June 13th 23:19

Well it has been quite some time since my last update. I have been cut off from the internet for about 4 days and my schedule has been pretty nonstop so I haven't had much of an opportunity to hit an internet cafe or even write in my journal until now. So I am writing this from a bed that judging by the artifacts in this room must belong to a 10j-12 year old boy. It is nice though! This house is huge and super fancy. The weather is mild and breezy although a bit humid. I have the windows open and there is no screen. I need to be careful not to let any monkey's jump in. Apparently they usually only enter kitchen windows to steal bananas though. I'm being serious.
So let me tell you how I got from Cape Town waterfront to an upper class home in Durban belonging to someone I have never met...

After finishing my last journal entry in Cape Town I was bored and not ready to return to Buzzy's place alone so early so I called my friend Joanna from a pay phone. She is the one who picked me up from the airport. Her and a friend, a girl doing YWAM stuff in S.A. as well, met me and we drove to Long Street, which is where Buzzy and I first had beers on day 1. It was mayhem! Only 2 days until World Cup start so the city was packed with foreigners. Being missionaries, I don't think the girls were too keen to party hard so we went to a yummy burger place and then walked around and enjoyed the parade of drunken fools go crazy in the streets. Everywhere you go the sound of vuvuzelas from every direction. Imagine everyone having a trumpet that makes just 1 note. It is quite the racket but certainly sends good vibes when the time is right. Apparently for most South Africans the time is always right. All day and night. After Long street the girls dropped me off and I scooted home. This time not in the rain, thank God.
When I got to Buzzy's house it was a bit odd being there alone. To be honest the place was pretty creepy. I took a muscle relaxer to help me sleep, plus my neck hurt anyway. The place is an abandoned mental asylum... you would be freaked out too.
The next morning I packed everything up, showered, and locked up the apartment. The guy next door was outside and I left the keys with him as per Buzzy's instructions. The guy was weeeird. I'm glad I only met him on the way out or else I would have been even more freaked out! The scooter lady arrived at 10am just on time and drove me to the airport. She was so kind and generous. I couldn't believe she offered a ride like that but I was glad to avoid a cab fare.
At the airport things were getting crazy. Mexican's everywhere! They were flying to Johannesburg for the World Cup opening match of Mexico vs. South Africa. On the plane they were all yelling in Spanish for the entire 2 hour flight. During landing they blew their vuvuzelas and pissed off the flight attendants who threatened to arrest them all.
When I landed I got my luggage and then found the car rental on my own. Careful not to let anyone steal any more money from me like the last time when I asked for directions! The car I got is a tiny little Chevy car. Not a model seen in U.S.A. One of those British looking little round things. Slow, but great on gas. Driving from the right side of the car, in the left lane, and using a stick shift with my left hand was pretty nerve racking at first. It is not too difficult, just really awkward the first couple of days.
I had written directions to Ryan's house. He is another friend of Cassy that I hooked up with on facebook. Somehow I got the directions perfect and mad it straight there. Ryan lives in a suburb of Johannesburg that is pretty cool. Trendy type place it seems. Sort of like living in Buckhead but not as expensive and less bourgie. When I arrived nobody was home, which stressed me out a bit. I wasn't sure what to do so I drove to the gas station down the street and used a pay phone to dial Ryan's cell. I got the voicemail so I hung up. After further contemplation I decided I should have left a message so I called again and this time, thank you Jesus, he answered. It was 4pm so he was still at work but said he could leave early so like ten minutes later he was already home to meet me. We hit it off instantly. He works freelance as a sort of client relations person for the South African music industry. Mostly pop punk bands so he has been on warped tour in the U.S. a bunch of times so he seemed to be glad to hang out with awn American since he misses it. We hung out and chatted a bit at his house. Listened to music, had a drink, then decided to go get some food. We ate at a sort of dive but it serves traditional South African food. I had a lamb stew and drank Black Label (PBR of Africa). Ryan was really excited to show me the local's side of Johannesburg. We took a drive through the city but not to the bad parts. He was always very cautious to keep all doors locked and no valuables or bags in eyesight on seats or anything. He says break ins occur pretty often and many times when people are still in the car. One time he and his friend had both windows smashed at a stop light and they were beat in the face by two guys with hammers. All for a bag or cell phone or something probably. So needless to say... he was cautious. It sounds bad but really a little awareness and avoiding bad parts of town and Johannesburg is actually a pretty cool city. We drove to some cool neighborhoods that probably only the locals know. We looked at some amazing graffiti and then drove around the attractions like this big bridge and downtown etc... Then we went to get a drink closer to his neighborhood.
We got to a bar and immediately started a conversation with guy named Shoshi. He was funny. The bar got busier and busier as the night went on. EVERYONE is so excited for World Cup. Most of these people probably didn't care about soccer prior to this but I think it is more about national pride and unity then it is sports. In the U.S. after September 11th every house and car had an American flag proudly waving it seemed. Multiply that by 10 and that is the current state of South Africa. Rich and poor, white and black, men, women, children. Everyone is proud to be South African right now and flaunting it proudly to the world. Even Ryan was saying how shocked he is at how excited and pumped up he is by the whole thing. Keep in mind that South Africa is a rugby nation, not a soccer nation.
So anyway Ryan, Shoshi, and I drank for a few hours and some friends of Ryan showed up who were cool. Later we all walked to this bar called Gin. I wasn't too into it since it was a super crowded hipster dance club and that is just not my style. It reminded me of MJQ in Atlanta. I ended up having fun though and we didn't leave until about 3am. When we left Shoshi was "entertaining" an older lady... maybe a cougar? We left him to his own fate and upon arriving home I promptly crashed on the futon.
The next day Ryan and I slept in nice and late. His roommate was asleep when we got in the night before and gone when I woke up so I still had not met him. I was originally planning on driving to Rustenburg that morning and already had accommodations paid for but Ryan convinced me to stay another night because I would have more fun sticking with him and his friends to enjoy the opening World Cup match in Jo'burg. It didn't take very much convincing.
We ate some eggs and toast and watched a bit of television before showering up and getting ready for the day. We needed some Bafana Bafana gear (That is the name of the South African soccer team). So we went to the mall but it was all sold out or too expensive. We ended up just using some stuff Ryan already had swiped from his office that was promotional stuff.
He had a huge South African flag and a construction helmet that had been carved out to be this insane looking soccer player kicking a ball and it says "Bafana Bafana" and there are vuvuzelas on it. It is really funny. I just had a big yellow hat shaped like a soccer ball. I know it sounds ridiculous but honestly not wearing it would have made me stick out worse on that day. We went to a fan park at a ritzy outdoor mall to meet up with Ryan’s friends and watch the match. Fan Parks are where non ticket holders go to watch matches on huge screens. It is like a festival. Bands play, give aways, food vendors, the whole 9 yards. Free admission. I have never felt energy like that. South Africa scored the first goal, a huge underdog to Mexico since they are ranked 89th in the world and only qualified because they are the host nation. When that goal went in the place exploded. It was so much fun. People shaking their beer in the air, people jumping and hugging, horns resounding across the whole country all at once. Just crazy. The match ended up being a tie, but everyone was still jubilant at the end. The parking garage was a nightmare and took an hour to get out of. I had some suggestions as to how the property management could have handled the event parking better, but I kept it to myself 
So next Ryan and I went to some exclusive club where MTV was hosting a party and Ryan had us on the list. He used to work for MTV, and still has a lot of friends there. I felt very out of place the whole time. It was mostly “ballers” just dancing and showing off their money. We left after 2 hours and I felt it was 2 hours too late. Ryan wasn’t feeling it either but he seemed glad to talk to his friends. We were hungry so we bought junk food at the gas station and watched television before crashing.
The next morning I slept in way too late. The USA vs. England match was at 8:30pm and I needed to be in Rustenburg for it. Seeing as it was a Saturday and I had an extra bed at my accommodation, Ryan decided to accompany me. Ryan decided to go for England so we bought a USA and an England flag that attach to the windows and fly above the car. His above his side and mine above mine. At every intersection there are tons of these guys selling flags and other fan gear. They can be pretty pushy but easy to negotiate with. I also bought a huge American flag to wave in the air or wrap around myself.
The drive to Rustenburg was about 2 hours. We passed a few shanty towns which were sad. Huge communities of people living in tiny hand made dwellings with no electricity or running water. Total poverty. Trash everywhere. Very stinky.
We got a little lost on the way but Ryan’s blackberry saved the day and by around 3pm we made it to our camp. My accommodation is this little camping resort that has some tents with beds and electricity inside. You could call it comfortable camping. Certainly not the “luxury tents” advertised on the website but good enough. There was a pool but we didn’t get in. The camp has a little shop and restaurant and bar too. The place was deserted because everyone had already headed to the stadium. We ate disgustingly greasy food at the restaurant before heading to the fan park. When we arrived it was very sparsely populated. I don’t think many USA or England fans came to Rustenburg without first getting match tickets. Oh well… Ryan found some English people to tag along with and I joined the American camp. Mostly really annoying peace corps workers living nearby. Hippies. Except the couple from Portland… They were cool and loved my Zelda hoody.
When the USA national anthem came on we sang and I waved my big flag. I was probably the only person with a flag that big there so naturally I ended up with three television cameras complete with bright lights on me. It was very awkward but I’m pretty sure I was on television somewhere haha. The match was fun. England scored in the first 3 minutes… it was like a punch in the gut. About 15 minutes later USA scored when Dempsey (USA player) shot for goal and it was stopped by Green (England goal keeper) but he accidentally dropped the ball and it rolled in. A pretty ugly and cheap way to score a goal but it still counted and we still celebrated jubilantly. When we were all done celebrating all the beers that were sitting on the ground had been knocked over… but it was well worth it. The game ended in a 1-1 tie.
In an attempt to avoid having to give my facebook info to the hippies, I grabbed Ryan and we left quickly. We went back to camp and played pool at the bar then drank a lot of beer with these crazy English guys. It was pretty fun. We must have not gotten to sleep until 4am. It was cold when we went to sleep but sweltering the next morning when the sun beat down on our tent. We forgot soap and shampoo and the showers sprayed water so hard that it hurt to stand in. It felt like I was in prison.
We loaded up on snacks at the shop and then took a faster and much more scenic route back to Jo’burg. We took a pit stop at a little strip mall next to some famous lake with an extremely long Afrikaans name which I can’t remember or pronounce. I tried some biltong which is like beef jerky only 1,000 times better. We gotta get this stuff in the USA. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. We got back to Jo’burg and took proper showers. I packed up my stuff and said goodbye to Ryan. Funnily enough, his roommate came home as I was leaving. After three days we never actually met.
So anyway, I loaded up the car and headed out toward Durban. I had spoken to Bev, Cassie’s mom, on Ryan’s cell earlier. We arranged to meet at a mall near her place then I could follow her from there. It was a really nice drive. 6 hours, but I love road trips. Still, after 8 hours total driving for the day I was pooped when I got there finally. I listened to World Cup matches on the radio the whole way, with my own music in between. I had loaded up a flash drive with music from both Buzzy and Ryan and luckily the car stereo has a USB input.
The trip cost me about R350 in gas and R150 in tolls. That is about $65… or $130 round trip. I could have flown for that price but I liked the drive so no big deal.
I called Bev from a pay phone at the mall and she came and met me. Nicest lady ever! She gave me a big hug and a kiss on the cheek and said she was so happy I was here. We drove back to the house and I was shocked at how nice it was. It turns out the family just moved back from the U.S.A. (long story) and currently has no home so they are house sitting for a family on vacation in Australia. Hence the reason I’m using the room of a 10-12 year old boy. The neighborhood is heavily secured and so coming and going will require me obtaining a new access code each time, but at least it is super safe. There is wild game bucks here (impala) apparently as well as… monkeys!
Just after Bev and I got home, Jess got home. She is one of Cassy’s younger sisters (age 22). We watched the last 10 minutes of Germany’s 4-0 slaughter of Australia and I gave them some gifts Cassy had me bring over as well as some German chocolate and a bottle of wine from me as a thank you. Bev started a load of laundry for me, just like a good mom!
It turns out that the home owners locked the office so no internet access! I will have to make it a priority tomorrow to figure it out so I can touch base with everyone and also update this blog. That is all for now. Goodnight world!