It's been quite a while since I posted a blog entry, nearly a week, and a lot has happened in that week, so let me try and go over what's happened since then, day by day...(let's also pretend the work post didn't happen since things happened between that and Mozambique.)
Also, it should be noted that I didn't have my camera out at all during this past week, save for the weekend, so I'm going to try and pull photos that other people have taken.
June 30, Tuesday
I walked into the sunset manor this morning to start work and was informed by our wonderful hostess Nadine, that Chris's mom had called last night to wish him a happy birthday. She also let Nadine know that Chris is a bit shy about that kind of thing and didn't want anyone else to know, so of course Nadine immediately told me, and I told everyone else, and before long, we had our breakfast room completely decorated for a surprise party, cake, candles and everything.
Chris insisted on cooking for his birthday which he didn't realize we knew was his birthday. He made border patrol casserol, which was quite interesting, in particular trying to find the type of latin elements that go into it. Let's just say that salsa is a high end luxury here, and good luck with tortilla chips.
Chris was surprised let's say...but the man has definitely got a poker face:
See that clear look of surprise on his face?
And in this one, is that a hint of a grin? I think it is...
We then proceeded to play Taboo that night, which was one of the games that we picked up to do in the evenings (the other was pictionary). Playing taboo with people whose native language is not English is absolutely brilliant. We had an excellent time, and despite having only been together a week or two, we already had very personal clues which allowed us to surmount the language barrier. The highlight of the night, (and to be honest, I can't remember if it was this night or the other night we played taboo, so i'll just pretend it was this night)...wait, first real quick taboo primer for those of you that don't know. The goal of taboo is to get someone to guess the word that is a card. You have to describe the word to them, which could be a person, place thing, whatever. The trick is that there are five common words on the card associated with the clue that you're not allowed to say, hence the name of the game, taboo. So Mary, our dear Australian gets the clue "Artificial". Now, things you might think of to say for that one..."Blank Intelligence", "No Blank Flavors Added", "Not Real" etc, you get the idea. Instead, Mary says this:
"Insemination.......*pause*....Insemination"
We got that clue...but it took going through a lot of laughs and other clues to get that one right.
July 1, Wednesday
I don't remember this day, but I'm going to pretend this is the night that we went out looking for a Portuguese Restaurant called Amigos. We never found it, despite it's name being on all of these signs, no luck. The 10 of us walked around a strip mall for a good ten minutes looking for this place but to no avail. We eventually learned...or kind of learned, that it might have had its name changed to Who's Who.
This restaurant, which was probably recommended to us by the prior team, I can't recall, was delicious. The chef, who came out to visit us at our table and take us through the menu was vibrant to say the least. It was clear that the restaurant and the menu was the brain child of this eccentric fellow and it did not disappoint. I'm having a little trouble finding the menu online...a google search of "Who's Who Nelspruit" first returned a gay dating site...so maybe the owner has a profile out there somewhere. Anyways, here's a link to the restaurant. Live piano music, things on the menu like Avacado Tower with Biltong (wild game jerky), Giant Lamb Shanks, and my meal, the chef's special, some kind of gamey dear that I think was called Redbok. The best part about the whole thing was that it was only about $13 a plate for dishes that looked straight out of the food network. I think we'll definitely be going back.
July 2, Thursday
This is the day that we all went down to Innibos, or 13 of us went down to Innibos anyways. What's innibos you ask? Well, officially, it's a music/cultural festival for the town of Nelspruit that annually draws in close to 150,000 people (99% of them white by the way)...unofficially, it's a county fair with several nice stages. Now, we all know the best part about country fairs is the fare available for purchase, the Fair Fare, this being South Africa, we were in for a real treat. That treat was named Roosterkoek, pronounced, Rooster Cock, which was as delightful as it was to order and talk about as it was to eat.
Shamelessly stealing from another website, here's a picture:
I got my Rooster Cock with Jam on it, and man was it delicious. Well, turns out I have to go create some financal statements for a paint company tonight, so I'll continue with Innibos in my next post and hopefully be a little more diligent about posting here once I'm caught up.
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