Shosholoza

No work today - it's Saturday, and all of Cape Town watched their beloved Bafana Bafana's victory over Denmark. Yellow Bafana Bafana soccer shirts everywhere! Jess and I drove to Nyanga township to watch the game with friends at a local shebeen - Molo Mhlobo. What fun! We stopped at our friend Ivy's house to pick her up, and her son and his neighborhood buddies were waiting in the street to greet us with the long, loud horns the crowd blows to start off the soccer matches in the stadiums. Really loud, and Ivy and a tiny neighbor girl were blowing them inside the house as well. Before we left the house the match began with the South African National Anthem. The children in the street heard the song and stopped their play to sing along - Nkosi Sikele iAfrika.... Then Jess drove us over to the shebeen. We were of course the only white people there, and many strangers came to shake our hands. One man brought us beer and told us all about how life had changed since Nelson Mandela and the ANC had control of the government. He said that bad things can still happen anywhere, but that now there was so much hope, and he wanted us to feel very welcome there. Jess dashed into the bathroom a couple of times - to jot things down as they happened in her fieldnotes book for her thesis research! Beers were consumed as everyone watched the TV screen intently. Midway through the second half South Africa scored, and the place was up for grabs. High fives and handshakes and shouting! As the game neared the end and victory was assured, they guys in the shebeen started singing a song that I did not know. Then at the end they switched to Shosholoza, and we belted out the song with the rest of the crowd. Photo included here of Jess with our friends Andrew, Ivy, and Lloyd. Andrew and Lloyd plan on wearing the wigs to the big celebation for the opening game this coming Friday. Word has it Jess has a bright green wig to wear the the big party as well. Also included with this post are photos from a wine tour - beautiful landscapes there - and Jess' friend Eddie who plays cello in a philharmonic. After a performance he played for us a bit on the front porch at A Touch of Madness.