Today I went on a field trip to the planetarium in Cape Town. With 100 + hyper kids on a crowded bus, it was just like any field trip in America - UNTIL - on the way home, the bus just stops and all the teachers get out and just walk off. After about 20 minutes I ask someone "Where have all the teachers gone?" DUH - they've gone to KFC! Seriously! They came back awhile later, apparently all chicken cravings satisfied, and we headed on back to Masi. But not before a wandering salesman gets on the bus and tries to sell us holographic pictures of Jesus (even weirder because Jesus is a very white, WASP guy) while the kids cheer loudly each time he brings out a new picture. The whole time I'm thinking, "who the heck plies their wears on a SCHOOL bus?" but I'm the only one who thinks it's odd.
MUSINGS ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE ROAD - Any British or formerly British country insists on upsetting the entire space/time continuum by driving on the left side of the road. To facilitate this folly, their cars are built with the steering wheel on the right hand side, resulting in me looking like a complete moron at least 2 x a day when I get in the car and find that I'm sitting in the passenger seat, by myself, trying to start the car. It's even more awkward when I'm actually INTENDING to ride in the passenger seat, and I end up trying to sit in the driver's lap. And just to rant a little longer, the windshield wiper and the blinker are in the opposite place from where the Lord intended them to be, so every time I start to signal a turn, I turn on the windshield wipers instead. Needless to day, the whole driving thing is still a little disconcerting.
Xhosa - I've gotten kind of used to the different clicking sounds that are inherent to the Xhosa language, but today at the planetarium, the astronomer guy used a microphone that magnified his click about 20 X. One of the clicks is a bit like the sound you make when you put your finger inside your cheek and "pop it" - only it's achieved without a finger and results in a loud, round pop that is amazingly loud WITHOUT a microphone. WITH the mike, the guy nearly blew my ear off.
On the way from Kommetjie (where I live) to Masi (where the school is), I pass a fruit shop called Rogers Fruiterers. At first, I thought it was a joke - or a typo. But since then, I've discovered that anyplace that sells fruit is, in fact, a FRUITERER. By this logic, a meat counter should be a butcherer and the bread shop should be a bakerer, but it only applies to fruit. Incidentally, the fruiterer sells beautiful avocados the size of a softball for about 80 cents apiece.
And in conclusion - the photo pretty much says it all. This was immediately outside the front door of the International Airport in Livingstone:
MUSINGS ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE ROAD - Any British or formerly British country insists on upsetting the entire space/time continuum by driving on the left side of the road. To facilitate this folly, their cars are built with the steering wheel on the right hand side, resulting in me looking like a complete moron at least 2 x a day when I get in the car and find that I'm sitting in the passenger seat, by myself, trying to start the car. It's even more awkward when I'm actually INTENDING to ride in the passenger seat, and I end up trying to sit in the driver's lap. And just to rant a little longer, the windshield wiper and the blinker are in the opposite place from where the Lord intended them to be, so every time I start to signal a turn, I turn on the windshield wipers instead. Needless to day, the whole driving thing is still a little disconcerting.
Xhosa - I've gotten kind of used to the different clicking sounds that are inherent to the Xhosa language, but today at the planetarium, the astronomer guy used a microphone that magnified his click about 20 X. One of the clicks is a bit like the sound you make when you put your finger inside your cheek and "pop it" - only it's achieved without a finger and results in a loud, round pop that is amazingly loud WITHOUT a microphone. WITH the mike, the guy nearly blew my ear off.
On the way from Kommetjie (where I live) to Masi (where the school is), I pass a fruit shop called Rogers Fruiterers. At first, I thought it was a joke - or a typo. But since then, I've discovered that anyplace that sells fruit is, in fact, a FRUITERER. By this logic, a meat counter should be a butcherer and the bread shop should be a bakerer, but it only applies to fruit. Incidentally, the fruiterer sells beautiful avocados the size of a softball for about 80 cents apiece.
And in conclusion - the photo pretty much says it all. This was immediately outside the front door of the International Airport in Livingstone: