How to get South Africans to Unite, among other things...

Howzit!

How are you all? Keeping happy, healthy and comfortable, I trust?

Well, I've reached my 6-month mark in Korea! So halfway through my contract and from here on, it's countdown time till I come home again!

And wow! What an amazing weekend I've had!

On Friday, after school, I ran a few errands downtown, and yet again, a 5min walk home took 2 hours! Country life, you know....where a quick hello! turns into an hour long kuier. I stuck my head into the optometrist's to say HI! but he practically pulled me into the shop and stuck a cup of coffee in my hand...I only got to leave an hour later! He has a good command of English, and wants to emigrate to Australia, so is desperate to practice his English! Then, 2 min down the road, I bumped into my Philippine friend, Racquel, ended up going home with her for a quick visit, which of course, became an hour-long visit! Her mother-in-law owns a farm, so she sends surplus veg to Racquel, and in turn Racquel piles free veg on me! I went home with a huge bag of eggplant, onions and potatoes! At this rate, I don't even have to buy veg! Now I just need to make friends with someone who owns a dairy! (Come to think of it, one of my students' parents own a big cattle farm! But that's just beef, not milk.) Anyway, we can't have it all, can we? Then again, we get free milk at school. So I suppose I could even stop buying milk!

Well, on Saturday, there was a South African braai in Busan, on the south coast of Korea, to celebrate Heritage Day! What a wonderful experience. When I first arrived, I was disappointed, cos it looked like each racial group just stuck with each other. Cynical me immediately thought, oh well, this is South Africa, right?! Later, someone pointed out a very valid point, which totally makes sense in this Korean context..... cos we find ourselves so far-flung in a foreign country, it's natural for people to touch base with their roots...as jou pappie 'n plaas het, dan gaan jy mos meer in kommon het met die wie se pappie ook 'n plaas het! Of course it makes sense! We have more in common with those with whom we share a cultural heritage! And once that hunger for home culture had been satisfied, add braai smoke, music and beer...and voila! things soon started to look up! We were soon mixing it up!

There were about 200+ South Africans, a handful of Americans, a Kiwi, an Australian or two, a Jamaican and even a Turkish-Russian-American! And some Koreans, too. So we truly had a good mix, just like South Africa! Everyone was dancing to everything, Kwassa, Kwaito etc.... And when the boeremusiek started, Nomvula and I went looking for Afrikaners to teach us how to sakkie. I grabbed the most Afrikaner-looking guy...turns out he was from New Zealand! LOL! (Definitely some Dutch blood there!) He fell in love with 'Shosoloza', which is ironic considering the recent All Blacks' defeat at the hands of the Bokke! So the next best bet, was a real boere ou, who was blown away by how quickly I picked up the steps. He said, "Nou voel ek rerig asof ek tuis is!" as we twirled around. He's convinced that I must have some 'boere bloed' in me cos I can sakkie so well! (Duh! It only consists of 2 bloody steps! HELLO!!!) Anyway, it was cutely innocent of him! All in good fun! Of course, everyone seemed astounded by this little spectacle....An Boer, a Coloured and a Black dancing sakkie-sakkie on a beach in Korea! We were surrounded by an audience with clicking cameras! At least I can say that's my little contribution to uniting South Africa!

There was even a repesentative from the SA Embassy to come and greet us, check up on us, to see if we were ok and behaving ourselves. And yes, we even sang the anthem, the Kiwi right in the middle, hand over heart and all! I should mention though, that the embassy guy had nothing to do with the anthem...LOL!

So...How to get South Africans to unite? Take a random demographic slice across all ethnic groups, young and old, straight and gay, remove from South Africa and place them in a foreign land where most people don't speak your language.....and voila! South Africa comes together! It was something truly amazing to be part of! Reminded me of good old UCT days. And I don't know when last I spoke so much Afrikaans!

And like all things South African, we even had a bit of crime! People started making announcements about cellphones, Nike takkies and sandals going missing! LOL! I had to laugh! Hardly ever in Korea, do you have to worry about someone stealing your stuff. You can leave your bag, phone, wallet lying around in the open. No-one's gonna take it, but get a bunch of South Africans together, and immediately something goes missing! Even that just made it really feel like we were home! :)

And of course, we even had the drunken vloeking from the Kaapenaars, which also just consolidated that warm home feeling! When the sun went down, we headed into the city to freshen up at our various hotels, and then off to Club Mix, which had been booked specially for us. Ironic? Club MIX? Just like old Galaxy days.... 

SA's Richard Branson!

 I met Richard Branson's twin, only he's South African, from PE, with ginger hair! His boyfriend, the Turkish-Russian-American fell in love with my hair. He couldn't stop hugging me just so he could rest his face on my hair! LOL! He even wanted to go home with me, so he could sleep on my hair!!! I told him I was very glad he didn't have a pair of scissors on him, to which he replied that he could always use his lighter! Crazy times, but oh so funny and memorable! I only got back to our motel at 3am...hair intact.

And now it's exam time at my middle school, so I can sit around and do as I please...no classes for me! And tonight, we have a staff dinner. Okey dokey, till next time then.....

Lots of love

Andrea