter's House...Sarah and I always compete to see who can find the smaller of the GIGANTIC portions of pap (kind of like really thick grits--it's a staple food here).

Lobola

Today I went out to Soshanguve with Sarah and Doug for what we thought was going to be a wedding for Champagne (one of Granny's granddaughters) and her boyfriend July. We had misunderstood, and instead of a wedding, today was the lobola negotiation. Lobola is like a dowry--it's the money that a man or his family must pay to the prospective bride's family. We were told that July's family would be arriving at Granny's just before sunrise, but we opted to go ahead and come a bit late...we arrived at 9:30 instead of 6:00am. And, the family had not yet arrived. There was some miscommunication between the families, so as things turned out, July's family still hadn't arrived by the time we left just after 2:00pm. But we had a great time hanging out with the family, hearing more about their cultural traditions, and even seeing Granny kill two chickens for the meal. You might not want to look at the last of these photos if that last thing on the list bothers you...

Me with Champagne's daughter, Sofatso


















Laundry on the fence...and Doug's car. The boys had fun washing the car while we hung out with the family.


















And...not for the faint of heart...the freshly decapitated chicken.

Building progress...and another birthday

Ma Ntabiseng's house is almost done!


















The team has been hard at work:























And, we celebrated yet another birthday today: Lungile turned three. =)


















I'll close with a beautiful African sunset:

Sarah's Birthday

We celebrated Sarah's birthday with a morning hike to Wonderboom Fort, where we had a picnic of birthday cookies, ginger beer, and dry lemon.























































And...we also celebrated by going to a concert at the Blues Room in Jo'burg...

Building and Birthday

We have a team here from California who is building a house for Granny's next door neighbor, Ma Ntabiseng. I got to hang out with them today and see the progress being made...as well as pitch in doing fun things like moving bricks. Here's Megan hard at work with the mortar, while Sarah looks on.



Back at Pangani tonight, we celebrated Carissa's birthday. Here she is, sitting in her favorite spot in the whole house. She's laughing over the calendar we made her, with pictures of each one of us wearing the arm brace she had to wear after her horse-riding injury back in March!

Han-Han

This is me with Hannah! Hannah was in Jo'burg with Scripture Union, and she joined us here for a week during the Road Trip in May/June...when she shared my room. =) She came back to Pangani for a too-short overnight visit last week, and she's off home to Ireland soon!

Banyana Banyana

"Banyana banyana" means "ladies...ladies." Today we had a ladies-only outing with some of the women from Granny's family. We've been talking for a while about doing this, and when we planned it for today, I said "It can be for my dad's birthday!" We did all say happy birthday for him, over our snacks mid-afternoon. =)

We grilled chicken and "blankets of meat" (according to Emily) and had far too much to eat for our picnic lunch. Then we played on the playground. Much fun was had by all!


Group picture on a tractor! L to R: Emily, Sophia, Dikeledi, Anna, Sarah, me, Christinah. (I apparently found something really funny at the point this picture was taken.)


Anna, Emily, and Pretty on the swings


Christinah above Sarah, Emily, and me...another tractor pose

Phinda!

Last year, when I came to South Africa on a 2-week Road Trip, I met both Katie (from Visalia, CA) and Phinda (from Soweto, South Africa). We were the only Road Trippers NOT from Point Loma Nazarene. =) Katie is one of my fellow apprentices this year, and Phinda is thinking about being part of the NC apprenticeship next year. This morning, Arthur and Katie and I drove to Jo'burg to meet Phinda, catch up, and talk a bit about NC. It was so good to see her again!

Happy Fourth of July

We marked the (wintry, rainy) day with ice cream and sparklers at the Stewart home.