DAY 29

I love East London because you can get up at any time you want. My decision was to lift my body at around 11am and it felt great!
After a nice breakfast which was almost a lunch Charles came along and we headed once more to Mdantsane to meet Pinky’s (Charle’s wife) family having a function today. A function is a ritual meeting where something big is celebrated and usually traditional beer is served and loads of neighbours drop by. And that’s exactly what we encountered, about 30 people most of them including a few youngsters, some middle aged men and women and elders (most of them women). It was loads of fun to talk to them even if one old (over 60), pretty drunk woman groped me in the crotch and butt!!! The crowd was laughing and chased her away, man this was scary but also funny^^ There were just a few women who didn’t look me in my face when I was shaking their hands and didn’t seem happy at all to meet me. I think that happened because I’m a white (compared to ‘em) rich guy who just came around to ‘see’ them in their township like maybe animals in a zoo, which was definitely not the case but I don’t blame them for thinking like that either. In these townships people don’t have much hopes for a nice future because unemployment rates are so friggin high (or it’s minor jobs) and the same goes for crime rate, amount of teen pregnancy, HIV infection rate and number of people being addicted to drugs (mostly alcohol). It’s pretty hard not to be desperate in such a place and happy occasions like this function bring people together and are some of the few happy things here. And yes, I tried one small sip of the brew which was quite an experience because it tasted like real beer with a touch of corn. Only Pinky’s grandma knows how to do this stuff and it takes 3 days and loads of energy to produce it. Furthermore she doesn’t even like to brew it because the whole neighbourhood will sometimes get boozed and lie around or even worse start having fights. But she’s still doing it because of the tradition and her exclusive knowledge which is somehow a little sad because she’s a very nice, damn old woman. Anyway, today seemed to be a good day and everyone was happy and engaged in conversations. Charles, Pinky’s sister, her brother, 5 of the kids and I drove to the shopping mall to get some food and yes that means 9 people in an Opel made for a max of 5 persons. I enjoyed my time playing with kids and looking for a new footbag because I lost mine at the party : -( Back at the function we were playing with a rugby ball and I talked to Pinky’s mum while I had a praying mantis in my hair. (first time that I saw such a cool animal in real life)
We left in the late afternoon and I was pretty damn tired and craving for food.
So I went to bed early and wanted to sleep but Johanna woke me up telling me that there is a party this evening where all her Ugandan friends will be so she wanted to go there. ‘Okay then go there.’ Was my response but no the typical girl-boy dilemma started: ‘I’m not gonna go without you!’ ‘Why? You haven’t seen those people for years and I’ll be around for the rest of the holidays.’ ‘But I can’t leave you behind all alone.’ ‘I’m not alone, Charles, Viwe, Gus, Noami and your mum will be around.’
‘Still.’ So I had to go there to make her happy because I really wanted her to meet her old friends but I also really wanted to fucking sleep. When we left I felt like a piece of shit and I even looked like one: pale, huge shadows under my eyes and yawning all the time. But fortunately there is a legal drug called Red Bull and that stuff really worked and got me back on my feet and washed the slowness of my mind away. (do you get this feeling when you can’t think at proper speed?) In the end I enjoyed the party talking to loads of pretty damn cool people, most of them being students and I learned about another African tradition…Ugandan goodbyes. Let me just say that one girl said goodbye 5 hours! before she left^^
Back home the effects of the red Bull were worn off long time ago and I was back at my old stage – DEAD!