Weekend Shenanigans

Molo! (Hello!)

We had a fun weekend staying in the city.  Saturday we woke up early and spent the better half of the day at Nahoon Beach.  Soaked up tons of sun and got a little sun burnt.  I swam in the Indian Ocean.  We then went home and quickly prepared for the Super Bowl Braai at John’s.  –He kindly recorded the game for us (it aired here live in the middle of the night/early morning).  We watched the game, and even watched some of the commercials his brother downloaded for us from the internet.  The puppy and horse commercial still win.  The game was not terrible; however, Packers should have been playing.  Traveling across the ocean doesn’t heal that loss. 

Sunday we had a full day as well.  We woke up and went to Quigney Beach Front in East London.  We went the flea market.  I bought a MUCH needed backpack.  Then we enjoyed some drinks at Buccaneers.  While they serve ‘bloody marys’ here, they make me miss my bloody marys at home.  We then picked John up, and he took us to a cricket game.  We only went for the second half of the game.  While I will claim to have a general knowledge of the game now, I am still confused.  South Africans think that football is slow to rugby; however, cricket is MUCH slower than baseball.  We also spent time before the game driving through town.  We drove through an informal settlement called Duncan Village.  This is one of the largest settlements and over 100,000 people live there.  Below is a picture of the power lines in Duncan Village.  This shows how much stealing of electricity happens in these villages (some residents in the villages DO pay for electricity).  This is part of the cause behind the load shedding (power cuts).  You also get a good idea in the picture of the structure of the shacks and how close they are to each other.  Entire families live in those 1-2 bedroom informal structures.