Breakfast – Well, we’re getting down to it – just a few days left to empty the refrigerator, so I made a big egg bake and tried to get as much in there as I could – used all but five of the eggs, figuring I’d make another egg dish on Sun/Mon. After a little while, John and I took a chance and ventured out of the "compound," walking along the road to look for a license plate he had seen propped up along the side of the road. We walked for quite a while, almost to the Koi pond place, and then turned around without seeing the license plate, but on the way back he spotted it propped up next to a tree. It was just nice to get out and go for a long walk, talk, look at the houses, trees, birds, horses, said hi to some people walking by, one older man looking very dapper in his suit and briefcase. Once we got back, we all went out to the field and kicked goals with the deflated soccer balls that were available, Marc and John tried for the header goal, but not very successfully.
John had been in touch with his cousin Stephanie from France who had been in SA for an internship for her Phd in marine ecology. She’d been in Cape Town for 5 months – and was on her way back to France, stopping in Joberg just for the night, so we met her in Melville for dinner and drinks. We went to the Lucky Bean for dinner (the same place we’d seen Thubi play a few weeks earlier). It was such a nice dinner, with such a great group of people and John was nice enough to sneak over and pay the dinner/drinks bill without us knowing. Thubi was teaching us all about some of the tribal traditions and dances, and Sarah K made up her own little monkey dance, which included (obviously) a feces throwing part. Later we went to the same bar we’d watched the Guana game at, drank, danced,and ate pastries that Marc and Thubi had walked over to get at a nearby pastry shop. Included in the pastries were éclairs, which Stephanie just about fainted over, she was so excited. They weren’t anywhere near as good as the ones in Paris, but at least we could imagine…
Sunday
Sunday morning we got up and moseyed over to Sarah’s at about 10:00 to go to the African Market at the top of a mall in Joberg. It was like a combination open-air market/swap meet/antique road-show/farmers market, with crafts, food, performances, antiques...row after row. We'd learned after our trip to Durbin that the "unique" and "hand-crafted" items that we thought we'd never see again were everywhere! This market was no exception, though there were a few new additions, like some clothing, food, breads/cheeses, and even a booth selling not-so-good Mexican food (according to Sarah, who tried one of their burritos). I wandered around for a while, found the elephant hair bracelets I’d been looking for and some recycled earrings, and then ran into John – so we walked around together for the rest of the time. He'd found a little bicycle made out of old soda cans that I loved, so we walked over and I got a green one that reminded me of the bike I rode in Davis. After a few hours at the market, we headed to Newtown because Sarah was meeting the musicians about her arts project. While she was meeting with them, we headed over to the Market Theater at what used to be a Moyo and had lunch. The rest of the day was very relaxing -- had the bread/cheese I’d bought at the market for dinner, went for a walk around the property, where I was bit by a spider (think it was in a blossomed branch I had broken off) and watched movies.
Monday
Got up this morning and finished off the eggs and anything else I could use for breakfast and then we headed to Newtown again.
We started off by looking for a coffee shop but had no luck so we headed over to the Museum of Africa, where we walked into an exhibit by a sculptor named Pitika Ntali – who I found to be so imaginative and creative.
He uses all types of media to sculpt with – the normal/ expected wood and stone, but then also bones and old machine parts.
The striking part of his sculptures is how he sees and brings out a human face in all of his sculptures. The bone sculptures are the most memorable for me – I’ve never heard of a person using bones to sculpt with. I tried to take pictures of the bone sculptures, but they just didn't come out. After that, we wandered around the museum but were shooed out since the museum part wasn’t open – there was actually a book fair that was going one and that was why the building was open. We were able to see just a little bit of an exhibit about gay/lesbian’s sharing their stories of living as a gay person in a society that is not accepting of that lifestyle.
Once we were done in the museum, we walked around, enjoying the street art that is everywhere in Newtown, still looking for a coffee shop, but still having no luck, so we ended up going to the restaurant right next to Ko’spatong called Sopiatown where we had some wonderful (compared to what we'd been drinking for the last 6 weeks) coffee, read the paper, listened to jazz, and ordered lunch. It was a nice way to spend the morning.
Next was Brightwater commons where John did a little skateboarding (making a young friend in the process and giving him some pointers on skateboarding), I did a little reading, and we went to a movie.
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