Here is Poughie and the voors and pap she taught me to cook. Next, this is 10C: I am their class guardian which is like an advisor. Last is a pic of the drive to Bela Bela Warmbaths.

Invigilating and Other Things

The last two weeks have been more chaotic at school since it is the close of term one. This past week and a half I have had to invigilate a few times. I dislike invigilating. I am a terrible invigilator. I am glad this invigilation period is coming to a close. I think invigilating is one of my least favorite things about South Africa.
To relax after marking and invigilating, I have taken a few more trips to the Warmbaths; I love the drive because the views are amazing.
On a brighter note, I have had a couple of cooking lessons from Poughie. Last week, I learned to fry hake, and this week I have learned how to cook pap and voors with gravy (porridge and a kind of sausage in a tomato-onion sauce) which is best eaten with your hands. This is one of my favorite South African dishes, and I was really psyched to learn how to make it. When my colleagues at work heard that I was cooking pap, they said that I must bring some in for them to taste too, so I was a little nervous. By the way cooking pap seemed like I would be easy, but actually it requires a bit of work; lots of stirring and strong arms. Pap is a very thick, basically solid, white porridge made from maize meal. One might think it would be like polenta, but it tastes totally different. So my first attempt at pap went pretty well, though one of my friends at work offered to show me how she makes pap after she tasted mine; this leads me to believe I have a bit to learn still.
With the close of term one, everyone goes on break for 3 wonderful weeks! I am meeting up with a couple of my fellow Fulbrighters, and we are flying to Capetown to see Table Mountain, penguins, Robben Island, and a bit of the Garden Route for a couple of weeks. Keep you posted.

P.S. Invigilating is what we call proctoring exams here.

Komjekejeke

Welcome to Jeke Jeke. Once a year the Ndebele people celebrate their heritage and culture and King Makhosonke II’s birthday, all in a weekend celebration. My school, King Makhosonke II Secondary School (named after the king) was invited to the celebration (though anyone was welcome). I went with Annah who is Ndebele and helped translate for me from time to time. The day was really fun and interesting. I loved the music and dancing; think: happy, happy, joy, joy. The speeches of the dignitaries (fellow kings and chiefs, princes and princesses, and politicians) were a bit long, as they were spoken in IsiNdeble and translated into English and sometimes French too.

It was really interesting to see the many traditional types of clothing. Some Ndebele women wear rather heavy looking blankets as shawls, even in the summer! Annah said her mother did this, and once her mother became used to it, she could not live without it. In addition to the traditional clothing and beads, I loved the music throughout the day. A lot of traditional songs, as well as a fusion of traditional music and jazz which was fantastic. At the end of the day, King Makhosonke II gave his speech; it reminded me of the State of the Union address, about the future of the Ndebele people and culture; he spoke of plans to improve and build up JekeJeke before 2010 (World Cup) and the need to keep traditions alive; for example, not re-naming places that are named after kings and chiefs of old. Overall, a very cool day.