Most of the family came back in for the New Year's Eve celebrations, and I was happy for some conversation after my day at the funeral. The family had slaughtered a sheep on Christmas for a cookout, so we had plenty of meat to cook. Even though there were like 8 capable adults, the food was prepared one item at a time. First, a brother-in-law grilled the meat. That was put into a bowl (at least there was a lid) and a nephew made pap. Pap takes the longest amount of time of any of the food. When it was finished, we waited for a sister to make a tomato salad. They started cooking before 6pm and it was almost 10 when we finally ate. This is typical of South African cooking, and just like always, half the food was cold before we could eat. Multitasking, anyone?
By 11:30, Lebo had pulled out the “crickets,” these 5 foot tall firecrackers/sparkler things. Everyone in the house was given one, and Lebo tried to attach a few to the fence outside, but he ended up just holding those too. At midnight we lit our crickets from a coal in the grill. They sparkled and shot out fireworks that exploded after about 30 feet. Most of the adults were smart enough to hold the shooting end up to land in the sky, but a few of the younger kids got excited and shot their crickets into the trees. Lucky it's the rainy season. Somehow, one of the crickets dropped and started shooting out of the ground under my 16-year-old nephew’s feet. He jumped like you see people in old Western movies and I laughed until I dropped my cricket too.
Most of the houses around us had crickets or fireworks too, I loved it. Back in the house, we had a time for prayer and thanksgiving, a little more talking, and I was one of the first to bed. My oldest brother, Nelson, insisted that it wasn't safe for me to walk to my room alone, so he and his baby-mama walked me out. She brought her plate with her and sat to eat while I got ready for bed. As this is only the second time I've met her, I decided to skip the bucket bath in front of her, I’m not quite enough of an African woman yet to completely forgo modesty, but I did make lots of good conversation. I went to bed a little after 1am.
New Year's Day I slept in only until 9:30, I was proud of myself for getting up early, until I walked around the front of the house to see EVERYONE awake and sitting under the trees. Cousins came and went all day, I got out my new camping chair and sat under a tree to enjoy the breeze. I brought out my Kindle to read, it received less attention than I expected and I had a good day. Resego kept trying to be the center of attention and would yell at me until I looked at him. Lebo was super bored and kept asking me “what can we do?” After a few hours of all this I retired back to my room.
Another great family meal with pap and sheep parts rounded out my first African New Year’s Day.
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