Zulu Style

So things are looking up around here and life is getting fuller. We have now met a lot of people to call friends and it has given us more to do. We have begun a Friday morning Bible study with about 9 other missionaries who live in our valley.

There's Andy and his wife Roz from the UK who have two babies (one is only a month or so old). There's Adam and Chrissy who have two young children and go to our church and they are the one's we probably hang out with the most. There's Betsy who is originally from Seattle but has lived here for 4 years now and her boyfriend Eugine from Cape Town; and with Betsy comes Slindile who is Zulu and 18 years old and has two babies and is living with Betsy for the time being. There's Sophie from Australia who's been here for 9 years and also has two young children and is also looking after a new born Zulu baby because her mother is extremely sick. There's JD and Barbara who take good care of David and I and are very involved with the work at Agathos. There was Cameron from Australia but his going away party was today. And I thinks that's the group - lots of awesome people and lots of little kids running everywhere.

On Saturday Jan. 26th, the day after we met Betsy at the first Bible study, she gave us a call and invited us to a Zulu dance performance show. We had no idea what that meant but we found out that there is a Zulu woman who runs an after school program with a bunch of kids and teaches them traditional dances and songs to kind of keep them out of trouble. So we drove about 45 min. into the valley on dirt roads and then arrived at the traditional home. Homes are usually set up for the whole family, not just the immediate. This home had 5 buildings - two round rooms and tree square mud rooms.

We were invited into one of the rounds and sat on thatch mats on the ground and sipped a traditional Zulu drink ( something like sour milk made with ground up maze). We visited with the ladies there until the show started. We brought our mats outside and the whole village started arriving. There wound up being quite a large audience. The guys came out first singing Zulu songs. Then the girls came out and did a Zulu drill team type dance. The guys came out again and sang and then the girls had another dance. This one was much more lively and they came out without any shirts on. It was quite interesting and we got some good shots to send into National Geographic (just kidding of course). The whole time there was someone pounding the beat on a drum and someone with a whistle. The last performance was everyone dancing breakdance style - one at a time - showing off their moves.

After the show we went back into the round and had a feast. David sat on a stool in the corner because men are not supposed to sit on the floor with the women. He got a nice ceramic plate filled with all the food and was served first. Women are supposed to wait to eat until the men are finished but we just gave David a 10 minute head start. The food was all laid out on the ground and all the women ate with their hands. There was mashed potatoes mixed with ground maze with a tomato chutney type thing to dip your handful of potato in (delicious). There was Zulu bread (my ultimate favorite) with a broth dip and a whole chicken that got ripped apart as we dug in. They also had Zulu beer which is nothing like beer and has hardly any alcohol and tastes a little like vinegar. It only takes three days to ferment. It was such an awesome experience to see real Zulu life. The uncle of the family who was the "family leader" was dressed only in animal skins with a meerkat on his head.