Arrrghhhh!! Huuuhhghgh! Mmmuhhhhh!

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

I make it sound like this whole trip I’ve only hung out with Americans. While this is partially true (although classes should change that) the South(ern) Africans we have met through orientation or random events have made quite an impression. Our SOLmates as we like to call them (stands for Student Orientation Leader – isn’t it cute?) come from all over Africa (Namibia, Botswana, Ghana, Ivory Coast...) and South Africa and were the life of the orientation. Because there are too many to profile each one I’ll give you a sampling of the kind of people they are.

The most interesting SOLmate is a guy named Mzo. He speaks 7 languages, is an unbelievable dancer, sings opera and is the biggest horndog I’ve ever met. One night, in between singing Italian opera for the girls in the room he’d go into full-on performances of his favorite adult films and tell stories about his circumcision in the bush at 18 years old (a cultural tradition he tells us). Needless to say he’s a ladies man and quite frankly I think some of the guys in our group were falling for him too. I could not be happier he’s living in rez with me.

There’s also this girl named Vavi. I have no idea where she is from, and I’ve only had a few (sober) conversations with her, but I always seem to find her at whatever club we go to. We’re tight in a non-verbal kinda way – it’s beautiful and thought it worth mentioning.

I have also met another Paolo, to my surprise. He swears I am the only other Paolo he has ever met. Not coincidentally we have become good friends. He is tall, I am short. He is a ballroom dancer, I play rugby. He is goofy, I am… well, goofy too. Put us together and you might get some semblance of a normal human being. Anyway, he’s given me quite the impression of UCT rugby players. Apparently they are ogre-ish Afrikaners who grow up wrestling cattle in the South African countryside. He tells me they speak in grunts and exhalations much like those mythical creatures in Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings or whatever (whose names I haven’t the faintest clue.) As if I didn’t already have reason to be excited about playing UCT rugby. It’s all jokes with Paolo (it’s still weird referring to another Paolo) which is refreshing considering most of my days are spent with disoriented and uncomfortable Americans (myself included).