Braai, Tzaneen Dam, and other cultural experiences

On Friday I attended my first braai in South Africa; braai is the South African version of our barbeque. We cooked some ribs, and corn on an open fire and included the local fare of paulp and chakalaka which is somewhat like rice and a spicy vegetable mix. During the braai traditional music was played and I learned the traditional sengali dance, which is one of the cultural people here. The dance consisted of moving the hips in such a way that can get this very heavy skirt to jump up and down, and the men did this movement with their legs. We danced the whole night and ate fully. It was a wonderful time for eating. The next day I decided to explore the town of Tzaneen and found many shops along the street during the weekend where people sell local fruits and vegetables and food that they cook and sell, they also will cut their hair for you on the weekends and many local people will go there for a shaving.

During the night I spend my time in the hotel lobby with two people who work at the hotel, Rantsho and Ellen who share their knowledge and time with me. That night we were visited by two Afrikaans men who wanted to spend some time talking with us, however, they were upset that Ellen did not know Afrikaans, although it is not required of her and he does not know the local language of Tzaneen. It was shocking to find that they were rather upset by her lack of knowledge of Afrikaans and shows the true nature of Afrikaans here who are not yet ready to relinquish the power that they had during the Apartheid.
On Sunday I sent with my friends Mary and Roman to the local Dam where you can host a braai and spend time relaxing by the water and taking in the beautiful nature. It was one of the first times that Mary had seen motorboats and a jetskiis and enjoyed watching the young children that were being pulled behind the boats and wanted to get a picture taken with the boat. While we were walking along the road everyone took a while to stop and stare at us and Mary and Roman told me because it is not yet normal in their country for white people to hang out with the black people who live there, so it was shocking for them to see us hanging out together.

Back at my hotel Mary and Roman and I spent some time talking about the local culture and I spent time playing Glee music for them which they loved. They also wanted to learn how to ballroom dance and so the few steps I knew I took some time to share it with them, and they tried to teach me more local dance moves. The interesting turn of the conversation was when we talked about how many men cheat on their wives in South Africa, and they told me that about 95% of the male population cheat because their grandfathers used to have many wives and so now they believe it is OK to be with many men. They said that there are not many men who are available in South Africa so the women feel that they must accept the cheating or never have a family. Mary told me that she felt that woman must just accept it instead of getting anxious about it or “having a heart attack”. Spending time talking with them gave me more insight into what it is like here in South Africa, they promised that they would take me to their local villages so that I could learn more.