The Boogie Bus

So, yesterday was June 16th, which is National Youth Day in South Africa. This day celebrates June 16th, 1976, when there was a youth uprising in Soweto and across SA in opposition to the apartheid government. Because its a national holiday, we didn't have class (yay!), so instead, we went to Langa to visit some of the kids from LEAP. Even though they didn't have class, they had a (optional?) cultural day where there were performances by the choir, gumboot dancers, and African dancers, followed by a speech of someone who participated in the June 16th uprisings, and then students got the chance to speak about what Youth Day means to them. The performances were all absolutely amazing! The choir was fantastic, and of course the dancers impressed. After their performance, we went to the cultural center in Langa to see more performances to celebrate the day. There were a couple of singers, poets, and then a band called AbAvuki, and they were outstanding! The lead singer had the largest vocal range I've ever head and a falsetto only rivaled by Mika. Anyways, he's singing and getting really into it so he starts dancing (of course he's a phenomenal dancer) and then he starts trying to get people from the audience to come up and dance with him. Naturally, our entire group is sitting in the front row and he keeps trying to pull people up but no one will go, so finally he asks me, and as resident better-than-average-white-boy-dancer, I actually accept and go up on stage, thinking that surely somebody will follow me. Oh wait, no one came! I was kind of mad, but really excited at the same time. So, he tells me to do the samba and I'm like ummmm... I don't know how to samba!!!! so he's like just go with it, so I did, and it was soooooo much fun!!! It completely fed my own narcissism, but I was smiling the entire time. Eventually, I got Deja to come up with me (thank God!) and we figured we'd just dance until the song was over. Little did we know it was a 10 minute song! So, we just enjoyed ourselves (at least I did) and then sat down. Well, after the performance he said that they were playing that night at Mama Africa (this really really good pan-African restaurant on Long Street), so I was like hmmmmm.... really good music, really good food, potentially good dancing; that's a tough one. So, I made reservations and 12 of us went for dinner. In need of transport I asked Nikki (one of the old IES students) for the number of a cab only to get referred to Boogie Steve (again, that's his actual name. I did not make it up). So, Boogie Steve shows up to take us away in his mid-90s van that has been pimped out with rope lights, CDs affixed to the ceiling, and a miniature disco ball, complete with seats that turn around to face backwards (seriously, can I get some of those?). Just when we thought that Boogie Steeve couldn't get more awesome, he pulls out two joints with questionable contents (we're pretty sure it's not pot) and just gives them to us. Why? Because we're Americans, and apparently we're supposed to love it. So, Boogie Steve drove us to Mama Africa, dinner was fabulous, we got to chat it up with the singer, and then we got Boogie Steve to take us to Mitchell's on the Waterfront (Mitchell's is the bar we went to on the first Tuesday we were here; it's karaoke night every Tuesday so obviously we're going to be there). Well, it was Nikki's last night at Mitchell's, so we made her sing the Shoop Shoop Song (Cher style), and then Thapz and I sang Escape by Enrique (our new song apparently). To put it in a word, the night was magical.
Anyways, we just had class today, which was mediocre as usual. We watched a movie in Anre's class, which was decent. Our other class was moderately fun, which is more than it usually is so that was a plus I suppose. Tonight, I just hang out with Nikki and have been around the house. I really really really need to start journaling!!!! Hopefully, I'll post on [side notes] tonight. Tomorrow it's Anre's class and then off to LEAP again.

Well, till then.

Jason