National Anthem

This is the South African National Anthem. The first two verses are in Zulu, the third verse is in Afrikaans, and the last verse is in English. I guess that the National Anthem used to be in Afrikaans, and then they switched it to this:

Nkosi sikelel’ iAfrika
Maluphakanyisw’ uphondo lwayo,
Yizwa imithandazo yethu,
Nkosi sikelela, thina lusapho lwayo.

Morena boloka setjhaba sa heso,
O fedise dintwa le matshwenyeho,
O se boloke, O se boloke setjhaba sa heso,
Setjhaba sa South Afrika – South Afrika.

Uit die blou van onse hemel,
Uit die diepte van ons see,
Oor ons ewige gebergtes,
Waar die kranse antwoord gee,

Sounds the call to come together,
And united we shall stand,
Let us live and strive for freedom,
In South Africa our land.

Pietermaritzburg

Today I went to Pietermaritzburg with the Dyers, Glenda’s parents. We drove for about an hour to their nephew’s house. They have a nice plot of land, I think about 4 acres, and have a pool, and small damn for paddling their kayaks, and a lot of old cars. Wayne’s newest purchase is a double decker bus from London. It is apparently gross and disgusting inside from vandals before he got it, but it still runs and occasionally the brakes still work. We had a wonderful lunch with the family and then drove home. Pietermaritzburg is very similar to other towns in Durban, just a little cooler since it is further from the coast.

One thing that is great about living in a different country is meeting different people. I think that one of the best ways to see what it is really like in a foreign place is to meet people and see how they live, what they eat, and to spend time with their family. All of my experiences so far have been great and I have met a lot of wonderful people.

Too Hot!

I think that I am in hell—and they don’t have ice water. They don’t even have Diet Coke. They have Coke Light, but it just isn’t the same. It is so hot and humid. I ‘had’ to go to the mall just to walk around in the air conditioning. I was just commenting the other day how the locals said that February was the hottest month and it really hasn’t been that hot. I should have knocked on some wood or a tree or an entire forest, because now it is incredibly hot. And now, the locals say that February AND March are the hottest months. Who are they to just add on months of hotness? I didn’t think that I would say it, but I wish I could be in the snow!

Hockey

I think that Coach Bradley must have told Durban Girls High School about my basketball duties because I am now in charge of U14 indoor field hockey. I don’t have to coach the girls, which is good because I know nothing about the sport. I have gotten the jist of the game fairly quickly since I went to a game and a practice, though. The girls have practice on Mondays for about 45 minutes at a field house about 5 minutes from school. Most of the U14 girls have never picked up a hockey stick before in their lives, so there is a lot of ‘learning’ going on. Their games are on Saturdays and last about 30 minutes (they play two 15 minute halves.) Since I am required to do some sort of extracurricular activity for at least 2 hours every week after school, I figured that hockey wasn’t a bad deal. They have about 5 weeks left of practice and only 3 games. The entire indoor field hockey club at the school consists of about 9 teams. They have a few ‘Open’ teams which are mainly the Juniors and Seniors, a few U16 teams, and a few U14 teams. Only the top two teams from each age group get to compete, so the coaches pick the top girls after practice and those are the ones who get to play in the Sat. game. During the following terms I will coach softball and possibly help out with outdoor hockey or basketball. I am not sure what I will do during the 4th term yet—but hopefully I will learn another sport.

Here is the indoor practice facility. Games are played at a school in a different town.

Here is their version of dynamic stretching.

More on School

Here are a few more pictures from school. This is a picture of the gymnasium. There are no bleachers for spectators, so they must play all sporting events elsewhere. I am not sure what the wooden ladder type things are on the side of the wall, a former student told me that they were really old and they never used them when she was in school. She didn’t really know what they were either, she thought pull-ups or something. This is not quite like the Grizzly Den…but come to think of it I am not sure if they even have a mascot. Here are two of the gates at school. Yes, the students and staff are actually locked in during the day! This is the main entrance to the school with the two 24 hour security guards. The gates are opened at about 6:30 am and are closed soon after. There is an intercom that buzzes the main office if you are a visitor and security needs to double check that you are allowed to come in. There is also a ‘door’ entrance to the gate for foot traffic in the morning when kids come to school. This gate is where I park my car. The gate is opened at about 6:30 am and is locked for the night at about 4:30 pm. So, I must leave school (or at least move my car) by 4:30 pm otherwise I will have no way to get home and I will have to spend the night there.

Sweet Ride

Here is a picture of the car that I am driving. It is a Hyundai Getz and gets great gas mileage compared to my Explorer. I can fill up for about $20 and drive for about 3 weeks. I am also becoming an expert stick shift driver. I can parallel park this baby and even back it up a little hill to park it at school. Notice the red L in the back window…which stands for learner driver (I think that it stands for loser driver.) I suppose I could take it out since I am now an ‘expert’ driver, but I think that I will keep it in for a few more weeks just to be sure. One funny thing about driving over here is the stop lights, which they call robots. The lights can be on the left, right or both sides of the street, none of them hang over the street. Often times the lights are burnt out or are not working because thieves steel the copper pipe inside the pole because it is worth a lot of money. So, the street crews have to replace the copper pipe only to have it stolen again in the future.

Spelling

I have quickly learned that we do not speak or write the ‘Queen’s English.’ Here are some words that I found in the newspaper today that Americans spell ‘incorrectly.’ (MS Word actually changes most of them to the ‘correct’ spelling and I had to edit them.) I would like to know how the Queen really does spell these words. In South Africa they don't use the letter z very often if at all. And, they don't call it z, they call it 'zed.'

Fertilisation
Realised
Defence (I think that this came from the signs at football games)
Neighbourhood
Programme
Manoeuvre
Colour
Recognised
Centres
Behaviour
Metres
Foetus (fetus)
Favour