Happy Winter, Happy Labour Day an' that....
0 Comments Published by Oh Wayward One on 30 April 2007 at 4/30/2007 03:45:00 pm.
Man did i have a good time at that baby shower. I just love my neighbour S-H., and we had loads of time to bond as I was basically the only one on time and wound up helping her cook the party food. It's just so amazing to me that ALL her friends are totally cool. I just love them. She's literally friends with the coolest women in Botswana. I dont know how she managed to find all of them, or if there's something that I'm just *not doing* that she is, but it's as if she just so happens to work at the one firm in town (BTC) where all the "cool chicks" are magnetized to. Because they were nearly all work-people.
The Mr. and I always get annoyed at this (what we call) "urban myth" about trans-culture friendships, here. Sometimes a lot of expats will tell you it's impossible to have a classic "normal friendship" with the Batswana, when you're european, just because of the (drastic) cultural differences and blahddy blahddy blah. Well, I can tell you, I could be friends with nearly all those girls from this weekend. I mean, actually, yeah, that's totally right because look, S-H. is from Cape Town and SHE's friends with them, so WTF!?
Sure the cultural differences can be major, but all these women were educated, outgoing, enthusiastic, (and I guess here's the telling point...) relatively "modern" ladies. I have thought over and over and over about this in my head ever since leaving the party, but there's just something about them all that seemed so... normal to me. Then i figured it out, they're all power-women. They have really good jobs at BTC where they have to deal with a huge range of people on a day to day basis, probably were educated overseas or lived overseas at some stage and are actually not really "traditional" Motswana women at all. Sheesh. It's scary how that urban myth really kinda keeps echoing in my head. Very interesting. Oh hell, what do i care. A cool chick is a cool chick, I dont care if she's traditional or modern or a total anomole. I just like meeting people I click with, and on sunday it was like meeting 20 of them at once.
It was glaringly obvious, though, that me and this other girl M. were the only non-moms there. Yes, S-H. isn't *technically* a mom yet, but that's all gonna change in a month.
S-H. is just so cool though. Her twins are gonna be called Zara and Aiden (spelled with a "y" in place of the "i") which are both names that I like. I like that she wants to encourage 2 seperate personalities with the twins too, none of this "Zara and Zack" naming thing and dressing them identically and so on. And I found out that Sky, the dad, is gonna have to do the naming ceremony (bc she's doing the whole traditional muslim-thing) IN ARABIC! which i think is so funny, knowing Mr. Whitey Pants Sky. She even told me that he did his wedding vows in Arabic too, because they did the whole traditional ceremony-thingy (bc he's not religious at all) for her family. I'm totally impressed. I just never would've expected it from him, on so many, many levels.
Anyway i'm gonna miss her when she's down in CT having the babies, because she's not gonna be around for a month (the baby wards here aren't very experienced in multiples and other stuff is a small bit awry) so they recommended she have them in SA) and we wont get to see the little people for quite some time, until she can fly back here with them.
I really am enjoying winter here. It's gorgeous during the day, and nice and chilly at night and morning. I'm digging on these flannel sheets we got, and the fact that soon we'll be lighting fires in the fire place. Mary told us this morning that soon the grass "will be white!" (frost, not snow) and that it's gonna be sooooooooooo cold! I laugh because I know that still means temperatures of 20degC during the day. haha
anyway, day off tomorrow - wahoo! random weekday holiday day! the best kind!
The Mr. and I always get annoyed at this (what we call) "urban myth" about trans-culture friendships, here. Sometimes a lot of expats will tell you it's impossible to have a classic "normal friendship" with the Batswana, when you're european, just because of the (drastic) cultural differences and blahddy blahddy blah. Well, I can tell you, I could be friends with nearly all those girls from this weekend. I mean, actually, yeah, that's totally right because look, S-H. is from Cape Town and SHE's friends with them, so WTF!?
Sure the cultural differences can be major, but all these women were educated, outgoing, enthusiastic, (and I guess here's the telling point...) relatively "modern" ladies. I have thought over and over and over about this in my head ever since leaving the party, but there's just something about them all that seemed so... normal to me. Then i figured it out, they're all power-women. They have really good jobs at BTC where they have to deal with a huge range of people on a day to day basis, probably were educated overseas or lived overseas at some stage and are actually not really "traditional" Motswana women at all. Sheesh. It's scary how that urban myth really kinda keeps echoing in my head. Very interesting. Oh hell, what do i care. A cool chick is a cool chick, I dont care if she's traditional or modern or a total anomole. I just like meeting people I click with, and on sunday it was like meeting 20 of them at once.
It was glaringly obvious, though, that me and this other girl M. were the only non-moms there. Yes, S-H. isn't *technically* a mom yet, but that's all gonna change in a month.
S-H. is just so cool though. Her twins are gonna be called Zara and Aiden (spelled with a "y" in place of the "i") which are both names that I like. I like that she wants to encourage 2 seperate personalities with the twins too, none of this "Zara and Zack" naming thing and dressing them identically and so on. And I found out that Sky, the dad, is gonna have to do the naming ceremony (bc she's doing the whole traditional muslim-thing) IN ARABIC! which i think is so funny, knowing Mr. Whitey Pants Sky. She even told me that he did his wedding vows in Arabic too, because they did the whole traditional ceremony-thingy (bc he's not religious at all) for her family. I'm totally impressed. I just never would've expected it from him, on so many, many levels.
Anyway i'm gonna miss her when she's down in CT having the babies, because she's not gonna be around for a month (the baby wards here aren't very experienced in multiples and other stuff is a small bit awry) so they recommended she have them in SA) and we wont get to see the little people for quite some time, until she can fly back here with them.
I really am enjoying winter here. It's gorgeous during the day, and nice and chilly at night and morning. I'm digging on these flannel sheets we got, and the fact that soon we'll be lighting fires in the fire place. Mary told us this morning that soon the grass "will be white!" (frost, not snow) and that it's gonna be sooooooooooo cold! I laugh because I know that still means temperatures of 20degC during the day. haha
anyway, day off tomorrow - wahoo! random weekday holiday day! the best kind!
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