South Africans have enjoyed 2 long weekends this month. The
first one was due to the annual Easter celebrations that usually last from a
Friday to the Monday in many parts of the world. For those who didn’t get to
have a break away during the April school holidays or the Easter long weekend,
this weekend has been a bonus. Friday was ‘Freedom Day’ and tomorrow is
‘Workers Day/May Day’, so today schools and government departments are closed.
A nice loooooong weekend! Unfortunately, following the trend one finds in many
other commercially driven countries, for most stores each day has been business
as usual. But, for some, it has been the chance for to get away and be
adventurous.
Our weekend has had 2 major highlights. The Dutch and
Flemish Association in George held their annual ‘Oranjemarkt’ on Saturday
morning. Oupa is a very active committee member and had a big part to play in
the organisation of the market. He also roped us in to enjoy – and volunteer
our services. There were a handful of small stalls each selling different
traditional Dutch products, which were mostly imported from the Netherlands for
the occasion. From cumin cheese to soutdrop (a verrrry salty liquorice) to
herring and Dutch board games, there was a nice variety of things to purchase
and it all sold out very quickly. Ryan treated me to a game of Schjule, a Dutch board game that we thought
is similar (but different!) to fingerboard. Both Ryan and I were quite good at
getting discs into the slots at the end of the board at first, but didn’t score
high enough to win our round of the competition. It was great fun! We’ve
decided our boys would make great cricket players after trying their hand at a
game where they had to see how many tin cans they could knock over using 3
balls. Each boy won at least one small slab of choclate, but Ryan walked away
with at least 4 prizes he aimed so well! Our treat of the day was a croquet: a
meaty white sauce that is crumbed and deepfried and served with mustard. And it
was yummy! But the bulk of my morning was spent in the kiosk serving teas and
coffees with Dutch Breakfast cake. I had Ryan or Jed with me at all times –
they mostly handled the money and kept things operating smoothly while I became
quite proficient in keeping 2 pots of coffee on the go at all times. I made all
the hot drinks and cut and buttered the breakfast cake and the boys had great
fun making it all happen!
I don’t know how many times I heard them telling their life
story to the many inquisitive Dutchman/woman who couldn’t understand why they
didn’t speak Afrikaans or speak English with a South African accent! And they
explained it all quite well! Jed, especially, goes into great detail (well, you
asked!) and is quite animated in his explanations – its fun watching him in
action. He particularly enjoyed putting his business sense into use! His
short-term dream is to have a part-time job! And this was as close as he’d ever
come. Ryan was his cool, calm self throughout and found the half hour shifts
too short. He too was in his element.
The other highlight of our weekend was a visit with Dieter’s
cousin Melissa and her family. Melissa, Regardt and their 2 daughters are
visiting Regardt’s family’s holiday home at a beach nearby. It was so very good
to see them. It’s the first time we’ve met their little girls, Kaitlyn, who is
2 and half and Olivia, who is just 4 months old. Kaitlyn played so very nicely with Aimee’s doll (and named her
Emma!) and also did her fair share of playing football with the older boys in
the garden. Olivia is so very tiny and petite, and it was wonderful to hold
her. Ethan and Aimee couldn’t believe how small her feet and hands were! She’s
too cute!
Its been good for us to slowly meet up with friends and
family again over these past couple of months, I can see God’s orchestration of
it all! Had we found ourselves in a situation where we would have to have faced
a huge group of family all at once we would have been very overwhelmed. And,
our interaction has been one-on-one and far more meaningful than big reunions
would have allowed. This has been good for the children too as they’re meeting
everyone for the ‘first time’ all over again – Ryan and Jed don’t remember many
people and Ethan and Aimee have never met them before. Its been great for all
of us!
PS: Today I hit the '500 pageviews' mark and that after 32 posts :)
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